Has This Happened Before?

Shining Armor's P.O.V.

The Princess has been taking a long time on her trip, and it was starting to worry me. From the looks from my guards I could tell that they feel the same way. Being captain of the Royal Guard, I was inclined to know where she went because its my sworn duty to protect the Princess no matter what, but I couldn't help but have a double-take at the mention of dimensional travel. I couldn't help but be paranoid about it, ‘what if she's hurt? What if her spell failed? What if she's not back in time for the Summer Sun Celebration!? What will Twi-’

There was a bright flash in the middle of the throne room bringing me from my thoughts, slightly startling some of the guards, while I, along with the rest who weren't as easily surprised, pointed our spears at the anomaly, incase it wasn't the Princess. As I stepped forward to address the potential intruders, I lowered my spear slightly and smiled at the sight of Princess Celestia as the bright light started to dissipate. Though, the relief was short lived, the Princess had her eyes shut with a hoof on her head, as the flash was still dissipating she sat down. I completely lowered my spear and motioned towards my guards to do the same. I went to address the Princess but raised my spear back up towards who was standing to her right as the light completely disappeared.

Their standing on their hind legs, rubbing what is probably their eyes, most likely blinded from the light. They appear to be wearing clothes, the one on the left was wearing an unzipped gray hooded vest with strange patterns on it, and a green shirt, with gray pants going down to bright green... oddly shaped horseshoes. While the one on the right had a similar vest without a zipper and it was black with white words that said 'Abercrombie', which is strangely similar to Unicrombie, in a circle surrounding a lion's head. It also had blue jeans, and also a pair of oddly shaped horseshoes but unlike the other one, these were white. I also noticed the one on the left had light tan hairless skin, more white than tan, and the one on the right had brownish, hairless skin.

The left one lowered what looks to be one of its paws, and opened these long appendages, I would have mistaken them for claws but it has skin on it except on top of the end of it. I had a chance to look at its face, and it resembled somewhat that of an ape. ‘Oh wait, they have hands, not paws!’ I realized. My observation halted and I acted on instinct when they both lowered their hands, cringing as they squeezed there eyes tighter to rid the rest of the pain.

As their eyes blinked constantly, I pointed at them with my spear and shouted, "halt! In the name of Celestia!"

Aaron's P.O.V.

‘Shit! Why didn’t she tell us that would burn!?’ I mentally cursed, rubbing my eyes. Something was off though, I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing, but also there was something in my mind that wasn’t there before, yet feels like it was supposed to be there. As my eyes stopped burning finally, I lowered my hands, blinking rapidly to rid the after-sting from my eye.

"Halt! In the name of Celestia!" Someone- no somepony -yelled, ‘I need to remember the pony equivalent to all that shit. But really? She had to teleport us in front of  guards?’ I opened my eyes to directly meet the glare of a guard, from the color difference from the other guards I could tell I'm staring at the captain, I held my hands up in surrender but glared back at him.

Christian's P.O.V.

‘Dammit! That burns like a bitch!’ I thought. As I was rubbing my eyes, I felt like something was missing, not only that but felt like something else was placed in my head. My eyes started to stop burning as I lowered my left hand from my eye because it stopped but the right one still hurt. I eventually lowered both my hands to my sides as I blinked rapidly, to get rid of the remaining stinging.

"Halt! In the name of Celestia!" A mans- no, stallions -voice shouted, making me jump slightly. I was slightly upset with Celestia for not saying she would teleport us in front of a bunch of guards.

I opened my eyes to see one the guards fixed on giving Aaron a deathly glare, ‘is Aaron really starting trouble already?‘I thought as I held my hands up. I looked at Aaron who was staring back at him with just as much hate, ‘this is definitelygonna be a long day...’

The guard in front of us had a white coat, a two-toned blue mane, and blue eyes. He was wearing purple armor that gave away the fact that he’s probably their captain, but also covered his cutie mark.

"I would explain, but this was Celestia's idea. So I'm sure you have a better chance of believing her instead," I said casually, though slightly growing anxious with so many weapons pointed at me. The expression on the stallions face when I spoke was baffled though, he clearly thought I was just some dumb ape. He looked to Celestia and grew furious for some reason before baring his teeth and casting me the angriest glare I've ever seen.

"What have you done to the Princess!?" He yelled at me, he's really pissed, I looked to my right to find that Celestia was sitting on her haunches, rubbing her temples with a cringe, oblivious to the guards about to attack me and Aaron. ‘Shit thats right!’ I Thought, ‘she just cast three massive spells! I’ve read that when a Unicorn, or Alicorn uses up too much magic at once, it could leave some nasty headaches.’

“I promise we haven’t done anything,” I told him, making him narrow his eyes in suspicion.

“How do I know you're not lying?” the Guard said threateningly.

“Because he isn't,” Celestia butted in, getting a surprised look from the three of us, “stand down, Shining,” she commanded. The guard hesitantly put down his spear, motioning his guards to do the same. Me and Aaron put our hands down since there were no more weapons being pointed at us.

“Heh, sorry about that,” he apologized, rubbing the back of his head, “I was just a little on edge. I’ve heard that inter-dimensional traveling isn’t the safest thing,” he finished, glancing towards Celestia.

“It’s alright, I would’ve felt the same way,-” Aaron cleared his throat, “-we didn’t introduce ourselves yet, I’m Aaron,” he finished, holding out his hand for the guard to shake it.

“I’m Christian,” I said, holding out my hand too.

“Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard, its a pleasure to meet you two, again sorry about the misunderstanding,” he responded, shaking our hands with his hoof. ‘Ha, he’s the captain, called it.’

“Its okay man, it happens,” I assured him before turning to the princess, “I kinda forgot what we were going to do when we got here so…”

“Don’t worry, I already have something planned, in fact, I would like to let you two know that today is actually the Summer Sun Celebration. It occurs once every year where everypony stays up all night to celebrate the beginning of the longest day of the year, which is tomorrow. This year it will take place in a small town of the name Ponyville. I have heard that it is a great place with many nice ponies always happy to make friends, so I will be sending you there along with my faithful student Twilight Sparkle, -who has yet to make some friends too- to stay at the local library for some time. You will also be making sure that the celebration goes well, I believe she is studying somewhere outside of the castle, so I will send you to the castles library to wait for her to bring the book back. I can trust you will become good friends."

She explained with a warm smile, and much to my dismay, she was preparing a spell to teleport us, ‘ she needs to stop using so much magic in such a short period of time,’ her eyes widened in realization as she stopped her spell. "Oh I also would like to let you both know that, though this may sound strange to you, I was aware of your strong appealing to magic so, I have given each of you your own personal magical reserves, so you are both now capable of magic. Again you may not believe me, but you should be able to feel its presence, I would love to teach you how to use it now but have many things to do so I apologize. I will see you both again in Ponyville." She added with a smile.

‘Me and Aaron can use magic? Is that really what that weird feeling in my mind was? How do I perform magic without a damn horn stickin’ outta my face, my hands? Ugh, too many questions to ask but no one to ask!’ my mind raced as she restarted her spell, and teleported us to the castles library.