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The Darkness Within

Chapter Three

The ride to Canterlot was boring.

Hell, this entire event was the exact opposite, but yet, I still found myself bored, we’ve been riding to Canterlot for about fifteen minutes and the ponies are still having a conversation, sometimes about me when they think I’m not listening, and about some wedding, I could honestly care less as I just wanted a soft bed and some hot food, my concussion was giving me headache and I felt like I was about to throw up but resisted the urge, I just took another puff of my cigarette and tried to fall asleep.

Just as I was about to get comfortable Rarity decided to tell us all that we were close to Canterlot.

“Look ladies! We’re almost there!”

I looked out my own window and saw the dumbest architecture in all of my life, there was a white castle built into the side of a mountain with a bustling city beneath it, there were support beams holding up the castle, making it hazardous because if I had the right ingredients, I could easily make a bomb and have the castle landslide into the city by blowing up the beams.

I was taken out of my thoughts by Twilight. “So, what do you think?” She had a prideful and hopeful smile on her face.

“It’s pretty.” I said calmly.

Her smile faltered a bit. “Just...pretty?” I faced her and gave her a look.

“What am I supposed to say? That it’s the best in the world? A buildings a building, no matter how flashy.” The guards and some of the girls on board wore masks of anger, but kept it together, a disappointed look was plastered on Twilight’s face, I just turned back to look outside and realised we were landing, the cart jolted a bit and we stopped, as soon as the door opened I saw a squad of guards outside of the chariot saluting, the guards got out first, then the other six got out, before I stood up and grabbed my clothes I could hear the squad leader. “Good afternoon, Princess, we’ll be escorting you and the creature to Celestia.”

The chariot creaked as I got out of it, when my boots hit the ground I sucked in as much of my cigarette as I could before blowing out of my mouth and opening my eyes, everyone was staring at me, the guards in alarm, while the chariot guards and the six ponies were giving me weird looks, I’m not one for boasting, but I will admit I’m a pretty intimidating figure, I was very muscular due to my...previous job, meaning that I was buff and strong, my height not doing me any favors either, I flicked my cigarette at the ground and gently stomped on it, putting out the flame and snapping the guards out of their daze, I walked up to the six ponies and waited for us to leave, taking the hint, the squad leader ordered his men. “We are to escort you all to Princess Celestia, please, follow us.”

The guards got in a formation around us, presumably to attack me if I did anything wrong, and started moving forward, the girls and I followed along.

The castle was pristine, it had huge artwork of ponies and nature, while the floor was literally spotless, the pillars were like the pillars in Ancient Roman times, and the amount of guards patrolling and standing by was numerous, but judging by how they held their weapons and moved it seemed like they only trained how to carry a sword and had no actual combat experience.

We eventually got to these huge double doors, the unicorns guarding the door lit their horns and opened the door...which about set me off, but I kept my composure, if I was correct then I was going to meet the daughter of this country, so I could ask my questions then.

Speak of the devil, once the doors opened I saw two crowned horses with wings and a horn, just like Twilight, sitting on two very comfortable looking thrones, all of the ponies in the room bowed while I gave a respectful nod to both princesses, when everyone got up most gave me glares, but I didn’t care.

The white princess spoke first. “Welcome creature, I am Princess Celestia, and I would like to be the first to welcome you to our castle, guards, you are dismissed.” She said in an authoritative yet soft tone, the guards hesitated for a split second before giving firm salutes along with ‘Yes, Princess!’ all in unison, as the doors closed Princess Celestia got up and walked over to me, we were face to face, she was roughly 5’11” including her horn, so she was shorter than me, she was looking at me with a critical eye, taking in every detail, probably sizing me up, I just looked at her, stormy green eyes looked at soft, swirling purple.

“So, you are the creature that Applejack found, yes?”

Out of respect and not wanting to deal with being bitched at, I replied with a “Yes ma’am.”

She looked over to the mares. “Girls, Luna and I would like to have a chat with the creature, I hope you understand.” The mares all nodded in confirmation before opening the doors and trotting out, when the doors closed I looked at the one named Luna, she had a navy blue coat and a dark blue mane, except with stars in her hair, it was a nice touch.

I looked back to Princess Celestia, who had now sat back down onto the throne next to Princess Luna, they both just stared at me for a couple of seconds before Princess Luna broke the silence.

“Why did thou attack one of our beloved ponies?” It was a question I was preparing for.

“Like I told Princess Twilight and Applejack, when I was carrying the kids back home I approached the wooden house and was going to drop them off, before I could even get to the porch a burly red stallion attacked me from behind, knocking the kids unharmed away from me, I didn’t know why he attacked me, I just knew I needed to keep the kids and myself safe, so I did exactly that to the best of my ability.” Both seemed satisfied by my answer, noted by their features softening.

“Tho- You have hospitalised Big Macintosh, the red stallion, he can not work on his families farm until his injuries are healed, since you have injured him, you shall take his place on the farm until he is suited for work, this will be considered community service, no charges will be pressed because of the nature of this crime, a simple misunderstanding.” Luna said with her light blue eyes staring into mine.

“I accept, I’m sincerely sorry for hurting an innocent, it wasn’t my intention.” I said with genuine care.

The Princesses gave me a look before continuing. “So, judging by your voice and build I would suggest that you are a male?” Celestia asked.

“You would be correct.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but what does your cutie-mark mean?” She asked.

“...My what?”

“Your cutie-mark, the markings on your arm, I’ve never seen one on any animal except for ponies.”

She was eyeing the tattoo on my left arm, it was a “We Fight What You Fear” tattoo on my bicep, it was only half-covered by my t-shirt, I rolled up my sleeve and let them have a full view, it apparently made them uneasy and they had disturbed faces.

“I don’t know what a cutie-mark is, but this is called a tattoo, a tattoo artist will take a needle and fill it with ink, this needle will breach only the top layer of skin and apply a desired design, I got this while I was...away from home.” I said, catching myself.

If they caught my stutter they didn’t show it. “What does it mean?”

“It means nothing now.” I said simply, I pulled my sleeve down and gave them a serious look.

 “Since you have asked some question I will ask some, is that alright with you two?” They both nodded their heads in confirmation. “Good, first I would like to know about the unicorns, how can they open doors with their minds?” It was a simple question, really, so I wasn’t expecting them to give me weird looks.

“Do you not know of magic?” Why the fuck would I? Magic wasn’t real, it couldn’t be...then again I am talking to two pony princesses who are also talking and speaking my language, so magic wasn’t as far fetched after that thought.

“No, I don’t, where I come from we have technology and perseverance.” Their stunned faces were pretty funny.

“So you’re not from Equis?” I gave her a bored expression.

“I’ve explained this to Twilight, so you can ask her for details, we’re getting off topic, so how does magic work?” Celestia paused for a moment, thinking of how to explain the concept of magic.

“Magic can be used for many different things, like picking up or opening objects, it can also be used in combat, like making a fireball or electricity spark, every unicorn is different with having different amounts of magic they can use, a unicorn can use a very large amount of magic but will be drained until their magic pools refill, some unicorns recover faster than others, does that answer your question?”

“Yes, I also want to know what a cutie-mark is.” Just saying the word felt weird on my tongue.

Luna decided to speak up this time. “A cutie-mark shows what a pony is good at, like with Celestia and I, we have sun and moon cutie-marks, since I raise the moon and she raises the sun.”

Hold the fuck up.

“Um, excuse me did you just say you raise the moon? Like, the floating white thing in the sky at night or what?” How the fuck does someone just ‘raise the moon’? They probably have too high of an ego, because gravity makes the sun and the moon orbit planets, not ‘magic’.

“Yes, we do indeed raise the sun and the moon.” Celestia said.

I gave them a disbelieving tone. “Alright, well if you gals don’t mind I really need some food and a bed, my concussion’s getting worse and I’m starving.”

“What do you eat?”

“Well, I’m an omnivore, but I prefer meat over anything else, don’t worry, I don’t eat anything that can talk.” I said, noticing the alarmed looks on their faces.

“Well, we do have some fish, we usually keep in stock since the Griffin Ambassador visits us frequently.” Luna put in.

“That’ll do, I just need to eat and then head to bed, if you have any more questions I’m sure Princess Twilight will be happy to oblige, thank you for having me Princess Luna and Princess Celestia.”

“Please, call us Luna and Celestia.” Luna said with a giggle.

I was about to ask for directions before I remembered a question.

“I’m sorry if I come off as rude, but do you have a King and Queen?”

“No, our mother and father ruled centuries ago, we’re alicorns, we are a mixture of pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony, and we...don’t exactly know how long we can live, we’ve been alive for a millennium so far.” Celestia said with a slight smile.

“Ah, I also need directions around this place, I don’t really know where anything is.” I said, currently processing that they are basically immortal.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get a guard to show you the way, it’s been a nice chat, but we have duties to attend to, take care, I’m looking forward to the next time we meet.” Said Celestia with a genuine smile.

As I was about to open the door, I heard Celestia say “Before you go, what is your name?”

I turned and looked them both in the eye.

“Ryder.”

I then turned around and walked out of the throne room, leaving silence in my wake.