Chapter 12: Guardian

After bidding her friends goodnight, Celestia soared through the night sky, the lights of Ponyville falling behind her as she pumped her great wings towards the growing glow of Canterlot Castle. She flew at a moderate pace, giving herself a little time to think over the day's many events as she traveled.

"I have to speak to Luna. And... to him," she muttered to herself. "If anyone would know about this, it would be him."

Soon she alighted on the balcony of Canterlot Castle, folding her wings and pausing a brief moment to look back at the lights of Ponyville down below. No doubt the humans were currently preparing for bed in Twilight's castle. The town glowed softly, a single shining jewel in the miles of dark wilderness around. Usually the sight was comforting and relaxing to her, but tonight, the town appeared remote and vulnerable. She swallowed hard at the sudden lump in her throat and blinked, turning away from the night and walking towards her throne room. Her soft, measured hoofsteps echoed slightly through the vast, high-vaulted hallways of the royal castle.

Princess Luna waited for her on the dais. She looked up as Celestia entered the room, concern on her elegant features.

"Dear sister, is all well?"

Luna's huge blue eyes coordinated flawlessly with the varying shades of midnight blue that colored her body and sparkling mane. On her flank, the mark of the crescent moon reiterated her status as Princess of the Night.

"Good evening, Luna. I am fine, however much has taken place today and tonight which merits serious discussion."

"This has to do with the numerous odd reports I have received today, does it not?"

"After the things I have seen, I am certain it does indeed." Celestia seated herself in the throne next to her sister with a small sigh. "Tis a long tale, and I fear we are only just beginning to turn the pages of this story."

***

"Alien creatures from another world?" Luna was moderately surprised. "It is not as if this is unheard of in Equestria. But still, it is not something that happens every day, either."

"They are different," Celestia emphasized. "They are warriors. Gritty. Determined. Yet they do not strike me as warlike. They are without a doubt a technologically advanced species, however, in many ways, much like ourselves."

Luna looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. "These humans. They have recklessly jeopardized our safety, and the safety of Equestria. Their technology has torn a hole through an unknown number of worlds, and now terrifying, hungry creatures are coming through unbidden onto our home soil." She lowered her head and her eyes bored into Celestia's. "And they dare come to us professing friendship, and asking our help? And you, you agreed to help them?"

Celestia nodded, unflinching, her eyes locked with her sister's.

Luna smiled gently. "I expected nothing less from you. This is why I love you, dear sister. You are the most kind and generous pony I know. Go, help them. Help us all. I will remain here and coordinate the defense of Equestria for as long as it takes you to find a solution."

"Thank you for your confidence, but I feel this will be a difficult task. I shall summon Discord and explain the situation. His power differs greatly from our magic, and with his cunning wit, he may discover an answer that has hitherto escaped us."

"Yes, the true limits of Discord's power are unknown. I agree. It is even possible that he could repair the damage on his own, but there is only one way to find out."

"Indeed. Well then. Let us perform the summoning spell."

The sisters stood together and their horns glowed, unleashing a vortex of magical energy that swirled before them on the floor of the throne room.

With a flash, a high-backed chair appeared, facing away from them.

"Well I dare say, this is a rare surprise." The familiar sarcastic voice came from the other side of the chair. The occupant leaned over the arm of the chair and looked back at them, a book dangling carelessly from his paw.

The title was visible for a moment. "John Dies at the End - David Wong."

"Celestia my dear, so good to see you again!" said the newcomer, somehow making the simple statement sound both humorously insulting and friendly at the same time. "And the ever-so-serious Luna! This is indeed a pleasure."

The book and chair disappeared, leaving Discord standing in all his haphazard glory. His snakish, dragon-like body was bizarrely mismatched. One paw looked like a lion's, the other looked like perhaps a griffon. Like so many things with Discord, it was impossible to tell where the reality ended and the joke began.

His smile was like a Cheshire cat as he reached up swiftly and popped his own horn off, which instantly transformed into a bouquet of flowers in his hand. A new horn sprouted up on his head, as if he had never removed it.

He offered the bouquet of flowers to Celestia with an exaggerated bow.

Luna interjected. "Discord. This is serious."

The flowers turned into a bouquet of yellow frownie faces.

"Oh Luna, why must you be such a wet blanket? No 'how are you Discord?' No 'Care for tea and crumpets Discord?' Of course if I wanted tea and crumpets..."

Discord snapped his fingers, and suddenly he was wearing a butler's outfit, a tray of tea and crumpets balanced on one hand, and a single rose in the other.

"Da da dum de dum! And how may I be of service to two such charming Princesses?"

He waved the rose about gracefully, then placed it in his mouth and began dancing ballet.

Celestia raised her voice ever so slightly to be heard above his enthusiastically hummed music. "Discord, please! Equestria needs your help!"

He paused, returning to his normal appearance.

"Hmmm. Equestria needs my help. But, do YOU need my help?"

His eyes grew impossibly large and glittered innocently.

Celestia sighed audibly. "Yes, yes I do. Now can you please be serious?"

"Oh all right. But later, tea and crumpets yes?"

He coiled up on beanbag chair that appeared from thin air.

"I am listening MOST intently."

Celestia looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Although, your power may be insufficient to assist us in this matter."

This time, the surprise in Discord's eyes looked genuine.

"Me? Not powerful enough? Whatever do you mean?"

"Well Discord, that is a long story..."

***

After watching Celestia depart, Chris walked alongside Twilight Sparkle as she returned to her castle in Ponyville. The return trip was uneventful, up until Chris's HUD started blinking a 15% Remaining Battery warning for his exo suit.

"Twilight?"

She glanced back. "What's up?"

"You don't happen to have electrical outlets in your castle, do you? We need to charge our equipment."

"Wha... oh, yeah, sure. No problem." She smiled and kept walking ahead of them.

"Interesting," Sanchez muttered.

"What's that?" Chris asked.

"This place. They have so many similarities to Earth that don't make a lot of sense."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, let's take Ponyville for instance. The buildings and houses there are quite similar to Earth, including handles on pans, door knobs, toilets, broomsticks... Yet, with these Equestrians not having hands at all, doesn't it strike you as odd that the ergonomics of everyday use items seem to reflect our own human physical traits, not theirs? What is the use of putting a handle on something when there are no hands to grasp it?"

"Well, sometimes we pick things up in our mouths, especially Earth or Pegasus ponies," Emmy added.

"Well I guess that could explain some of it." Chris pondered briefly. "Marky?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I take a look at one of your guns for a moment?"

"Uh... yeah sure." His horn glowed as he pulled one of his pistols and dropped the magazine, then pulled the slide back and caught the round as it ejected, suspending all the parts telekinetically in the air.

The pistol floated over to Chris and dropped into his outstretched hand.

Chris looked into the chamber to make sure it was clear, then he inspected the pistol. "Marky? This is a Glock."

"Yes, one of the most popular pistols in my country."

"Marky? What country are you from?"

"I'm from The United States of America."

Chris stopped walking and squinted at him. "You're joking."

Marky halted as well. "Why would I be joking?"

"Because we're from America too."

It was Marky's turn to look skeptical. "What? But how is that possible? Wait. Look at this." Marky pulled out his wallet and removed a card. On the card was printed a red, white, and blue flag.

Chris held Marky's pistol with one hand and took the card with the other, peering closely at it. "The similarities are obvious. But that's not any American flag I've ever seen."

"Looks a lot like a Betsy Ross flag," Sanchez agreed.

"Alternate universe," Hamilton chimed in, looking over their shoulders. "It's pretty obvious. Look at where we are right now." He waved his hand at the forest.

"Look at this pistol," Chris held it up. "It's a Glock. Made in Austria. It's printed right on it. It looks EXACTLY like mine." He pointed at his thigh holster. "Marky, don't you think it's odd that your pistol has a grip designed for human hands and you don't have hands at all?"

Marky frowned. "It does fit your hand very well indeed, but it's also comfortable for me to use." He looked at Chris closely, as if seeing him for the first time. "And yet, there are many things I have seen which I think would fit your anatomy quite well. It is not something I ever gave much thought to before. Your species is alien, but you seem strangely familiar to me. In fact, we have legends of intelligent two-legged monkey creatures..." He trailed off. "No offense."

"None taken. I find it fascinating."

They stared at each other in the dark for a moment.

"Guys? Are you okay?" Twilight and her friends had noticed they were leaving the others behind, and were looking back at the group halted in the road. "We should stick together. Everfree is dangerous at night."

"She's right," Chris said. He handed Marky's gun back, and Marky loaded it, racked the slide, and holstered it. Then Marky yawned widely. "I'm getting pretty tired, this has been a long day."

"Don't start doing that crap," McAllister said, stifling a yawn himself. "Let's hurry up before we end up sleeping face-down on a nice, soft gravel road."

They hurried to catch up with Twilight.

***

Twilight Sparkle sat in the crystal map room of her castle long after all her new friends, both pony and human, had retired for the evening. Near her sat a lavender unicorn with a puffy purple and teal mane. There had been a time not long past when this particular unicorn had been a relentless enemy, but the decision to embrace friendship had healed the vengeful angst of a wounded heart.

"Starlight Glimmer, I need your help."

"You said it was important, Twilight. I would do anything for you. I'm sorry I was out earlier. I didn't hear anything about all this until I got back."

"It's not your fault. It's not like this was planned out or something. Did you have a good trip?"

"Yes, thank you. I brought you back some cherries by the way." Glimmer's words were rushed, and her voice had an edge of impatience. She sighed. "Twilight, please tell me what's going on, I'm worried, Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but there is a strong possibility that tomorrow I may have to leave for another world on a dangerous mission. The others will go too."

"Then I'm coming with you, of course."

"I would like that very much, I wish we could take you along. But I have to ask you to take my place here. I need you to protect Ponyville in our absence from the dark forces leaking into our world. Your power rivals mine. If anypony can do it, you can."

Starlight Glimmer gasped. "But I... I..."

"Spike will help you, he's not happy about being left behind, but as my assistant he knows more about Ponyville than anypony else. Also Big Mac, if you need it. He's wiser than you might think, he just doesn't like to talk much."

"That's not what I mean. I... Oh Twilight, if anything happens to you guys..."

"Then you'll be here to watch over Ponyville, at least for a while."

"Like that went so well last time I was in charge of a town."

"You've changed a lot. You can do this."

"I wish I believed in myself as much as you believe in me. And you guys are my only friends. You wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't serious. I can't just sit here while you go get yourselves killed!"

"Princess Celestia will be going with us. I assure you we have no intentions of getting killed, I said dangerous, not a suicide mission. And I think you have more friends here than you realize."

"Oh, she's going too?" Starlight Glimmer sighed and seemed to relax slightly. "If anypony can keep you safe, she can. So tell me Twilight, what's the full story?"

Fifteen minutes later Twilight Sparkle finished recounting the day's events.

Starlight Glimmer, who had listened with rapt attention, stared at her with big eyes.

"Wow. I don't think I'd believe it if it wasn't you telling me. It's... Fantastic. Can I meet these two-legged aliens? These humans?"

Twilight smiled. "Sure. Just come to breakfast tomorrow. They're all in bed right now, as far as I know. It's been a rough evening for everypony. But I think you're going to like them."

"Thanks Twilight. For trusting me. More than I trust myself." She stood suddenly and hugged Twilight. "You're the best friend I've ever had."

Twilight hugged her back.

"And to think... to think I actually wanted to kill you..." Starlight Glimmer sniffled.

"It's in the past," Twilight said patiently, patting her friend on the back. "You are a different, better pony now."

"I don't deserve any of your friendship. And it still scares me when I think how close I came to never experiencing... to being lonely forever...to never..."

Glimmer chuffed, and Twilight felt small, cool drops landing on her neck and back.

"Hey now, it's okay, everything turned out well in the end right?"

Glimmer pulled back. "Sorry. I never used to do anything like this," she said, wiping her eyes. "I never cried this way."

"I don't remember you smiling much either."

"I was afraid, so I buried all my feelings in anger. Anger kept me going for years, but deep underneath I was so sad and hopeless."

Twilight said nothing, letting her get it off her chest.

Glimmer continued. "Hatred seemed filling at first, a good, hot substitute to fill the cold, empty hole of loneliness that was in my chest, but soon it became a terrible, consuming burden that I couldn't let go. It weighed me down like lead and burned me up inside like fire."

She sat silent for a moment. Then she looked into Twilight's eyes. "Thank you for giving me a chance, Twilight. For showing me what it feels like to be free. You... Saved my...life..."

She started sniffling again.

Twilight reached out and put a hoof on her shoulder. "And this is why I believe you can protect this town. Because you really are a new pony, a strong pony I can trust."

"I... I'm not strong. I'm crying like a b... baby," Glimmer said, then she hiccuped. It made her giggle, and that made Twilight smile. Soon they were both laughing, between her hiccups.

"I'm glad we became friends," Twilight said. "Thank you, Glims. For giving me a chance, too."

"Stop it Twilight, you're gonna make me cry again."

Twilight yawned widely. "Oh my. Excuse me."

"It's late!" Glimmer said. "We have to be up early."

"We should get some sleep, I didn't realize how late it's gotten!" Twilight stood, stretching her legs and wings with a squeaky moan.

"Twilight? I'll do my best. For you and Ponyville."

"Thank you, Glims. I know you will."

"And Twilight? Don't stay up all night reading."

Twilight laughed. "I think I'll barely make it through a shower. Goodnight, see you in the morning!"

"Goodnight, Twilight!"

Starlight Glimmer watched Twilight leave the room, and then she walked toward the library.

Protecting Ponyville was a big responsibility, and it would be a good idea to look a few things up before going to bed.

"Just a quick brush-up," she told herself softly. "Only take a few minutes."