It's another day in the throne room of Canterlot Castle; Celestia's sun shines overhead, guards patrol the extensive network of hallways in the castle, and a few people came by to pay their respects to their princesses, Celestia and Luna. Celestia wore her pure white dress and golden crown, which rested atop her pastel colored hair, while Luna wore her dark blue dress and black crown, which sat atop of her hair, which resembles a starry night sky. The two sisters sit in their thrones adjacent to the other, and let the time tick by. After the last of their visitors left a layer of silence overtakes the room, and the two sisters, all caught up after Luna's return from imprisonment, are left in an awkward silence. The way the royal guards stood motionless didn't help either; each of their sets of armor are enchanted so they all look uniform, but this only helps to make the room all the more uncomfortable. Being the Night Goddess Luna needed to get some rest during the day, and sees this as an acceptable reason to excuse herself. "If no others will come today sister I shall take my leave" she said. The sudden introduction of sound into the silenced room caused a daydreaming Celestia to snap back to reality "Yes dear sister. I'll handle any other visitors today."
After Luna had exited the room Celestia's mind began to drift again. She thought of how Luna never had to most of her days within the confines of the castle, and could leave athe times of night where nobody was around to swamp her with their questions, opinions, or affection when all she wants to do is relax. She didn't dwell on these thoughts though. She cared for all of her subjects, and wanted to make sure they were as happy as possible. She just wanted to have some alone time outside the castle so she could enjoy the scenery of the land she ruled over with her sister, and not just its people.
Still deep in within her mind, the Sun Goddess didn't notice the small portal opening up in the center of the room. It wasn't more than a small vortex that was only a few inches wide, and its dim glow wasn't very attention grabbing, but it soon grew. Growing in size rapidly, from a few inches to a few feet, it rose into the air, finally catching the eye of the now surprised Celestia. The royal guards saw it too, and moved into action, forming a protective barrier of armor between their ruler and the strange portal. One of the gaurds slowly walked back towards Celestia, careful not to take his eyes off of the mysterious portal "Shall I send for an escort to your chambers your Majesty?". The princess snapped out of her wonder and replied with a strangely nonchalant "No."
"No?"
"There is no need Shining Armor. I told my sister that I will deal with any more visitors, and that's what I'm going to do." the last words weren't able to hide her excitement.
The portal was now hovering just above the gaurds' heads, and they were watching it intently. However, that's all they were doing. Nothing was happening, and now the situation was similar to how it was a couple minutes prior; the guards stood perfectly still, and Celestia was getting bored again. She was about to drift off again when there was a faint sound coming from the swirling vortex. "Sounds like screaming." Celestia said. This prompted Shining Armor to prepare for the worst, and as captain of the royal guard he had to do his best to protect the princesses "Bring in some pegasi to surround that thing from above!"
The screams got louder, and louder, until out of the vortex fell six boys, each groaning as they individually tried to get up. The small army of gaurds that had gathered pointed their weapons towards the six bewildered intruders. The first to fully come to could only stare wide eyed at the wall of armor, muscle, and weaponry towering before him. The others were also coming to, and shared the first's expression. Shining Armor moved towards the group and with both anger and authority as he spoke to them "Why have you come here?" Each member only looked around to one another, but only looked more confused than before. Shining Armor asked again, but with more anger "I said. Why have you come here?!" "Calm down Shining Armor" the captain looked back towards the voice to see it was Celestia herself. She continued as she walked up to him "There is no need to be so hostile. They obviously are taken aback by their sudden arrival.". She then placed herself in front of the group that was still lying on the ground, and used her magic the lift each up onto their feet.
"Lets start with your names."
Each looked around at one another until one finally spoke "My name is Gary." Looking towards the others they each told their names as well. "I'm Richard" "Connor" "Christian" "Just call me Advent" "Call me Nare".
Celestia looked at Shining Armor "See. Not so hard." Shining Armor still wasn't sure about them "What if this is a front? What if they're lying?" Celestia chuckled at this "They don't even have horns, and they're obviously not as strong as you or any of the other guards. What could they possibly do?" Shining Armor couldn't deny any of it, and signaled most of the guards to disperse "I'm staying here to watch them." Celestia let out another chuckle "If you want to." The six boys were still dumbfounded by what was going on.
"Connor?"
"Yeah Christian?"
"How old was that pizza?"
"A couple days."
"i think it went bad. I'm hallucinating that we're surrounded by buff, identical, armed guards, and that we fell through a hole in the floor of your kitchen."
"You might be right, cuz I do too."
"What about us?" Advent said
"Well you can't go on a hallucinogenic journey without your friends."
"As right as that is, I'm not sure if this is a hallucination."
"What else could it be then?"
Celestia took this chance to intervene on the conversation "Magic."
Auhor's Notes:
Feel free to comment, and tell me what you think.
Introductions are in order
A couple minutes have passed since the six boys plummeted through the mysterious vortex, and landed in the royal throne room in Canterlot Castle. Since their arrival was so sudden Princess Celestia had to keep Shining Armor from ripping their heads off by giving them a separate room to reside in for the meantime, which also gave Shining Armor a chance to cool down.
"Shining Armor." Celestia said to him, a look of frustration still on his face for having his attempt to protect the princess thwarted by the very one he was to protect.
Keeping in mind his place as Captain of the Guard he replies in a calm tone "Yes your Majesty?"
"There is no need for you to still be so flustered by them. You did your duty well, and if they did pose any threat I have full faith in your abilities, but they seem to know less about their being here than you do."
This caught his ear as the look on his face became confused, and he asked "What do you know of the arrival Majesty?" he caught his improper tone and quickly added in "If you don't mind saying, Majesty."
Celestia ignored his tone, and looked to him "When you have lived as long as I have you learn many interesting facts about our world." Shining Armor was about to ask a question about her cryptic statement before he was cut off "I'll explain the details to you and the boys in a short while. For now however, you may go wake my sister, and bring her to the room that the boys are in. I believe that she would also like to meet these six."
Off Shining Armor went, on one of the most dangerous assignments of his life, waking up Princess Luna. She was known as the Princess of The Night, but she wasn't known as the Princess of Being kind to those who awoke her from her slumber. Celestia recalled one time that the last person to be assigned to waking Luna for her duties as Night Goddess had quit due to the violent threats made by the sleep deprived Luna, her personal favorite being 'Leave us be, or we shall banish thy to the sun!'
**********
Meanwhile in the room where the boys were being kept they all were trying to figure out what was going on. The room itself is one of the many spare rooms that weren't ever used in the castle, but is kept in good condition in case of an emergency. The room has both sun and moon designs on the ceiling, and cream colored walls that are bare, with the exception of the two windows, one on each wall adjacent to the door. The room is rather spacious for just a spare room, about the size of a normal person's living room, and had in it many neat stacks of chairs, and various large pillows and cushions, in its far corner. The six boys had grabbed their preference of chair or cushion and arranged themselves to be sitting in a semi-circle in the center of the room to see what they could come up with. From left to right the order was Gary, Richard, Connor, Advent, Nare, and lastly Christian.
"Now." Connor started "I believe that there are a few things we need to do before we can figure out what's going on."
Connor is slightly above average height, tall enough to see clean over most people's heads, and has caramel colored skin with a small black afro. He is wearing a baggy pair of jean shorts, a grey tee shirt with the message On your mark. Get set. Go Away! with the words 'Go Away' in red, and the rest in black. He also has on his 'Go Anywhere' grey sneakers, which he wore everywhere, and everywhere, but they still managed to stay clean; clean enough to look only slightly used. His black framed glasses crookedly sat on his face, which has a combo of the beginnings of a moustache, beard, and sideburns.
"First off, I think we all need to get acquainted with those whom we don't know. Which means" He turns to Gary, and Richard. "Gary and Richard" he then points to Nare and Christian "These are Advent and my friends from school."
Gary is average height, and a few shades darker than Connor. Like Connor he also had a black afro, but his was medium sized. (The difference being that if you stick a pencil in a small afro it pokes out the other side, while a medium afro will conceal it entirely). He has a short goatee growing from his chin, as well as a short moustache. He is wearing his dark green hoodie with the zipper open, revealing a plain white tee shirt, and a pair of blue jeans, and a pair of black high tops.
Richard is the same height as Gary, but is of a heavier build, and his white skin has a color to it that seems to be lacking from some other members to the group. His loose, curly, brown hair rose up off of the top of his head, almost as if they wanted to just float away, while a short beard crept up his face from his chin and sideburns. At the age of 25 he was older than anyone else in the group by six to seven years, but he has known Gary for a long time, and after meeting both Connor and Advent at the midnight release for Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim with Gary he easily became a member of their group. He didn't keep his moustache like Connor, but did however share his choice of simplistic clothing as he is sporting an orange tee shirt, that had on its front the face of a jack-o-lantern, a pair of grey sweatpants, and a pair of brown flip-flops.
Advent turns to Nare and Christian “Connor and I knew Gary when he went to school with us, and through him we met Richard”
Advent, a nickname he liked to be called by, was to put it bluntly, short. He was easily a whole head shorter than everybody else there. He is one of the paler members of the assortment, despite being of mixed Hispanic descent, and could pass for white, until you asked. His straight, black hair hung off of his head, reaching to just below his eyebrows, occasionally obscuring his vision, but he was too lazy to have it cut. The tee shirt that he is wearing is has a black background with a full moon just below the neck hole, and the head of a grey wolf howling to it as two other grey wolves stare at you from the lower left and right sides of the shirt. His blue jeans were not an easy find for his size, but he had managed to find some, and is wearing a pair with his black sneakers that have white rubber on the bottom of the foot.
Nare, a name he started to go by after coming up with it for a name in an online game, is shorter than Advent by about an inch, and also is deceptively white for his Hispanic descent. His solid grey tee shirt and khaki colored cargo shorts hung slightly off of his small frame. His short, dark brown hair having grown out a bit was beginning to look a little rowdy after a couple weeks of growth while his face was clean shaven.
Christian is slightly average height, but not as tall as Connor, with short, brown, buzz-cut hair. His skin is a bit pale, but has moderate color to it, indicating a recent increase in outdoor activities. He too has a face devoid of facial hair, like Nare, and is wearing a white tee shirt with the words Red Sox in red print on the front along with a pair of blue jeans, and black sneakers.
"Hello” Gary and Richard both say in an unexpected unison before Connor turns to face Christian and Nare.
"Hi" Both Christian and Nare say, in another unexpected unison
"Good" Connor states "Now that we all at least know who everybody is let’s decode what has happened to us."
"Look out we got a bad ass over here!" Advent said, doing his best impression of the well know meme "We got a sir on our hands!"
The whole group laughed.
"Seriously though." Connor said wiping a tear from his eye "We have to at least have some idea of where we are before we're questioned again."
"Well..." Christian began "We know that there are an army's worth of identical, armed guards, with that one really pissed off guy. That we're in a huge palace that has spare rooms this big. And that somehow magic is involved."
" Not all of the guards we completely identical though." Richard added "Some of them had wings, and were flying above us. Also, let's not forget that woman who, among the sea of armed guards, kept a cool head and didn't try to kill us."
"I can come up with only one conclusion." Gary states, and continues as he stands up from his chair "We have all entered the magical land of Equestria!"
"E what now?" Christian questioned
"Ever heard of the show My Little Pony?" Gary asks
"Yeah"
"Well the fourth generation, titled My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, is the newest incarnation of the older show, and has become very, very popular, and has a large fanbase of grown men called bronies. That's short for bro ponies, and has become both a cheered and hated name on the internet from the fans, and the people who hate the fact that grown men like the show. Richard, Connor, Advent, and myself are all bronies."
"And you Nare?"
"I've heard some of their talks about the fandom, and thought that I too might be a brony, eventually."
"Fair enough." Christian said in a carefree tone
"So no questions? No 'Why?', or 'How did you guys get into it?'' Connor questioned, a bit astounded
"Not really. You guys are free to like whatever you want, and if my interest in the show grows I know who to go to."
There was a small applause for the understanding non-brony
"It's nice to see someone who doesn't immediately get pissed off at our liking of the show."
"Yes. That I can respect, but it's time to get back on track." Gary said, trying to keep the conversation from getting too far from the original topic "I believe that we were somehow transported into Equestria, and landed in the throne room of the Princesses,"
"But those people out there weren't ponies." Connor said
"No they weren't, but that doesn't change my much at all. The guards are all identical in golden armor, some had wings, and that woman's calm demeanor was stereotypical Celestia."
"Seems legit. What do you think Advent?"
"Well, she did say it was magic that brought us here, but I don't get what she means. Usually it's Twilight whom is the cause, but we all landed in the center of the royal throne room, far away from where she would be attempting tran-dimensional magics. However, I guess we'll find out soon enough." said Advent
Sure enough at that moment Princess Celestia and Luna, and Shining Armor were about to come upon the spare room, Shining Armor is still a little apprehensive about the six, but trusts in Celestia's judgment, while Luna feels a mixture of wonder and irritation; wonder of whom these six are, and irritation at Shining Armor for waking her up.
**********
Once the princesses and the captain of their guard reached the door to the spare room Celestia stopped, causing Shining Armor to look back at her with his hand on the doorknob
"Is there a problem your Majesty?"
"Yes" she replies
"What is it?"
"You're supposed to knock before entering a room in which there is a private conversation. It was obvious from the light murmuring coming from the other side of the door that the six boys were entrenched in conversation. It's rude not to."
Shining simply sighs before taking his hand off of the doorknob, and knocking 3 times before opening the door.
Author's Notes
Sorry for the supreme wait on this chapter. I've been very preoccupied with my new job, and proff-reading some other fics. Hope you guys find it worth the wait, and still feel free to comment.
