Author's Note

For the next two days (not including today) I am going to be re-uploading the chapters I was working on two at a time before releasing the next chapter after that.

Where am I?

(Chapter 1)

A slight pain lanced through my skull as I gradually awoke to the sound of voices nearby. Keeping my eyes shut I slowly began to see if I had the energy to move, but soon came to the shocking realization that how much energy I had mattered very little as I was bound in chains with a strange weight connected to my back. To make matters worse my senses were quickly flooded with such a heavy scent of blood that one would think to have been more at home at the scene of a brutal murder or battleground. Keeping as still as possible I tried not to alert my captors as to my consciousness, worrying that I would not remain so should they decide I should not be. After a few moments of listening to what I could only imagine to be two soldiers giving rank and patrol routes I decided to risk peeking one of my eyes ever so slightly open to see who held me captive, and I could not have been more surprised. From the bit of blurred image my eyes could make out I noticed that I was in some form of grand throne room with some form of red carpet leading up to the rooms golden throne. Sat upon the throne was some form of large pony while sat before the throne were two smaller ponies garbed in what appeared to be golden armor. From what I could tell from their voices the two smaller ponies in armor were both male while the pony sat upon the throne was female.

"The strange creature crashed through one of the castles windows and then through the doors to one of the guest bedrooms, the creature was found in the remains of the bed with tattered clothing that was as drenched in blood as itself, thinking quickly we secured it in chains and brought it here to get your judgement," One of the soldiers explained to the pony on the throne. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I knew that I didn't like the idea of my judgment being held in the hands? hooves? whatever of a talking pony.

"Has the creature shown any hostility?" The female pony asked with a kind and motherly tone.

"It has yet to regain conciseness Princess, shall we take it to the dungeons and wait for it to awaken?" The other soldier asked, which was something that I didn't like at all. I wasn't sure what would happen to me in some sort of dungeon, but I wasn't sure of anything good that could possibly happen there. The princess hummed slightly in thought, not answering at first as she seemed to tap her hoof against the armrest of her throne, not that I could see as I had closed my eye again.

"Take it, but bring it back should it awaken," I heard her answer, giving me an idea. If the princess was willing to talk then maybe I could show her that I wasn't a threat and find out where I was. Tiredly I began to move with a light groan, pulling against my bonds slowly before moving faster as I felt my arms restrained by the feeling of chains, with a slight gasp of worry and confusion I began pulling harder against my bindings with a sense of worry and fear behind my movements. Finally I opened my eyes to survey my surroundings.

"Wha-what's going on?" I asked, mixing as much confusion as I could into my voice to sound convincing, which wasn't a difficult task as I was actually rather confused about a lot of things at the moment. looking around I could finally see what the ponies looked like, and saw that the first two looked identical, minus that one had a horn and one had wings. They had white fur and blue eyes, stood around 3 and a half feet tall with golden armor that had a blue star on the chest plate, and while their manes were hidden by their helmets, there was a blue Mohawk on the helmet and a blue tail that passed through the armor protecting their flanks. The one I assumed to be their princess had both wings and a horn, she also stood a great deal taller at around 6 foot and had white fur with a pastel rainbow mane and tail that flowed in a breeze that just wasn't there, and her magenta eyes showed age and wisdom that went beyond anything I could ever hope to be able to comprehend.

"HALT! You will stay still until the Princess says otherwise," the one on the left said, I'll call him Pony 1 for now, and the other one Pony 2. I could see the princess give a very light glare that I wouldn't have noticed had I not been focusing on seeing every little thing happening at that moment.

"There is no need to be rude my little pony, now may I ask, who and what are you?" the Princess asked, looking at me with curiosity as I could tell she was studying me as I was her.

"I'm a homosapien, or human for short, and my name's Jack Cresten, may I ask what and who you are? Also, where am I?"

"I am princess Celestia, ruler of the day and co-ruler of Equestria, which is the name of this country, I rule along with my sister Princess Luna who watches over the night, we are a race known as alicorns that possess the abilities of all three pony tribes," she explained as I took in this information. Looking over to the two ponies I could only guess that they were a unicorn and pegasus, if Greek mythology is anything to go off of, but I didn't know what the other one could be.

"I have a question if I may Princess?" Pony 2 asked, receiving a nod of approval from the Princess. "do you plan on being hostile, or are you peaceful?" he asked.

"If you mean am I threat, then the answer is no, I have no reason to be at the moment," I answered, getting a nod as he came over and started to undo my bindings, getting a slight smile from the Princess.

"What are you doing straight Arrow, that creature could be lying," Pony 1 asked the other one, now identified as straight Arrow, who finished setting me free before replying.

"His name is Jack, not creature, and he has shown no open hostility as of yet Crimson," straight said to the pony now known as Crimson. I stretched a little and stood up, catching the surprise of the princess as I stood just slightly taller than herself.

"Thanks, for some reason those chains were strangely tight on my back," I mentioned catching straight's attention as he looked at my back before turning back to face me.

"Your wings look fine, and I don't remember binding them incorrectly," he responded and I just looked at him strangely before turning around and gasping at what I saw. On my back were two crimson wings that I could actually feel, leading me to believe that they were truly real.

"Are you okay Jack?" the Princess asked, bringing me out of my stupor as I looked over to her.

"Yes, well yes and no, I didn't have wings before and have no idea where they came from," I replied. Everyone looked confused at my statement, not understanding how I could just suddenly have wings.

"What do you mean you didn't have wings before? Are you sure you didn't have them before?" straight asked.

"No humans have wings, and I know that before I woke up I definitely didn't have any, so they're pretty new to me," I explained before asking, "Princess, do you have any ideas on how I suddenly have wings?"

"No, I have no idea why you have them, in all honesty I'm still not even sure how you got here," she answered. When the Princess mentioned the subject of how I got here all of them looked at me with expectant curiosity.

"*sigh* you want the hard truth of what I remember or the light version?" I asked and they all requested the hard truth. With another sigh I told my tale, telling them in as much gory detail as I could about what I last remembered, from going out into the rain, until waking up here, though I did leave out the part where I woke up earlier than they noticed. When I reached the end of my tale I looked over the three ponies only to see that the Princess looked mortified and the other two were throwing up in separate potted plants.

"SO YOU MEAN TO TELL US THAT'S YOUR BLOOD THAT'S ALL OVER YOU?!" straight asked in a horrified shout. I nodded my head and he seemed to heave some more before throwing up again. Crimson walked over to him and gently patted him on the back as he emptied the contents of his stomach into the plant pot.

"I am surprised that you are alive after all of that," the Princess said, and when I looked into her eyes I could almost feel the pity in her eyes for the pain I felt, and I instantly felt a frown appear.

"Don't pity me Princess, 'cause I absolutely despise being pitied, yes the pain was horrendous, but I'm alive and that's all that matters," I said. The Princess seemed taken aback by what I said, but her eyes softened before she nodded her head, albeit a little hesitantly.

"What of your friends and family?" She asked me. Prompted by her question my mind turned to everyone one I knew, as well as every moment of self-hatred they inspired within me through my interactions with them, as well as the few who had helped stave off those feeling of rage and hate, only to die and leave me to wallow in my misery.

"For me friends were few and far between, and my family isn't that happiest to be around, I was waiting until I was old enough to move out anyway and then I was gonna leave while I still could," I answered. The princess looked a little bit saddened by what I said but also seemed to remember what I said about pitying me so she hid it as quickly as possible.

"And what of things that you cared about?" She asked again in a vain attempt to find something that wasn't bad, to find something that could prompt a feeling of happiness from my home.

"If you're trying to make me think of happy thoughts for when I go home, then you can stop now, I don't want to go home, so if you really want to help me, then I would be much more grateful if you could give me any suggestions for a place to work and live," I said, shocking all of the ponies in the room. After a few moments of quiet I could see Crimson's face slowly gain a look of consideration before it was overtaken by a small smile.

"Well we do have the guard you could join, if you're good enough that is," Crimson said before the Princess could reply.

The Princess regarded Crimson with an air of curiosity before nodding her head slowly and saying, "Indeed, although I'm sure you would be better off with another occupation, it would give you a place to stay and bits to live off of, though you would have to do one thing first,".

"A paying job and a roof over my head, count me in," I said. Something that none of my friends really knew was that I had always wanted to be a fighter/warrior, not particularly a soldier, but just someone who got to work with weapons and fight others, though I attribute that mostly to my Norwegian and viking ancestors.

"Alright, though the one thing you have to do is pledge yourself to Equestria as an Equestrian citizen and then you can become a royal guard, though you will still have to be tested to make sure you're physically and mentally capable before hoof," she explained to me. When she was done I just smiled and nodded my head, already giddy from the prospects of everything happening, though I did find this feeling of excitement a tad bit strange, I just enjoyed one of the rare few moments where I felt honest emotion. And not only would this be fun because I would get to be a soldier, but I also had ideas on how to better equip the Equestrian military, especially since I was almost 100% sure that the armor the other two guards were wearing was made out of gold, and the idea of using such a metal as armor was absolutely horrendous. Looking them over even more I could even see several obvious vital areas not protected by the armor. "Crimson Vision, Straight arrow, take Jack to the barracks and get him set up," she said, the two ponies giving a salute and motioning me to follow them. With a small smile I walked after them, wondering what my life was going to be like in this strange, new world.