Chapter 1: Lost In A New Land
Chapter 1: Lost in A New Land
It was a peaceful night in Canterlot.
The moon was high in the sky, radiating its calm white light to the lands below. The air was filled with the sounds of strong cool breezes, causing many trees to rustle loudly as their branches and leaves collide against each other due to the sheer force of the wind. Nocturnal animals were beginning to crawl out of their burrows as they got ready to scurry around the landscapes for the duration of the night. Small swarms of fireflies flew around pastures of grass or flowers, their abdomens glowed brilliantly as they illuminated small portions of the grounds they flew over.
Another peaceful night brought by Princess Luna, but that was about to change very soon.
Suddenly, just on the other side of the watery moat that flowed in front of the Canterlot’s main entrance, a large explosion happened, accompanied by an immensely bright flash of light that could be seen by the entire Equestrian capital. The strong shockwaves from the blast caused the grounds to quake, resulting in any of the animals sleeping nearby to instantly wake up in sheer fright and began running away in frantic panic. They did not have any destination in mind, they just wanted to get away from the source of the explosion as fast as possible, resulting in many of them to storm the grounds in a stampede-like fashion.
Back at the location of where the blast took place, was a crater that was surrounded by meters of burned grass, leaving that part of the area to look like a black, smoking circle.
Inside of the crater laid a figure, bipedal in appearance with its arms and legs splayed outwards, next to a very large, heavy duty backpack that was bigger than it’s torso. It wore an orange-colored plastic suit that almost covered it’s entire body, and showed massive signs of damage as it was riddled with burns, smoking holes and tares.
The only uncovered part of it’s body was it’s head, which was oblong in shaped and sloped down forward in an arch, fully composed of metal plates, and did not have a face or mouth of any kind. It possessed a large ‘eye’ like lens that took up a significant portion of the front (where a face would be), and appeared dark and lifeless.
However, that all changed a moment later the dark lens instantly emitted a bright blue flash, and stayed that way. A small white dot appeared at the center of the lens and began moving towards different directions, the dot’s size slowly expanding and shrinking, acting like an actual pupil.
After some time getting back to it’s senses, the being quickly stood up on it’s hind legs in a sense of urgency. It frantically turned it’s body from one side to the next in fast movements of worry and fear, clearly trying to find something that it may’ve lost. Some slight creaking and whirring noises came from it’s body after each frantic movement, but that didn’t seem to bother the being in the slightest.
“Mother!” It called out towards the empty grass pastures in a soft, masculine voice. Fear and worry filling the tone. “MOTHER!?”
The being finally turned away from the grassy pastures to notice the large city that stood behind him, a scene that definitely baffled it to point of making the poor thing motionless for a seconds.
“What? Where. . . ?” he thought out loudly as he tried to comprehend where exactly he was at. His white iris slowly expanding and shrinking to further show his confusion as he continued to look more intently at city in front of him.
He stopped gazing at the city’s large entrance as a thought struck his mind, turning around to see the large and heavy back pack that he laid beside, earlier. He went to it and opened several pockets, rummaging through its contents in a hurry, causing a few objects to fall out, but quickly put them back in the bag without issue. This went on for some time until he finally found what he wanted; a hand-held radio.
After pulling out the device’s antenna and pressing a switch on its side, the being held the bulky gadget close to his head.
“Mother, it’s Gabriel!” He said towards the radio’s receiver, revealing his name. “If you’re receiving this, please-“
ZZZzzzzttt!
Before he could say more, small bolts of electricity began to spark madly from the radio. This made him throw the device into the moat, which promptly sank deep within the flowing water.
“Over here! I found the source of the flash!” shouted a voice from the distance.
Gabriel didn’t attempt to find where the voice came from, but focused on quickly closing all of the pockets on his bag that he opened earlier before placing his arms through its straps and got back up on his hind legs. However, right after he turned around the clear, grassy pastures to run, something directly in front of him blocked his way, and froze him in shock.
No more than a couple feet away from him were two miniature horses, white fur coats, and wore elaborate armor of some kind. But what really surprised him, was the fact that they had wings and were literally using them to fly in a stationary position, not that far off the ground as they looked at him with their own confused and bewildered expressions.
“By Celestia. . .”
“What in the world is this thing?”
Gabriel didn’t say a word or create any more movement, but became further surprised that the equine creatures in front of him could also speak English.
“What are you two doing!? Back away from that thing!” shouted a different voice from the distance. This one sounded older and more authoritative.
The two winged equines quickly followed the command without question, flying back a few more meters and elevating themselves higher into the air.
Gabriel turned around to find the source of the command. Not wanting to agitate the equines in front of him, he moved slowly.
Coming into view were more of the horse-like creatures, a group of four to be exact, which all appeared nearly identical to one-another, but possessed horns on top of their heads. They slowly walked towards him in a stance of both dignity and caution, but most of them had the same expressions on their faces as soon as they got a better view of Gabriel; and it was confusion. The only one who maintained a stern face would be the apparent leader of the group, who did appear older and more experienced than everyone else.
“Maintain your distance, everypony,” the leader of the group commanded as they all stopped at a distance that was both not too far and not too close to Gabriel.
“Ponies. . .” Gabriel said in a very quiet voice, barely audible enough for anyone to hear him.
The group leader’s attention turned to the two winged ones that he shouted at earlier.
“Report back to Lieutenant White Blaze and tell him that further assistance is required.”
“Yes, Sergeant!” the two guards acknowledged simultaneously, and flew back to the inner confines of the city with speed and grace.
“Alright, I want all of you to form a perimeter around that thing,” the Sergeant began instructing to the colts still with him. “Keep it cornered to the moat, and be sure to-“
“Excuse me,” Gabriel interrupted rather meekly, garnering all of their shock-filled eyes, including the leader. “Hello?”
“Forget everything I said and just stay close to me,” the Sergeant whispered to the other guards around him as soon as he regained his composure, and went back to looking at the ‘stranger’ before them. “As a Sergeant of the Royal Guard, I demand you to identify yourself.”
Gabriel blinked a few times, something that was easily recognizable with having a flashlight-like photoreceptor, and carefully contemplated an answer. “I am Gabriel. I’m just a lost traveller. I mean no harm, and have no malicious intent.”
“Then what was the meaning of all this?” The Sergeant directed his left hoof around the charred landscape surrounding the crater.
“And what are you?” asked one of the guards beside him, who was promptly shushed by the experienced veteran.
“I’m a robot. A custom unit,” Gabriel quickly answered.
“’Robot’?” repeated another guard from the far left, obviously not knowing what the term was.
“They’re technologically advanced golems, but they only exist in fiction. Like comics!” exclaimed another guard in surprise.
“Quiet!” commanded the leader of the group, showing signs of annoyance to the equines in his company, and returned his attention to Gabriel. “You haven’t answered my question.”
Gabriel stayed quiet as he contemplated on how to answer. The seconds that went by in silence filled the atmosphere with even more tension, which discomforted him even more. Not wanting to stand for any more of it, he gave his response.
“Me and. . . a close friend of mine were being attacked,” he started somberly. “We couldn’t outrun the danger, so we tried something desperate and it brought me here.”
There was an awkward silence as the guards digested the details of the information given to them. It was indeed short, but hearing the genuine sadness from the golem-like creature made them feel a little sympathetic towards it. Their expressions began to soften a bit as they continued to look at the poor thing, except for the Sergeant.
“You’re saying you’ve been attacked, used a ‘desperate’ way to escape, and ended up here; separated from your friend?” the Sergeant recounted Gabriel’s story, his commanding tone not changing.
“Yes.”
“And you’re not lying to me in the slightest?”
“No!” Gabriel nearly shouted defensively, but realized what he did and calmed down. “No, I-I’m NOT lying about this.”
“Sergeant, I think you’re being too hard on the poor thing, it’s obviously been through a lot,” whispered one of the guards closest to him.
“I agree with him,” started another guard. “Look at all that damage on the suit it’s wearing, there’s no denying it’s been through something bad.”
The Sergeant remained silent as he continued eyeing down the golem-like creature in front of them, contemplating on what the next course of action would be. “It’s getting too dark out here, it’ll be better if we bring him back in cell for a proper interrogation.”
Hearing that instantly made all of the guards around the Sergeant look at him with dropped jaws and widen eyes that obviously said ‘are you serious!?’
“But I didn’t do anything wrong! I didn’t hurt anyone!” Gabriel panicked as he hurried out of the crater, bag strapped tightly on his back, and getting ready to run. “I just want to find my friend!”
“Seriously, Sergeant?! Did you have to put it that way!?” one of the lower-ranking guards said angrily to the leader.
“Corporal, I have no time for this! Circle around that thing and await for reinforcements!”
All of the lower-ranking guards begrudgingly complied, they ran closer to Gabriel and began to surround him. Keeping safe distance away from their target and each other, and keeping it cornered to the mote.
“If this is about the grass, I’m sorry! But I’m not here to hurt anyone!” Gabriel pleaded in panic and desperation.
“Hey, uh, stranger,” the Corporal started calmly, really wanting to ease the situation in some way. “Don’t put too much mind into the Sergeant, alright? What he really meant was we’re going to get you somewhere safe, so you can tell us more about what happened to you.”
“I can’t go with you,” Gabriel quickly dejected, fear obvious in his voice. “I have to find my moth-my friend! I have to find her!”
Gabriel’s head was darting to all of the equines surrounding him, but immediately stopped on the sight of the Sergeant. He saw that the leader’s horn was surrounded by a bright golden aura, and could tell it was radiating with energy. This urged him to grab a hold of a cylinder-shaped object that was strapped on the sides of his bag.
“Careful! There’s something in it’s hands!” shouted a guard.
Before they could do anything else to react, the Sergeant shot a beam of light from his horn and headed straight towards Gabriel. However, he underestimated his target, as it was prepared for something like this to happen and quickly dodged it; an act that surprised all of the guards there.
Next, Gabriel threw the cylinder into the ground, causing an explosion right after, and a thick cloud of smoke instantly engulfed the crater, which resumed to spread throughout the charred surface of burned dirt.
“What the!?”
“It’s some kind of smoke bomb!”
One of the guards horn glowed as a ball of gold-colored energy began to form at the very tip. He launched it towards the thick smog, which made a bright explosion that caused rays of light pierce through the smoke and instantly it to burst into dust-like particles of twinkling light. But to their surprise, the crater was empty.
“It’s gone!”
Next, the sound of loud splashing caught their attention, the kind of splash that would be made when something heavy dove into the water. They turned their heads to location where it came from, only to see waves and ripples of disturbed water on an area in the moat that was close to the surface of the grassy pasture.
“That thing can actually swim!?”
“I’m going to check it out!” one of the guards said as he ran towards the mote.
“Private, no! Get back here!” shouted the Sergeant. But his orders were ignored as the younger guard had already dived deep into the mote’s water, no longer in sight.
“Hey!” shouted a voice from the distance.
They all turned to find the one who called them out, seeing a large group guards running towards them.
“We were sent to provide additional assistance, as you all requested. What happened to the creature you encountered?” said the apparent leader of the new group as they stopped in formation.
Before the Corporal could give an answer, the loud sounds of water splashing came loudly to everyponies’ ears, making them look back to the edge of the moat. The Private that dove in, earlier, came into view as he climbed back onto dry land, his entire body was damp and heavy from the water.
“I couldn’t find him! He’s probably close to the waterfall, right now!” said the Private, not putting the additional reinforcements too much to mind.
“Alright,” started the leader of the group that just arrived. “We’ll split into two groups, one will-“
“I see something running over there! Close to the Cliffside!” directed one of the members of the new group, bringing a hoof to point out what he was talking about.
Very far off into the distance was the figure of heavy box-like object that shook the further it moved farther away. Closer inspection revealed that it was the large backpack that was carried by the golem, and faint sights of running legs could be seen underneath it.
“You said it went in the water!”
“That thing is smarter than we thought.”
“All pegasi dart ahead and give chase, everypony else will catch up! We need to catch that thing!” instructed the leader of the reinforcements.
“Yes, sir!”
With all that said, they all gave chase. However, some of them looked reluctant.
Author's Note
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this very fic!
Comments and constructive criticism is always welcome because I want to know what you guys' think, while also learn how to be a better writer. But do PLEASE be gentle with me; this is my very first time actually putting out a written work.
Anyway, let me know what you think.
Chapter 2: The Beginnings Of A Crazy Night
Chapter 2: Beginnings of a Crazy Night
To say that Princess Luna was having the craziest time of her life would be an understatement, everything was downright hectic. Although, she’d agree that what she was doing now was far better than her usual responsibilities, such as paperwork.
Ever since the sudden flash happened not too long ago, ponies everywhere around the royal city already entered a state of panic. Thankfully for the Lunar Princess, it didn’t dissolve badly enough to become wild stampeding mobs, but that didn’t stop them from being less afraid and wanting answers. Due to this, the castle was in a constant flux of activity as Princess Luna gave orders to all guards that went for her for commands on what to do.
Some of the nighttime servants would run up to Princess Luna, both worried and concerned, asking what was going on that connected to the flash. However, all the Lunar Princess did was calmed them down, and had them returned to their rooms with an escort of guard ponies. This led her to make a public announcement, with the help of some magic to amplify her voice, to order all on-duty castle staff to stay in their rooms.
“How’s the progress with our pegasi scouts?” she asked a pegasus lieutenant who just arrived to report in.
“All scouting parties have reported in, they found no disturbances so far.”
“Tell them to continue what they’re doing and keep us informed every fifteen minutes,” she replied adamantly.
“Yes, Princess.” With a respectful bow, the pegasus officer stretched his wings and flew out the large doors.
“Your highness!” called out an earth pony lieutenant as he ran towards her, gave a bow, and stood straight up in attention. “Nearly all entrances and checkpoints inside the city have been hosted by a guard contingent. All of them should be secured shortly.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant. But I sense you have something dire to report to me.”
“Indeed, Princess. It’s about the citizens that are still outside,” the guard lieutenant answered with discomfort.
“Luna!” called out an all-to-familiar voice.
Everypony in the room diverted all their attention to the one who called out the Princess of the Night, only to see the royal sight of Princess Celestia walking down the grand stair case with two guardponies by her side. It was apparent that she was very tired and had to force herself out of bed, as there were dark bags under her eyes, and her mane, while still bright and vibrant as ever, was a lot lower than it would normally be. Nonetheless, the Princess of the Day still held her head up high, and gave the strong appearance of the devotedly wise leader she was always known throughout Equestria.
All ponies present (minus Luna) stopped what they were doing and immediately bowed to the Princess of the Sun as she trotted towards her younger sister.
“Rise everypony. Please return to your responsibilities, post haste,” Celestia said in a voice that was calm and loud.
“Sister! You need your sleep. I can handle matters here,” Luna said in worry of her older sibling’s obvious tiredness.
“Can’t have a peaceful night’s rest with the possibility of another looming threat in the land. Like you, I shall act to protect our subjects, regardless of the hours.”
The younger princess thought about countering this but immediately cancelled it, respecting her sister’s decision. “Of course, Celestia. But with time of the essence, I’ll have to explain everything in brief.”
“I’ve already been told of the blinding flash that happened earlier, no need to worry about explaining that to me.” She turned to the royal guard standing next to Luna. “I apologize with the interruption, Lieutenant, please go on with your report.”
“No need to apologize, your majesty,” the royal guard pony replied with another bow to the monarch. “There are still many ponies crowding outside the castle demanding for your answer on the anomaly. More were coming from the eastern marketplace, but the guard contingent stationed there closed off the path.”
“I’ll take care of the crowd outside of the castle,” Celestia said calmly.
“And I’ll ease our subjects in the marketplace,” Luna added adamantly.
“Of course, your majesties. That’s all I have for you, I must return to my station.” He gave one last bow to the two princesses and stormed off.
As soon as the Lieutenant was no longer in sight, Princess Luna beckoned a group of six pegasi royal guards that were flying by. Without hesitation, they immediately flew towards her in complete attention.
“I’m heading to the eastern marketplace and I require you all to be my escorts for the time being. Are you assigned with anything important besides guarding the castle?”
“No, Princess,” answered the leader of the group, a Sergeant. “We can accompany you.”
“Be careful, Luna,” Princess Celestia said softly.
“Of course, sister. You be careful as well.” The dark-blue alicorn turned to the enormous open doors in a readied stance of fierce determination, her large and elegant wings stretched outward and ready to launch her into the air; giving an air of beauty and intimidation to her stature.
The royal guards acting as her escorts took their positions by Princess Luna’s sides in unison. Following suit with their charge, their wings were open and prepared for flight as their eyes focused to the entrance to the outside in the cold stares they’ve all been known for. All of them showed the sheer eagerness to protect their charge, no matter the cost.
Finally, Luna was the first to go as she took the lead and launched herself out of the castle’s large doors in a fiery speed that left a strong gust of wind behind, but nothing as powerful as the Wonderbolts. Her escort followed suit right after, able to match the speed of the Princess of the Night, since she was not using her true power during the flight, nor did she need it.
Realizing that her guards were lagging a little behind, she slowed down to allow them to catch up, as well as prevent any accidental collisions with nearby buildings. She had the misfortune of the latter happening to her before, and Celestia refused to ever let it down, no way would she allow that again.
Despite being viewed as a near ethereal-like royal by virtually every pony in Equestria, she’s very aware that even could make mistakes. Whether they be big or minuscule, she wasn’t perfect on everything and she’s fine with it; same could be said for her older sister. But like every living being in the world, there were some times that she wished she was, but knew it wouldn’t be worth the effort. However, with some help from Celestia or others like Twilight and her friends, Princess Luna knew she had comrades like them to depend on aiding her to overcome any problems that prove to be too much for her; something the Princess of the Night learned after eliminating the Tantabus.
“Princess Luna!” called out a voice of a pegasus royal guard approaching from the distance.
“If this is about the ponies in the eastern marketplace, I’m already on it,” Princess Luna told the guard calmly and adamantly.
The guard shook his head in response, which surprised her a little bit. “No, I’m not here about that. I have a report from Lieutenant White Blaze. His troops found the exact location where the flash started, just right outside the city’s moat.”
“That close?” Luna looked at the guard with widened eyes, shocked that the source of the event literally happened just outside the city. “Was there any collateral damage? Did anypony got hurt?”
“No, your highness. All of our buildings are unscathed, and besides getting temporarily blinded; nopony is suffering any injuries or showing signs of any ill effects.”
“That’s good.” Luna let out a content sigh.
“There’s more your highness, in concern where the flash happened,” the pegasus continued, bringing back the Princess’s attention towards him. “Our scouts found something there. Some kind of creature! We don’t know what it is, other than it being a biped and having one large eye.”
“’Creature?’” Luna asked in widened eyes once again, but more out of surprise.
The pegasus gave her an anxious look and nodded in response. “From what two of the scouts told us, it was in a crater caused by the flash. There’s a chance it might have something to do with it.”
“You are certain that nopony knows what this. . . ‘newcomer’ is? From the description you gave me, it sounds like a cyclops.”
“I can’t say for certain, your highness, but they were insistent about it not being native to Equestria in any way.”
“And for the rest of the scouts?”
“We don’t know, and that worries us. They’ve asked for reinforcements, so we diverted more troops to them. After that, they haven’t reported in since.”
Lots of questions began to form in her mind, all of which on how to approach a situation like this; encountering a possibly new being from outside of Equestria. Luna couldn’t help but feel largely exhilarated for something this big, but also felt wary and worried of it becoming a dangerous threat to the land. The thought of the ‘newcomer’ coming from the flash directly didn’t soothe her thoughts, either. Putting it bluntly, everything regarding the blinding flash was making her on edge.
Luna hoped that the creature would end up being a peaceful individual and provide some well-needed answers. If that doesn’t prove to be true, she and Celestia would do everything in their power to stop it from harming their subjects, and have Twilight and her friends involved if need be.
“Report this news to my sister at once. When I’m done calming down the ponies in the marketplace, I’ll personally assist in this matter,” Luna said with strong determination.
“Yes, your highness.” The pegasus nodded and darted towards the direction of the castle.
Luna looked back for the royal guard team providing as escorts, only to see them already taking their defensive positions around her, looking at their princess in gazes of curiosity as they waited for new orders.
“Alright, everypony, time to continue,” Luna said, as she went back to flying to her destination with them in tow.
They’ve flown over many of the city’s districts and neighborhoods, their nearly empty roads appearing like parts from a life-sized map from the high distance they’re in. These locations were mostly void of life, with the exception of contingents of royal guards positioned in checkpoints or patrolling the streets in teams.
The Princess would occasionally see a few ponies still trying to get home, but would quickly stop as soon as they caught sight of her, and watched their royal alicorn fly by under stunned gazes. In response, she’d glance down on them with a warm smile before resuming her flight through the sky.
After what felt like more minutes of flying, Luna and her charge were on top of their destination.
Down below them, lanterns and fire lamps flared brightly, all of them possessing flames in many assortment of colors as they were enchanted by unicorns’ magic. From up in the night sky, Luna would compare it as multi-colored fireflies staying on one place close to the ground, a sight she’d definitely adore.
There were stalls and tables placed in organized rows, all of them built with extravagant designs to fit the architecture of the buildings within the Equestria’s royal capital. Their beauty further intensified by the lighting casted by the enchanted lamps set near them.
However, the most obvious sight of all were the ponies present inside the area. A massive crowd of them were cluttering any available space inside the marketplace, making the entire sight look like a mess. Fillies and colts were so tightly packed amongst each other, there was barely any room for a simple sidestep without resorting to shoving someone over. Luna saw instances of them stepping on each others’ hooves, pushing, and even tackling; all of which made her wince uncomfortably. While they were all accidents, that didn’t stop them from diverting their anger towards one another.
Fortunately, there were already a group of royal guards from a nearby checkpoint, stopping the crowd advancing any further to the castle and preventing any of them from trampling on one another.
And as cruel as this may sound, the sight of so many high-class aristocrats crowding amongst each other kinda did amuse Luna.
“For the last time, everypony please calm down!” said the leader of the guard contingent present. He and four members of his group were blocking the exit that led to the castle. “Due to the unknown occurrence of the flash, all of you must head back indoors as this entire matter gets investigated.”
“But we have the right to see the princesses about this matter!” said a worried filly in front of the group.
“We can’t just lock ourselves in our homes as some kind of monster could be lurking nearby!” said the colt next to her.
“That flash looked like some kind of teleportation spell to me! And judging the brightness of it, that means something very big and dangerous could’ve came out of it!” shouted an old colt somewhere in the sides.
“Like Tirek! He might’ve escaped Tartarus again! We need the princesses! We need the Elements of Harmony!” shrieked a unicorn from the deeper parts in the crowd, she jumped in the air in a very, overly dramatic fashion. Her once beautiful dress was now filled with dirt and rips as she was pushed, shoved, and kicked by densely packed group around her.
All of the ponies in the market began to panic even more by what the unicorn said, causing the massive crowd to rustle wildly as their fears and anxieties increased. Many of them were already on the verge of cowering, shouting and demanding at the guards to let them pass to see the royal sisters.
“Everypony, please return to your homes! This matter will be investigated!” the guard leader tried to assure the crowd, but his attempts fell on deaf ears.
Finally having enough of it, Luna decided it was about time to intervene.
“Enough!” the Princess of the Night shouted loud and clearly with the use of the Royal Canterlot Voice, echoing throughout the marketplace like thunder. Despite the intense volume, she said it all in a calm and neutral tone that had no other emotion, not wanting to initially scare her subjects, just get them to stop in a professional matter.
All the ponies in the crowd immediately stopped and looked up in the sky, gazing at their royal monarch in awe, respect, and a little bit of fear for the shout, as she descended to the ground.
Princess Luna landed on top of a rather large podium close to where the guards stood. Fortunately, it wasn’t in use, leaving it empty, allowing plenty of room for the blue alicorn and her escort to stand on, while being elevated enough for the ponies in the marketplace to have a clear view of them, no matter how far away they were.
“My little ponies, I understand that the earlier event has gotten you all afraid, but now is not the time to panic and cower!” she spoke in a loud and clear tone, once again, without the use of the Royal Canterlot Voice. “Princess Celestia and I will look deeply into this matter and ensure that, whatever that caused it, won’t become a threat to anypony in Equestria. However, that can’t be done properly if things like this keep happening. As the guard keeps addressing, please turn around, and calmly return to your homes, lock your doors, and let the royal guards do their jobs securing the city until everything is resolved.”
In reaction to this, all of the ponies in the crowd immediately started to mutter and talk amongst themselves. There was no shouting, yelling, or cowering, just lots of mild chattering that did have many of them asking questions of concern amongst themselves, but it was far more lax than the panic storm earlier. After a couple more seconds of bickering, the crowd slowly started to disperse, small groups from the back casually walk back to their neighborhoods as they still chat to each other.
While it’ll take more time for the marketplace to be fully empty, due to immense size of the crowd, Luna was just relieved to have this situation resolved pretty quickly. As she watched more of her subjects slowly trot out of the area, she started to focus her mind on handling the mystery regarding the flash, and the apparent being that might’ve caused it.
Suddenly a bright flash of light literally exploded beside the Princess, giving off a high pitched sound that was very familiar to the alicorn; a teleportation spell. This immediately caused the guards around her to tense, wings flared in fury as they prepare to actively protect their royal monarch with every ounce of strength they had. But all of that tension quickly depleted when the user of the spell was a royal guard officer.
“Your majesty, I apologize for the sudden appearance, but I have urgent news!” he addressed with a hurried bow.
“It’s fine, Lieutenant White Blaze. Is this related to the creature your scouts found?”
“Yes, Princess. The guards under my command are attempting to capture it now, but it’s proven to be very clever on evading our pursuit.”
“You’re trying to capture it!? Did it attack your colts!?”
“According to the Sergeant leading the scouting team, he said it proved to be hostile and forced them to act before running off. I had to call in more reinforcements to help them in the pursuit, but that thing has proven to be very clever on evading us.”
Luna took a moment to think this over. She began to worry of any true danger that their new ‘visitor’ could pose to her, Celestia and the rest of Equestria. While the guards have just found it, hearing it prove to be intelligent and cunning enough to avoid capture was already making the situation more alarming to her. It didn’t help that they still don’t know any more about the creature and any abilities it may have, adding more discomfort in the Princess’s mind.
She really hoped for the being to be peaceful, instead of having another threat loom in Equestria. However, with many things still unknown, she still held onto some doubt that their newcomer wouldn’t turn out to be the dangerous monster they worry it’d be.
“Alright,” Luna began firmly. “I require additional guards, and increase the securities in all checkpoints-“
Before she could finish, the bright light from another teleportation spell burst in front of the podium, catching all of the ponies there by utter surprise.
On the ground below, laid a group armored unicorns, all wreathing on the floor in pain as they wrapped their front legs over their bodies, hoping it would lessen the discomfort. Other than that, they didn’t possess anything life-threatening.
However, what certainly caught everyone’s shocked eyes, especially Luna’s, was the tall, orange form who was in the middle of the group of wincing unicorns.
The strange being slowly stood up on it’s hind legs, revealing more of it’s physical features to the ponies in sight.
Princess Luna, and her guards by extension, couldn’t help but just look it in silence for that moment. To her, it appeared so familiar and unknown, immediately catching her interest as she watched it rub dirt off the damaged, bright orange outfit it wore, and had some sort of large backpack strapped to it. The body shape instantly reminded the royal of a Minotaur but it was not nearly as bulky, and with that bright suit on; she couldn’t see any more details. But the biggest surprise had to be it’s ‘head’, it had no nose, no ears, or even a mouth, making Luna question on how it could even eat or breath. However, it did have a big eye as White Blaze reported, which glowed bright blue with a white dot, making her relate it to a cyclops in some ways.
“Monster!” a pony in the crowd shrieked in fear.
Hearing that caused the biped to quickly turn to the source of the cry, making it face the crowd of scared ponies that were still in the area.
The ponies in the crowd became more terrified as they tried to back away from the creature as far as they could, but only to end up pushing against each other and blocking their only way out. Nonetheless, no one said a word, not wanting to gather more of the creature’s ire.
The sight of royal guard ponies wincing and groaning in pain didn’t make the situation better.
“Calm down, everypony,” Luna assured the crowd loudly, which did stop them from pushing amongst each other even further. “No fast or abrupt movements. Leave the area slowly.”
The creature turned back to face her, making the guards around her to stiffen and move into combat-ready positions, ready to fight if it lashes an attack.
“My men!” White Blaze said with eyes of anger and shock as he watched the guards around the creature toss and turn on the pavement.
“Heed, Lieutenant,” Luna cautioned. “We’ll be sure to get them out of here, but we must tread carefully.” The Princess of the Night looked at the leader of her escort. “I need you and your team to protect our subjects as they get out of here.”
“Yes, your highness, but we can’t leave you alone. I’ll have two of my men with you,” replied the Sergeant.
“Thank you, Sergeant.” Luna turned back to the Lieutenant. “And I want you to join them, in case that thing attacks-“
“I won’t attack anyone,” interrupted a loud and clear voice that came from the new being.
Luna, and all of the ponies still present, just froze as their eyes widened in mixtures of shock and surprise, and slowly turned their heads away from each other as they locked gazes to the biped.
A lot of things were in a flurry in Luna’s mind after the creature spoke. She wasn’t surprised about it being able to speak, but questioned on how it could. There was obviously no mouth or any kind of opening that would be used to convey words, but she definitely heard it speak from it’s ‘head’. Then, there was the voice, it sound so soothing, soft, elegant, innocent, and organic. Luna expected it to talk in some old, metallic garble, or communicate by using rough hums of some kind, but no. The strange biped their facing could speak their language, and the most shocking of all; it sounds so much like a pony.
“Yes, I can talk, and I know you can understand me,” it continued in a tone that held hints of rising fear and anger. “I won’t hurt your people. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I’m not here to hurt anyone!”
“You attacked my scouts!” the Lieutenant protested.
“They were going to attack me!”
“You dare talk that way in the presence of royalty!?”
“Enough!” Luna interrupted with the use of the Royal Canterlot Voice, something that definitely scared the biped, if she would guess by it’s reaction. Thankfully, it didn’t try to run, but stayed where it was. She turned back to the leader of her escort group.
“Sergeant, go and escort those ponies out of this place, now.”
“Yes, Princess.” The Sergeant selected four of his men in the group, and proceeded to fly up in the air as they all flew towards the scared ponies piling at the other entrance.
Luna turned back to Lieutenant White Blaze, who still stood in the same spot, starring at the biped before them. “Lieutenant, go help them.”
“But what about the creature?”
“I’ll handle things with our new arrival, White Blaze. Now go help the others escort those ponies out of here,” Luna ordered him, sternly.
The Lieutenant reacted with a conflicted look before giving in to her instructions. “Of course, Princess.”
With his wings flared, he flew up in the air and darted his way to the other side of the blocked entrance, no longer in sight within the marketplace.
Now mostly alone to deal with the biped, she returned to look at it with a stern stare. It had done the same, and seemed to focus solely on her, as she watched it’s head not look at anything else, not even glancing at the guards anymore. The white dot in it’s ‘eye’ started to act like the closest thing to a pupil, slowly expanding and retracting, something she found cute in a way.
“What are you?” Luna demanded.
The biped visibly flinched as a reaction, but quickly calmed down. “The same answer I’ve told the guards who found me, I’m a robot.”
“’Robot’?” Luna echoed, immediately feeling like she heard that word before, but couldn’t remember exactly where or when. This began to frustrate her.
“The ones that found me said that I’m considered a ‘golem’.”
“IT’S IN THE MARKETPLACE! AND IT’S ATTACKING PRINCESS LUNA!”
“What?” Before it could turn around, two pegasi royal guards bashed their bodies on to it, making it stumble away for a couple feet, and went towards to grappling it.
Next, more groups of unicorns started to teleport into the marketplace, immediately startling Luna.
“We found our missing capture team!” shouted a Corporal leading the guards teleporting in, as he quickly checked on unicorns that were on the floor. “I need some ponies to teleport them to the infirmary!”
“We’re on it!” shouted one of his teammates as he rushed to closest injured guard before vanishing in a flash of light. One by one, more royal guard unicorns followed suit as they went to an injured comrade and teleported out of the area.
Princess Luna, and the two guards beside her, just watched the scene before them in utter horror. Pegasi royal guards were grappling on to the newcomer, trying their hardest to wrestle it to the ground, while it moved and stumbled in random directions as it tried to shake them off. Over time, more pegasi began to appear and follow suit with their comrades, grabbing a hold on any available space left, and kept attempting to have it subdued.
Luna took a deep breath as she prepare herself to shout really loud with the use of the Royal Canterlot Voice, but then. . .
“Princess Luna!” the Corporal shouted to the blue alicorn worryingly, stopping her as she was about to shout, forcing her to look at him. “Are you injured, your highness!?”
Before Luna could respond, a pegasus was thrown towards the Corporal, sending him flying quite a distance away, until crashing on the floor with hard clangs from the hard impacts of their armor on the pavement.
With one arm free, the biped began to angrily pull pegasi off of it’s body, one by one, and toss them on the floor. They immediately got up and made a second attempt to charge at it, but swiftly dodged them with grace and flexibility that astounded the blue alicorn.
Next, it proceeded to grab a guard by the wings and throw directly on to another charging pegasus, forcing them to crash on the ground and wince in pain, but nothing very serious. Another pegasus tried to ram it from behind, but was, too, instantly caught by one hand, then was given a couple palm strikes by the other, and thrown away at a random direction.
The body movements that the biped made instantly made Luna relate them to dancing and martial arts techniques. She didn’t think of this thought further as she prepared to use a Paralysis Spell. Her eyes focused on her target, her horn glowing under a blue aura that became brighter as seconds past.
The biped immediately saw this, and took out several metallic cylinder from the side of it’s bag and held them in the air.
“Watch out! It’s holding smoke bombs!” shouted a guard.
“What!?” Luna’s eyes widened.
A second later, a large cloud of thick smoke began to engulf the marketplace like strong ocean waves, covering everything in its reach.
Author's Note
And here's the second chapter, where things really start to kick off.
I really hope I didn't "tell" too much instead of actually "showing", because those are the parts that really nagg at my head whenever I write something.
Also, looking back at it, I'm worried that I made the Royal Guards act too much like dicks or morons, I'll have to correct that later when I get the chance. And I REALLY hope I portrayed Luna properly.
Anyway, I'm going to have a bit of a break, I've been doing these two chapters back-to-back, and I need some time to chill before I move on to the third.
Please let me know what you think. 8D
Peaceful Solutions to the Stranger with One Eye
With a flash of blinding blue light, the dense clouds of smoke exploded into hundreds of small, sparkling particles that twinkled and shone as they slowly dropped to the ground before disappearing.
Princess Luna hurriedly looked around the now clear marketplace, hoping to catch the stranger before it left the area, but ended up finding nothing. She noticed that there weren’t any ponies clogging any of the main entrances, not even a trace of the guards she ordered to look after them. To her, this meant they’ve all gotten out of the marketplace just in time before everything went at its worst. This made her feel a relieving wave of warmth that melted away those worries in that moment, knowing that her subjects were safe and getting escorted back to their homes.
Unfortunately, all of those thoughts quickly changed once she got sight of the guard ponies who tried to capture the unknown biped, earlier. They were all laying on the ground, wincing and groaning in pain from the beatings they received from their very target. Besides the discomfort of being hit and thrown, Princess Luna couldn’t see any injury that would be life threatening.
“Your highness,” addressed one of the two guards who stayed by her side the whole time. “Are you alright? Did the smoke have any ill effect on you?”
“No, Private, I am fine, but have any of you seen where the creature went?”
The loud sounds of trash cans falling hard to the ground echoed from somewhere in the marketplace, immediately making Luna and her two guards to turn their heads to the direction where the commotion came from.
Just not too far away from them, was the biped creature climbing up a section of the brick walls enclosing the marketplace. Despite the surface of the bricks being rather smooth, it still managed to grip onto them without much difficulty, easily scaling up the structure in a speed that surprised Luna and the guards watching. In only a few seconds, the biped already reached the top of the wall, and heaved it’s entre body to the other side, no longer in sight for the lunar princess or her guards.
Princess Luna quickly turned back to face the two royal guard ponies close to her, wings flared open and ready for flight. “I want you two to get the injured out of here and into the closest infirmary.” She caught sight of the guards still in front of the nearby entrance, who looked back at her in full attention. “All of you shall help them, too.”
Before any of the guardponies could say something, Princess Luna made a mighty flap of her wings and instantly soared up high into the night sky, and darted towards the biped’s direction. She quickly caught sight of it making a sharp turn on a corner of a building, and continued to fly after it as she remained high up in the air, using this as an advantage for the large field of view of the city below.
To her surprise, it ran fast. Not nearly as fast as ponies in the Wonderbolts, but fast enough to be a challenge to the most athletic earth ponies in Equestria, or possibly outperform them. Despite having a heavy load strapped to it’s back, there were no signs of the large bag impeding the carrier’s speed in any way as it continued running and swiftly turning corners leading into alleyways, something that got her curious and astonished.
After some time closing the distance between it and herself, Luna lowered her altitude to get even closer to it. For obvious reasons, she still kept some distance away from it, and remained two stories high in the air as the passageway it was running in was too narrow for her to fly in.
“Stop!” she commanded, loudly.
The effort was fruitless, as the one-eyed biped began to run even faster as a response, slowly going farther away out of Luna’s reach.
“I command you too. . .” Luna started, irritably. Her horn covered under a bright blue light before it instantly grew large enough to engulf her body immediately vanishing in thin air.
“Stop!” she finished her command with rising anger, as she suddenly appeared no less than six meters in front of the escaping biped, blocking it’s path further down the alleyway, and catching it by surprise as she saw it stop running and recoil backwards a little.
The biped quickly reached to the side of it’s large backpack and gripped onto a smoke bomb. It brought it’s arm in the air as it was about to throw the metallic cylinder on the ground, but before it did so, Princess Luna grabbed a firm hold of it’s hand through the use of her telekinesis; covering the stranger’s palm in the same magical aura that was being emitted from her horn, which slowly spread throughout it’s arm.
It attempted to pull out the pin with the use of it’s other hand, but as soon as it came close to touching the object, the lunar princess reacted quickly by grasping the once free palm under her magical grip, and yanked it back to the opposite side. The biped swung it’s arms in random directions out of desperation, trying to break free out of the Princess’s grasp with a surprising amount of strength that she didn’t expect to come from it.
Luna kept a hold of herself as she continued to hold on to the one-eyed biped under her telekinesis. She gritted her teeth in anguish as she jerked her head from side to side, like as though she was legitimately pulling it, with beads of sweat starting to drip from her forehead. It kept trying to reach for the pin on the smoke bomb, forcing her to put most of her mental focus on that one arm for a split moment just to yank it away, causing it to become more agitated and use more strength in fighting against her grasp.
To her, she was no longer trying to hold it in place, but was now wrestling with it. And with all of her focus on preventing it not to activate the smoke bomb in it’s hand or simply run away, it was hard for her to extend her magical grip to the rest of it’s body.
“Let me go!” it shouted in a mix of desperation and rising anger. “I promise I’m not here to hurt your people! I’ll stay away from them! I’ll leave! Just let me go!”
“I can’t allow that, as your presence could still jeopardize the safety of my subjects throughout the kingdom,” Luna replied, trying not show too much strain as she still wrestled with the biped in her magic. “If you are completely sincere with what you’re saying, then stop trying to run and come with me, so my sister and I can understand the situation going on!”
“I will not be locked in a cell and be treated like a criminal!”
“We will do no such thing unless you prove to hold ill intent!”
“If you’re anything like the guards attacking me, I see nothing good to turn myself to you!”
As Luna was about to protest against it’s statement, she caught sight of a small group of pegasi from the Royal Guard flying above their location. They were signalling to other groups that were too far for her to see, but in just a few seconds, more pegasi began to join them, increasing the size of the group as they prepare to attack the biped while it’s unaware of their presence. Seeing this added more worries into Luna’s mind, causing her to look more distressed than ever.
“Stay where you are! Send somepony to get my sister!” she shouted to the amassing group of pegasi, surprising them.
Finding out about the Royal Guard ponies flying above them caused the biped to become more desperate on getting free, resulting in it using more strength as it’s resistance became much more frantic and aggressive.
Luna continued to hold on and increased the strength of her magic, but with the biped’s movements becoming more frenzied, she began to feel tired. With the signs very obvious, she knew that the guards looked at her with immediate concern.
“But, your highness-!”
“Stay where you are, and get my sister! That’s an order!” Luna shouted to the guards again, looking at them with tired eyes filled with agitation, which turned into fear as she realized she shifted her attention away from the biped.
As she returned her focus on restraining the one-eyed being, it was too late. It lashed it arms in a random direction one last time and finally freed itself from Luna’s telekinetic grasp. The magical aura that once covered the biped’s arms were left as mere sparkling clouds drifting in the air, before immediately dissipating into nothing.
Luna flinched and recoiled in discomfort as she felt a rather sharp pain inside of her head and horn, an after affect from having her magical hold be violently broken. She quickly shoved the pain aside as she regained her focus and was about to use a different spell on detaining the biped. However, before she could even look at the thing, a small explosion was heard and she was immediately surrounded by the same thick smoke that engulfed the marketplace.
Reacting quickly, she cleared the alleyway with the same spell used in the market, emitting a very bright blue light from her horn which caused the smoke around her to burst into sparkling particles. With the alleyway cleared, she frantically looked around the narrow area, shifting her head and body in all directions in hopes of catching sight of the biped before it could escape again.
“Oh no. No, no, no, no. . .” Luna muttered to herself anxiously as she failed to find any trace of the stranger for the second time.
Finding nothing in the alleyway, she stretched out her wings and immediately soared back in the air, stopping when she got high enough to have an entire aerial view of the passageway, along with the other buildings and roads close to it. She tried to keep herself collected as she looked down into the areas below to continue looking for the biped.
“Your highness!”
Luna turned around to see the royal guard in charge of the large group of pegasi flying towards her. His group staying behind him.
“Are you-“
“I am fine, Corporal, but did you see where it went?” Luna interrupted worryingly.
“No. No, your highness. None of us did,” he answered quickly.
Princess Luna came close to let out a roar in anger and stress, but immediately stopped herself from actually doing it as it would look like she would be screaming at the guard, and she knew none of them deserved anything like that. Instead, she took a brief moment to take some calm breaths, which did work on relieving some of the stress that was building up inside of her, and helped soothed the strain she was feeling from trying to hold down the biped.
“Alright, did you send somepony to alert my sister?” Luna asked in her regal demeanor.
“Yes, I sent the fastest in the group to inform Princess Celestia. He should reach her any minute, now.”
“Good. In the meantime, I want all of you to fly to every checkpoint in Canterlot to tell them to not attack the creature.”
“Pardon me, your highness?”
“You heard me, Corporal. Tell any guard you see I’ve posted it as a standing order to not attack the creature. If anypony stationed in a checkpoint sees it, stand firm and don’t allow it to pass through them. To those out on patrols, try to herd it deeper inside the city, but absolutely no attacks. But if it attempts to harm any of you, then you are allowed to fight back under self-defence.”
“And what about you, Princess?”
“I’ll continue searching the city for it, and once Princess Celestia joins me, we’ll attempt to catch it together.”
“Do you require an escort?”
“Not this time. And if anypony manages to see it, report it to me and my sister directly. Now go!”
“You heard the Princess! Everypony scatter throughout the city and spread the word!” the Corporal ordered all of pegasi flying behind him.
In response, they all nodded, and immediately flew into different directions, leaving Luna all by herself.
She turned around, eyes focused, and ready to fly around the whole city to search for Equestria’s unknown visitor as soon as possible.
“Luna!” called out a familiar voice in the distance, stopping her before she was about leave the area.
The blue alicorn turned to the direction to where it came from, only to see her older sister flying towards her.
“Sister!” Luna reacted rather excitedly, and flew to Celestia so fast, she was already in front her in barely a second. Most creatures would be scared or utterly shocked by something nearly crashing in front of them, but the white alicorn remained calm and looked worried for her younger sister. “Am I relieved to see you!”
“I’ve been told on what happened in the marketplace, and you were close to catching the very thing responsible for the flash. What happened?”
“It escaped and is somewhere in the city. I’ll explain everything that has occurred while we search.”
“Do you have any idea where it could be, now?”
“No, but I’ve sent ponies from the Royal Guard to spread word that I’ve made it an order to report to us if anypony catches sight of it. Again, I’ll explain everything once we help in the search.”
“Very well, Luna. Lead on, I’ll be by your side.”
With that conversation over, the Royal Sisters started fly around the city as they begun the search. Luna took the lead while Celestia stayed right beside her. They did not fly under any specific route, or had a destination in mind, the two just flew through the sky above Canterlot, eyes focused on the areas below, utterly focused on finding the strange and bizarre visitor in Equestria. They passed by many different districts in the city but found no signs of anything out of the ordinary, resulting them to fly to a different location to resume the search.
While they flew throughout Canterlot, Luna held her promise by telling Celestia everything that occurred since the situation in the eastern marketplace. She didn’t leave anything out, and told her about the biped being able to speak fluent Equestrian, including it’s pleading to be left alone during her attempts to capture it back in the alleyway. Just remembering about it pleading her to leave it alone made her feel guilty but she tried pushing those feelings aside as she needs to maintain a clear head in that moment, and still unsure if it really had any peaceful intentions.
Celestia said nothing but listened to Luna as she explained her story. She did not utter a single word but only listened and gave the blue alicorn concerned glances, seeing evidence that she was still a bit strained and tired from the struggle she had with the biped.
“Besides with what happened in the alleyway, it never tried to harm you?” Celestia finally asked.
“No, it only focused on running away. If it really is sincere with it’s pleading, then it really doesn’t want to harm anypony, unless it’s life is directly threatened. . . whatever it is.”
“It’s some kind of golem,” Celestia replied, causing her younger sister to look at her with widened eyes in surprise. “I had some of my lieutenants collect information for me on what’s going on. From what they’ve gathered by the other officers, our mysterious visitor is some sort of advanced golem.”
Luna struggled to reply as she tried to contemplate that answer. “I find that hard to believe, sister. That thing acted far too alive to be a golem. It pleaded. It begged. It conveyed emotion.”
“Were you able to feel it through your magic, Luna? Ensure it really possessed feelings instead of acting it?”
“No,” Luna said in a defeated tone. “I was so focused on capturing it, that thought didn’t come to mind.”
“Don’t burden yourself on this, my sister, we’ll get to the bottom of that later,” Celestia said as she went back to monitoring the city blocks below them. “If our visitor really does mean no harm, then there is still a chance for it to come to us peacefully, and answer our questions.”
“I worry it’ll think we’ll hold it in for interrogation.”
“That’s because we will.”
Luna looked at her sister with eyes of shock, utterly baffled by what Celestia just said.
“I know you disagree with my decision, but an advanced golem of unknown origin and design just appeared in Equestria through a blinding flash,” Celestia began calmly. “Not only that, but it’s completely self-aware; an artificial lifeform. Such magical practice has rarely been done before, and under Equestrian law. . .”
“It’s illegal. . .” Luna added, somberly.
“Exactly. And I’m not letting go of the chance of something possibly dangerous following it and appearing somewhere in Equestria,” Celestia continued somewhat sternly before calming down. “But, I will not have it confined to a cell in the castle. I’ll set some accommodations for it, as long as it remains compliant and prove not to be a danger to our subjects.”
Luna nodded in response before diverting her attention back to the grounds below. It was apparent she didn’t like the notion of having it held for interrogation, but she agreed with her older sister’s points; with everything that’s happened, they needed answers. A strong tinge of irony struck her mind, knowing that she would be the one rushing to those kinds of ideas in most cases. Not this time though, and she felt comfort in hearing Celestia giving it fair treatment if it holds no ill will.
“Your majesties!” shouted a voice in the distance.
The Royal Sisters stopped where they were and turned to the direction where the voice came from, only to see a royal guard pegasus flying towards them in a hurry.
Princess Luna recognized him as the Corporal she ordered to spread word to the rest of the Royal Guard in Canterlot to not actively attack the biped.
“Corporal, what’s the matter?” Luna asked, looking concerned for the worried look on the pegasus’s face.
“There’s a situation, your majesty. Two of our patrol teams in the western districts found the bipedal creature and attempted to capture it by force.”
“I made it a standing order to not actively attack it!” Luna nearly shouted in anger.
“I know, your majesty, but we’re still in the process of spreading your orders throughout all of Canterlot, so not every pony in the Royal Guard has received them yet. Especially to anypony stationed in the farther reaches of the city,” the Corporal said quickly, eyes wide in slight fear from the Princess of the Night’s outburst.
“Easy, sister,” Celestia said to her younger sister in a gentle voice and placed a reassuring hoof on her back.
Luna immediately realized her action and came close to putting her head down in guilt in shame, but didn’t and maintained her regal posture. She took a second to take in a breath of air and made a calm exhale, feeling her body relax, and her mind receiving some much needed clarity. “I apologize, Corporal, that outburst was unnecessary and you did not deserve it.”
“It’s fine, your majesty, but you’re presence is needed in the western districts. Captain Azure Strike and his garrison are locking it down to prevent the creature from escaping.”
“And what of the patrol teams that were attacked?”
“His men are treating them as we speak.”
“And anything else on the creature?”
“It’s best you ask the Captain, your majesty, he’ll have some details to share with you.”
“I can teleport us to them, just tell me the location,” said Celestia.
“Emerald Gleam Boulevard.”
Celestia closed her eyes as her horn became enveloped under a bright gold aura which radiated with a warmth that many would compare to the sun’s rays. Before any of them even blinked, the whole group was engulfed in a flash of light that immediately dissipated into nothing a second after.
Suddenly, they found themselves hovering in the middle of a street just a few feet above the ground, no longer high up in the city’s skies.
Not too far off in the distance, Luna saw a large group of Royal Guards in what she quickly recognized was a defensive stance. They all stood beside each other in a line-like formation, elaborate shields placed in front of their chests, appearing like a mighty wall that blocked the rest of the boulevard from the area behind them.
“That’s his contingent, your majesties. I will lead you to the Captain, and return to spreading the no attack orders to the rest of the Royal Guard,” the Corporal said as he began to take the lead of the group towards the fortified ponies ahead.
“No, that won’t be necessary,” Luna replied, causing the Corporal to stop just as he was about to fly ahead. “My sister and I will find the Captain ourselves, you can return to spreading my word. Thank you for your help, Corporal.”
“Obliged, your majesty,” he responded with a quick bow before flexing out his wings, and with a single flap, he darted towards the sky and flew away in a new direction.
With her sister by her side, they both flew towards the wall of armored ponies ahead in a brisk pace. It was a short flight, nothing grand about it as the street was empty and devoid of anything to watch out for. In mere seconds, they were already in front of the guard’s shields, resulting in all them to salute in their presence.
“Your majesties,” greeted a Sergeant in the middle of the formation of Royal Guards. He was a unicorn, and used his magic to place his shield on his back as he walked few steps closer to the princesses and made a quick bow.
“Sergeant Hardened Light, it’s good to see you and your stallions are alright,” Celestia said as she and Luna slowly descended their hooves on the ground.
“Thank you for the concern, your majesty. I wish I could say the same for the patrol teams.”
“That’s why we’re here,” Luna addressed. “We’ve been told that Captain Azure Strike requires our assistance.”
“Yes, that’s right, Princess,” Hardened Light confirmed with a nod. “The Captain is halfway down the road behind me, you’ll see him. I would escort you, but me and my stallions have to maintain this position.”
“That is fine, Sergeant, we can find him ourselves.”
Hardened Light gave the princesses a brief nod before turning around to face the wall of armored ponies behind him. “Alright, create an opening! Allow passage for the princesses!”
In response to the command, the Royal Guards walked out of formation in a brisk and organized pace. One by one, the wall of armored ponies dispersed as they all took spots and lined up at the nearby sidewalks, opening up the once blocked area with the rest of the street.
Luna and Celestia immediately walked in deeper within the rest the boulevard, which was filled with more ponies of the Royal Guard in Captain Azure Strike’s contingent. Some of them were marching around in groups, while most of them took up positions in the area and acted as lookouts.
As soon as she and Celestia were far away enough, Sergeant Hardened Light shouted another order to his group to get back to their previous position, which they complied without hesitation. When they looked back to watch, all of the armored ponies already took their earlier spot in the street, reforming their wall of shields that closed off this area to the entire boulevard, once again.
“What a night,” Luna said somewhat tiredly, as she and Celestia continued walking down the road. “Not even Tirek’s first few days of escaping Tartarus caused this much panic in the city.”
“Because nopony got word of Tirek’s attacks until a full week, and by then, it was already too late,” Celestia added.
Luna didn’t reply as she spotted a group of guards huddled amongst each other not far ahead of them. Out of the armored ponies there, she and Celestia quickly recognized Captain Azure Strike being one of them.
As soon they got closer, the Captain, along with the other guards with him, immediately made their way towards the princesses and did some quick bows.
“Your highnesses, I’m glad to see you,” he greeted in calm appreciation.
“Same can be said for you and your garrison, Captain,” Luna replied in the same manner. “We received the news concerning the patrol teams, along with your request of our presence.”
“That’s correct, Princess Luna,” he confirmed and began looking at Celestia. “Not wanting to sound ungrateful, but I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
“I’m not surprised,” Celestia replied with a bored monotone. “I took care of everything important back in the castle, and my aids are capable of handling anything else. Like Luna, I’m available to provide whatever assistance that’s needed.”
“Me and the rest of the Guard greatly appreciate that, Princess Celestia.”
“Returning to matters on hoof,” Luna interjected. “Where are the patrol teams? I don’t see any injured ponies here.”
“As soon as we arrived, I dispatched the unicorns in my contingent to teleport them to the castle’s infirmary,” the Captain explained. “They did not appear to sustain anything life-threatening when me and my guards looked them over, but it’s better to have them sent to the castle’s doctors just to be safe.”
“A wise decision, Azure Strike,” said Celestia.
“Thank you, your highness,” he replied with an appreciated nod and turned back to Luna. “As for the attacker, this. . . creature. . .”
“Did you or any of your guards see it?”
Captain Azure Light just shook his head. “No, we did not. By the time we found the patrol teams, that thing was already gone, but I doubt it has gotten far. I divided the rest of my contingent to spread throughout all of the western districts to reinforce checkpoints, close off exits, and try to make it harder for it to escape this part of the city.”
“A sound strategy, Captain, but what we’re dealing with here is something that’s proven to be very clever and intelligent on evading detection. There’s a chance it may’ve escaped to another part of the city.”
“That’s why I sent some of my pegasi to alert the nearby garrisons to do the same on their districts and increase their patrols on both the air and ground. If that thing really is in a different part of the city, we’ll get word of it immediately and have the time to react.”
“Captain!” shouted a frantic voice from the distance.
All of them turned to the direction to where it came from, only to see a pegasus Royal Guard darting towards them from the west. His eyes were wide open in worry while his wings were in overdrive, already giving Luna and Celestia that something bad has happened or was still happening. It didn’t take long to be in front of them all, every pony’s eyes concentrating on him as he hovered a couple of feet off the ground.
“Captain, we-!” he stopped himself as soon as he realized he was in the presence of the princesses, and immediately bowed.
“The gesture is appreciated, but now is not the time for it,” Celestia ushered. “Please rise and tell us what happened.”
The pegasus guard immediately stood back up on all four hooves, his eyes full of urgency as they darted between the Captain and the two princesses. “The patrols in the east found the creature, but there’s a problem!”
“They didn’t attack it, did they?” Luna asked worryingly.
The young guard immediately shook his head in response. “No, they received your orders and tried to herd it into the city. But it grabbed a guard and is holding it as a hostage, and is in possession of some kind of weapon!”
Every pony’s eyes widened in shock and fear in response of hearing the news.
“What kind of weapon is it holding? Is it one of those smoke bombs I keep hearing about?” Azure Light asked.
“No, sir, it’s some kind of baton! But there’s electricity coming out of the end! All of the unicorns present don’t sense any magic being used, at all!”
“Where is it now?” Luna butted in, urgency rising in her voice.
“It’s in the square east of here. Lieutenant Harken Fury and his guards are surrounding it.”
“I know the place, Luna, I’ll teleport us there,” Celestia said to the younger alicorn.
In response to that, Luna immediately walked towards her sister’s side and readied herself for the teleportation.
“Do you need any of us to accompany you, princesses?” Azure Light asked in concern for the Royal Sisters.
Luna responded immediately. “No, Captain. My sister and I desire to end this peacefully without any more incidents. Bringing in additional guards will make matters a lot worse.”
“Very well, your majesties. In case things go wrong, I’ll have my contingent ready.”
The two alicorns gave Azure Light a regal bow in thanks and farewell, while Celestia’s horn glowed under a wave in shivering light. A mere second later, they were enveloped in a golden flash and opened their eyes to be in a completely different area, entirely.
They both stood close to the center of the square that was east of Azure Light and his contingent. It was more like a walled-in park, with it’s ground almost completely covered in grass, and walkways made of elaborate stones led to the area’s four main entrances and exits.
However, they didn’t take more time to observe the scenery as they heard a lot of murmurings and movements very close by, making them to turn to see what was going on.
Before them was a large crowd of Royal Guards surrounding the center of the square in the form of a circle. Multiple rows of unicorns and earth ponies were the main forces on the ground as they stood side by side amongst each other in formation, while pegasi took positions up in the air. All of them starred coldly at the very thing they were surrounding and were in combat ready stances, stressed and ready to strike at any moment.
Luna and Celestia already knew exactly what their guards were looking down at, but that didn’t stop shocked expressions on their faces as soon as they looked at the commotion happening right in the center of the square.
Literally in the middle of everything was the one-eyed biped. Standing tall for every pony in the square to see, it held a lone pegasus in it’s left arm as a hostage and gripped on to an object in it’s right hand. Remembering what the other pegasus told them earlier, the princesses could tell that the object was a metal baton of some kind, but with bright blue streams of electricity coming out from the tip and almost spreading down to the handle. The biped held it’s weapon close to it’s hostage, the light from the streams of electricity reflected off the pegasus white fur coat in a blue-ish hue; giving a clear warning for the Royal Guards to not come any closer.
The captured pegasus in question had a look of pure fear as he tried his best to stop looking at the electrified baton that was not too far from his own head. He tried to struggle himself free but the attempt was worthless, leaving him more terrified than before, which made him stop squirming in the bipeds arms.
“Everypony clear a way!” Celestia commanded crisp and clearly for every pony there to hear her.
All of the Royal Guards present stopped their stern gazes at the biped and immediately turned to look at the two princesses in wide eyes of surprise.
“The princesses are here!” a random guard shouted in relief.
“You heard her, clear out a path for them!” shouted the commanding voice of a Sergeant in a row close by.
The rows of armored ponies in front of the princesses quickly moved away to the sides in a parade formation, making a clear path that was meters wide, leading directly to the small open area the biped was standing in.
“Where is Lieutenant Harken Fury?” Luna asked loudly.
Almost immediately, a Royal Guard from the front row came running towards the two princesses through the makeshift path. As much as he tried to hide it under the look of toughness and dignity, the Royal Sisters could clearly tell that he was stressed about everything that was happening.
As soon as he was in front of the two alicorns, he stood straight and looked at them in full attention. “I’m here, princesses, but we have an urgent situation. That thing is holding one our stallions as a hostage.”
“We can see that,” Celestia replied calmly as her eyes slowly gazed to the armed golem, which slightly tensed as soon as they made eye contact. A few seconds later, her eyes went back towards the Lieutenant. “I’m going to try and negotiate with it.”
“Princess?” Harken Fury nearly shouted that question in shock, but kept his composure.
“From what Luna and I have learned about this stranger, is that it seems lost, confused, and tries not to seriously injure any of the ponies that confronts it,” she replied quite adamantly. “There’s a chance to end all of this peacefully, and I’m going to take it.”
“But what of the hostage?”
“I’ll have him released, Lieutenant, don’t worry. Now head back to the front and tell your guards to maintain a defensive stance. Princess Luna and I will be there momentarily.”
The Lieutenant looked at her briefly with an expression of confusion, before giving her a nod of acknowledgement and running back to the front row to do what she instructed him to do.
“Come, Luna,” Celestia said as she began to walk towards the biped.
“Sister,” Luna whispered to her older sibling’s ear as she walked by her side. “With my last encounter with our. . . ‘guest’, I don’t think it’s wise for it to see me with you.”
“I will handle the talking, but I will still need your help in case things go wrong.”
The two princesses continued their walk through the open path of grass, not another word was said between them, only hearing the sounds of their hooves crushing the grass below them. Not even the rows of guards beside them said anything, all of their eyes locked back to the one-eyed biped in a stern gaze, but some of them looked worried or concerned for the hostage still held in it’s arm.
As soon as they were a few steps ahead of the row of guards in front of the biped, they saw it’s stance tense up more, legs spreading in a more balance positioned, and torso leaning forward. It was apparent that it was preparing itself for an attack.
“Stop right there,” the biped threatened in calm voice.
The Royal Sisters complied and stopped in their tracks, no less than a dozen meters away from the biped. They stood tall and regal with their heads up high, stern eyes staring at the unknown being, giving a clear message that the two alicorns will not back down to threats, especially when the well-beings of their subjects were at stake. There’s one thing they’ll admit to themselves, the sheer amount of emotion coming from it’s voice, the mixture of fear and anger that’s close to becoming rage, sent shivers throughout the alicorns’ backs.
“I know what you’re about to say; you’re going to demand me to let him go, threaten me not to hurt him,” it said as it tried to keep a calm composure of it’s own, but there were obvious tones of pain, anger and desperation that proved too hard to hide. “Whether you trust my words or not, I won’t hurt him. Like I keep repeating myself, I’m not here to hurt anyone. But that does not mean I won’t defend myself.”
“I can tell you want to propose something,” Celestia replied rather sternly.
“Yes. Allow me to leave this city safely, and I will let him go. Simple as that and nothing else.”
“That is everything?”
“Yes, that is everything,” the biped said in an angry hiss.
The first row of Royal Guards began to look more irritated as they saw the biped respond to such a manner, all of them finding such an act insulting to their leaders.
Seeing this happen made the biped visibly more uneased, so Luna quickly reacted by slowly arching out a wing to the guards as a sign of warning and giving them a stern look to calm down, which they all immediately complied.
Celestia ignored everything happening behind her as she kept looking at the biped. “Very well. But I must ask a question, first.”
“I won’t hurt your subjects. I’ll stay away from them.”
“No, not that.”
Hearing that made the biped tilt it’s head a little, making the alicorns think as simple reaction of surprise.
“Where will you go?” Celestia asked as her looked soften, her expression becoming more sympathetic.
“Away from here. Away from you. Away from your people.”
“And then what?”
“I will keep that to myself.”
“If you really are not a danger to us, the least you could do is answer my questions.”
“If I do, will you let me go?”
Celestia let out a sigh before shaking her head. “No, I cannot. But I don’t want this to escalate in further violence, so please relinquish your weapon, release my guard, and come with me and my sister to the castle.”
“With everything that’s happened, following you will likely get me put in a cell.”
“I will not issue such thing, but we do want to know more bout you.”
“You want to hold me for interrogation,” it stated, coldly.
While the princesses maintained their dignified composure, they were both frightened by the shear emotion emanating from that response; unnerved by the sight of a golem act so alive as it portrayed something close to anger. They won’t admit it openly, but witnessing that sent shivers down their spines.
“Yes, to determine if you really aren’t a danger to ponies of Equestria,” Celestia replied, calmly.
“Again, I am no danger to your people.”
“Please understand, this kingdom has been a victim of numerous attacks by evils who simply wanted to spread disharmony or devastation. So we have the right to be this cautious,” she explained. “And how you got here wasn’t exactly subtle, either. Before my guards found you, a blinding flash engulfed the sky, we thought we were being invaded, again.”
The golem did not make a reply, leaving everything uncomfortably silent. Due to the fact that the golem lacked a face, trying to study any visual cues by starring at it’s oddly-shaped head was downright impossible, which greatly infuriated Celestia.
As seconds passed, she couldn’t handle the tense silence anymore, and decided to speak up. “I can tell you’re lost and afraid. You. . . really don’t know where you are, do you?”
It shook it’s head as an answer.
“Sister,” Luna called out to her sibling in a whisper, retrieving a glance from her. “Have you noticed the damage on it’s clothes? All of the burning holes?”
Celestia never noticed it before, until she looked back towards the golem. She immediately became shocked after realizing all of the damages it had on the suit it wore, seeing all of the burns, tears, gashes and holes that were still emitting light traces of smoke into the air. She was so focused on the captured guard, she failed to even take note of the obvious wounds it had, and mixed with the entirety of the Royal Guards sent to capture it; Celestia couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor thing.
“You’re injured,” Celestia said, somberly. “Please come with us to the castle so we can help you.”
Again, it didn’t say anything in reply, making everything uncomfortably silent as it made slight movements with it’s head.
“Please, I implore you to come with us,” Celestia pleaded. “I promise that you will treated fairly and be given accommodations to suit your needs, just please release my guardspony and put away your weapon.”
Again, another round of silence. No one said anything else as the golem’s white pupil repeatedly darted from the stallion held in it’s arm and back to the princesses.
“Alright,” said the one-eyed being, relieving all of the pent up tension for all of the ponies there. “I’m going to put him down, now.”
The biped flicked a switch somewhere on the baton, which caused the streams of electricity to fade away almost immediately. Next, it slowly placed one knee on the ground and gently released the pony it held as it’s hostage the whole time.
With frightened eyes, the pegasus glanced back at his former captor under expressions full of fear, before immediately flying towards Celestia and Luna as fast as possible, and gave them a bow.
“Thank you so, so, much, your highness,” he said to Celestia, shakily; trying his best to keep his cool.
“You are very welcome, Private. Now go back to your commanding officer and tell him I’ve made it a standing order for to get checked by a doctor.”
The freed pegasus complied immediately as he darted up into the air and flew out of the princesses’ sight. Celestia turned to look at the rows of armored ponies encircling her, Luna, and the biped they were in front of.
“Harken Fury!” she called out towards the horde of guardspony.
The Lieutenant came running towards Celestia in a hurry from being called, stopping just a mere meter away from her. “Yes, your majesty.”
“Send somepony to bring down a chariot, one meant for the Minotaur diplomats; we’re bringing our guest back to the castle.”
“At once, your highness,” the Lieutenant acknowledged before running back into the crowd.
“Sister,” Luna called out, garnering Celestia’s attention. “I’ll send runners to visit all of the other officers to gather information for us to investigate what went wrong.”
“Excuse me, your majesties. . .”
The princesses turned around, only to see two young stallions of the Royal Guard.
“Deeply sorry for interrupting you, but we were part of the patrol group who first came into contact with the golem,” said the guard on the left. “Despite whatever you’ve been told by the other officers, this golem did not attack first.”
“Is this going to be a long explanation?” Luna asked.
“Yes, your highness.”
“This is not the right place for it. Go to the throne room and wait for us there, you both can tell us the entire story once we’re done accommodating our guest,” instructed Luna.
The two guardponies gave the alicorns a short bow and immediately ran off to the closest route leading towards the castle.
Luna let out a sigh and looked to her older sister. “An interesting night this turned out to be.”
“’Interesting’, indeed,” Celestia replied as she turned to look at the golem, which Luna followed suit.
The golem stood still, completely motionless, it’s single blue-colored eye starring back towards the two of them as it placed the baton on the side of it’s bag. Whether it was studying them or not, they had no idea, but won’t be surprised if it actually was. The alicorn sisters were just glad that the situation was almost over, all that’s left was to bring their visitor back to the castle and investigate what went wrong when the scouting team initiated contact with it.
As Luna said earlier, it was going to be an interesting night, indeed.
Author's Note
Okay, third chapter is finally out! Hurray!
Sorry for the long wait, things in real life have been hectic and things are getting busier. And not going to lie, there are times I just don't feel like writing and procrastinated, the long word length did not make things easier.
Going to finally start the next chapter soon, will try to get that out faster (and shorter) but no promises.
Thank you guys for all of your patience and enjoy the read! 8D
