Canterlot Castle
10:14

As I walked down the lavish halls of the castle I began to take in some of the detail that had been spread around the castle walls and windows. I hadn’t really had a chance to ask the princesses about the history of this place yet, but I could only imagine that it would be deep and extensive, although to be honest, this place looked pretty much brand new (must be some magic spell knowing this place).

Each brick had been miraculously hand... or hoof crafted I guess, or so it seemed. The attention to detail alone was something to gawk at. Earth may have had size and scale but this detail was on a whole other level. Perfectly level with each other the walls were and OCD’s heaven. No expense spared I’m sure.

The bricks.. or marble I should say were a pure white with several shades of purple and gold intertwining on the walls forming various fancy patterns. The corridors bore a striking resemblance to the room I had been staying in for the past for the past few hours.

I had been moved rooms late last night from the room in the medical wing to a much nicer guest room. Although my travels through the corridors had been very quiet and discreet. Apparently, there was a delegate from the Kingdom Of Griffonia If I remember correctly, and yes. Griffins are apparently a thing in pony land. I actually wanted to see one as the pony show was sort of dying down a little bit, however, Id imagine it’ll only take a few minutes before they break the laws if physics and freak me out all over again.

However, my hopes and aspirations were soon put to bed when the princesses told me that meeting the delegate would not be possible. At first, I was going to rebuke their claim, however, it was their next argument put me square in my place. Apparently Equestria (and the rest of this weird planet) wasn’t as technologically advanced as I thought. News travelled slow and I wasn’t exactly public knowledge. This honestly surprised me, they had good enough technology to save me from a crash landing but not enough to send emails?

The ponies had been kind enough but that doesn’t mean that everyone would be. According to Celestia tensions between the two species were at an all-time high, if I had to suddenly appear with new advance tech the Griffons might perceive me as some new threat, and so for now at least I was a state secret. Luckily for me, the Griffin Delegation had departed early in the morning so I had pretty much free reign... (terrible pun) of the castles many corridors.

Looking down to the floor a red velvet carpet was laid out as many servants walked along, all of them doing their own duties. Many of the cleaners were going to extreme lengths to dust each and every bit of the many walls and windows of the castle. I wasn’t about to stop them, those little ponies were small but their magic for cleaning was on a whole other level.

I had been forced to surrender my bloodstained clothes to the cleaners this morning, according to the princesses. I stunk. Apparently, they didn’t feel comfortable straight up telling me so instead I got the news in the form of a snooty looking unicorn. In the end, I was only left with my boxers for dignity. They didn’t seem to think that it was such a big deal and kept insisting that they would have them back to me good as new within the hour.

I had capitulated to their demands and decided to take my first shower in pony land to pass the time, even though it was extremely awkward to use (given that the shower head only went up to my stomach), I still managed to get washed pretty effectively (even if 87% of the water ended up on the ground).

Which led us up to here. At this moment I was being led throughout the various corridors by a lone guard. The journey to the dining room probably shouldn’t have taken this long but the way we were twisting and turning it was pretty obvious that I was still being kept out of the public eye, it still didn’t make sense to me apparently I had landed in a field just near a major town so the fact that hardly anyone knew about it boggled the mind. I guess these ponies just weren’t as curious.

Speaking of ponies, I was in the process of getting very agitated with one of them. At this moment I was getting increasingly frustrated with the guard escorting me. He seemed to be a normal guard, or at least I'm pretty sure he was. He bore a standard white coat and blue hair along with the golden armour that I had seen all the other guards wearing.

However what separated this guard was the lack of sound coming from him.

“So have you worked here long?”... Nothing

“Guess this is the highlight of your day huh?”... Nothing

I’d had it with this guard, fuck protocol this guy had gone fully robotic.

“Mate, do you have an issue with the English Language or something?” A slight head twitch however other than that, nothing.

“Right, fuck me,”

Abruptly the guard stopped dead at the entrance to what I could only imagine being another’s gigantic room filled with more purple, gold and white.

“Wait here,” hold on. I could have sworn that sound came from the muted guard.

“Bloody hell Mate was that a decibel you just emitted,” I knew manners and politeness, it was after all part of my job but I had my limits and this was one of them.

In response, the guard simply grunted again, straightened himself up before knocking three consecutive times on the large purple doors.

”Enter,” a quiet but firm voice could be heard inside, Princess Celestia if I’m not mistaken. Igniting his horn the guard pushed opened the door and slowly entered the room bowing as he did so. I simply followed him into what appeared to be a large dining room.

“Mr Phillip Scott your Majesties,” I’d never heard that guard sound so pleasant

“Thank you, Sergeant, you may return to your duties,”

“At once your majesty’s,” without another word the guard reversed out of the room closing the large door as he went.

“Phillip you're looking better,” Celestia said using her magic to pull a chair back from the table whilst beckoning me over.

“I do feel better your majesty and th....,” I was interrupted before I could even finish my sentence.

“Phillip come now, we’re friends are we not, please there’s no need for such titles here, your not one of my subjects and not of this world,” Celestia statement made me backtrack a little. I was fine by referring to the princesses by there names, in fact, it made it a lot easier for us to converse.

However, did Celestia really consider me a friend already? I’ve only known her for a few days. The first day I was scared beyond belief and spat insults at her and anyone around her. The second day I snapped at her prized pupil or so I’m told. Which leads us today three where we’re friends... Either ponies are a lot more forgiving than humans or Celestia's just extra nice.

“Is something wrong Phillip?” Celestia's question snapped me back to reality and out of my thoughts however it still buzzed my mind. As I looked around the table I was met with the eyes of all fou.. No, all three princesses, my logical mind quickly spotted an escape vector and I began my advance towards it.

“Uh, no I was just wondering where Cadence was?” I silently squeezed my hands under the table hoping that my little ruse would work and I wouldn’t have to go all emotional again. I hated emotional moments and I didn’t really enjoy friendship and that besides a few select friends and even then I’d known those people for years.

“Oh, of course, my dear niece is currently making her way back to her own palace in the Crystal Empire,” Celestia explained taking a sip of her drink.

“Okay Thanks, I was just curious,” I said trying to sound as normal as possible, however, given these circumstances, I don’t know if the word normal would have any bearings.

“So Phillip...,”

“Phil,” I said interrupting Celestia. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the guards stationed at the door tighten his stance. I’ve got a funny feeling that myself and these guys aren’t going to get on that well.

“I’m sorry I’m not sure I follow,” Celestia said looking confused.

“If I have to call you Celestia then I insist you just use Phil, I’ve gone by it my whole life after all,” Celestia's face lit up in recognition and pulled her face into a small but subtle smile.

“Ah, I see, well then Phil, tell me what would you like for drink I’ve already prepared pancakes for us all that is if you can eat or know what pancakes are?” They had pancakes here! Well, that made life a little more durable.

“Yeah, I’m quite familiar with pancakes and if you wouldn’t mind a hot chocolate would be nice,” If there was indeed pancakes in this magical land of small equine creatures perhaps hot cocoa wouldn’t be too far off.

“Excellent,”. With that Celestia summoned a unicorn dressed in a butlers outfit and started talking quietly into his ear. After a few moments the butler stood back, bowed and left the room, food was en-route I guess.

“So ladies if you wouldn’t mind me asking, what are our next steps here?” I was curious to find out what was going to happen to me, right now my priorities were still that of a captain. Find the aircraft, inspect the damage and find the people.. The people.

“Well, I guess I could fill you in on that part,” I looked to Celestia's right to see Twilight sitting with a piece of parchment along with a quill to match.

Jesus, does this girl ever put her quill down to have.. a normal conversation?

Twilight looked at me and Celestia. Celestia simply bowed her head slightly much to the delight of Twilight.

“Okay so, basically the plan is this, we know you’ll want to get back to your airship as soon as possible, we still don’t know how you got here and we have our best mages including myself working on a solution, in the meantime you can stay in my own castle in Ponyville which is much closer to your ship, that way you can inspect your craft whenever you like,” Twilight exhaled and took in a deep breath.

“Okay, yeah that could work, although I was also wondering about the world knowing about me, I mean I did fly over one of your towns at like 200 feet, surely people saw or at the very least raised suspicions?” I didn’t mind if the world knew I existed especially if it got me home faster.

“I think I can answer this one,” I turned my head again to see Luna now joining in on the conversation.

“By all means,” I said folding my arms. Out of all the ponies, I had met so far I trusted Luna the most, well, to be honest, I still didn’t trust any of them but ill take what I can get. She seemed like a bit of a bitch at first but after she opened up I feel like I have a little more respect for her.

“Right now, we are not comfortable with making your existence public knowledge, now is not the right time especially with changelings making more incursions on our borders than normal..,”

I raised my hand to stop her, she looked confused but then recognised the gesture. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt but I must ask, I’ve heard of Griffons as they are a myth in my world but I've never heard of these… Changelings, what are they?”

Luna face scrunched up but then relaxed. “Changelings are disgusting creatures…,”

“Luna..,” Celestia started but was soon cut off by her sister.

“No Tia they are, they're heartless disgusting creatures that take the forms of the ones you love and use your love for them to feed off you!”

I looked to Twilight and Celestia for confirmation, Twilight spoke up first. “Sadly what the princess says is true, a while ago the Changelings attacked Canterlot, they almost won and it was only thanks to Princess Cadence and my brother that we are still here,”

“I think what my sister is trying to say is that we are afraid that the public, especially the nobles May perceive you as a new changelings threat, even though we know that’s not true the public may not be so... convinced” Celestia finished.

“And along with the deteriorating relations with the Griffons, the timing is less than convenient,” Twilight added.

“I think I get the gist of it,” I said. In full honesty, I got lost about a minute ago but ill go along with it for now.

“Please understand that in time when the public is ready we will make your knowledge public until then the only ponies that will know of your presence here is the castle staff, us, and the guard detachment that are protecting your craft, all are sworn to secrecy,”

A cough from Luna brought all attention back to her. “Yes, well as I was saying we sent a specialised guard detachment to your craft in order to keep any ponies from getting to close,”

I wasn’t too convinced. “I’m sorry but I’m afraid I don't understand how having an entire detachment of your guards is going to make anyone less suspicious,” Luna simply laughed a little as did Celestia, however, I and Twilight seemed completely lost in all of this.

“Yes well, they are guards but trust me when I say you wouldn’t know it looking in,”

For the third time this week the realisation washed over me. “So you're telling me that you golden boys over here are in disguise?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes,” I've got to be honest I haven’t been impressed with their technology so far so unless they're going to pull some magic shit out their asses I’m not convinced of this working.

“Anyway enough of business, for now, I’m starving and you, Celestia, offered me pancakes,”

Celestia simply laughed. “Of course,”

“Wings is on the move repeat Wings is on the move,”

“Please confirm escort,”

“Escort Confirmed, full set with Wings,”

“Copy that, proceed, operation has green light,”

“Confirmed,”

Canterlot Castle Air Docks
12:38

“Well Phil I guess this is goodbye for now,” Celestia said reacher her hoof out. I hadn’t the slightest clue what to do so I just shook it up and down.

“I must admit it might not have been under the best circumstances but you three have made it a lot more bearable,” I wasn’t lying either. If it wasn’t for Celestia helping me out in the first few hours I don’t know if I would’ve made it through with my sanity in check. And if it wasn’t for Luna then I wouldn’t have been able to calm down after that little ‘incident’.

“We art sad thou is leaving so soon but we assure you we will check in on thee.. you every now and again,” I reached my hand out but Luna ignored it, instead opting for a hug. You know I didn’t enjoy hugging at the best of times but this better not become a reoccurring thing. Even my friends that I've known for years only ever get a hug or handshake at Christmas and New year.

“Now Twilight, do you know the plan?” Celestia asked turning to face the small purple pony.

“Yes, I do princess, Get to Ponyville and meet with your contact near the crash site,” Twilight said strapping her little pouches over her back.

“Excellent, in that case, ill begin phase one now,” with that Celestia's golden aura lit up as she shot a beam at my chest. Caught off guard I went to lash out but was quickly restrained in a purple aura.

Just as soon as the beam at started it cut off. “What the actual Fuck is wrong with you!” I shouted causing both Twilight and Luna to flinch.

“Phil!” Twilight hissed, however before she could continue Celestia raised a hoof to stop her.

“It’s alright Twilight, In Phils Defence, I probably should have told him before I performed the spell,”

“And what exactly was that spell?” I sneered, my good mood gone replaced by one of frustration and confusion.

“It was a simple perception spell, it makes you unnoticeable to the normal eye, your not invisible just unnoticeable,” Celestia finished by taking a step back.

“So how can you all see me?” I asked pointing a figure in the princesses direction.

“I gave all of us a bypass allowing us to see you clearly, Twilight has the spell should other ponies need to be added to that list,” I think I noticed her wink at Twilight but I chose to ignore it.

“Okay but feel free to give me some warning before you do something like that again,” I said folding my arms at her.

“As you wish,” Celestia said. “Now both of you should go if you want to make good time... good luck Phil,”

With that, both princesses turned around and left. This left just me and Twilight standing in the archway to the docks.

“So… I guess we better get going then?” I said.

“Sure, follow me,” Twilight quickly performed a 180 on the spot and began trotting out towards the platform.

As we walked out onto the platform I was taken aback by what I saw. Several large airships were docked onto the large platform. Besides the large airships sat several golden chariots placed at several of the docks.

Along with the mass of ships, there was a sea of royal guards. All of them stood at attention around us, some had bits of purple and pink engraved on their armour. They all bowed as soon as they caught sight of Twilight.

As we walked forward. We were met with one of the guards ponies who to my surprise was not decked out in the standard white and blue that I’d grown accustomed to. Instead, this guard had a brown coat and red hair. Along with that, his armour was much heavier and more decorated. I guess this is a higher ranked officer.

“Your Highness,” He said bowing.

“Twilight, please lieutenant we’ve been over this,” Twilight said signalling him to rise.

“Your brother would have my head if I didn’t adhere to proper protocol,” he said chuckling as he did so he began to look at me. Wait. Can he see me?

“Mr Scott I presume?”

“Uh, yeah nice to meet you,” I said reaching out my hand which the officer thankfully took.

“Likewise, I’m Lieutenant Hard Hitter of the Canterlot Castle Protection Unit, my guards will take you and the princess to rendezvous with Commander Septer in Ponyville,”

“Quick question Lieutenant, how can you see me, last I checked I’d just been blasted with a beam of death to prevent such a thing,”

“Ah, Mr Scott I should mention that most guards are trained to see through such spells in the event someone try’s to sneak around where they shouldn’t be,” The guard said before turning slightly to Twilight. “If both of you would like to follow me,”.

As we started walking over to the edge of the docks I soon found myself being shown to one of the small golden chariots. “Uh, Twilight?”

“Yes, Phil, what’s wrong?” Twilight said turning to face me.

“We’re not actually going to ride in that thing are we?” Twilight followed my gaze to the golden chariot then traced it back.

“Why, what’s wrong with it?” Seriously?

“Well, it doesn't look completely safe, there no backing to it or any seats or even a roof!”

“So?”

“SO? So that means there’s not a chance in hell that you're getting me into that death trap,”

Twilight simply sighed. “You know Phil most ponies would fall over each other at the chance to ride in a royal chariot,”

“Yeah now ponies would probably fall out, and if you haven’t noticed yet I’m not ‘most ponies’,” I said sarcastically.

An intentional cough broke our conversation. “I’m sorry to interrupt the discussion but if you could tell us what your specifications are, then I'm sure that we can meet them,” I turned to see the Lieutenant standing there.

Well at least someone here’s talking sense. “All I need is something with a roof and solid backing so I don’t go flying out the back,”

“Well sir I can guarantee you that all of these chariots are enchanted by the finest mages in all of Equestria so I can guarantee you will not go as you put it, ‘flying out the back’,”

“Come on Phil I have wings and a horn so If something goes wrong I’ll be there to catch you,” Twilight said fluttering her wings at her side.

It didn’t look like I was going to win this one. “Fine I concede but this thing better work”

“Excellent, if you and Her Highness could please step aboard then,” Doing as the Lieutenant asked we “boarded” the chariot and sat down. I say sat down but there were no seats to be found, so I found myself sitting down on what I could only assume was solid gold.

“See, this isn’t so bad,” Twilight said shifting around a little in order to get comfortable.

“See, we also aren’t moving yet,” I countered.

“Okay, well good luck to you Mr Scott and you Miss Sparkle,” the Lieutenant said giving the chariot the all clear signal.

“See you soon Hard Hitter, don’t let the walls fall down,” Twilight answered as the chariot slowly begun to move away.

As the chariot began moving I held on to the railings as if I was looking death straight in the eye. No doubt death would be just as confused as I am to why I am currently not failing thousands of feet to my death. However, true to Twilights Word we weren’t falling, we were flying!

The guards pulling the chariot begun to increase speed and just like that, we were off.

One step closer to home...

A Short While Later

“We’re descending into Ponyville now your highness!” The guard shouted over his back.

The flight to Ponyville had been a pretty uneventful one. Not even turbulence hampered the flight. I must give it to the ponies, Canterlot did look amazing from a distance, I hadn’t seen much from my window in my room so it was something else when you looked at it from here.

I was able to make out all of the different houses as well as the cobbled streets that appeared to be littered with ponies of all kind.

“So Twilight, what do you know about the guard we're meeting with?” I said turning to face Twilight.

Twilight turned to answer me but closed her mouth to think. “Actually I've never heard of a ‘Commander Septer’ before, all the princess told me was that he worked for a specialised division of the EUP guard,”

“The EU what?” I asked perplexed.

“The E.U.P guard, it stands for Earth Pony, Unicorn, Pegasus Guard,”

“Oh,” I said, seems pretty dumb to me. It’s sort of like the equivalent of being called the Human Army.

As we spoke the I felt the chariot slowly descend as I got my first good look at the town I almost destroyed.

The town itself was pretty moderate in size, though it looked nothing like Canterlot. Most of the buildings were made out of wood with what I could only assume was hay acting as the roofs.

Most of the buildings par few distinct ones seemed to have a standard colour scheme which was a basic cream colour with some more purple and pink splattered in there. (Must just be a pony colour fetish).

In the centre of the town was a large carousel looking building which I suppose is the town hall. To my shock, this one actually had a wooden roof so A+ to the designer for not being completely incompetent.

However, there was one building that stuck out like a sore thumb. I actually had to do a double take to make sure I saw what I thought it saw. On the edge of this charming-looking hamlet was a large purple crystal looking castle. I mean whoever designed that clearly didn’t look at the surrounding town.

Large shards of crystal stuck out from the castle, in fact, had they painted the castle a darker colour I could see it as a stereotypical bad guy castle.

Twilight must have picked up on me staring at the castle as she decided to pipe up. “Looks pretty amazing don’t you think?”

“It... is definitely something that catches the eye,”

“Well I’m glad you like it, cause you might be spending a while here,” Twilight said completely oblivious to my feelings on the matter.

Soon Ponyville was past us so I assumed we must be going directly to the crash site.

We were soon flying parallel to the forest that I had crashed next to. It was a dark and Erie place that I first assumed was Hyde Park. Obviously, it wasn’t, as this was nothing like Hyde Park, the tree colouring was all off. There was a distinct lack in beautiful ponds with the only watery bodies consisting of swampy marshes. Along with that, the borders of the forest were clearly seen. The dark green grass contrasted with the lighter green showing a clear divide between the light and dark.

However, my concentration was broken when I saw something much more important. The reason I was here. Like the worlds biggest mystery, it sat in a field with a brown trench line built around the nose. My aircraft...

”Wings has landed”

”Copied, begin scan”

...

”Scan complete sir, no Changelings magic detected”

”Scan again, I want no mistakes on this, ill stall them”

”Yes sir

Author's Note

Finally got this out a few weeks later than planned. Writer's block hit pretty hard.

This chapter was hard to structure as not a lot happens but it sets up important factors that will come into play later on in the story.

Once again let me know if you find any grammar mistakes and ill be sure to correct them.

In my opinion, this chapter is a little rushed at the end but I think it will help the next chapter.

Hope you enjoy and happy new year!