Displaced: Fallen Kingdom

“ h!”

“N h!

“No h!

“Noah please wake up!”

This really wasn’t his day. Noah thought as he regained consciousness, rubbing his head and stumbling to his feet.“This is the second time I’ve woken up from being unconscious.” Think he was starting to find a trend for today's activities.

“Thank goodness you're alright.” He knew that voice, Cadence.

“Good to see your alright too.” Noah muttered as he rubbed his aching head. “Where's Shining Armor?” Cadence turned her head, gesturing to the unconscious stallion resting against a crate as his horn pulsed red for a moment. “What happened?”

“We fell.” Cadence muttered. “Something hit us and we dropped out the sky. Shining Armor tried minimizing the damage through the use of a pair of barriers both in and around the ship, but the stress of that combined with the speed we hit the ground…”

“Magical backlash huh.” Noah muttered as Cadence nodded her head. “Let me try something.” The stallion approached the unconscious prince as he held his head for a moment. He closed his eyes, the act preventing Cadence from seeing his them flash crimson as he started working. A few moments of silence and Shining Armor’s horn started to return to it’s natural white coloration and the stallion slowly opened his eyes.

“Ugh~ what happened?”

“Shining!” Noah backed away for a moment as he gave the couple some space. In the meantime he just checked his hooves before nodding his head.

“Glad to see I can still do that.”

“I can’t believe it… how did you?”

“Family secret.” Noah stated as he turned his attention elsewhere, looking for his discarded gear before levitating them to his side. “Either case we should be getting out of here.”

“You’re right we need to check on the rest of the staff.” Shining Armor muttered as he returned to his feet and started to move, only to stumble as Cadence caught him.

“Careful!”

“I only minimized the damage Armor, I wasn’t able to take it all away. You’ll still be a bit dizzy for a while and your magic a bit scattered.” Noah stated as he sighed. ‘Until I can fully understand this body then a full repair jobs going to be a bit difficult.’ “You’ll need to take it slow for a few minutes.”

“I - If you say so.” The group walked over to the entrance of the cargo bay as they looked to the stack of boxes covering it.

“Of course the exit’s blocked…” Cadence muttered as she started to levitate the boxes out the way. Noah just watched, lowering his hoof as he muttered something under his breath.

“I was just going to blew a hole through it, but that works to.”

“What was that Noah?”

“Nothing Shining Armor.” Noah muttered as he shook his head. The last of the boxes moved the trio headed out on their way racing down the halls to find the others.

***

“That should do it.” The mercenary muttered as she looked from on top her pet, patting it’s head affectionately as she was rewarded with a growl. “You did good sweetheart, very good. They’ll be walking the rest of the way to the Crystal Empire.” She told her pet as she ordered them to take off. “That should give big boy enough time to reestablish his place among the Crystal Ponies. So all that’s left is to kick back and watch the show.” The mare stated as she heard another growl. “Hm, why am I doing this? Well the money’s good and -” Another growl. “Oh~ you mean helping tall, dark and hissy. Well you see the answer is quite simple. I’m bored, simple as that.” The mare stated with a shrug. “My job is to study the princesses that’s all - anything else that goes on while I do my studies, well, I can if I can have some fun seeing what happens. The outcome doesn’t really concern me.” Growl. “Either way, I get paid.”

***

“This everyone?” Cadence nods her head as she looks to her husband, a bit of medical bandages floating in her hooves as she used it to wrap around another’s hoof.

“Yeah, I did a headcount, this is all of the staff that we got from my aunt.”

“So everyone is alive?” Noah muttered as he walked back into the room as he frowned. ‘Back home we wouldn’t be so lucky.’

“Seems like it.” Cadence mutters as she finished her wrapping and started on another. Shining Armor was helping the captain move, old pony was walking with a limp, obviously having dislodged it earlier during the crash.
“Captain are you-”

“I’m fine, but I ain’t going to be using this blasted hoof for a while.”

“Not like that anyway.” Noah muttered as he stepped forward and looked at the aged stallion. “Set him down.” Shining Armor simply looked in confusion but did as recommended, setting the stallion down against a wall as Noah grabbed the stallions hoof and looked it over.

“I know what you’re planning.” The old stallion muttered as he looked at Noah. “Make it quick.”

“Ain’t no other way to do it.” Noah stated as he took a moment and breathed. The next the entire group heard a crack as the aged stallion grunted in pain. “There we go.”

“That hurts as much as I remember.” The stallion muttered as he moved the relocated hoof. “Thanks.”

“Don’t sweat it.” Noah stated as he stepped away. “So what’s the damage?”

“Engines are shot, half the ship either broken and we got snow coming in from the outside.” The captain muttered as he looked at the unicorn.

“Got a radio? Any way to get in touch with Celestia and Luna?”

“I can send a letter through spellfire.” Cadence stated as Noah raised an eyebrow.

“Spellfire?” Before Cadence could answer Noah shook his head. “Know what, forget it. Do it. Shining can you help me get some covers? No point in freezing ourselves to death.”

“Yeah. Good point.” Shining Armor turned to his wife for a moment. “Will you be alright by yourself?”

“Yeah Shining I’ll be fine, I won’t be alone you know, and I’ll just be writing a letter to Auntie.”

“Right.” Cadence nuzzled her husband as she smiled. “I won’t be long ok?”

“Just go you big worrywort. I’ll be waiting for you to get back.” The stallion nodded his head Noah made a face, raising his hoof to his mouth and pretended to gag. Soon as Shining Armor turned though he stopped, starting on his way as Shining Armor followed after him. “So where should we start looking?”

“We passed a bunch of rooms when we were gathering everypony together. Let’s gather up the blankets and maybe something to start a fire.”

“This doesn’t seem like the first time you’ve done this.”

“I had some previous experience; ever do a LARP in the middle of winter?”

“Yes.” Shining Armor blinked. “Wait, you LARP?”

“Used to, you?”

“Same. Haven’t been able to LARP since before I joined the guard though.” Shining developed a fond smile across his face. “When my friends and I used to play Ogres and Oubliettes we used to have so much fun not just on the board but off it too.”

“Never heard of Ogres and Oubliettes before.” Shining Armor snapped his head towards the stallion so fast he was surprised his neck hadn’t snapped. “It any fun?”

“Is it any fu -"

"Yes it’s one of the best out there, I can’t believe you haven’t heard of it before! What did you play back home?”

“Mh~ bit of this and that; my friends and I mostly played this game we made up with a bit a White Wolf, bit of Call of Cthulhu… we were actually going to continue our last campaign but we weren’t able to.”

“What happened.”

“Apocalypse happened.” Noah muttered as he sighed in regret. “Haven’t seen my friends in months… and it’s hard to play when you haven’t seen your friends in so long you aren’t even certain that their still alive.” Staring into space Noah frowned as he thought back to his friends. He missed though guys. Some of the best people he had the privilege of being associated with. He just hoped they were still alive. Shaking his head Noah entered a room and lifted the blankets up. “These things look like they’d suit a king… wait. Is this - cashmere?” He turned his attention to Shining Armor as the stallion shrugged.

“The airship is mainly used when the princesses take a day off and have royal dignitaries flying with them. Trust me, no expenses were spared.”

“Fuck… that explains the food.” He muttered before shaking his head and folded the cloth up and set it on his back. “I thought that stuff looked a bit to fancy.”

“You get used to it, I’m still trying to myself honestly.”

“Right you married into royalty.” Noah stated as he and Shining Armor hit another room. “What’s that like?”

“A little weird to be honest. But it’s nothing I’m not all that unused to.” Again Shining Armor shrugged as he was handed a blanket. “Ponies treated me differently from most ever since I joined the Royal Guard. They kind of treat me the same way after I married Cadence.” Noah’s ear perked slightly.

“Royal Guard? You mean you’re a knight?”

“Well I was, I had to retire early because of marriage, but I was the captain of Celestia’s royal Guard before that happened.”

“Hm~ a princess and a knight captain.” Noah made a noise. “Sounds almost like something out a fairytale.” All Shining Armor did was laugh slightly, rubbing his head as Noah grabbed another blanket.

“I guess it really was; Cadence and I have been together since high school so we had the highschool romance and then grew into the fairytale knight and princess.” He gave a smile as they entered another room. “Though I gotta say the wedding wasn’t much of a fairytale.”

“Your wife said it was one you’d wouldn’t forget.”

“Trust me it was.” Shining stressed. “I just wish I was able to recall most of it.” The stallion got a raised eyebrow as he gave a nervous smile.

“You can’t recall most of your own wedding?”

“Yeah see I~ I might have been… under a spell during most of it.” Noah snickered slightly as he looked at the stallion.

“Oh this I gotta hear.” Shining Armor actually colored as Noah passed him another blanket. “I have got to ask Cadence about this wedding later.”

“Mn~ well what about you, you got a special somepony waiting back home?”

“I’m gonna take a guess and say “Special Somepony” is your way of saying a lover or a girlfriend or something, and then I’m gonna say no. I’m rocking the single life for now.”

“Really you’re single?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well you’re… don’t take this the wrong way but your not that bad looking, even with the scars.”

“Hm. Thanks.” Noah muttered as he checked their gathered blankets and covers. “I look good but getting a compliment isn’t that bad either.” Noah shrugged as he nodded to himself. “Anyway this should be enough blankets, come on let’s head back.”

“Right.” A pause ran between the two as they left the room and started back towards the others. “So why are you single?”

“No real reason.”

“Really?”

“Well… well there’s really three reasons.” Noah caved surprisingly easy. “First I’m just not looking right now. Can’t really say anything else on that. I’m not looking for a girl.”

“Have you tried?”

“I tried once, it ended on a good note but she… she just couldn’t take it anymore.”

“Take what?”

“The secrets.” Noah sighed as he started to think back.

“You kept secrets from her? That’s never a good idea - why would you -”

“It was mandatory, partly for her own protection and partly because of our ways.”

“What do you mean?”

“Magic.” Noah stated as he took a moment to make his horn spark crimson for a second. “Magic isn’t common where I’m from, well it is but… we have to hide it. We’ve had to hide from the regular people. Otherwise they’ll start treating us differently. Some might revere us, most might fear us, and the rest they’ll want to cut us open and try to figure out how we cast.”

“Ok you got to be exaggerating…” Noah shook his head. “But you’re a unicorn, surely they’d already know you could cast.”

‘I wasn’t born a unicorn Armor.’ “unicorns aren’t common where I’m from, so uncommon that no one knows what they're capable of exactly.” Ok he was lying out his ass here but he doubted Shining Armor would believe him if he said he was a world jumping human turned pony. Well he might but lets not test that theory. “So we hide our magic from the masses, appear normal… well most of us do.”

“Why hide it though, ponies can handle the truth?”

“You’re ponies can, my people can’t. They fear what they don't understand and hate what they can't conquer. They respected us at one point but after a while they grew scared of our powers, they burned us and any other they believed to be spellweavers alive. They demonized us, turned us into the enemies of knights and kingdoms with a penchant for conquest and Maleficium, wrote us up as monsters…” Noah sighed as his eyes flashed scarlet unconsciously. “And the worst part… some of us became that, became the monsters they created.” He looked at Shining Armor as they stopped walking. “You ever grow up, being pushed and berated so much that at one point that voice inside your head tells you enough is enough and that it’s finally your turn to hit back. You ever get to that point when you see your tormentors you decide make them regret all their words and actions against you? You ever see the look on their face when the tables turned on them, when you hold their fate in your hand?” Noah paused as he let his words sink into Shining Armor went silent.

“Once…” He said after a while. “I used to be bullied a lot when I was growing up. I was the nerd so the jocks liked to pick on me and my friends. It never went anywhere… but It’s like you said though, at one point that voice in my head started whispering at me to get back at them. To hurt them.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I’m not sure if it’s because I knew better - because I was strong enough not to, or because I was to scared to do it.” Shining dug one of his hooves into the floorboard. “I know one thing though, I didn’t want to set a bad example for my little sister, maybe that’s what stopped me in the end.”

“That’s a good anchor.” Noah muttered.

“Did you ever -”

“Once.” Noah admitted dispassionately. “I was under a lot of stress from trying to make my family proud of me and I was bullied at school myself. One point I just snapped. My parents mind wiped the entire school and I had to transfer. So no one remembers it, but I did put someone in a hospital for a couple months and every time he saw me afterwards he’d get these shakes and start to vomit. Like subconsciously he remembered, or at least his body did.”

“Do you ever regret it?”

“Sometimes… when I think about it I do. Other times I don’t; but I do know this. When I do and I close my eyes, I can still see his horrified face. And then I start to wonder if I did the right thing. Did I deserve to wound him like I did? Sometimes the voice in my head says yes, other times it says no.” Noah took a breath as he started walking again. “But let’s forget about all that, what were we talking about before I drifted off?”

“Your reasons for not dating.”

“Right~ well reason number 3. Disregarding one and two it’s really hard to find a girl back home now a days.”

“Why?”

“Everything’s gone to shit.” Big surprise, It was really hard to find a girlfriend when the apocalypse was going on. Movies made it look so damn easy.

“You’re situation back home is that bad?”

"If I described it to you, I’d only be able to put it lightly.” Reaching the rest of the group the duo ended their conversation as Cadence ran up to them. “How’d it go?”

“The letters sent, at most by tomorrow it should reach auntie Celestia.”

“Do we have a day to wait for a response?”

“Yes, we have enough food and supplies on board to make it last a good while.” Shining Armor looked to one of the staff as they spoke. “But I don’t think you should wait for the response.”

“What do you mean?”

“He means that you three should go ahead towards the Crystal Empire.” The Captain stated as he looked at the trio. “We’re grounded but that doesn’t mean you should stay here and wait with us.”

“But we can’t just leave you.”

“Yes you can.” The captain grumbled. “You were heading towards the Crystal Empire in the first place and to be honest I’m not to certain how much farther we’d be able to take you before the storm gets to dangerous.”

“He’s got a point.” Noah looked outside as he took a break from passing out blankets. “From the looks of it it’s going to get really bad in a bit. And from what your Aunt was telling us, if it gets bad it’s gonna stay that way for a while.” He muttered as he closed his eyes for a moment. As he did his horn flashed once, then a second time before going dead. “I’d rather get a move on before then.”

“I guess you have a point.” Shining Armor muttered as he scratched his head. “I don’t feel comfortable leaving everypony here though. Isn’t there anything we can do?”

“If you can crank out another barrier that could probably keep the cold out would be great, for a while at least.” Noah shrugged. “Otherwise we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. "Wait to see if Celestia and Luna can do anything that can help these guys while we’re up and on the move.” Shining Armor and Cadence made a noise as they looked at one another. For a while they didn’t say anything instead just ran things over in their heads for a moment.

“Are you sure you’ll be fine if we leave you here?” Cadence questioned as she looked at the group one last time.

“We’ll be fine princess.” The Captain stated as he removed his hat and set it aside. “We have plenty of blankets to keep us warm, food to go around, all we need to do is make a fire and we’ll manage.” He told her as she opened her lips to say something else before nodding her head.

“Alright.”

“I’ll get the barrier ready.” Shining muttered as he started to gather his magic. As he started to charge his spell Noah couldn’t stare in curiosity. His horn was glowing; was that normal for spellweavers of this world? Did his horn glow when he used spells? Normally it was just his eyes despite the protective membrane he had.

…

Come to think of it he really needed to take those out. Eyes were beginning to itch. That in mind Noah turned his attention away from the stallion as he focused his own spell. Normally he’d do this with his fingers but as he didn’t have those at the moment he’d have to improvise a bit. He stared at one of his hooves as he held it up, creating false fingers as he dug into his eyes and pulled out a thin semi-transparent lens.

“You wear contacts.” One of the staffponies noted.

“Sometimes.” These however weren’t contacts. The easiest way to describe them would be a magically induced biological adaptation. The kind that kept dust and debris from getting into his eyes on a regular basis and would regrow after a enough time had passed. Noah made a noise as he blinked a few times, letting them readjust to the absence of the protective membrane again. “Always feels a bit tender after taking these out.” He blinked a few more times before taking a breath, muttering something under his breath and the tenderness subsided. “Alright that’s better. Alright whenever you two are ready.” Cadence and Shining Armor stayed silent as they stared at the stallion’s eyes for a moment.

“You’re eyes…” They were still golden amber, but now had the pupils seemingly taken straight from a vulpine.

“I know, they’re different, runs in the family.” Noah muttered as he rolled his eyes. Anyway I’ll be outside. When your ready, let’s get a move on.”