Escaping Isolation

by Elliott Johnston

Train to Canterlot Pt 2

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Waking up to the sound of a train horn and the bustling of a massive city, I could also hear a few other voices amongst much louder sounds that were going on all around me. I was half asleep, however, a soft but harsh hand kept tapping me, trying to stir me awake but unfortunately, I was too groggy to care and slowly lifted my head back on the cold metal of the train cart. Until I was slapped awake by a certain Rainbow.

"Ow! What the fuck? Okay, I'm awake, bloody hell Rainbow!" I shouted, recoiling slightly whilst glaring up at the smirking form of Rainbow Dash herself.

"Come on idiot, if you don't get your hairy little flank off this train you're gunna get a fine," Rainbow said whilst pointing towards the angry conductor and an apologising Twilight, along with a disappointed Applejack, Rarity giving me the stink eye along with a blush? Pinkie being Pinkie, and a grinning Fluttershy. Spike, however, was carrying loads of stuff for Rarity and I was definitely surprised on how much he was holding, strong kid.

Rolling my eyes at the situation I put my arms and palms to the train itself lifting my legs a bit higher and using the momentum to spring myself off the train like an absolute mad lad, landing on the floor whilst everyone else watching. A lot of the onlookers also stopped during their da-wait it's actually night? Damn, how long did I sleep? And are those bat pe-ponies? Actually, I think every single one that is milling about are bat ponies, huh, thoughts for later.

"Well? Let's get this show on the road lads!" I shouted whilst walking towards the massive castle just a little ways down the road, I could somewhat see the gate entrance with purple and black armoured soldiers armed with spears, they kinda remind me of roman soldiers actually just without the massive muscles and such.

As Twilight cut off with the conductor with an apologetic bow and a stern glare at me in which I gave a grand cheeky smile at, we all started walking, it looks like the others are completely fine with all the bat ponies roaming about, a lot of them just simply stopped and stared at me, some with white glowy eyes some with red, yellow, gold and silver you name it, every sort of metal like colour, it was actually really interesting, I could also clearly see their fangs as well and that definitely made them a lot cuter, their tales and hair and coat, and a variety of colour in a monochromatic way, witch was fuckin awesome.

Moving past many establishments ranging from restaurants, hair salons although dated and a few weirdly looking antique shops, and that was just one road! There are plenty of alleyways and other streets expanding out from each other from every angle the eye could possibly see. Looking down one of the alleyways just on the right corner hand side I noticed another establishment, named The Half Moon Tavern.

It didn't even look run down or anything it looked actually quite pristine and clean with a lot of glowy looking ornaments donning the area giving it a somewhat eerie vibe but that all
cleared my doubts when I heard a hail of laughter emitting from that area and clinking of drinks and mugs, definitely a place I'll visit after sorting this shit with the Princesses, need a drink after all the bullshit I've just gone through.

We were already at the gates waiting to be let in, just looking at the castle up close and personal it's a really breathtaking sight, the absolute fuckin size of the building is mind-boggling. Noticing the guards looking at me funny but as soon as I looked their way, they stiffened up and turned into stoic statues.

Laughing slightly, I walked up to one of the guards inches away from the guys stone looking face. Then I started making funny faces and whispering sweet nothings in his ear to get a reaction.

"Hey, serious question, what do you prefer, Celestia's massive arse, or Luna's thick thighs?" I said snickering like a highschool kid who thought it was funny to say penis out loud. The guard, however, raised his eyebrow slightly whilst the second guard had one of his eyes on us, clearly curious about our secretive one-sided conversation. And then he answered.

"Uhh, Luna's thighs all the way man, no doubt about that," he said giving me a sideways grin whilst I smiled even bigger threatening to burst out laughing.

"Ah! I see you're a man of culture yourself! Great choice mate! Same here! I'm a thigh man myself!" I shouted declaring with absolute honesty.

"Mare, actually, the names Amaris Virtue, and I'm one of the 12 Virtues of Aristotle, and I believe you are the new alien on this world, there's not many ponies out there that would willingly go up to a guard and speak about the Princess like that, and for that, you deserve a beer, there's a nice bar I know, somewhat quiet, most of the time, and since I have a bit of time later, you wanna go for a drink? I'm also your escort by Princess Luna's orders," she said whilst taking her helmet. She had somewhat curly hair too, although it was a lot straighter than mine, however, noticing her ears they were curved in a way with little cute edges on the top. She had blueish grey coat along with almost hypnotizing orange bright eyes. I was captivated.

"Well, not sure what enchantments you have on your armour so I'll apologise for calling you a guy. And I guess Im the only Human hear that has the balls to do it. And I'll gladly take on your offer, Princess Luna mentioned I was going to be escorted, by a bat mare no less, cute even." I smirked giving the mare a sparse view of my teeth. In which she snorted in a little bit of laughter.

Her eyes gleamed a little brighter at that comment, I wasn't sure if it was the moonlight or my mind playing tricks on me.

"Yo dude! If you are finished flirting, your gunna get left behind!" Dash shouted whilst the rest of the group was already walking through the gates.

"Yeah yeah, Im comin" I shouted back to her, looking towards Amaris again I nodded whilst she tagged along right besides me whilst another guard came past us and stood in the same station to take over.

Walking through the halls of the castle was beautiful, the pristine marbled walls to the marble pillars and multiple glass stained windows with different depictions of a certain group of mares. It certainly was a breath of fresh air compared to home.

"By the way, I hope you don't tell Princess Luna what I said, it mayyyyy cause some problems," I said whilst giving Amaris a nervous smile.

"That depends, I have to report everything to her, so no promises." Amaris winking in my direction. I knew I was absolutely bollocked if Luna finds out she's either going to be absolutely flattered or my arse is gunna be a new ornament next to the fallen enemies she has crossed paths with.

This one is dangerous.

We finally landed ourselves right in front of the massive big double doors, although I could clearly see the gold trimmings in the edges of the door, however, the darkness covered everything in a dark blue-lavender colour. The colours of the castle interiors at night definitely compliments the guards and decor brilliantly, even the few torches that line the halls with their blue fire flickering in the shadows makes everything a more mystical feeling. Then again, I haven't seen what it's like in the castle at midday, probably too bright. There where even massive banners lining the double doors with Luna's mark on them with a dark blue colour to the silk.

The two guards took notice of us and both pushed really hard against the tough exteriors of the thirty-foot double doors. Most of the group went silent upon entry. Whilst Amaris grabbed me by the hand and brought be forth with the group behind us. Celestia and Luna were seated at their respective thrones, six guards laid about the place, two nearest the door on both sides, two lining the middle, and finally the other two closest to the princesses.

However, me being me, as always I did a stupid.

"Yo! How's it goin your majesties!" Waving my hand rather obnoxiously and walking even further than Amaris wanted me to.

The group behind me was in somewhat a considerable amount of shock, but I wasn't bothered, Twilight, however, tried bringing myself to a stop, trying to make me neal, not knowing what I was doing I struggled slightly and was stood up despite how much Twilight was exerting her magic. Then the guards chimed in, multiple guards circled me, I think it was because I oh so nonchalantly walking up to them. I was about to neal to appease Twilight until one of the guards nicked me on the cheek with a noticeable small gash, with a tiny bit of blood trickling from it.

The princesses, however, was having none of this as they both got off their thrones to call their guards off, but being hit by a guard even in my fault, I was still fucking angry.

"You touch me again mate and I won't hesitate to force-feed you your own colon through your oversized barrel you call a nose. Prick." glaring in my peripherals to the guard, with a furiousness evident on my face. He, however, shit himself, because unconsciously, I was exerting some killing intent, like gravity, it weighed down on everyone in the room, the princess's where obviously unaffected and surprisingly Amaris too, along with Twilight, although they could feel it. It was a normal reaction, to be struck for something you didn't know about.

My sword at my side was silently shaking and vibrating at my side, I knew I had to calm my emotions since they were doing their job.

My emotions went back to normal, everybody in the room sighed and the guards went back to their positions, although the guard that struck me was a little afraid of me now, but I wasn't too arsed about that. However, I will try to speak to them later, wouldn't want any unnecessary enemies now would we? The princesses waved her hands for the doors to be closed and she lifted her hands once again for all of us to stand up.

"Guards leave us at once, this is an important matter." Luna stated with a stern look upon her face. But one of the guards hesitated.

"B-but your highness! we need to-" The guard started but was heavily cut off by a crack of Luna's hoof hitting the marble floor, cracking it into many spider-webbed tiles.

"We said, At ONCE!" Luna shouted, evidently a lot louder to create a small gust of wind to hit us and then the guards like a shockwave. The guard that stammered pissed himself and ran along with the others quickly, but giving me a sideways snarky look before he left.

So much for no enemies.

As Luna calmed down Celestia put a comforting wing over her sister before perking up at us once again.

"The reason we have brought you here is that not long before Elliott here arrived, we noticed a disturbance in the planets natural magic, once we investigated we eventually found out that it was chaos magic," Celestia said waiting for our reactions, I, however, was slightly surprised.

"You mean to tell me, that walking mismatch is actually the one that created the portal to my world in the first place?" I asked. The others turned toward me.

"You've seen him??" Twilight shouted, the group switched their gazes towards me.

"Yeah, I was falling when I came into your world, he teleported in front of me and then gave me a smirk and disappeared, remind me to thank him and then to pulverise his head into some concrete." Folding my arms with a huff.

"Sounds just like him, but, how did you survive the fall if nopony was there to save you?" The others nodded to each other in agreement whilst Rainbow Dash flew in front of me with confusion evident on her face whilst she jogged my memory.

"Oh! I forgot to mention that I nearly became a Human pancake before a gold sphere surrounded me just as I was about to hit the floor." This, however, got the attention of Celestia and Luna.

"That golden sphere, did it have weird runes on it as well?" Princess Celestia asked in almost earnest.

"Yeah, now that you mention it, I did somewhat see swirling runes for a split second, until I face-planted the ground," I grumbled.

Stupid walking mismatch, just you wait.

A few of the girls giggled at this, pouting at the ground and all that. Princess Celestia, however, had more words to say.

"Continuing on, I guess I'm going to have to have a stern talking to Discord. I'll try to see if he can send you back home, your family must be really worried for you Elliott," she said, whilst motioning for her sister to write up a scroll and quickly send it to Discord's dimension home.

I, however, stayed silent, no one else took notice to my stillness so they all carried on talking to each other. I wasn't going to say on what I felt about that. I didn't think I wanted to deal with it either. The prospect of leaving here? Even if it's been two days I kind of liked it here.

Nobody batted an eye, no one pressed Princess Celestia's statement.

I need a bloody drink.

"Well, it's getting pretty late, It's time for you ponies, and Human, to get some rest, we have much more to discuss." Princess Celestia informed, however, three of the girls didn't seem happy about it.

"Uh, I beg yer pardon, Princess Celestia, but uh, I ave a family to get back to, and more apple buckin in the mornin" Applejack giving a slight scratch to the back of her neck in awkwardness.

"Yeah! It's cool and everything staying in a big castle stuff but I've got some Wonderbolt stuff tomorrow as well." Rainbow Dash giving Princess Celestia a sheepish smile, Applejack turned towards Rainbow with a knowing grin.

"Oh really? Well, I heard from a little birdie that you actually wanna skip trainin and nap somewhere, Rainbow!" Applejack giving Dash the stink eye, whilst Rainbow looked between Princess Celestia and AJ with multiple droplets of sweat could visibly be seen coming off of her.

"Don't worry, you all deserve a break from what you've all been through, and I have a feeling you're all going to need it. I've taken the liberty of telling your family back at home Applejack, and you will be payed for the lost labour. However, Rainbow Dash, if you feel as if you don't want to be here, you don't have to if you don't want to." Princess Celestia said with a loving smile making Rainbow more prone to sweating buckets whilst everyone else looked at her.

She caved in.

"O-okay fine! I'll stay!" Rainbow said something else under her breath, something uncool something, that was all I got from her.

"Good, now, it's time to turn in for the night. Off you pop, all of you." Princess Celestia said whilst walking off with Princess Luna. The others agreed silently and followed.

As we got outside of the massive doors the two Princesses split off with a sisterly hug and went down both halls to two different sections of the castle. The girls however somehow knew where they were going so some followed Luna, some followed Celestia, me and Amaris however..

"I'll see you all in the morning, Amaris here promised me a drink, so I'm gunna get absolute smashed, I fuckin need it to be honest," I said whilst having my left hand in the air waving as me and Amaris walked towards the ending halls of the first doors we came in from.

"Are you sure you'll be fine Elliott?" Celestia stopping on her trek and craned her head towards me with worry clearly on her face, I could understand what she meant, what with me being the only Human on this planet and it could possibly be dangerous but I am literally 20 so I can take care of myself.

"Don't worry Princess, I'll be fine, if it's any consolation, I have Amaris with me. But if er, if I knock on any of your doors to let me in, ignore me." Walking even further ahead, the others looked at me with a curious yet confusing gaze but carried on to their rooms for the night.

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30 Minutes Later: Location: The Half Moon Tavern

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After walking for what felt like hours, we finally made it to the somewhat outcasted pub that looked quite nice if it wasn't in a dark spooky alley. After giving a sideways glance at Amaris she gave me a grin and lead on towards the rawrs of laughter emanating from inside the tavern.

Amaris obviously headed in first, I trailed behind; I felt a bit antsy going into a place I didn't know anything about other than the fact that it's a bloody pub. Passing through the wooden flaps making an audible sound having all heads turn towards us, mostly towards me. As fuckin usual.

Ignoring the onlookers, Amaris sat at the front bar, sitting next to her one of the high stools I waited for the Bartender seen as though I could only see one attending to a group of mares, specifically bat mares in the corner of the room, I eyed them until their eyes snapped towards me, that wasn't the creepy part, it was the fact that their eyes shot towards me at the same fucking time like I was in some sort of horror movie.

Turning back towards the bar, the bartender was already in front of me in which I nearly fell out my seat because of how fast he crossed from A to B; A being the creepy mares and B being the actual counter. Fuckin ell.

"Hello, what can I get you on this fine night?" The Bartender asked; He was wearing a for what looked to be a pretty expensive suit, like a butler, sort of. Me and Amaris locked eyes again and she spotted my vicious grin, realising what I meant with just eye contact I turned my head towards the bartender again and asked.

"Hello, can me and my friend here have the strongest you have? Thanks." Amaris giving me a cocky sideways grin that made me chuckle a little bit, we are gunna get absolutely plastered.

The bartender nodded and grabbed a silver-like bottle on one of the top shelves with his magic among the literal millions of other drinks. Then he grabbed two rather modest glasses, clearly been cleaned and I could see my own reflection in them too. Then the bartender levitated over two pretty large chunks of ice, circular in shape, a bit rough around the edges but that didn't matter.

Putting them into both glasses he grabbed the bottle with his left hand and poured the contents into both glasses at the same time balancing them out to a half waypoint.

Both of us grabbed our drinks and clinked them together and down it all in one go, however, with this kind of drink we didn't know that it was a griffonion liqueur that was near enough the strongest gin in all of Equs. Almost enough to probably give me alcohol poisoning. I wasn't sure about Amaris though that was a complete mystery.

A few seconds passed, me and Amaris were aimlessly staring at our empty glasses. And then it all hit us both with a weight of a billion tanks all piled on each other. We had very sleazy looking grins on our faces.

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Thirty minutes had passed and we were already out of the doors walking the streets, we were clearly hanging on to each other, the ground threatening our feet to collapse. We where nearing up the street towards the castle, a fair bit away I might add, either that or I was so pissed the castle might as well be floating. Amaris wasn't fairing any better, I think she was worse than me, flailing about, and what I did notice is that she's changed noticeably.

Her eyes where now slits but almost uninterested in looking at anything for more than a few seconds, they shone brighter than ever before, her coat was somewhat darker and her ears on the top of her head where also twitching back and forth, I did also notice the slight tuffs at the top that wasn't there before. Is this some sort of true form when she's not paying attention?

Oh well, she's fit as fuck mate, I couldn't really give two flying fucks right now. I'm completely off me head at the moment!

"Eyyyyy Aris, w-wanna, wanna go to Lula lands bedroom? Andz scare the absolute piss out of her yeah? Sounds good lez go love." I clumsily grabbed one of her hands and tried to run in a straight line towards the castle, failing miserably I slammed myself into a nearby dumpster bin with Amaris on top of me clearly dazed. Amaris shook her head to gain a semblance of cognitive function to get up.

"I thwink if I fly you up theres it w-would be faster yes? no? yes? Kwl." Amaris lazily grabbed just under my arm and shoulder lifting me up out of the shit piss and rubbish bags that littered just next to the massive bin. I was too confused to comment on what was happening because Amaris had decided to just lift me over on to her shoulders like I was piggyback riding her and then we were suddenly in the sky about a thousand feet.

We were literally above the clouds and just a tiny bit higher than one of the towers to the castle itself. She flew at speeds my brain couldn't comprehend, I could now hear voices right beside us.

I was right because there were two other pegasi screaming at us to lower our altitude and to clear away from our directory, that was the castle. They also tried a few manoeuvres to guide us away from the palace. I couldn't see Amaris's face because I was too busy trying to keep my stomach contents from not escaping out of my mouth and landing down below on someone.

I, however, decided to leap on to one of the pegasi guards on to their shoulders and somehow, grabbing hold of part of her wings made me realise I could literally stir her like a fuckin plane like I'm Remy from Ratatouille. In complete control of the guard now I somehow managed to dive bomber like I'm some sort of kamikaze suicide bomber ready to take out Canterlot. Smashing into one of the pane glass windows, unbeknownst of the fact that the pane glass windows with Twilight and her friends on it were completely and utterly disintegrated into tiny shards of sharp glass.

The guard was screaming, Amaris was pissing herself laughing having a jolly gay ole time and the other guard however was dumbfounded, but then again he had a slight grin curling at the corners of his lips. Me and this guard were in a heap against one of the walls. I thankfully got up just in time to see a squad of more guards just down the hall, one of them signalled and one of the others pointed.

"Halt! Stay right there! Don't even move!" I heard one of the guards say, I clumsily picked up the semi-conscious guard not knowing if he was a she since all the guards have some sort of illusion spell that makes them all look the same. However her helmet was off and her true form was also revealed, she was quite cute as well, dark red hair that curled at the bottom at a funny angle. I apologised very quickly and grabbed Amaris arm and pelted it down the long ass halfway with a bunch of guards on our tail.

The guards were screaming for us to stop some even took flight to catch up, but apparently my human magic-filled body unconsciously heightened my running speed for a duration of a few minutes. So now Amaris was piggybacking me whilst I sped around corners thinking I was drifting or something. Hell if I did a slide whilst absolutely half brain dead it might actually fucking work.

The guards were gone now, somehow we lost them in the chase. And hell we even arrived at Luna's door, and for some reason completely unguarded. Noice.

We both giggled to each other like a bunch of teenagers, well, to be honest, I hadn't actually asked on how old Amaris actually was but I was too drunk to give a shit.

"Rwite, heres the plan love, we are goin to run in there yeah? And den we jump on her yesss? You in?" I asked, whilst Amaris was taking all the information in, it finally clicked and she nodded. We both got from each side of the wall and we waited for any noise, any sound that would come from the room, the walls weren't exactly thin either, they were made of some sort of thick marble. Either way, we waited for a few more seconds.

"Three.....two.....one!..GO!" I shouted.

"Three.....two.....one!..GO!" Amaris shouted.

We both stormed in, the door was unlocked surprisingly but that didn't cross our minds, we were now inside Princess Luna's bed chambers. We could both just about see in the dark. I could obviously see the glow of Amaris's cat-like eyes. We could somewhat see the rising and falling form of the Princess herself.

We both created quietly towards the bed, we were at both sides ready to pounce.

And we did, but we expected to feel the mass of the women, but instead, all we felt was air pass right through us, it was a cold breeze, but suddenly we heard the door snap shut, a clear sound one of the latches locking as well. Among our drunken stupor, we were slightly scared of what was to come.

Hearing a sly chuckle from what echoed all around us, a misty purple haze surrounding us like a storm. my voice hitched in my throat, I wanted to cough but I couldn't, it was like I was suffocating, Amaris looked like she wasn't fairing well either, but she looked panicked, super panicked! I was still in my drunken state, only barely keeping enough conscious thought that was roaming my mind at a really high speed.

But then I saw an evil grin, sharp teeth that looked like it could tear through fucking steel beams with just one bite. I don't know about you but I was fucking shitting myself. I also felt a pressure on me, I tried to go for my sword but I couldn't it was like a hand was stopping me but there wasn't anything there.

And that's when another chuckle sounded.

Teal like eyes, the same as Amaris but more predatory looking peered just outside of the darkness.

The pretty tall figure walked out, only half of her body was shown and if it weren't for my fear and constant weight upon me I would've popped a massive boner.

"And what do we have here hmm?" the unknown figure purring with delight as her eerily gaze switched to the both of us, mainly me.

Hmmm, should I run? Or death by snu snu?

Fuck.


Author's Note

Sorry for my lateness again guys! Currently, a few things are happening that are forcing my attention. Im also currently in the works of designing Amaris's character, she's nearly finished, if you wanna see the progress so far, here you go ;)

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