Pyroneus Dawnlight: The Gatekeeper of Worlds

Chapter Five

A Princess and A Plan

A bright blue and orange walled room, trimmed with purple wall borders and filled with an overtly large and painfully over-decorated table greeted us as we stepped into the chamber we were to meet the Princess in. This was clearly more of a dining hall, as the table was so intricately carved it would have been completely impractical for a meeting, especially if you were attempting to document the talks. We sat down in the rather oddly shaped seats, flat along the bottom rather than the usual curve, and we waited for the Princess, who was currently speaking with the mayors of each of the cities in Equestria.

Rainbow Dash was first to break the silence. “Alright, I can’t wait any longer. I wanna know why you’re here. Why you’re really here. Nobody just falls from the sky for no reason. Why were you on our moon? Better yet, what brought you there in the first place? And why are you so different looking? What are you-”

Twilight cut her off. “Rainbow! Stop asking questions, you can get your answers later; right now, I don’t think he wants to talk to anybody. And it may not be a very good idea to agitate him...”

I glanced towards her, and my eyes were enough to tell her not to retort. But perhaps it may be a good idea to reassure her. “You will have the answers to your questions in time, I am sure your Princess will have many of the same questions you do.”

“I just might,” said a regal voice behind us. The Sun Princess was standing directly behind Twilight Sparkle, who sat at the head of the table.

“Princess Celestia! You’re here early!” By a good half an hour, no less.

“Yes, the talks with the mayors went very well, and we have solved our little mail system dilemma. And it was your own mayor who noticed the calculations error we were making. It seems some of the managers that regulate mail routes for the carriers were being too hard on a poor mailwoman with eye problems, giving her too much area to cover daily. But that’s not what’s important right now. You are the one who requested my presence, so I have naturally cleared my schedule. I know you never ask to see me in person unless it really is urgent.” She gave a warm smile to Twilight, who was by this point clearly flustered.

“It is Princess, but I’m not the one to tell you this. He’s the one who wanted to talk to you.”

She gestured to me, and the Princess met my gaze. Her eyes hardened ever so subtly, scrutinizing my form. “And who is this new friend of yours?”

She hesitated for a moment. “We’re….not exactly sure who he is, or even where he’s from, but what we do know is that he isn’t from this planet, or even this galaxy.”

The Princess began studying every minute detail she could see. Her eyes ran over me like a microscope, skeptical of this claim. "Are you sure, Twilight? He doesn't look terribly different from you or I. What proof do you have of this?”

Twilight looked lost, clearly not expecting to be questioned this way. "W-well... I-I don't really... I mean he fell from the sky and-"

The Princess smiled playfully. "Twilight, my wonderful student, you simply must calm down. I have no reason to doubt your observations, and in fact I too saw the falling star. I quickly came to the conclusion it was you," she said, turning to me, "when I first saw you. I knew that something was not quite normal. The crater left over was far too large, and too cleanly made."

"Is that... Is that why all the guards here in Canterlot seem so on edge?" Twilight asked, attempting to connect the pieces.

The Princess frowned. "I'm afraid it would be so simple, were that the case. No; although I put the guards on higher alert afterwards, there is another reason which I am not yet ready to discuss." The change was subtle, skillful even, as her eyes focused on me from the corners of her vision.

She won't discuss it in front of me. It must be politics of some kind, judging by the meeting before. How boring.

“What I am more keen to discuss, is why he is here, and what connection he has to you.”

There, now it is my turn to speak. “I am here because I chose to be. And you are lucky I got here when I did, your sister might not have had much of a moon left to raise at night. A swarm of creatures, a new breed of their species or some mutation of it, was ripping it to pieces. After I attacked them only one survived, and it knocked me unconscious before flying off, presumably home. I fell to the planet below, into the… Everfree was it? And that’s where these six found me.”

“Well well, we owe you our thanks then. You seem to have our best interest at heart, traveller, coming so far just to help our little planet.”

Ha!‘Best interest’, what a joke.

“So where are you from exactly?"

"Yeah! I wanna know where you’re from! And how come you can fly in space! And what’s with those eyes! And-” Rainbow Dash was curtailed quickly by Applejack, who had by now proven herself a good voice of patience.

“I did not travel very far, because I do not live in this universe. I am the ruler of a between dimension, a barrier of sorts to keep the two universes from colliding. As the protector, part of my power involves being able to open a gateway to each universe, if only at certain points in space. As for the rest of the universe… Well, we would be here for hours upon hours if I were to explain it to you. What I will say is that you most definitely are not alone, and once you have explored a bit, you will eventually have a bit of contact. Most of the universe is friendly, if a bit strange.”

“Good, I look forward to future encounters, though I will be cautious; you understand it’s not very easy to trust someone who descends from the sky and lands in your backyard. I am still curious on one point though: why did you wish to speak with me if you have already taken care of the creatures that attacked us?”

“Ahh, and that brings me to my next point. If you will remember, I said these were a strange new breed of the species, and they acted very differently. Normally, they would never attack something so large, or so close to a star. They normally don’t like the heat you see, and that is what worries me. These versions not only kept attacking after I threw a very large fireblast at them, but the fire didn’t even faze them. These creatures looked to have been bred by someone. They had curved talons that were attached by long arms, something none of the others I have encountered possess. Not only that, after examining my memory of the fight, the talons were encased within armored blades, something you definitely can’t grow. I think someone has planned an attack on your world, and I have a feeling they live on this planet, or at the very least came from this planet. Your solar system is fairly unexplored, and I highly doubt there are outsiders who know or even care about this place.”

“That is disconcerting. The fact that there may be a powerful being around attempting to destroy us worries me greatly, but I cannot simply leave to investigate. I have many duties to attend to here.”

“That is why I am offering to look into this. I am not restricted by rules; I can go where I please.”

Her eyes narrowed towards me.

She thinks it’s me doing this. Not that I blame her, it’s more than a little convenient. She knows something too, but what…

“I could spare a complement of guards, I suppose.”

“No need. I am more than capable of handling anything I come across.”

The others all agreed they would go, and they set about planning where we would start. “I think we should start in Everfree, where you crashed,” said Twilight.

“Yes, I was just thinking the same. Perhaps there will be clues as to what we should do.”

“Well it’s settled, we’ll set out once we return to Ponyville.”

“Twilight. May I speak with you for a moment, before you go?”

The two spoke for quite longer than a moment, as it turns out, and when Twilight returned I suspected the Princess had discussed taking caution around me, based on the way Twilight continually side-eyed me the whole way back to Ponyville.

“Hey! Wait a second! You never answered my questions!” Rainbow shouted suddenly as we boarded the chariot.

“Rainbow, I-” Applejack started, before I cut her off.

“Which part did you not hear? From start to finish, it’s: Moon crisis, mistake, I was bored, I’m a cosmic being, cosmic being, cosmic being, and… ah yes, cosmic being.” I listed with a blunt tone and more than a hint of sarcasm.

“Jeez, you don’t have to be rude. I was just-”

“Asking me questions I have answered at least 322 thousand times before. I grow tired of repeating myself.”

That seemed to finally placate her. The trip was much quieter this time, and all the while I could see Twilight’s face fill with concern.

I wonder what they discussed…