What if....

“Why did you come back?”

“Oh, I… um, felt the need to uh put on a play for the pony, for her entertainment.

“That sounds like a great idea! I shall get some stuff together.”

“Halt, foul demon!” Twilight watched the show put on by the two humans in front of her. She was amused by the play, but she knew that the cast was under-staffed.

“I challenge thee to a fight to the death!” Charlie, who was the hero, raised his sword. He clashed them with his enemy’s sword, the “demon” Heinrich, who was wearing cardboard horns. It was quite the impressive swordfight, for Charlie was a skilled swordfighter. Heinrich was also doing well, as he had his heart into the play.

It really seems like Heinrich doesn’t want to lose, almost like he were fighting for real, Twilight thought while cheering for the hero. “Yeah, defeat the demon, win the lady back!”

The hero swung his sword and disarmed the demon. “Hah, I have you now demon!”

The demon began to cackle loudly. “You will never defeat me prince, never.” The demon suddenly reached into his cloak and pulled out a ball. He threw it on the ground, which caused smoke to come out of it. The hero coughed from the smoke, but as soon as it cleared he walked over to where the demon was standing. There lying down was Heinrich, but this time wearing a cardboard princess’s hat.

“My lady, are you alright.” The hero lent a hand to the “lady”, who took the hand and got up.

“Thank you prince, you’re my hero!”  the lady said in a harsh voice.

“Oh it was nothing; any prince would have done it.”

The lady giggled. “Oh but no prince would have defeated the… blah, I can’t do this anymore!”

“Oh, but it was fun!” Charlie complained.

“Yes,” Heinrich agreed. “It was fun, but only the sword fighting, I should have won to.

Charlie laughed. “Quite frankly I am beginning to think that you are quite the evil individual.”

Heinrich gave him an unamused look. “Ya don’t say.”

Charlie chuckled to himself, and then turned to Twilight, his only audience. “So Twilight, what did you think?”

Twilight smiled, “It was an excellent play, but couldn’t I have played some parts too, I mean Heinrich didn’t have to play all of them. I could have relieved some of the stress that he was having.”

“How nice.” Heinrich flatly said.

Charlie shook his head. “No need to, I did need an audience after all.” He looked towards the bedroom door. “Well, looks like I better pack up this armor. I’ll be right back.” He walked over to the door, opened it and left. Once he noticed that Charlie had left, Heinrich turned and glared at Twilight. “Miss Sparkle, may I ask you a few questions?” Twilight was unfazed by Heinrich’s glare. “Sure you may ask a few questions,” she said kindly.

Heinrich made a face of disgust at Twilight’s kindness, but asked anyways. “Miss Twilight, what is the average lifespan of a pony?”

“Well, that depends. Before today’s advances the average lifespan was 60 years, but nowadays the average lifespan is 90 years.”

“Good,” Heinrich replied. “Now is there anypony that lives longer.”

“Well, yes. There is the Princesses, who are over 1000 years old, but that’s because they are immortal.” Right after Twilight said that she saw a spark go off in Heinrich’s eyes and he immediately beamed. “Wonderful!” He ran up to Twilight and gave her a hug. She gagged, though, from the stench that emanated from him.

“Heinrich, now may I ask you a question?” He nodded, so she continued.

“Why do you smell so bad?”  She asked politely.

“Little pony, all humans smell bad, some more than others, it’s just their smell.”

“But why doesn’t Charlie smell, I’ve been close to him and he doesn’t smell like anything, just wet earth,” She questioned.

Heinrich laughed heartily, and then looked back down to her. “Oh Charlie is a strange one, he doesn’t smell for reasons unknown, but he does smell like wet earth because he’s been living underground for a long time.”

“Oh… well can I ask you another question then?”

“Go ahead Miss Twilight.”

Wow he’s certainly being polite.

“Well, didn’t you know that the princesses were immortal, I mean there were books all about the princesses in that library?” She motioned towards the tapestry.

“I hate books pony, and besides, Charles never tells me these things.”

Twilight’s eye twitched when she heard his line, and questions began to bug her.

“Oh.” She felt the questions nagging on her insides, and after a full minute she finally burst.

“Heinrich, why the hay wouldn’t you like books! What’s there not to like?”

Heinrich shook his head. “I never liked books when I was a small child. They always seemed so boring to me.”

Twilight felt herself calm down, but another questioned bothered her.

“Wait, a child, what do you mean, your Charlie… kind of.”

Heinrich smirked. “Huh, that’s what he wants you to believe. I was my own person back before… The Purge.”

Twilight looked down and thought about his words. He said it too, now I need to know what it is.

Twilight looked back up at Heinrich, who was also looking at the ground.

“Excuse me,” Heinrich’s happy mood seemed to change suddenly. Twilight noticed when he glanced back up at Twilight with anger plastered on his face. “What is ‘The Purge’?”

“It vas a purge of the great human kingdoms, of humanity, and it vas all the North’s fault!  I was so close, it could have been mine!” He vented his rage at Twilight!

Twilight stood slightly frightened at Heinrich’s sudden display of anger, but the sudden sound of a door opening caught her attention.

“Heinrich, why would you do that in front of Twilight, I know that you could have had it.” Heinrich looked up to Charlie, the rage from earlier gone.

“What do you mean ‘I know’? How many times have you been eavesdropping from behind a door?” He said after clearing his throat.

“Almost every time Heinrich, you really got to stop doing that.

“But why, it’s just entertainment.” Heinrich said.

“No it isn’t, I knew you were lying when I first approached you about it this morning.”

“You know it isn’t nice to spy on another Charles.”

Charlie, slightly flustered that Heinrich completely ignored him, just waved his hand. “You know what, never mind. Just forget I even asked you to stop.”

Heinrich triumphantly smiled, “Hah, well anyways, I’m going to go check what time it is.” Heinrich walked towards the tunnel door, opened it and left.

“What a mean person!” Twilight stated.

Charlie chuckled. “No kidding, he is honestly one of the most evil people I have met.”

“Well, he was being nice to me.”

Charlie glanced at Twilight, who was still looking at the door. “What do you mean nice, he’s hardly a nice person.”

“Well, I told him about the princesses, then he just gave me a random hug.”

“What did you tell him about the princesses?” Twilight finally turned and gave Charlie her full attention.

“Well, first he asked me about pony life spans, then I told him about the princesses and their immortality.”

Charlie placed a fist under his chin and thought about it.

Doesn’t sound like anything I can remember, unless, is he really that s…

“Charles.” He suddenly stopped thinking and looked in the direction of the sound. Standing at the door was Heinrich, his expression unreadable. He was waving his hand, signaling for Charlie to come to him. Charlie turned to Twilight, whose attention was on Heinrich. She turned when she felt his gaze on her and shrugged. He sighed, and then walked over to Heinrich.

“It’s sunset,” Heinrich whispered.

“What already… I guess time goes by fast when you’re having fun.” Charlie took a peek back at Twilight, who was looking back with a questioning look on her face.

Charlie then looked back towards the bedroom door. “I’ll get the medicine. You tell her something so she’ll take the medicine.”

“Hey Miss Twilight, uhm…..” he stood their awkwardly while trying to think of something. “Ah, how do you feel?”

Twilight eyed him unbelievingly. “I’m fine, just sore.”

“Alright,” Charlie walked out of the bedroom and over to Twilight. “Well it’s just about night time, so we need to give you medicine so you won’t feel sore when you sleep.”

“Well that’s fine, just as long as Charlie administers the medicine.”

“That’s fine with me; I don’t know my horse anatomy.” Heinrich whispered the end, but it was loud enough for Twilight to hear it. She shook her head, offended.

“I’ll have you know that we are ponies, and… whoa.” She suddenly felt very woozy. She closed her eyes as sleep overcame her. She was about to topple over, but Charlie reached out and caught her.

“Alright,” he said while he picked Twilight. “I need you to go scout the path to the library. Meet me back at the Apple family barn in thirty minutes.”

“We already went over this.” Heinrich said while winding up a small stopwatch to thirty minutes.

“Uh, were did you get that?” Charlie asked while eying the stopwatch.

“Uh, the store!”

Charlie shook his head. “You are such a horrible liar. I already know you stole it, but forget that, remember the plan.”  Heinrich nodded before leaving for the door and out towards the town.

Charlie watched Heinrich leave, and then he looked down to Twilight, but then he glanced towards the tunnel door. I bet it’s going to be cold outside, I better get a blanket.

He walked towards the bedroom door and opened it. While he was inside he placed her on the chair.

Looks like I better get this armor off.  Charlie quickly took off the armor, revealing the cloak he was originally wearing. He placed the armor on the bed and pulled off a thick sheet. He walked back to Twilight and wrapped her in the blanket. He picked her up once more and left the bedroom. He reached the tunnel door but he stopped when he realized something.

Oops, I completely forgot about my hood.

He closed his eyes and focused. The hood glowed a bright blue and it lifted, albeit very slowly. The hood finally rested on his head, the veil in front of his face. He then reached for the door and opened it. He walked up the tunnel. After a few minutes he reached the door leading to the outside. Once he opened it he was greeted by soft wind and a dimming light.

Well here goes nothing.

Elsewhere somepony else was watching with their binoculars. A certain trio of little fillies watched the creature open the door and leave. They watched him leave, and then they turned to each other.

“Alright girls, tonight we explore an unknown ruin and get our cutie marks in… ruin explorers!” Applebloom ecstatically told her other two friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.

“It’s a good thing I heard what the princess told my older sister and your older sister earlier today!” Sweetie Belle motioned towards Applebloom with her hoof.

“Yeah, we’re certain to get our cutie marks when we explore this ruin. Now come on, we have to get a start if we want to explore!” Scootaloo said excitedly.

“Alright, Cutie Mark Crusader Ruin Explorers is a go!” Applebloom shouted.

“Yeah!”

6 hours before, 1:30 P.M.

“Listen everypony,I have found out what is really going on… and don’t worry, I have confirmed that Twilight is safe. Now, here’s what happened.”

“Wait, Twilight is safe!” Rainbow Dash shouted. Princess Celestia nodded, prompting a collective sigh of relief from all the ponies there.

“Oh thank you Princess, Ah knew she was alright!” Applejack exclaimed.

“But wait, don’t you think we should tell her brother?” Fluttershy asked.

Princess Celestia once again nodded. “Yes, Rainbow Dash, please notify Prince Shining Armor.”

Rainbow Dash saluted then flew off through an open window.

Silence followed, but not for long.

“Um Princess,” Princess Celestia turned down to face Fluttershy.

“Do you know where Twilight is?” She meekly asked.

“Yes dear and I know she is safe. I believe I can tell you right now of what happened. I will inform Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor when they arrive”

“Well, here’s what happened. It was very brief, but also important. Anyways, I had flown off towards the north of Ponyville to follow the glint we had seen. The glint had moved a long distance when I arrived on the hill, so I imagined that the glint was a creature of sorts. I followed it to a small cliff face, where it had stopped. The glint was actually a bipedal creature, but there was two of them, as the guard had mentioned. One appeared to be wearing armor, while the other was wearing a black cloak. They began to speak, but they were speaking in our language.” This prompted a gasp from the group. The princess grinned.

“Yes, I know, I couldn’t believe it either. I was facing a new species of intelligent creatures that walked on two legs and spoke in our language, it was all amazing to me, but they said something that made me very happy.  The armored one, whose name is Charles, said this, ‘Alright Heinrich, here’s my idea, we’re still going to take Twilight tonight, but I’m going to put to sleep with some medication’. It was exactly what I wanted to hear, so I exclaimed my happiness. It was a wrong decision, for the cloaked one known as Heinrich immediately turned around and scanned the area around me! Although he didn’t see me, I know that he knew where I was.  They continued their conversation, during which they let out a vital piece of information. They are going to meet up at the Apple family barn tonight!” After the princess said this Rainbow Dash flew in through the window and Shining Armor walked through the door.

“I will tell you what happened after I tell you my entire plan.” The princess walked over to the centerpiece, but she didn’t turn around to address the group.

“Alright, so this is my plan…”