The Final Element: The Guardian of Equestria

The Third Chapter

After several hours of unconsciousness, the man awoke to find himself in a most peculiar place. He was after all standing in the middle of a large chamber spouting nonsense and gesturing frantically with his hands before this moment. Now upon waking, his head seemed filled with a fog, and his stomach felt empty and hollow, as if he had gone without food for a week.

As he looking around to bring some focus into his vision, he heard a voice say that, he had come around, and he turned his head to see the source of the voice. To his minimal surprise, it was the deep blue pony with a long slender horn on its forehead.

Coming to stand beside him, he found himself face to face with the white pony, with the similar long horn from before. “Thank goodness,” the white pony said, as she leaned down to examine him closer. “Are you feeling better?”

“I feel like I just went up against the Raven's offensive single-handedly and lost.” His tongue was dry in his mouth as he spoke.

There was no reply from either the white or blue ponies at his answer, and as he looked around more, he noticed that he was lying in a huge ornate and plush bed, in a brightly lit room, in what reminded him of antique Victorian décor.

“Stop me if you've heard this one,” he said slowly and softly. “You're horses, right?” The two nodded their answer.

It took some effort, but despite the discomfort in his head and stomach, the man slowly sat up on the edge of the bed, and observed his surroundings more.

“Sorry if I scared anyone back there,” he said, as he caught sight of the purple pony standing some ways away, “I have a tendency to rattle off at the mouth when I get excited.”

“Do you know where you are?” the white pony finally asked him.

“Yeah, I think I have a pretty good idea,” he said watching her slowly. “I'm in Equestria, right?”

“That is correct, Guardian,” the white pony said, which made the man raise an eyebrow, and regard her curiously. “To be more specific, this is Canterlot, and you are in the royal palace.”

“You sure I'm not dead?” he asked after some thought. “I mean, is this the afterlife? Or maybe I'm in a dream?”

There was again no reply from any of the ponies in the room, as they observed him with deep curiosity. Then as if to prove to himself that he was in fact alive and neither dead or dreaming, the man slowly extended his hand out in front of him toward the white pony.

At the movement, the white pony made a motion with her head to move away, but slowly the man leaned forward and gently touched her forehead at the base of the long slender horn. The moment his hand touched her head, he made a quick gasp, and felt a chill course through him.

“I knew it. You are real,” he said as he rubbed his hand down her long face and rested it at her muzzle.

“You see, you are not dead, Guardian,” she said slowly, staring into his eyes deeply, “and this isn't a dream.”

“Why do you keep calling me that?” he said, bringing his hand back and rubbing it together with his other.

“Because you are the last Knight of Equestria.”

The man gave a funny expression as if were suddenly zapped by a small current of electricity, and frowned deeply. “Huh? No I'm not.”

Now it was the three ponies in the room that had a look of shock and frowning. “You are not the defender of the kingdom, the last Knight of Equestria, the Guardian of the Elements?”

“Oh, hell no,” he said sliding off of the bed, and planting his feet on the stone floor, testing his strength to stand. “I'm afraid you've got the wrong person. The man you're looking for is, Thomas Montgomery.”

There was another round of disbelieving looks as he said this, and he couldn't be sure, but judging by their expressions, they didn't seem to believe him.

“Then where is he?” the blue pony said, finally speaking up.

The man looked down for a second to formulate an answer, as he reached to massage the area of his stomach near his side. “I'm afraid he's passed on.”

The two ponies gasped in unison at the news. They both looked distraught and visibly on the verge of tears. But there was no helping the truth, and the truth was; their guardian had died.

“How do you know these thing? How do you know about this place? And just who in the name of hellfire are you?” demanded the white pony as she stomped her foot in frustration at the man.

“Whoa, there!” he said throwing his hands up in surrender. “One question at a time.”

“Who are you human? What is your name?” the blue pony asked after exchanging a few glances with the white one.

“My name is Eli, Eli Montgomery,” he said. “Thomas Montgomery was my father.”

Eli wasn't sure, but he was beginning to think that perhaps ponies here didn't handle shocks very well, or they were extremely asthmatic, because he had never heard more air sucking and gasping before this day.

“You are his son?” asked the white pony, making herself taller in an attempt to intimidate him, though up against Eli, she didn't stand more than bust height at the crown of her head.

“Yeah, that's right,” he said sternly, attempting to match stance with the pony. “To answer your other questions, I know about this place, because of my father. He told me everything he knew about his time here—which to be honest, I thought was a load of crap. But... then of course, I also believe Elvis is hiding out in Cuba somewhere, smoking cigars and enjoying the beach.”

Twilight Sparkle had been keeping a wide berth of the situation while it unveiled, and though her curiosity at seeing the human up close was strong, she was more afraid of him than she admitted. So chose to remain safely in the scenery as it were.

“Okay,” Eli said, after he successfully stared down the white unicorn pony. “I have a few questions myself.”

The white pony looked him up and down, and snorted, then slowly nodded her head.

“Okay,” he said again, walking away from the side of the bed into the main area of the room, slowly to keep from careening. “If this is Equestria, then you must be part of the horse tribes that my father told me about. It's also pretty clear that you weren't after me, so who are you, and why is it so important that you find my father?”

Before an answer could be given, Eli interrupted and began mumbling again, and then with a comical expression on his face, he pointed first at the white pony, then at the blue. “Wait! I know who you are! You're the little brats aren't you?”

The white pony scoffed at being called a brat, but Eli was on another excited roll, and was pacing the floor gesturing back and forth between the two horned ponies while bursting into fits of laughter.

“Yeah, Celestia and Luna,” he said snapping his finger. “Oh, man... this is too funny. And you're horses. That's just golden... right there, that's amazing.”

It was now Princess Celestia's turn to interrupt, as she stepped forward and approached the hyperactive human. “We are in fact Celestia and Luna,” she said curtly. “We are the rulers of this realm, and we were attempting to summon the guardian of Equestria in the hopes that he could assist us in our great time of need.”

At this, the laughing man stopped laughing and regained his composure. He seemed momentarily lost in thought as he mentally chewed the last bit.

“Oh so that's how it is. And here I thought that after all this time, you were making good on the promise to my father. Instead you only bring him back when you need him. Is that it?”

“I'm afraid I don't quite follow,” said Celestia, as she looked from Eli to Luna.

“Maybe not, but there is someone here that does,” he said lowering his tone. “Where is Queen Stella? Maybe I can get some answers out of her.”

“Queen Stella is gone,” said Luna coming to her sister's defense. “She passed away long ago, when we were still very young. There was much we only recently became aware of, due to the events that are happening in our world.”

Eli looked downcast for a moment as he let the gravity of the situation settle on him. He felt confused, and bombarded with a reality that he half never expected would go beyond the adventures of a storytelling father. And now that he was physically here, present in their fantastic world, he reluctantly came to grips with the knowledge of the surreal.

“If the guardian is indeed gone, then perhaps we can appeal to you for aid, Sir Eli,” said Celestia. “We have no one else whom we can turn to.”

“I bet you don't,” he said flatly. “I think I've figured out what this is. It's the Kellpersvale right, the Dark Legion? They're coming back, or else they're already here?”

With an angry look to him, Eli moved up to Celestia, and folded his arms across his chest. “You want my father to save you again. You don't need him for years and years, and now when you are about to lose everything a second time... now you need him.”

Again, all the ponies in the room were silent, as Eli leaned close to Celestia almost whispering in her ear. “Send me back.”

Twilight Sparkle was nearing panic at the interchange between Eli and Princess Celestia. In her mind she rationalized things going a completely different way, though honestly she had no clue what to expect. Only, any course except for this.

“No,” said Celestia firmly.

“What?”

“I will not send you back,” she said matching his furious gaze. “You are all we have to rely on.”

“My father died a crushed and broken man because of you horses!” Eli said shouting at her in fury. “When he needed you the most in his life, you weren't there! I hardly think you're in a position to ask me for help!”

“It is your duty!” Celestia said attempting to raise her voice louder than that of Eli. “As the son of the Guardian...”

“I don't know you,” he said. “And I certainly don't owe you!”

“Then you are not your father's son!” Celestia said, all but spitting the words at him in disgust.

“As far as I'm concerned, you and this whole fucking world, can go straight to...”

“ELI MONTGOMERY!” came the voice of Princess Luna from next to him.

Eli jerked in shock at the amazingly loud decibel of her tone, and instinctively brought his hands to his ears, as did everyone else gathered in the chamber, or unfortunate enough to be eavesdropping at the door, were there anyone eavesdropping at the door.

As an interesting note, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were raised at a time in their royalty when it was popular to speak with much use of third person, and when speaking, to do so at monumentally loud volumes so that the royal subjects can hear the words while occupying space at the rear of the crowd.

In the thousand years that Luna had been on the Moon during her exile, the use of Royal Conversing was abandoned in favor of more informal speaking. Upon her return, she found it difficult to drop the extra volume at times, or the use of third person referencing. Now it seems that the tone of Royal Canterlot Voice was quite called for.

“You are mistaken if you think we are the fools you take us for!” said Luna directly between him, and Celestia. “We did not know of a war, or of the Dark Legion, or your father for that matter.”

“What, you've never heard of a history book?” he muttered aloud.

“SILENCE! Your time for speaking is past.”

Reluctantly, Eli took his gaze away from Luna, and looked down at the floor. Obstinately he ground his teeth while she continued.

“We did not know of our true history until only recently. Were it not for the misplaced book of an ancient conjurer, we would be blind to the peril that is stirring in the heart of Equestria.” Snorting at him with emphasis, she said, “We were merely infants when your father left us to return to his home. We knew nothing of a promised return, we were told nothing of a war, or of the Dark Legion.”

“Forgive us, if we seem earnest for your help,” she said bringing her voice down to a lower volume. “We only knew what was written in the diary, and in the prophecy. We have no preparation for another conflict, no knowledge of combat, we have lived at peace for two thousand some-odd years... we only knew of a legendary warrior that saved us once, and all our hopes rested on his return.”

Call it exhaustion, or simply defeat, but whatever the reason, Eli slowly sank to his knees, and sat on the floor with his back to a table leg, looking up at the ornate ceiling above, and breathing slowly.

“It wasn't supposed to be like this,” he finally said very softly. “We were supposed to be happy, and live free from all the terrible things in our world.”

“Is there a way to stop them?” asked Celestia after some moments.

Looking back up at her slowly, Eli shook his head. “It's complicated. It's not normal technology; it's sorcery and science, like alchemy. They are coming through, probably right now as we speak. The gate can only be closed if we know the proper code to use on the dials, the symbols, the language. Or, destroy it, which my father already tried that... it didn't work, it was damaged, but it wasn't destroyed.”

“Then how did he shut it?” asked Luna.

“He had a wizard, use a spell on it. A sealing spell that would hinder the mechanisms,” Eli said, still staring at the ceiling. “There's possibly a third way, but it's nothing you could use.”

“Where did the portals come from?” asked Celestia, standing over Eli. “Who made them?”

“I don't know. Know one did, not even your mother.” Shaking his head. “They've been here since forever. Someone used them long ago to travel the stars, and the worlds... and the one in Wrathborn Forest is permanently opened to the world of the Dark Legion.”

Kneeling down in front of Eli, Celestia lowered her head to him. “I'll give you anything you desire. Say the word, and it's yours... only save us.”

“Sister,” Luna said, about to protest, but stopping short.

“I guess I should consider my military training a blessing in disguise now, huh?” he said as he reached out once more, and touched Celestia on her head, stroking it softly.

“Name your price guardian,” Celestia said quietly, “and in addition to sending you home, I'll pay what ever you ask.”

Thinking hard for a moment, Eli began to feel a mixture of emotions. He felt sorrow, and grief, and fear. His brain was telling him to protest and walk away. But his heart was telling him something far more different.

Though Eli was stubborn, and prideful, he was still a self-possessed man of noble character. When he saw a need, he acted on behalf of those that needed. By his own rationalization, he knew the moment they mentioned the Dark Legion, and the dire events that were pressing down on them, that he was going to help them.

“I'll tell you what I want,” he finally said. “But you are not going to like it. In fact, it may be the most difficult task anyone has ever ask you, it will be nearly impossible to provide. But I've made up my mind.”

Looking up at him, Celestia felt a twang of sadness at the idea that he would take reward for helping them, but the offer was made, and he took it, nevertheless.

“What is it you wish of me?” she said, lowering herself down further, in a never before seen act of humility.

“I want a glass of water,” he said at last. “But not just any water; I want a glass of cold fresh ice water. My trip through the gateway has left me very thirsty.”

Shocked at the absurdity of the wish, Celestia jerked her head back up, nearly skewering Eli's hand in the process on her long horn. “Are you being serious?”

“Hell yes I'm serious,” he said. “You get me a glass a water, and I'll kick those Dark Legions' asses all the way back to whatever hell they crawled out of!”

Twilight Sparkle had been so intently listening and watching the scene transpire that she forgot herself, and spoke aloud. “Unbelievable!” she shouted, then catching herself, she brought her hooves to her mouth.

It was too good to be true. The guardian was going to do this for them for nothing, for a simple act of kindness, for a glass of water. A neighborly act, a piece of generosity.

She hadn't been aware of it, but Twilight let out a long sigh as she had been off and on holding her breath.

“Unless, of course... you were lying about giving me anything I wanted,” said Eli deliberately poking fun at Celestia.

Celestia and Luna both wore similar looks of disbelief on their faces, at the absurdity of the request, but regardless, Celestia knew that Eli was a good person. Even if he clearly had issues.

“If that's the case. Then one glass of ice water coming right up,” she said.

~   ~   ~

Several minutes later, Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Spike were gathered around the human as he held the glass of water with three cubes of ice floating in it. They each watched him intently as he brought the glass to his lips and swallowed quickly.

With half the glass of water drank, Eli brought it down and sat it on a small wooden table near him, and regarded the ponies. “I have a lot of questions,” he said, “but for right now, the most important question is, when the spell on the other gateway was broken.”

“Today,” said Celestia. “We were already in the process of attempting to bring you here when the portal ruptured.”

“Okay.” Eli brought his hand up to his face and absently rubbed at his chin, as if there were stubble, or the thick swatch of a goatee. “What exactly do you know about the war against the Dark Legion?”

“Only what was in our mother's diarym” said Luna. “Before that, we discovered a book of lost prophecy by a wizard named...”

“Star Swirl the Bearded, right?” Eli said with a grin at his knowledge of the names, and how ridiculously stupid they sounded coming from his mouth.

“That's right,” said Celestia, with a look of questioning on her face.

“Yeah, he was a character all right. My father mentioned him a lot.” Eli mused thoughtfully for a second. “So you found his nonsense, and figured it meant something?”

“Yes, he predicted that a war would return to the land of Equestria. He mentioned the only salvation being a returning champion, and legendary warrior.”

“We had no reason to doubt him,” said Luna. “But his implications were too difficult to ignore; so we began a search for information, and discovered our mother's diary. Then the portal, and the rest that has transpired.”

“What sort of army do you have?” asked Eli.

“None. We have royal guards, and law enforcement specialists. Nothing so grand as a force for warfare,” said Celestia.

“Well, then you are going to need one,” he said, “since we may have to fight them back, and force the gate to close, either through sabotage or magic.”

“You mentioned a third possibility,” Celestia said recalling his words.

“It's nothing we can use,” he said shaking his head.

“Are you so certain?”

“Well, yes. The third way would actually be the easiest way, but we would need a key,” he said. “Each gateway has a key designed for it, which activates a lock of some sort, that completely renders them useless. But my father never found a key, and believe me he looked. Which is why they had to resort to trying to destroy it, and ultimately seal it with magic.”

“A key,” said Celestia silently, as her eyes darted back and forth between Eli and those around them.

“Uh-huh. But like I said, it's nothing we can use. We don't have them, they've been long since lost, and you don't have the luxury of time it would take to excavate the whole planet looking.”

“Come with me,” said Celstia to Eli, “I want to show you something.”

~   ~   ~

Eli followed a ways behind Celestia, as she and Princess Luna escorted them back to the chamber housing the portal device.

Now it wasn't because she was worried about what the servants or guards in the palace would think, that she had sent them all away prior to his waking, Celestia simply wanted to minimize the risk of any pony seeing him unprepared, and left to formulate their own thoughts on the matter. So the coast was more than clear upon their departure of the room to the portal chamber.

As they moved along the corridors of the palace, Twilight Sparkle found herself watching Eli from the corner of her eye. She was sure he had regained his composure, and though ultimately he had chosen to aid Equestria, she was still very much concerned about him.

After all, not more than a few hours before it was a common fact that, humans were the devout stuff of fantasy. Not real. Not factual. And most certainly not walking mere feet away.

Spike on the other-hand seemed perfectly accepting of the new tall fleshy human wearing odd garments, and swaggering about the corridors and passageways. Perhaps this was due to his youth, or his trusting and accepting nature, but once the conflict had settled, and the loud words were passed, he seemed perfectly at ease with the new addition to the world.

“I'm sorry,” Eli said in Twilight's direction after he caught her glances at him; “if I upset you.”

For a second Twilight was too embarrassed to reply, from being seen watching him. “It's... it's okay,” she eventually said, offering him a forced smile, which Eli returned with a nod.

Once inside the massive underground basement chamber, Eli let out a long whistle, as he walked up to the circle shaped portal. He had to admit that, he was not prepared for the size of the gate, nor had he expected it to look so well preserved. In his own mind, he half expected the gate to look like a rusty archaic ruin, and not something that could have easily been built or constructed recently.

“I feel that I owe you an apology, Sir Eli,” said Celestia, as she approached the now deactivated portal device. “In my distress, I failed to put any of the pieces together.”

Moving close to the portal as well, Eli reached to put a hand on the side of the metal braided circlet on the outer exterior, but drew his hand back quickly. “I don't understand.”

“Two keys were found,” said Celestia.

Eli frowned as he turned to face her. “What?”

“Yes,” Celestia said. “It was written in my mother's diary. She mentioned finding two keys after the guardian's departure, and she enshrined one with this gate, and the other was secreted away and deposited on the bottom of a now long vanished lake.”

“I'll be a son of a bitch,” Eli muttered under his breath.

“Yes well, because the key was not mentioned as being part of the activation of this particular portal, I took it for granted that they were significant.” Celestia bowed her head down to Eli remorsefully. “I am truly, very sorry.”

With some of her magic now restored from the earlier transportation spell, Celestia's horn glowed brightly as she levitated a box from a nearby bookshelf and brought it over for Eli to inspect. As it slowly descended into his hands, he opened the lid, and saw inside a small golden reflective metal object, shaped like a tube with ridges and grooves in the surface of the cylinder, and a flat part at the end. No bigger than his hand, the key was surprisingly light when he extracted it.

“That's no moon! It's a space station!” Eli suddenly shouted in excitement, holding the key up.

“I take it, that's a good thing?” asked Luna, watching as Eli continued excitedly.

“Yes, Princess. It is a very good thing; because with this, we just might be able to save Equestria.”

At those words, Celestia and Luna exhaled a huge sigh of relief, as Twilight began to clap her hooves together excitedly. There was no denying that the tension in the atmosphere had been somewhat lifted.

Clutching the key firmly in his fist, Eli regarded the gate. “This doesn't change the fact that we still have to find the gate in Wrathborn Forest, and close it.”

“If by Wrathborn Forest, are you referring to Everfree Forest?” asked Celestia.

“I guess. It's the forest of darkness, and living nightmares, and such,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Well, aside from that description, the forests must be the same, though no-pony has called it that in all the time I'm aware of.”

“Guess there was a lot of things that were changed,” said Eli. “Nevertheless, it doesn't change the fact that we have to go into the forest to find the gate. Not only that, but if there is another key, then I'd like to try and find it as well.”

“Two would certainly be better than one,” said Luna, nodding her head at the logic.

“My thoughts exactly.”

“According to the diary, the second key was sealed inside a similar box, as you have there; then sank to the bottom of Lake Luck-Shoe,” said Celestia.

“Yeah, and?”

“There is problem,” she said shaking her head.

“It's no problem. I can swim,” he said.

“As can we all,” she said frowning. “The problem, is that Lake luck-Shoe does not exist. The location for the lake is wrong, there is a stream, but certainly not a lake.”

“Well, what's there other than a stream?”

“The town of Ponyville.”

“Well, maybe if you got an older map.”

“We did. It's the oldest and most accurate we have in the castle, more than five hundred years old.”

Covering his face with his hands, Eli let out a massive groan, then quickly removed his hands and laughed a crazy loud laugh at each of them. “I think I know what being crazy feels like!” he said. “Well, unfortunately, we're going to have to dig up this Ponyville town, and find that key. I'm betting the landscape's changed after two thousand years of erosion and geographic shifting.”

“Wait,” said Twilight, finally posing her own question, “you want us to dig up Ponyville?”

Leaning forward, Eli grabbed his knees and chuckled a few times before bringing himself back upright. “I guess there's no way we could just pack up and all escape through the portal to another world?”

“No,” said Celestia, unimpressed with the humor.

“But I hear Bermuda is really nice this time of year.”

“No!”