Fortunate Misfortune

~Chapter 4 - Not a Boring Day in the Dungeon~

There I sat, all alone in the quiet dungeon cell underneath Canterlot Castle. The castle itself was built off the side of a mountain so even though I was pretty far underneath the main structure, I wasn’t underground. So fortunately I had a window to look out of.

Princess Celestia seemed slightly perplexed by my general attitude and mindset. When we first arrived at the castle she offered an alternative to being locked in the dungeon. She had suggested that I be kept under guard in one of the guest rooms in a less frequented area of the castle, and she completely failed to hide her bewilderment when I said I would prefer the dungeon.

"You said that you know humans are violent and corrupt by nature, and when others find out I'm hear they'll most likely want to know what I am and if I'm dangerous. What would they think if you allowed a potentially threatening creature the freedom of having a guest room instead of being safely locked away?" was the reason I gave for my refusal, though I left out the part that I actually wanted to see what the dungeon was like.

When the guards escorted me through the castle earlier I received a lot of curious looks and wary gazes from both visitors to the castle and other ponies clad in golden armour. The entrance to the dungeon was in a quieter part of the castle, through heavy wooden doors that seemed out of place amidst the hallways fineries, and down a flight of stone steps. The passage was illuminated by candles mounted in brackets on the walls. Reaching the bottom of the stairs revealed what I could only barely describe as a dungeon, there were no more than ten separate cells, and at the moment they were all empty of people, or ponies. Each one, including the one that I'm currently sitting in, was clean, and each had their own well maintained cot, a wooden table and chair.

I asked the guards why the dungeon was kept so tidy. One of them gruffly stated that barely anypony was ever sent to the dungeon, so there was no reason that the few who did make it down here couldn't experience some comfort at least.

Before I was locked in my room however, I noticed the wall at the end of the hall looked strange. The stone was placed as though there was once an archway leading onwards that had long since been sealed up.

So now I sat gazing out my window at the starry night sky and the beautiful land below, the single candle on my table was doused so my only light sources were the pale glow of the moon, which is either much larger than the one we have back home or a lot closer, and the dull light emitted from my now open laptop resting on the table.

When I turned my laptop on and logged in I almost had a heart attack. A month ago I changed the log in sound to Rainbow Dash's famous line "ten seconds flat," so when that blasted out of the speakers at full volume through the quiet dungeon, I practically fell out of my chair in fright, after somewhat recovering I ran to the door to make sure that no one heard the sound. Thankfully there was no one around. The closest guard was probably stationed just outside the door at the top of the stairs.

I then realized that there was a very slim chance of anyone here actually recognizing the phrase for what it was, so I returned to my seat and put on some calming classical music, ‘gently’ hitting the side of my laptop to get one of the malfunctioning speakers to work. Once the gentle melody began to silently ring through the air I closed my eyes and went about trying to clear my mind.

Like I mentioned before, aside from my lack of motivation my main problem is my active mind. Since I have a difficult time falling asleep, I recently took to meditating most nights in hopes of quelling the storm constantly raging inside my head. One night- and I don't care if you think I'm crazy because I know what I felt -during my meditation my mind went dead silent, not a single thought drifted through my head. What freaked me out was the fact that for just that instant, I was able to… feel, the presence of everyone around me; my parents sleeping in the next room, my two dogs lying in the hallway, and my brother walking up the driveway in front of the house. That strange feeling disappeared just as quickly as it came, erased by the sudden shock I felt, and not once after have I been able to regain that state of mind.

Tonight was no different, my euphoria dashed all chances of clearing my head. My mind was still racing with the excitement of being in Equestria and all the possibilities that lay before me… well, that all depended on whether or not I would be allowed to leave the dungeon.

I gazed at the moon through the bars of my window, the moons soft glow never failed to bring me a sense of comfort. 'I know that Luna is back from the moon since Twilight knew Zecora... that is, unless things here are a lot different than the show. I wonder what she'll be like… oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait and see.'

With nothing else to do I decided to pack it in for the night. I powered down my laptop, closing it I slid it back into my backpack which was resting against the wall with my jacket by the cot. I cast a brief glance over at the tray of food on the floor by the small slot at the bottom of the door. My 'meal' consisted of some hay and two apples. All that was left of the apples were their cores and the hay was left untouched, I hesitantly tried a bite earlier when the tray first clattered under the door and immediately spat out the inedible stuff, 'It was worth a try, right? I mean, you never know until you do.'

I took off my sweater and shirt, and hanging them over the back of the chair I proceeded to flop down onto the cot, 'Hmm, comfy mattress,' I thought to myself as I rolled onto my back and positioned my hands behind my head.

Never able to fall asleep quickly, I continued to lay there, eyes seeing nothing but the backs of my eyelids as I hummed a random tune. The last thing I was aware of before drifting off into a pleasant sleep was thinking about what events tomorrow might bring.

The following morning I awoke to the sound of another tray sliding across the stone floor underneath my cell door. Rubbing my face and groggily swinging my legs over the edge of the cot, I looked through tired eyes at my breakfast. There was no hay this time, instead I had two additional apples.

"At least this meal will be a little more filling," I said, my words slurred together as I still trying to rouse myself.

Standing up, I walked over to where my clothes hung over the chair and pulled on my shirt. I didn't bother to zip up my sweater for a few reasons. For one, it was warm enough in my cell. Additionally, I assumed that no one here aside from Princess Celestia would recognize Rainbow Dash's cutie mark on my shirt and she most likely wouldn't come to see me any time soon anyway. Besides, my sweater still covered the left side of my chest where the image was even though it hung loosely over my shoulders.

I picked up the tray and brought it over to the table to start eating. My first mouthful reminded me yet again just how much I love apples, the satisfying sound they make when you take a bite of the sweet, juicy fruit… Whenever I eat them I think of Captain Barbossa from 'Pirates of the Caribbean', so I started humming a fitting song for my thought process, 'Barbossa is Hungry' from the soundtrack of the first movie.

When I finished I decided to try and catch up on some of the sleep I've lost to the demands of University, so I plopped back down onto the cot. I knew that since I had just woken up there was no way I could get back to sleep, so the best I could hope for getting some rest for my heavy eyes. Well I tried anyway, my eyes snapped open to the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs, whoever they belonged to stopped just outside my cell. In my lowered position I thought I caught a glimpse of something white through the small window in the door, but before I could think about what or who it could possibly be the door glided open on well oiled hinges.

I fell off the cot in surprise as the Princess of the Sun herself strode into the cell. She raised an eyebrow in mild amusement as I sat there in shocked bewilderment. A short silence followed, I wasn't expecting her to come see me so soon so I was at a loss for words, and I assumed she was just waiting to see if I would do anything.

"Do you normally lie on the ground when greeting people?" Celestia joked lightheartedly, breaking the ice.

"What… oh!" I exclaimed realizing I was still on the floor gaping stupidly at her. I immediately picked myself up and gave a well practiced bow, bending at my waist forming a ninety degree angle and looking directly at the floor with my arms held to my sides, a proper bow taught from day one during my martial arts training. "Y-your Majesty, I wasn't expecting you to come so soon," I stammered.

Celestia gave me a small smile and said, "You don't have to keep bowing to me whenever we meet, and why weren't you expecting me? I thought it would be pretty obvious that I'd want to ask you some questions."

"Since I don't have to bow I won't do it as much, but I won't stop doing it. I like to bow, it helps me convey my respect, I even bow to my friends sometimes when I greet them," I said with my own smile as I stood up straight. "I figured you'd have questions, but I was expecting you to want to take some time and think the situation over more thoroughly before coming to visit me."

Celestia paused for a moment, "Usually that would be the case, especially since you are a human, but you seem different from most of the humans I've seen."

"Speaking of which, how do you know about humans, there aren't any in this world are there?" I asked.

"No, there aren't. In the past I've dabbled with magic which allows me to view other worlds that lie parallel or nearby to this one. It's been several years now since I've seen a human but I can easily remember the destruction they cause and the greed that compels them. But you however, you claim to hate the ways of humans and I haven't seen you do anything to undermine that statement."

Sighing, I replied, "Yeah, I do hate the human race, and I hate violence. If things turned out differently then maybe as a whole we wouldn't be so bad, but selfishness seems to be a part of human nature so as we fight amongst ourselves and destroy the planet around us we become separated even further. It's a cycle that will keep on going until either we kill ourselves off, or we make the environment incapable of supporting life. Like I said before, it disgusts me."

Celestia looked at me with meditative eyes before saying, "Like you said earlier, I'll need to consider the situation more carefully before I decide what to do with you. But right now I still have some questions to ask you."

"Alright, I'll try to answer as best I can."

Celestia nodded, "Do you remember how you came to be up in Equestria?"

I thought for a moment, frowning when I couldn't recall exactly what had happened. "No, for some reason it's still fuzzy, all I can remember was heading out to go to school, next thing I knew I woke up in the forest."

“You’re a teenager I presume?” Celestia asked, to which I offered my own nod. "I thought so... Anyway, do you think someone sent you here with magic?"

I couldn't help but laugh, "I wish! It would be awesome if I could learn magic, but sadly there isn't any such thing where I come from… well, we have people who call themselves magicians but it's all just tricks and sleight of hand."

"I see," she responded slowly, clearly thinking about something. "Well, now that you are here, what do you plan on doing?"

I put my hand to my forehead in contemplation, I hadn't really thought about that until last night. "Let me see... well as long as I'm in this cell I can catch up on all the sleep I've missed back home, and if I'm allowed to leave I'll probably try to find a place where I can live happily and adapt to this word."

"Adapt, you mean setting aside any human tendencies like violence and greed?"

"No, like I said I hate violence and greed. I mean other things like my diet. Humans are omnivorous, but I'll be changing to a full vegetarian diet, since I assume all ponies are herbivores."

"That's correct," Celestia said, slightly shocked by my revelation.

'I guess she didn't know that humans also ate meat,' I thought to myself with a shrug.

"That is all I have to ask for now," Celestia said as she turned back to the door. She stopped and looked back over her shoulder, "Oh, and one more thing. You remember my student, Twilight Sparkle?" I nodded. "This morning I received a letter from her saying she wanted to come to Canterlot tomorrow to see you."

My body froze, "Sh-she's coming to s-see me? Why?"

Celestia shrugged, "In her letter she wrote that after telling her friends about you, they all wanted to see you for themselves. She also mentioned having some questions to ask you herself, something about, physics?"

'Damn, I hate physics!' was what first went through my mind, but then the rest of what Celestia said dawned on me. "Wait, you mean all six of them are coming? And they're coming here to see me?"

"Yes, I was quite shocked by the fact as well…" Celestia said before trailing off and locking her eyes with mine in a suspicious glare. "How did you know that there are six friends in their group?"

'FUDGE BERRIES!' "Um, Twilight… told me?" I backed up a little, sensing that things just took a bad turn.

"In her letter she mentioned wanting to introduce them to you partially because she neglected to tell you about them, so there's no way you could have known about them," she responded accusingly.

I sighed, 'My secret is pretty much blown, may as well tell her.' "Actually… there is," I said hesitantly. "But first I need to ask, what was the last friendship report that you received from Ponyville about?"

The Princess was startled, "Did Twilight tell you about her reports?"

I shook my head, "She only mentioned that Spike sends her letters to you, she never said what the letters were about."

"Well what reason could you possibly have for wanting to know that?"

"It's the best way I can think of for me to find out when I've arrived," I said carefully. Before Celestia could interject with her increasing confusion I said, "Trust me, it'll make sense."

Celestia sighed, "Let's see… If I remember correctly the last report came from Applebloom… the little sister of one of Twilight's friends," she explained. I just nodded my head, Celestia continued, "It was about being honest to your heart, yourself and others."

'Being honest with others… fitting,' I thought to myself slightly saddened. 'The letter came from Applebloom, and it was about being honest to others and your heart…The Cutie Pox!' I've watched each episode enough to know where each friendship report belongs, and this one was definitely after Applebloom's incident with that supposedly incurable disease.

"Alright, time to take that lesson to heart and tell you the truth," I said as I went to my backpack and pulled out my laptop.

As I set it on the table and powered it up, Celestia asked, "What is that?"

"This is a laptop computer. At home I could use it to access something called the internet, by doing so I could find information on pretty much anything; I guess you could consider it to be a sort of library containing all of my world's knowledge. Since I'm here though, I can't access any of that, however I do have some things on here that may help with my explanation."

Wearing an impressed expression, Celestia walked over to look at the screen with me. Her expression changed to one of shock as she saw the background to my login screen.

"That's a painting of Canterlot Castle!" she exclaimed, "How do you have that? You're not even from this world!"

"If you like that, then you're probably going to like this background as well," I said as I logged in.

The login screen faded out to be replaced by my desktop background, seeing this elicited a gasp from Celestia.

"Th-that's…"

"Eeyup," I chuckled at that, "The ruins of the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters."

Princess Celestia turned angrily to me, "Explain yourself immediately!" she demanded.

Definitely not wanting to anger the Princess of the Sun, I eagerly complied, "The truth is, although I may not be from this world I know a little bit about it. In my world, Equestria exists, but only as a television show."

"Television?" anger was still slightly evident on her voice.

'Oh, that's kind of hard for me to explain…' "I guess it's sort of like this computer, except instead of you being able to search for anything you want, certain things are sent to the television like animations, live broadcasts, or documentaries, just to name a few. Back home, one animated show, called 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic', revolves around some of the main adventures that Twilight and her friends have."

Celestia looked somewhat confused, so I brought up the second episode of season one and showed her the end where the mane six used the Elements of Harmony to free Luna from the evil that was Nightmare Moon. Celestia watched on in wonder as she appeared on the screen and comforted her sister, and she gave a small smile when two young pegasi draped a necklace of red and white roses around Luna's neck. When I stopped the video she became serious again.

"So are you saying that Equestria, that all who reside here are nothing more than characters for one of these... shows, that you humans watch?"

"No, not at all!" I exclaimed. "You're just as real as I am, and I'm just as real as you. I have no idea how different worlds work, but in my opinion I'd say that each dimension is connected somehow, it just so happens that your world exists as a show in mine. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere in Equestria someone came up with a strange tale about evil bipedal creatures whose actions lead to the death of their world."

Celestia walked towards the window and looked out at the clear blue sky. A few minutes passed before she turned back to me and said, "You've given me quite a lot to think about."

I nodded silently. Reaching over to log off my computer to save some power, I stopped when Celestia spoke again.

"I do have one more question to ask."

I looked at her, "Go ahead, the least I can do for you is give the answers that I can."

"You still haven't explained to me why you wanted to know what the last friendship report from Ponyville was about. Can you now tell me the significance of that knowledge?"

"Like I said, I wanted to know what the last thing of note was that happened here. Nearly every episode ends with a friendship report, and according to you this was the last one," with that I brought up the episode 'The Cutie Pox' and played the end of the video where Applebloom dictated her letter to Spike.

Again Celestia wore an expression of mild wonder, "That was exactly the same as the report I received."

"You said that it was the most recent report you got from Ponyville, and as you can see here," I pointed to my video library, "I have a few episodes after that, meaning I know a little about some things that are going to happen in the near future. I won't give anything away since I don't want to have a negative impact on events, but I do need to ask you something."

Celestia raised an eyebrow as if asking me to continue.

"I want to know what your opinion is. Should I hide the fact that I know all this from everyone, or should I tell them the truth?"

The Princess thought for a moment, and then hesitantly responded, "While being honest is important... I think you should keep it secret, for now anyway. But if it slips out or the situation demands the truth… well, we'll see when that time comes."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," I said as I dropped into yet another bow.

Celestia turned away, trying to hide the small smile that crept onto her face as she rolled her eyes. She closed the cell door behind her as she left, and as the echoes of her footsteps retreated back to the upper levels of the castle I was left alone once again.

This time however, I had a lot more to think about. Namely, I was going to meet the mane six.

'Why'd Celestia have to tell me that? Now there's no way I'll be able to sleep tonight!'

I turned off my laptop and slid it into my backpack. Unable to contain my excitement I began to pace in my cell. I stopped for just a moment to look at the sun's position in the sky.

'Great, it's not even noon yet.' I sighed, 'This is going to be a long day…'