New Threads in the Pattern
I sighed, closing my book, I love reading, but sometimes I get a little carried away. I especially love to read the legends of when great heroes like the Dragon, the Wolfbrother, and the Gambler were alive. the Gambler was my favorite, even though he was never the main hero of the legends, he always seemed to find a way to sneak into them. I just wish that we knew if all the things from the old legends were real. I would love to have magic powers like the Dragon did.
I sighed again and rubbed my eyes, looking at my clock, and groaning. It was already 2:30, and I had a test tomorrow morning at 8:30 for history. I reflected once again on how great it would be to be in a world where I didn’t have to worry about pointless things like tests, and wrote it off, once again, as simply being wishful thinking. I slipped out of bed, and went through my nightly ritual of preparing to sleep. I brushed my teeth (cinnamon toothpaste is best toothpaste), and washed my face, like normal people do, then got back into bed to begin the rather unique part of my preparations that I learned from my travels through the myths and legends of my home. I was probably the only one who knew about this, the instructions were buried deep in a dusty book at the back of my family's attic.
I closed my eyes and controlled my breathing. In … out … in … out … I pictured a flame in my mind’s eye, currently small and guttering, like a candle flame. I began to feed the flame with my emotions, first burning up my worry about my test, tomorrow, then moving on to other emotions and thoughts. Happiness, Sadness, Anger, Loneliness, everything went into that fire, until I was empty, no thoughts, no emotions, just the void and the fire. I then dismissed the fire, having no need of it any more. All that was left was the void, and now, with no distractions running through my mind, I finally slipped into sleep.
…
I was floating through the void, just resting in the emptiness. Suddenly, I saw something moving in my peripheral vision. I tuned to see it, but it was already gone. Suddenly, a glow appeared behind me, not a warm glow, like the glow that comes from a fireplace, or a threatening one, like a glow that comes from a forest fire, just … a glow. I turned, and in front of me was what seemed to be a massive river of molten color, floating in the void with me, with blues, greys, reds, and greens, as well as whites, going on for as far as I could see in either direction, looking a bit like an endless multicolor snake. It was beautiful. Looking closer, I could see an ugly black sludge all along the surface of the river, like an oil slick, making me sick just looking at it, tainting each of the colors.
As I looked at this wonder, I perceived a silhouette of … something, walking towards me. It looked vaguely serpentine, but it had eight … no, six appendages and two horns, each of them different, but hard to make out. It approached swiftly, soon standing before me, still as vaguely defined as it was when it was far away. The only things that changed were the eyes which became visible. A sickly yellow color dominated most of each eye, like the creature had some kind of sickness, like yellow fever. The pupils however, were a deep red, the color of blood. Looking into these eyes, I could tell that the being they belonged to, the being standing in front of me, was quite insane.
A malicious chuckle filled the air, as one of the being’s arms reached out and grabbed me, picking me up as if I weighed nothing, and tossed me like a rag doll into the river of color.
I was instantly caught up in the flow … no, that’s not right. It was like the river was flowing through me, and around me at the same time, and it burned, not a good burn, like hot chocolate, or a bad burn like fire, but somewhere in between the two, like you get if you exercise muscles for a long time or work them really hard for a short time.
I was pulled along the river, as this feeling that can only be described as life flowed through me, until I came a little closer to the surface of the river, and my hand brushed the dark oily substance coating the river. Never before had I felt such a feeling of sickness wash through my body than when I touched that darkness. The feeling of wrongness was almost overwhelming, and without the sheer amount of life flowing through me from the river I was sure that this … this Taint, would have killed me, or corrupted me, driven me insane, or something of the sort. I recoiled, and drifted back into the middle of the river. I looked ahead, and saw that the river twisted downwards, and I was swiftly approaching these falls. As I reached the edge, I was thrust downwards, feeling like was now falling. I wasn’t worried, I was in a dream, and so I’d wake up before I hit the ground.
…
Well, I definitely woke up before I hit the ground. As I awakened, I became aware of the fact that I was still falling, until, with a mighty CRASH, I slammed into my mattress, which had slammed into the ground in the middle of the large … open … field.
Huh.
This is new.
It didn’t take me long to realize that I hadn’t woken up where I had fallen asleep, which makes sense, because I don’t remember my room being quite so big. Also, there aren't enough plants in New Caemlyn to fill a quarter of this field.
Ok. Whats going on here. This is not what's supposed to happen. I'm supposed to wake up and go to school and eat lunch and ... wait.
I know what happened, my idiot roommates must have done this. They think they're so cool, because they're nobility, they're on the sports team, they blah blah blah I HATE IT. They're worthless wastes of space and the university would be better off without them. Just because their parents play Daes Dae'mar and they have money, they think they're better than the rest of us. All they're really good for is cannon fodder. If there was any hope for them in the game of houses, they would have been kept home and homeschooled, they're just too stupid to know it. Burn them, burn all those blasted idiots.
Jason. Focus. Strange area. worry about those boneheaded jackdaws later. I looked around, looking for tracks, but there wasn't any sign of where they came and left from, meaning no Ideas for me where the road could be.
Suddenly it got dark.
What the? I looked up, and the sun rose up to the noon position with in a few seconds again.
Oh this is much worse than some prank. Am I even on the same world any more? Can I get home? Is anyone even looking for me? Oh crap, I'm gonna miss my test, the prof is gonna be so mad at me I'm gonna fail, I'm gonna lose my scholarship, oh burn me, burn me, burn my blasted head to a crisp.
JASON. pull yourself together. this is not the time to panic. what would the Dragon do?
That's it! The void! ok, ok, breath in, breathe out, in, out, in ... out ... in ... out.
Flame.
Feed.
Void.
Extinguish.
Ok, now that I'm calm, let's take stock of the situation. no tracks around, that means they either didn't touch the ground, and dropped me from above, (those idiots would do it, too), or I somehow Traveled here. No, that's not possible, there's nobody alive who can use the One Power, no matter how much I might want it to be true. Plus, that wouldn't account for the wacky way the sun just moved. Ok, next theory. I was sleeping before, so ... Tel'Aran'Rhiod? Maybe, but isn't it supposed to be places that are familliar to you, or you wake up where you went to sleep? Not knowing enough about the dream world from the legends I had read, I couldn't say for certain. for now I should just operate on the principle that I'm in a completely different world, and act accordingly.
Having fantasized about being sent to another world, and priding myself on having a quick wit and adaptability, as well as being a complete geek, I quickly took stock of the situation.
First, my immediate safety. Is there anything that is an imminent threat to my life or well being? I looked around. To the south, there was a forest, and to the east, mountains, one with what appeared to be a castle hanging off of it. Pushing the apparent impossibility to the corner of my mind for a moment, I looked to the north. The field just extended into plains in that direction, and to the west … was … a town? I think? Are towns wherever I am supposed to have floating upside down buildings, strange checkerboard landscapes, and other impossibilities like pink clouds? In my fascination with the strange sight, I almost forgot the most important rule for a person entering an area that may or may not have hostiles in it.
Always look up. Because whenever you though you were safe, a Draghkar dropped on your head.
Directing my gaze upwards, I looked into the clear blue sky above me, and noted the position of the Sun.
Moon.
Sun.
What is up with this wacky place? In the twenty seconds I had been looking at the sky an entire day had passed? Was this place fighting my presence, and in so doing pushing me outside of the time stream? Was that simply the length of the day and night here? No, something else must be up. The pattern of the movement of the celestial objects across the sky was irregular, the sun moving almost instantly to the twelve O’clock noon position, then staying there until it set and the moon rose just as quickly to take its place. Judging from the fact that I’m not being thrown all over the place by the rapid acceleration and deceleration that would occur had the earth been spinning at speeds required to cause this formula, I could conclude several things.
I’m not on earth anymore.
It’s very likely that the planet I’m on has no rotation, and somehow the Sun and Moon are the things that are moving, though with the speed the moon is moving, I should have been able to feel some small effect of the shift of its gravitational pull. Therefore, I decided to go with the idea that both the sun and the moon of this world are significantly smaller than the ones on mine.
Feeling rather pleased with my assessment of the giant nuclear reactor and inert space rock above my head, and satisfied that there wasn’t any danger in the immediate area, I took a more detailed look at my surroundings, and noticed that I wasn’t the only thing that had come to this world from mine. It appeared that anything within approximately four to six feet of my person had come with me.
This included my bed, my nightstand, a good chunk of my wall, my handheld music player and charger, as well as my laptop and its charger. My nightstand had its lamp, as well as the contents of its drawer, which included A chocolate bar, a large box of granola bars (my roommates stole any food that wasn’t in my room specifically, so I kept the majority of my snack food in there), some trail mix, a pocket knife, and some fruit punch flavor packets for a water bottle. I also had my Boy Scout handbook. I know it’s a little strange to be in college and still have the handbook, but there’s a lot of stuff in there, both printed and stuff that I wrote in the margins. I’m glad that I have it, though, It’ll be really useful as a survival guide of sorts.
I also had my back pack. I looked inside and groaned when I saw my Math and Andoran History Textbooks in there. Of course my schoolwork would be brought through with me. With my luck, my teachers would have some way to contact me and yell at me for missing assignments. I could just imagine my calculus teacher yelling at me, that “involuntary interdimensional travel is no excuse for late assignments! You Fail!”, in his Seanchan accent. My history teacher would probably be more understanding, but would still cuss me out for missing the test and all his classes. I chuckled as I thought of what kind of language he would use. He’s the only teacher I’ve ever heard of that swears regularly in his lectures. Anyway, back to inventory. I have one water bottle, and one almost empty 180 page spiral notebook. Good, I could write observations or a journal in that. I also noted that I had several pens, and pencils, mechanical and normal in my bag, with 2 clips of lead refills for the mechanicals. I was glad that I had laid out my clothes for tomorrow along with socks and shoes next to my bed, because I would have been stuck running around in pajamas, otherwise. I quickly got dressed in jeans, a black t-shirt, and a red hoodie with a zipper, and put on my socks and tennis shoes. I laid my pajamas out on the bed to deal with later.
I noted that it had technically been two weeks in this world with the messed up time frame since I started my examination of my surroundings, and decided that I should get everything packed. I loaded up all the food I could into my back pack, taking out the textbooks but leaving the notebook, as I might need it later. I also put my laptop in my backpack, and my music player in my pocket, putting the chargers to both next to my pajamas. I kicked the electrical sockets out of what was left of my wall, thinking that if whoever lives in the insane looking town in the distance has electricity, I could get someone to wire my plug into their system. I’ll be honest, I have no idea if it’ll work, I’m no electrician.
I then put everything I wasn’t taking in my backpack meaning my textbooks and the chargers for my electronics, onto my bed, and wrapped them into my blanket and tied it off, forming a sort of bag and protective covering over them. I couldn’t take them with me, because everything together would be too heavy and wouldn't fit in my back pack. I decided that they would be safest hanging from a branch of one of the trees in the forest to the south. Luckily, there seemed to be vines hanging from some of the trees.
After carrying the blanket and books about a hundred yards to the edge of the forest, I found a vine that looked to be strong enough, threaded it through the knot in the blanket, and hauled it up to an acceptable height. I then tied the vine off at the trunk of the tree to keep it from falling down, and marked the spot in my memory before going back to my mattress, and hauling it over to lean against the side of the tree I had just used. I picked up my back pack, and began my trek to the town in the distance, it being closer and more interesting than the castle. I walked for about fifteen minutes before I saw what looked like a hot air balloon moving quickly through the sky overhead. Suitably confused, I looked closer, and saw that it was being pulled by a yellow blur, and was chasing a grey blur connected to a white, pink, and purple blur.
What the heck is going on here?
Author's Note
so, I'm only going to update this as often as I feel like updating. It'll help if I have an editor, though, so again, pm me if you want to do that.
I followed the hot air balloon from a distance, until it landed, having caught up to the grey blur. As I came closer, I hid in a copse of nearby trees, and watched as four brightly colored creatures, vaguely resembling horses, pegasi, and unicorns, all of which I dubbed equinoids in my notebook, held down a grey pegasus with ropes, while a fifth unicorn equinoid approached the clearly angry creature. I wondered if I should intervene, but decided against it, because I had little knowledge of the situation.
As I watched, I became aware that the grey Pegasus was speaking. Even more astonishing, she – for her voice indicated that she was indeed feminine – was yelling in the Common tongue!
“lemme go! I don’t need you guys! Leave me Alone!”
The unicorn approached with a benevolent smile upon its face, its horn fluorescing. As the horn touched the head of the grey Pegasus, something, well … I'm not sure what happened, the body of the Pegasus turning a bright cyan color, and the hair, or, I supposed, mane, if I was going to continue with the whole equine analogy, turned several vibrant colors, forming a rainbow. Wait a second, this is a lot like what I imagined it would look like when a person was Turned, except there obviously weren't thirteen of them and I didn't see any Myrthaal, so it must not be evil, and it's probably a more simple process.
Incredible! It seems that these creatures are able to channel the One power like people in the legends could!
The other equinoids immediately loosened the ropes around the Pegasus, who, after sitting dazed for a few seconds, immediately began asking questions about “ponyville”, some “elements”, and someone named “discord” and if they had stopped him or not. The other five equinoids, which I became increasingly sure were all female, laughed and gathered around the rainbow one, who they called “Rainbow Dash”, and gave her an extremely girly looking group hug, at least until several things that must have been buffalo passed by doing ballet in pink tutus.
I decided that following these six mares would be a good idea if I wanted to see what was going on, and after recording information about Rainbow Dash in my notebook, I followed them, close enough to hear what they were saying, but far enough that they didn’t seem to notice me. The lavender colored one, whom I learned was called Twilight Sparkle when Rainbow Dash acted out what would happen when they confronted this Discord character, seemed to be the leader, a notion that was confirmed when the six picked up what seemed to be elaborate pieces of jewelry, with all of them being necklaces except for the tiara that Twilight wore.
As they progressed through the town, with me following, I was sure that the pink one, whose name I understood to be Pinkie Pie, saw me at least once, but she raised no alarm. I learned that the orange one’s name was Applejack, and the white one’s name was Rarity. The butter yellow Pegasus rarely spoke, but when the others talked to her, they referred to her as Fluttershy.
We seemed to be approaching our destination, as the six stopped and huddled together, apparently making a plan that I hoped didn’t involve the pink one exposing me. They finished whatever they were doing, and continued on. After dodging some falling pies, I followed them. As I followed them around a corner, I looked ahead and was shocked to see the strange silhouette from my dream, although he was most definitely no longer just a silhouette. A disgusting mishmash of a dozen creatures sat upon a throne, laughing. The look of this thing made me think that it could only have been created through Shai'tan himself, the Dark One, reaching out and pulling several creatures apart, then mashing them back together. Most people no longer believed in the Dark One, but looking at this creature, and the corruption that seemed to exhude off of him, well, I imagined this is what it would feel like to stand in the presence of one of the Forsaken. I stared at the creature, wondering what use he could possibly have for me, and why he brought me here.
I felt something poking my side. I looked down, and was astonished to see the one named Pinkie pie looking up at me. I was so astonished in fact, that I actually slipped out of the void.
“Umm….”
I was honestly at a loss here. I hadn’t planned for first real contact with these creatures for at least a few days.
The pink one smiled up at me, opened her mouth, and said, “Ponies.”
What?
She giggled. “We’re called ponies. Anyway, you should hide. Things are about to get kinda explodey - magical friendship zapper type stuff.”
“Ok … Thanks, I guess.”
I stood there, dumbfounded, as she smiled and nodded, and then ran to catch up with her friends. Only when the creature, who I assumed was Discord, began to laugh, did I hide behind a nearby bush. I watched as the six … ponies … confronted the thing, taking notes in my notebook as the jewelry they wore began to glow. Perhaps they were some sort of magical artifact, like an Angreal from the ancient legends?
The six pieces of jewelry flashed, and suddenly erupted into a brilliant rainbow that extended upwards and crashed down upon the creature, turning him to stone.
Ok, these were way more serious than Angreal, they were more comparable to the Ter’angreal keys to the Sa'Angreal called the Choedan Kal, wich held massive stores of magical power inside of them.
The rainbow above me split, forming a dome around the chaotic town.
Ohh, this was bad. Really bad. If whatever spell they cast perceives me as a threat, I’m done for. Ohh, burn me, but this is bad. I tried to think happy thoughts as the dome sealed itself around the town. There was a bright flash, so bright that my eyes burned even after I closed my eyelids, and then silence. I slowly opened my eyes. I was still behind the bush.
Hopefully, that’s a good thing.
I peeked out, and saw that the town, once in chaos, was now almost normal, if you ignored the fact that it looked like it had appeared right out of a fairy-tale storybook. The sun was in an afternoon position, maybe two or three o’clock. I breathed a sigh of relief. At least I’m still here. More of the pony creatures slowly emerged from the houses, looking around as if making sure the area was safe.
I sighed, realizing that it would probably be a while before I could leave this bush, and made myself comfortable. Pulling out my notebook and several pencils, I began to listen to conversations that were starting up around me. Apparently, the six mares I had been following were the “elements of harmony,” and many ponies were thanking “Celestia” that they were able to stop the strange creature.
Who was this Celestia person? The way they used the name, it seemed like he or she was some sort of god. Interesting.
I continued to listen, until I heard the sound of trumpets, and saw several large chariots descending from the sky. Most held several identical white unicorn and normal ponies with blue manes in gold armor reminiscent of roman centurions. Many pegasi in similar armor, but with holes for wings, flew around the chariots, as well as pulling them.
As the chariots came in for a landing, the ponies in the street, which had now become a sizeable crowd, parted, and allowed them to land safely in front of Twilight and her companions.
From the largest of the chariots stepped two creatures that were slightly different from the others. They were larger, wore jewelry and crowns, had both wings and horns, both of which were much larger than those of either the pegasi or the unicorns, even proportionally, and everyone bowed to them. Using my amazing powers of deduction, I figured that these two must be royalty.
This suspicion was confirmed when Twilight ran up to them and bowed, calling the white one princess Celestia, and the blue one princess Luna. Well, that solves the mystery of who Celestia is. Most of the armored stallions, who I learned were royal guards through the whispers of those close to my hiding place, helped to load Discord onto the now empty large chariot, and take it away. Those remaining took up posts around the area the princesses were in, and I noted that from where they stood, they could see every street in town, allowing them to see any threat to their leaders long before it reached them.
After some conversation that I couldn’t hear between Sparkle and the princess, Pinkie pulled what appeared to be a small cannon from her mane. Seemingly ignorant of the strange looks that told me that this was out of the ordinary even for this world, she aimed it straight up in the air, and fired it.
Confetti. Confetti and streamers everywhere.
Not to mention the tables filled with pastries and the party games that appeared around the area.
I realized just how nervous the pink one makes me, because I couldn’t explain her, and from the way her friends were treating this occurrence, I doubted I ever would be able to explain her. I felt something fall in my lap. Looking down, I saw a piece of key lime pie and a fork on a plate.
I looked up and out of the bush again, to see Pinkie looking directly at me and smiling. Even knowing she couldn’t see me, I waved my thanks to her.
She waved back.
I was really scared now.
I watched as she walked over to the blue princess, Luna if I remember right from before, and pulled her off to the side. I was worried about what she was going to say, but I realized I couldn’t do anything about it now, so it was best to just let it go. I looked down at the pie, and sighed, wishing I had a milkshake to go with it. A rustling in the bush next to me caught my attention, just for me to see a pink hoof stick out of the bush, strawberry milkshake balanced on top. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I took the shake and whispered my thanks to the bush as the hoof disappeared back into it.
After eating the pie and drinking the shake, both of which were excellent, I was feeling rather full, and, making sure that I couldn’t be seen, I slipped back into the void and laid back against my backpack and fell asleep.
…
After a thankfully dreamless nap, I woke up to a distinct lack of noise. Looking out of the bush, I saw that the party was finished, and night had fallen. Looking around carefully, I climbed out of the bush. Looking down, I saw that my pants and shirt were covered in leaves and dirt. After brushing them off, I looked forward again.
Princess Luna was there.
Right in front of me.
Letting out what was most certainly not the most girly scream in the history of this world I was now stuck in, I dived back into the bush, only to be lifted out and dangled by my ankles in front of the Princess.
Feeling quite unhappy with the situation, I felt it quite within my rights to yell, “Why would you do that? What could possibly make you think that startling an unknown being is a good idea?”
The dark princess, with a smug smile on her face, stated sarcastically, “Oops.”
I frowned, already disliking this one’s sense of humor. “Could you please put me down, my head is starting to hurt.”
She dropped me.
Getting up, I grumbled, “Well, now my head definitely hurts.”
Luna chuckled, replying, “We apologize, but even with miss Pinkamina’s insistence that thou art quite harmless, we believed it our duty to see thy reaction when surprised or hurt, to make sure that thou wouldst not be a threat to us or our land.”
I sighed, “Well, that’s understandable, but you could probably have just observed or asked me. Miss Pinkamena, that would be … Pinkie, the one who gave me pie and has completely unexplainable powers, yes?”
Luna smiled, “That would be correct, her full name is Pinkamena Diane Pie.”
Suddenly, I realized who I was talking to, and thought about what I had discovered so far.
The sun and moon are moved by someone down here, because when that Discord creature was turned to stone, they stopped freaking out and changing every few minutes.
This alicorn in front of me had a mane that was made up of the night sky, as I had just notice, and it was rather beautiful.
She gave off the vibe of being exceptionally powerful, and she had a necklace, not unlike the necklaces the mares from before had, that had a crescent moon emblazoned upon it.
Her name was Princess Luna.
Luna.
Lunar.
Moon.
Oh burn me.
My eyes widened as I realized I had been sitting there staring at what amounted to a deity for several minutes.
“Oh! Um, my apologies, princess, it didn’t really register that I’m talking to royalty until just now. Sorry!” I blabbered out while bowing repeatedly, hoping to whatever Gods exist in this … realm? Dimension? … nonono, focus, really powerful ruler standing in front of you right now.
Luna smiled, “Be calm, young one, you did no wrong, in fact, we would ask that you do not bow to us, for you are not as of yet truly our subject.”
I stammered out a reply, “But if my assumptions are correct, you can move the moon, meaning you’re practically a goddess, and should be shown respect not only by your subjects, but also by any creature that lives under the light of your moon.”
Flatter. Flatter for all you’re worth, and hope she likes you.
Luna smiled sadly, “Yes, but even a Goddess may long for friends.”
My heart went out to this creature, as well as my confusion. Did she want me to be a friend or a subject? Or both? I couldn’t quite figure her out.
“Well, perhaps it’s best if we start over, then. Hello, princess Luna, My name is Jason.”
She smiled. Oh thank goodness she smiled I’m not gonna get thrown in prison and dissected. “We would like that. As thou already know, Jason, our name is Luna. It is good to meet you. However, we must ask, what are you? We have not seen a creature like you in all our years upon this land.”
I grinned a little at that, “Well, I wouldn’t expect you to have. You could say that I’m not exactly from here. The big guy that got stoned earlier today brought me here, I think, my dreams somehow.”
Luna frowned. “This is troublesome. He seeks to interrupt the Pattern of Ages. Tell me as much as you can about these dreams.”
Setting aside her mention of the pattern for later, I told her, in as much detail as possible, about my dream and the events afterwards.
After my explanation, she nodded, and looked me in the eye. “We must leave soon, but rest assured, thou art welcome here.”
I sighed, and replied, “I don’t know, princess, I mean, you were suspicious of me even after Pinkamena or Pinkie or whatever she’s called told you I’m harmless, and she seems to be a rather prominent and influential member of the community. Also, the ponies here just dealt with one strange creature, and I don’t want to be associated in any way with Discord by the general public, because it seems to me that that would be pretty bad, even if the association is just in passing. So, if I could, I’d like to ask you for a couple of things. Could you direct me to a place to stay that isn’t too close to this place, but is within an hour’s walk or so? And could you not tell ponies about me yet, I don’t want them getting the wrong idea about me and Discord.”
Luna nodded. “We see your point. Fear not, Jason, for none of the residents of this land, besides Pinkie Pie, will know of your existence until you are ready. We must inform our sister, princess Celestia, of your existence, though. We hope that you understand.”
I suppose that’s reasonable. “Of course, princess, I wouldn’t want to cause a political incident between you two.”
She smiled. “How considerate of you. As for your lodgings…”
She sat for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. Suddenly her eyes lit up and she grinned. “We have the perfect place for you to stay, where none of our subjects will wander and risk you being found. It is a ways into the Everfree forest to the south, though, and to make it there in a timely manner, We shall fly you. Climb up upon our back, in front of our wings, but behind our shoulders.”
“Are you sure, princess? That seems a little disrespectful, and I don’t want to be rude.” I said, frowning.
“Worry not, little one, for there are none around to see. Now, climb up, and we shall depart to the location of the remainder of thy belongings, before continuing to thy new home.”
I nodded, climbing up, and holding on as Luna spread her wings and, with a running start, jumped up into the air, clearly not used to having a heavy passenger, but obviously able to easily handle my weight. I was a bit nervous about flying, at first, but once in the air, I enjoyed it immensely. After a quick stop to get my stuff, which the princess lifted in her magic, mattress and all, we turned south and flew out over the forest.
As we flew, she told me of the dangers of the Everfree and how to avoid them. She also told me a bit about my new home. Apparently, she’s really old, and it used to be her home, before something, she wouldn’t tell me what, happened, and it was abandoned for Canterlot, the city I had seen on the mountain. Apparently it isn’t actually hanging off the mountain, but is based upon a large, clear crystal that juts out of the mountain, and is a truly staggering size.
We finally landed in the ruins of an old castle. I was about to tell her that this place was uninhabitable, but she motioned for me to follow. We walked through the castle grounds, large stone pillars, remnants of an ancient glory, now long gone, dotted the courtyard. We came to one of the most intact of the towers, and went inside. The area was roomy, and I believed that this was where she had meant for me to stay, until she turned and went down a flight of steps off to the side. We stopped outside of a large door made of some sort of stone, with what used to be a moon engraved upon the door, but it seemed that most of the engraving had fallen out, leaving only a crescent.
I found out that this was not the case, however, when Luna summoned the remaining piece of the engraving, seemingly out of nowhere, and handed it to me. It fit nicely in the palm of my hand, and had a hole at the top that made it seem as if it could be fashioned into a necklace for safekeeping. “This is the key to this door and the rooms behind it. It was once the barracks and armory for our Lunar Guards, and a preservation spell has been cast on all within, as they were a rather rowdy bunch, and tended to break things. However, the spell should have done just as well to keep all within from rotting. Now, open the door.”
I placed the small stone into its slot, and pushed. A small click sounded, and the moon engraving seemed to shine with its own light, glowing as the door swung inward. I followed Luna into the room, looking around. It was fairly spacious, and actually big enough that I didn’t have to crouch, which surprised me. Then again, I’m sure this whole castle had been made with the comfort of the princesses in mind, and I was only a little taller than Luna, being a few inches shy of six feet, while she was about five and a half.
The area was large, with comfortable looking rugs arranged around what appeared to be a fireplace, with wood stacked beside it, along with other tools for starting and tending to a fire. Cots lined the walls not occupied by the fireplace, and halls on either side of the fireplace leading to other rooms, one of which appeared to have more cots for sleeping, the other leading to what I could only assume was the armory. Luna levitated my mattress and blanket filled with books and stuff inside, and pulled the key out of the door, handing it to me as the door closed. There was a lever to the right of the door that I hoped would allow the door to open when I pulled it.
“This shall be your home until you reveal yourself to the residents of ponyville. Past the armory is the kitchen, which should still be stocked with food, it being under the same preservation spell as the rest of the rooms. Past the other sleeping quarters is the captain’s office, in there is a candle that, when lit, will burn green. Any paper or parchment burnt in this fire will be immediately transported to me. Beware, as the flame will still burn thee. If you venture into the Everfree, remember that there are dangers there you cannot face unarmed.”
With a flash, the lunar monarch teleported, probably back home to tell her sister about me. Feeling a bit cold, I set about lighting a fire, which went surprisingly well with just some flint and steel things to make sparks, then, standing up, I set off to explore the rest of my new home.
Author's Note
Crossover tag doesn't factor in quite yet, but I promise, it'll be here eventually.
HEY GUYS, I REDID THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY. IF YOU DON'T REREAD THE FIRST FEW PARAGRAPHS OF THE THING, YOU'RE GONNA HAVE A BAD TIME.
