Craigulus Twinblade and the three youngsters had finally stepped out of the forest. As always, the view from the exit of the Everfree Forest was amazing! The sun was shining down on the town of Ponyville and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Everything seemed so majestic so this seemed like an appropriate time to take a deep breath of the clean and pristine Equestrian air. Craigulus breathed in and out and it was the most amazing air he had ever smelled. No pollution, no chemicals, and none of Earth's garbage problems were present in this world. The air was so great that Craig's sinus' had totally cleared. Craig began to sing and dance his way into Ponyville to one of his favorite songs from season three.
"Morning in Ponyville shimmers!
Morning in Ponyville shines!
And I know for absolute certain,
That everything is certainly fine!
That certain Equestrian happiness had just entangled Equestria's newest inhabitant. Sweetie Belle had joined him in singing a duet. They began to sing,
"There's the mayor, en-route to her office.
There's the sofa clerk selling some quills!
Yea, Ponyville is so gentle and still.
Can things ever go wrong? I don't think that they will!"
The populace of Ponyville had begun to join in on the festive dancing and singing. nobody really knew who this newcomer was or what his intentions were, but if he was singing and dancing they might as well join in! Just as the party kicked into full gear the mane six had all come in to see what all the fuss was about. They saw Craigulus atop one of the tables doing some sort of crazy dance with his legs. He appeared to be shuffling his feet and running on the spot at the same time! The ponies watched in awe as he was showing them a dance that nopony knew existed. He stopped and looked at all the staring eyes as the music came to a screeching halt.
"Back where I come from, we call that dance move the shuffle! I might just teach you all how to do it sometime if I have time." Craigulus explained.
"Ooohhhhhh." the townsfolk replied who then got on with their days.
Craigulus hopped off the table to meet with the mane six. He had never felt so excited in his life! Who else would have an opportunity like this one to meet his favorite fictional characters? Nobody, that's who! He put on his most kindly expression and strolled on over to their warm and welcoming demeanor's. The purple unicorn began the welcoming.
"Hello, I'm Twilight Sparkle! You must be-"
"Craigulus Twinblade, at your service." He proceeded to bow in respect of the newest princess of Equestria.
"There's no need to bow, Craigulus." Twilight blushed
"But you are a princess! A leader figure in this land! Why shouldn't I bow?" Craigulus rose to his feet.
Twilight pondered the question for a few moments. She was still getting used to the whole princess thing since the coronation that happened a few months ago.
"I don't really think I have done anything as princess that would-"
"You turned Nightmare Moon back into princess Luna! Well, you did it with the help of your friends of course. You also defeated Discord when all seemed lost! Heck, you beat up an entire regiment of changelings! You are all practically heroes, and one day I hope to be like the six of you."
"You're certainly a very nice young.....errr...What are you exactly?" Rarity pondered.
"I am a human! I hail from another world in a kingdom called Canada!" Craigulus tried to make the human race sound cooler than he thought it was.
Twilight Sparkle's ears perked at the mention of him being 'human'.
It's him! Twilight thought, "This is the one that Celestia and Luna had told me about! I have to get him to Canterlot right now!
"Okay everypony! We need to travel to Canterlot right now! We can talk on the train on the way there! Spike, I want you to stay here and look after my library. This is really important business!"
Spike appeared annoyed and began to complain. "Twilight, I want to come with you!"
Twilight shot Spike an annoyed glare.
"Okay......."
Spike proceeded to walk down to the library mumbling under his breath in frustration.
"Well, this is a big surprise. Won't I have a place to stay at all?"
"We'll get to that soon enough. Right now though, we have an appointment with my ex-teacher, princess Celestia!"
Pinkie began to speak "Oh well, I guess we're going to have to hold off the Ponyville welcome party until further notice!"
Craigulus loved the idea of partying and dancing. He also knew that he was going to become good friends with the mane six. Pinkie Pie seemed even more awesome in person than through the computer screen too! Parties would have to wait though because of this so-called 'important business'.
The train ride was extremely eventful in terms of being social with everypony. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Craigulus were having a lively talk about sports in Equestria and Earth, Rarity and Fluttershy were having a pleasant talk over tea, Twilight was reading a book given to her by princess Celestia entitled "Ruling Equestria for Eggheads", and Pinkie Pie was.......well, being Pinkie Pie.
"HEY CRAIGULUS! YOU LOOK KIND OF FUNNY, WHAT MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE THAT? WHAT ARE THOSE? THEY LOOK LIKE A GRIFFONS TALON BUT THEY ARE SOFTER AND A LOT SMOOTHER! ARE THOSE WHAT YOU CALL FEET? NICE FOOTWEAR BY THE WAY! WHAT ARE THOSE CALLED? I'VE NEVER SEEN THEM BEFO-"
PINKIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! screamed a certain extremely annoyed purple princess.
Craigulus held his hands to his ears. He never could have imagined how loud that scream actually could be in real life. He got back to talking with Rainbow about sports.
"So, now that that's over with I have to talk about my favorite sport to you. It's called hockey! It's a game played with ice skates and you hold a stick in your hands so you pony folk would have to stand on your hind legs to play it."
"So it's just a regular old stick?" Applejack intervened.
"Actually no! It is a finely made, well crafted, straight stick with a curve on the end to handle a puck. When your team has the puck, the objective is to find a way past the two defense-men with your three man offensive team and to shoot the puck past the opposing goaltender and into the net. Be careful though, because the other teams offense can step into the defensive game as well and they can attempt to knock the puck off of you. They can even slam you into the side boards if you aren't careful. Back home, we call that body checking. We also just simply call it checking."
"That sounds awesome!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"That sounds like a mighty respectable sport." Applejack concurred.
"It certainly is! You know what? We should definitely introduce Equestria to the sport of hockey. I'm sure it would be an instant hit among the populace of major cities like Canterlot, Stalliongrad, Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Detrot, and especially the Major Cities of Canida! If it got even more popular, we could start a professional hockey league!"
"Could Ponyville have a team?" Applejack wondered aloud.
"That depends on whether people like it enough and are willing to pay to see every single game in the arena. It is certainly possible though! It is just a lot harder to maintain a professional franchise in smaller towns."
"Hey everypony! We're here!"
Craigulus looked out the window and couldn't believe his eyes. He knew Canterlot looked neat in the show, but he never could imagine that it would surpass the city of Vancouver in terms of beauty! He saw the guard ponies patrolling through the sky, the crowds of people entering and exiting Canterlot's main gate, and everything else he had always envisioned Canterlot to be was all right in front of his eyes! It was all so refreshing and the way he felt was incomparable to any other emotion that he had previously felt in his life.
"The best part about it all is that it never gets old." Twilight explained as she trotted to Craigulus's side.
"It doesn't?"
"It never does." Twilight chuckled.
"I can understand why." Craigulus began to smile. "I guess it's a mixture of both the feeling of history, and the feeling of harmony. It's quite.....unique.
The train had stopped, thus it was time to enter the city station. It was awfully busy that day and big crowds often made Craigulus slightly uncomfortable, but this time the feeling never came at all because everypony seemed so welcoming and polite to each other. That was for the most part anyway, as some grumpy mares and colts were still thrown into the mix.
"How far to the palace?" wondered Craigulus
"Not far darling." Rarity answered.
Before long, they had made it to the courtyard entrance. Craigulus examined the place and to his surprise, it looked exactly like it did in his dream. He started feeling strange though, because his head started to feel wierd. Largely ignoring it, he proceeded through the courtyard observing more of his surroundings. He noticed the statue of Starswirl the Bearded whose spells are still used far and wide even after countless years, the statues of the princesses, and another statue of some pony whom he couldn't recognize.
"Twilight, Who's that?" Craigulus asked, pointing his finger to the statue.
"That is sir Canter. He was an earth pony that lead the resistance during the Discordian Era. He founded the original fortress of Canterlot. He also lead the resistance in the final fight against Discord with the princesses at his side! He was killed by Discord himself but his defiance toward Discord was legendary! He never feared the wrath of Discord and put himself in harms way so that the princesses could strike Discord down while sir Canter distracted him. Some say he even spit in Discords face while he was pinned and said these exact words:
'Discord, you were a worthy foe. My life will be taken by your decision but the exact moment you decided to usurp the throne was the moment you asked for death. Now you shall receive death!'
Canter's throat was then slashed open by one of Discord's talons. Now he lives as a spirit in the Kingdom of Haven!"
"What's the Kingdom of Haven?" pondered Craigulus.
"It's a place where all heroes go to live when they die." Fluttershy intervened.
Craigulus instantly made the connection between the Heaven of his world, and the Haven of Equestrian lore. He couldn't help but wonder if their was an equivalent to hell, but he refused to ask because that question sounded kind of odd in his head. As Craigulus and the Bearers of Harmony had reached the top of the steps of the palace, Craig looked back and saw the surrounding lands of Equestria below Canterlot. He was calm and it all seamed so peaceful. Then a violent pain had suddenly began to linger in Craig's head. He fell to his knees and prayed to God to make it stop but it didn't. The scene of peacefulness had rapidly changed all around him and buildings started to tumble down everywhere in Canterlot. He looked up to see a colossal entity of fire and darkness hovering in front of the city of Canterlot. It's features were horrifying to him and the longer he stared at it, the more frightening it became! It's massive fiery eyes shook Craig to the bone. The left eye had a massive fiery scar that had a dark cloud representing it's eye in the center. It definitely didn't have legs though, it was just a massive upper body resembling that of a human and it had a single wing on the right side of his body. The wing appeared to be made of gold and was emitting a dark aura about it. The entity began to speak in a deep, dark voice that made the ground vibrate when it spoke.
"Not even your God can save you now."
The entity began to laugh an insane, fear-inducing laugh as Craig started screaming at the top of his lungs.
DEAR GOD, MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE IS THERE ANYONE WHO CAN MAKE IT STOP!?!!?!?!? I DON'T CARE WHAT KIND OF SPECIES YOU ARE BUT PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!
Craigulus Twinblade's mind had suddenly cleared as if someone had actually stopped it. He thought it was over but he opened his eyes only to see that the entity was still there. The alicorn sisters had come to his side.
"Oh thank you Celestia and Luna! Please help us all! Kill him before he crushes Canterlot! Please!?!?!?!"
The princesses only looked at each other, shook their heads in sorrow, and left Craigulus for dead. As they walked away, they slowly turned to ash from head to toe. Craig started sobbing from the amount of insanity and burning corpses that lay before him. The entity simply put off a sinister smile.
"All your friends will betray you and die, Craigulus. It is no use to trust these ponies you call heroes because they aren't even truly powerful. If they were truly powerful they would've been able to stop ME!"
The giant raised his palm and smashed the Canterlot tower down upon Craigulus. He was convinced the last thing he would ever see was a giant piece of debris falling on top of him and just as his worst fear was confirmed he had blacked out again.
He began to open his eyes. He first saw what appeared to be a white, stone ceiling followed by the silhouette of a dark blue horse head with a sparkling, flowing mane.
"P-Princess Luna?"
His vision had become clear to him again.
"That is correct, Craigulus. It is great to see you awake and well."
"Where am I?"
"You are in the room you will be staying in for the rest of your days here in Equestria. Get comfortable here if you haven't already because you are going to spend many nights studying magic in here."
Craigulus looked around. It was a nice little room with a desk and candles to light up the night. The place also had a balcony he rose from his bed in a panic to view the damage that had befallen Canterlot. He burst the sturdy stain-glass doors open to find that Canterlot was completely fine and that it was night time. Craig breathed a sigh of relief.
"I looked into your vision so I know what happened." Luna explained
Craigulus let out another sigh. "It was terrifying........wasn't it?"
Celestia had been in the room without Craig knowing it. "What my sister described was certainly alarming."
"I wonder what that was all about?" Craigulus wondered aloud.
"We know what that was all about. It is best to get rest for tomorrow though because we have a lot to do in the coming months. Just so you know, Your new friends have been given rooms for the night as well. By the way, I want to take you in as my new student. I know it's kind of sudden but I require you to be a student of mine for the upcoming months and I need to enter you in as an official subject of mine so it's legal for you to stay here. I wouldn't want to be breaking my own law so you get it." Celestia chuckled.
"That's quite alright with me princess." Craigulus confirmed with a smile as he hopped into bed and blew out the candle that had been lighting up the room with a warm glow.
Celestia and Luna had began walking out.
"Celestia? Luna?"
"Yes?" they said in unison
"Why is it that, when I fought the bandit chief, I was already adept in the use of magic and combat?"
Celestia stepped forward, ready to educate her new student.
"It is your special talent as a hero. Every hero who comes into this world has a special talent with something."
Craigulus's ears perked up in excitement.
"A hero!?!?!?!"
Luna began to speak. "We will explain more tomorrow. For now, you need your rest."
The door closed and Craig quickly drifted off into a deep, peaceful sleep.