The look on my face said it all, I couldn't believe it. Somehow Jimmy was here, in this world and standing right in front of me. Jimmy turned around to face me as I noticed there was a difference in his appearance.
His clothes looked real just like mine were and his paper hat was gone, replaced with an actual bardic hat which went pretty well with his other attire. I also noticed that Jimmy’s flute and lute were ones that you would find on sale for about six hundred dollars each, having the same elven markings on them as my robe.
Before he was able to say anything to me, a thought came to my mind as I mimicked playing a lute. Jimmy must have gotten the idea as he took out his lute, I held my hands on my ears as he started to play.
“Sleep now the wip-poor-wills are d-dancing, gently now put your m-mind to rest…,” he said, strumming the strings on the lute as all the ponies in the room fell to the floor except for the princesses which I kept upright, finding it funny that they were sleeping while standing.
“Jimmy, what are you doing here? How did you get here?” I whispered as Jimmy scratched his head in thought, almost going off balance.
“W-well Kyle, I remember taking these t-two wonderful bardic instruments while I was looking for y-you and then I suddenly wound up in a d-different forest,” he replied as I closed my eyes, taking the information in.
“So you got here by finding a flute and a lute? In the forest near South Park?” Jimmy nodded.
“Y-yes for you see Kyle I went there to find you and bring you back home b-because you disappeared from your h-house.”
“Yeah…about that…Jimmy, I don’t really know how to tell you this but…we are now both stuck in a world full of ponies and dragons where our class abilities are actually real, can you believe that?”
“Y-yeah I can Kyle for I figured that out when I got here-“ I held up my hand, telling Jimmy to stop talking.
“Ok Jimmy, I need you to call me ‘My King’ or just ‘Your Highness’ when we’re in public,” Jimmy gave me a curious look. “*Sigh* Because Jimmy, I’m actually a King in this land now, I’ve made friends here that have treated me nice so far…and there is no going back home!” I yelled the last few words in a broken voice, thinking of my mum and dad as Jimmy lowered his head to the ground, guilt started to eat away at me.
“Look…Jimmy…I’m sorry I yelled at you but what I said is true and if you want to fit in here you’ll need to explain who you are, what you do as a bard and your history,” Jimmy gave me a weird look. “You know, like saying that you disappeared and I act all surprised that you’re here…you know, to convince the princesses,” I pointed my thumb over to the sleeping sisters behind me.
“O-ok then Kyle but is there anything I might need to know?” I already knew how to answer that question.
“Well I just made up a story about a war against the humans that happened hundreds of years ago and that I was the only survivor so you will need to explain how you are here and why you’re young as well,” I said as he nodded uncertainly.
“Ok I t-think I know what to say, you can wake up the princesses now Kyle,” I nodded as I shook the princesses awake They both woke up at the same time and looked at the sight in front of them, Luna’s horn started to light up as I stepped in front of her.
“Wait Luna! Don’t hurt him,” she gave me a questioning and appalled look as Celestia walked up to Jimmy.
“But did you see what he did to us Kyle? He used his magic to bring harm to our ponies!” Luna exclaimed as Celestia stared down at Jimmy.
“Who are you? What did you do to the guards?” she asked/demanded as Jimmy bowed his head to the princess.
“I am sorry y-your highness but I h-had to do something to insure that I would be safe. And don’t worry about t-the guards, they’re just under a sleeping enchantment that I c-created so that we could talk without any interruptions,” he replied, not taking his eyes off the princess as I held my hand towards Jimmy.
“Luna, Celestia…this is the bard or as I called him before the war, Jimmy,” Jimmy gave us another bow, acknowledging his title as Celestia accepted the gesture.
“From what Kyle had told us, every elf except himself was killed in the war yet you are standing in front of us now…my question is how,” Celestia replied in a serious tone, her eyes shifted over to mine for a second before going back to Jimmy.
“Well your h-highness, after the b-battle with the humans I thought I was the only e-elf left. When I looked around the battlefield for any s-signs of life I found Kyle, but as he was when he was young. When I went to inspect him I found that a curse was given to him by someone that I do not know. So I tried to use my enchanting music to remove the curse but as you can see…,” Jimmy looked over himself. “The curse was more powerful than I had thought as I received the curse as well, then the next thing I k-knew was I was right in the middle of a room filled with unicorns, meaning that there was also a teleportation jinx on the seal of the curse as well, to get rid of elves that tried to interfere,” he explained as I started to sweat. He started to talk about things that may have not been real. Celestia put a hoof to her chin, clearly in thought.
“Oh you must mean the unicorn tribe back in the day when the ponies weren't united,” she stated, my body starting to relax a bit.
“Y-yes your highness. From there I introduced myself to them wondering if I could s-stay in their village for a while, after that I searched through Equestria, passed through towns and sung my m-magical songs to the ponies who wanted to hear them while still looking for my King,” I let out a breath of air that I kept inside my lungs knowing everything was fine when Celestia’s face formed a smile.
“Well Jimmy, it seems that you have found him then,” she lightly giggled as Jimmy did his goofy smile but then a sudden thought hit me.
‘How did Jimmy know that this land was called Equestria when he only just arrived!?’ my mind screamed at me while I kept a good posture. Jimmy turned, fully facing Celestia.
“You don’t remember me do you Celestia?” he asked as Celestia took a step back as my mind started to work overtime.
‘What are you doing!?’ my mind screamed as my entire body shivered, though no one saw it.
“I’m sorry...?” she asked in shock as Jimmy took out his flute.
“Maybe this will jog your memory,” Jimmy played a short tune on his flute and straight after he finsished, Celestia’s face turned to one of both shock and joy as she had the biggest smile I had ever seen on her face.
“I-it’s you!” she exclaimed, using her front hoofs as she wrapped Jimmy in a hug. Luna looked at her sister questionably, myself included although instead my jaw was slap jaw open at the turn of events.
‘What!? How the hell does she know Jimmy!?’ I felt like I was about to scream until Luna’s mane brushed against my face unknowingly, making be blush however Luna didn’t notice as there was one thought in my mind. ‘She’s a pony, she’s a pony, she’s a pony, she’s a pony!.......Stop blushing!’
“Sister…how do you know this bard before just meeting him now?” Luna asked, curiosity in her tone as Celestia stopped the hug and turned to face us, a slight blush on her face (probably from embarrassment).
“Well sister, I met him over a hundred years ago…when I was only just a filly. One night while you were asleep near the gardens I began to hear wonderful music that was being played with a flute somewhere near the forest and due to my adventurous mind I decided to investigate. The music was coming from the outskirts of the forest, so it didn’t take long for me to get to the source of the music. When I did I found a tall creature on two legs with the same hat and flute as Jimmy has here; being played by him,” Celestia gestured over to Jimmy.
“When I first saw him I was actually a bit frightened due to how tall he was compared to me but my curiosity got the better of me as I walked out of the darkness and into his vision. After explaining myself to him that I was able to talk we discussed different subjects and after that, he began to play a song on his flute, the same one you two just heard before leaving,” Celestia’s smile seemed to lessen to a small one.
“We met at the same place for three days in a row and after that…he-you just disappeared…“ Celestia looked back at Jimmy, worry clearly written on her face. “what happened?” Jimmy gave me a quick glance as Luna raised an eyebrow in response.
“W-well Celestia, do you remember what Kyle said about the war-“Celestia gave a small nod. “-Well that’s the reason…I had to travel back to my kingdom to prepare for war as t-the journey was about six days on foot,” Celestia’s smile came back, happy that her friend was here as Luna walked up to Jimmy.
“What are those sticks you have under your hooves, Bard,” Luna asked politely, though the tone hid some…anger? Jimmy looked down at his crutches then back at Luna.
“Well Princess, these are not sticks…there crutches! There used to keep me upright for as you can see,” Jimmy looked down to his legs as the princesses noticed what he meant, both cringing at the sight.
“The war didn't do kindly to my legs, almost died too if the ranger didn't save me from the group of humans that managed to ambush me,” Celestia gave him a sympathetic look while Luna looked away due to the fact that she had pointed that out.
“Do you think that I could help heal it, you did so much for me back then I want to return the favour,” Jimmy gave another bow to Celestia at her request.
“That w-would be great your highness but I would rather wait until tomorrow if that is ok with you,” Celestia gave an uncertain look but accepted his request nonetheless by giving a nod. I noticed that the guards started to stir from there ‘sleep’ as I prepared my staff in case I needed to bash somepony’s head in…just a thought though.
As soon as the first guard came back to reality he was face to face with Jimmy as he gave him a goofy smile while the other guards grabbed their spears, pointing them straight at him.
“H-hello there, sorry for making you sleep,” the guard just looked back at Jimmy with hate as he lunged at him, spear at the ready. I instantly took action, blocking the blow with my staff as he slammed the spear down on it repeatedly.
“Get out of the way creature! Or I will-“
“STOP!” a tremendous voice shook the entire room we were in, almost sending me sprawling on the ground but I managed to contain my composure.
“YOU WILL NOT HURT EITHER OF THEM! STAND DOWN NOW!” again the voice shook the room making me think that the whole room would collapse on top of us as the guards lowered there weapons and took a step back from Jimmy and myself. I then heard the sound of somepony clearing there throat, turning around to find Celestia with a not too happy look on her face.
“Thank you Luna,” she turned to the guard that tried to stab me with the spear. “Captain Golden Sword, Kyle –as I said before- is not to be harmed under any circumstances yet you just tried to bring harm to him…I am disappointed in you,” Celestia said sadly as this ‘Golden Sword’ nodded his head.
“I understand princess, I was not thinking straight,” he replied as the princess gave him an emotionless nod, I almost snapped at what he said.
‘’I was not thinking straight!?’ What kind of apology was that!? If I was the sole ruler here I’d bash his bloody head in right now.’
I made I mental note to keep a close eye on this ‘captain’ as Celestia continued her speech.
“And you shall not harm the bard either for he is a close friend of mine as well as the Kings,” she stated which made me agree with her calling me a King in front of the guards, they needed to respect my authority… no, no, no! Don’t. Turn. Into. Cartman. You. Idiot. “So I ask you all to spread this news to the town so that the citizens know who they are,” all the guards bowed their heads to the princesses and left the castle. Celestia gave off a big sigh now that there was only us four left in the room.
“Sorry about that everypony, I just didn’t want anything bad to happen to you…I would never forgive myself if you got hurt…I might have even hurt Golden if you did,” Celestia admitted sadly as a small sympathetic smile formed on my face.
‘Yep, she really does act like she’s my mom…I like that,’ I chuckled inwardly at the image of Celestia rocking me in a small crib.
From the corner of my eye I swore that I saw a hint of fire in her mane, I rubbed my eyes.
‘Seeing fire in her mane…good job Kyle…already seeing things when you've just woke up,’
“Y-yeah, let’s get going! I want to check out the rest of this a-amazing castle and then maybe we can explore the town w-when we’re done,” Celestia smiled at Jimmy’s enthusiasm to explore the kingdom.
“Well then, looks like we should get started if we want to get to the town,” she stated happily as we began to walk back into the interior of the castle…but still…why did that fire look so real?