Frank and Scott were enjoying a lunch break and a bit of light conversation outside of the restaurant, when a massive migration of ponies began to pass them. The road they were on connected the gates at the bottom of the lower reaches to the roadway up to the finer upper districts, so it was normally well traveled, but this was different. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of ponies traveled together in a massive throng. Most were clearly tired but determined, wearing little clothing and certainly no finery. Yet in the center of the throng was a palanquin, showing the silhouette of a unicorn mare within.
The ponies toward the outskirts took notice of the humans and scowled and bristled, as if wrestling against the urge to assault them outright. Both humans were a bit alarmed by this, not only from their numbers but also the sheer novelty of seeing ponies with such naked aggression. Celestia's subjects had always been so much kinder in disposition. But despite their looks, no assault was forthcoming.
The migration halted to turn and stare, along with everypony else in the city, as the southern sky erupted into an outpouring of blinding light. In the distance, columns of light tore from sky to earth, while several bright flashes heralded to appearance of rapidly expanding clouds, billowing upward in a broad round cap with a narrower column to support them, looking distinctly like mushrooms. They looked tiny from here, but the realization of just how far away they were hit home how massive they must truly have been. Smaller, sickly looking green clouds could be seen billowing around their bases as the columns of light finally faded away.
Before the clouds had time to disperse, the massive herd of ponies had started moving again, much faster now. They cleared the streets of lower Canterlot, leaving a temporary void in their wake before life slowly began to reassert itself.
Just before closing time, a pair of unicorns wearing the armor of solar guards strolled into the restaurant. They quickly headed into the back where Frank was washing dishes and Scott was filling bowls. With a light cough, one of them drew the humans' attention before saying politely "Come with us, please. The princesses wish to have a word with you both." While the tone was polite, it was also stern, and the two men showed their hands in the human gesture of surrender as they came along quietly, leaving all of their possessions behind. Welcome Smile frowned, and began closing up shop early.
In upper Canterlot, the humans got a lot more stares and traded whispers from the pony elite. It was hard to tell if it was from being human, or escorted by the guards, or simply the fact that their wardrobe was so clearly out of place. Perhaps it was all three. The attention seemed to run off Scott like water off a duck's back, but Frank was beet red from embarrassment and cringed constantly.
When they arrived at the castle, they were made to wait just outside a massive pair of closed doors, in a sort of open-air lobby. Night fell, in the sudden way it did here, and the sudden darkness did nothing to calm Frank's nerves. Had he known the rulers of this land literally control the sun and moon, and that the transition was a hand off of the reigns to the more warlike of the two diarchs prior to their interview, he might have passed out entirely. The changing of the guard, from the gold armored and white furred unicorns that had brought them here to a pair of bat-winged, fanged lunar pegasi certainly didn't help. Fortunately, they did not have much time to wait after that.
The pair of pegasi opened the massive doors and led their 'guests' down into the main stage area of a massive amphitheater. A scattering of well dressed ponies, mostly unicorns, were in the audience. The room was quiet and reeked of tension. At the front, a pair of massive ponies, perhaps better described as horses, sat watching the humans' progress with great interest. One black furred, the other white, both with dazzlingly unnatural manes and bearing both unicorn horns and pegasus wings along with an earth pony's more powerful build, the alicorns easily stood out from the rest of their subjects.
A few feet to side of the alicorns, and mere steps in front of her palanquin, a smaller unicorn stood watching the humans impatiently. The crown of gem-lined gold proclaimed her royal status more blatantly and less effectively than the alicorns' regal form, but the look from her eyes was no less imposing. Her fur was pink, the mane a deeper shade of pink, and her flanks marked with a simple red heart, making the daunting stare all that much more jarring.
The white alicorn stood and welcomed the new arrivals. "Welcome, humans. I am Princess Celestia, and this is my sister Princess Luna. To our left is the visiting Queen All Heart of the.. ermm.. 'Southern tribes'. Would you be so kind as to begin by introducing yourselves and telling us how you came to be in our fair city?"
Frank easily picked up on Celestia's uncomfortable attempt at deception, wondering what game she was playing, so Scott used the opening to go ahead and go first. "Greetings your majesties. I am Scott Jones, a humble traveler from the fair state of Washington. I cannot explain how I came to be in your fair city. I was merely riding a bus home from the hospital in my own city when I came unexpectedly to a very dark place. A strange red text then appeared before me, asking me where I would like to go, and informing me I would come here instead. It asked what I would like to bring with me and I asked for a can of soup that was always ready to eat and would not run out. I figured at least then I wouldn't have to worry about being hungry. The Text agreed, and even made it so the can could produce more than one flavor of soup. Then it spit me out here in Canterlot. I found some ponies that were as hungry as I had ever been, and shared my soup with them. Then I met a nice stallion whose restaurant was losing money, and worked together to feed as many ponies as we could while earning enough bits to keep a roof over our heads. And that's pretty much all I've been doing since I arrived."
After hearing out Scott's tale, the Princesses turned to the Queen expectantly. She waved a hoof dismissively. "This one seems harmless enough, and I believe he speaks true. I still think you should take him into custody for his safety as well as your own. But I see no reason to press the issue if you insist on letting him run loose. Be warned though, humans can be a deceptive lot, and I cannot promise he is merely what he seems."
Luna snorted. "Enough. We have seen Scott's dreams and-"
Scott interrupted, his face brightening "I knew it! I knew you were the mare of my dreams. I didn't say it because it sounds so weird and I thought I was just, you know, dreaming."
Luna pawed the ground a moment, regaining her composure. "Quite. We believe Scott to be more boon than bane to our little ponies. We suggest he be allowed to return to his work feeding lower Canterlot. And we recommend posting a small contingent to protect him from undue harm. Should war come, as Queen All Heart suggests, then we should find his services most helpful in attending our civilians' needs."
Celestia nodded her agreement. "It shall be as my sister says. I shall appoint two of my guards to look after him during the day, and Luna shall chose two of her night guards to keep an eye on him in the night. We thank you for being a model citizen, Scott, and welcome you to our realm."
Scott nodded and took his seat, smiling at Frank and gesturing him to go on and introduce himself. Frank nervously stepped forward, taking a deep breath to calm himself before beginning. "Hi, I am Frank Cobbler, and I was on the same bus as Scott, and went through pretty much the same thing when I arrived. I didn't get as fancy when it came to asking for an item, just asked for a good old fashioned Swiss Army knife." Frank cringed as he said the name, realizing suddenly that the ponies would have no reason to think Swiss armies any more harmless than any ravaging horde. "The Text left me in a library, in Ponyville, where I met Twilight Sparkle and her friends. I believe they are familiar to you?" he eyed Celestia as he said that, receiving a nod for his trouble. "Anyways, I did my best to help out around Ponyville for a time, before I got the idea to umm.. come up here to Canterlot and check out the city."
Frank was getting increasingly nervous as he quickly tried to lay out a plausible version of events that made no mention of his bloody encounter with Daniel. All Heart was glaring daggers at him, Scott was furrowing his brows a bit, apparently deep in thought, while Luna frowned. Celestia finally prodded him for more detail. "What prompted you to come up to the capital, Mister Cobbler? Was there something you needed that was not available in Ponyville?"
[Yeah, a clean getaway,] he thought. "I had a, umm, an encounter. With. With another man. David or something. Daniel!"
"And what did this 'Daniel' do to you in your encounter?" All Heart asked, her tone shifting subtly from adversarial to almost conspiratorial. She looked eager to hear his answer for once, rather than accusatory. This just confused Frank and made him all the more nervous.
"I, he.. nothing. He just, he just spoke to me and we.. umm.. well." Frank was near his breaking point.
"Does this have to do with your bloody nightmares?" Luna asked, accidentally using her Royal Canterlot Voice at full volume instead of the more soothing tone she had intended.
"Yes! Oh God, yes!" Frank fell to his knees sobbing. "I did it! I did it! I confess! All he wanted to do was talk, and I murdered him for it! I just, I wanted to go home, to my wife and children, and he had none of that!" Everyone in the room was stunned into silence as he babbled on, all the guilt and pain from the last few days exploding out into this moment.
Scott starting poking at his cell phone, frowning. "When did you kill him?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.
"Five days ago, I think.. before I came to Canterlot. I was.. running from Twilight and her friends. I couldn't stand to face them after what I had done," Frank sobbed.
"It cannot be, for my scout encountered your King Daniel only three days past," Queen All Heart stammered.
"No Daniels dead, unless he gave you a false name," Scott announced. "But Ben and Robert passed weeks ago, and you were with me when Rebecca passed."
"He's.. not dead?!" Frank said with an awkward mix of relief and sheer terror, the memory of Daniel's horrific neck-wound springing back into his mind. How could someone survive something like that? He had to be inhuman!
"Nevertheless, you confess to having attempted to murder another pony, err, human. We shall take Queen All Heart's earlier advice in this matter, and detain you for all of our safety," Celestia decreed. Luna nodded her consent, and motioned some of her guards forward. "We shall meet with you periodically to see what might be done to rehabilitate you, but for now we shall make accommodations for you to stay here under guard. Do you consent to that?"
Frank nodded wordlessly, still a bit in shock from it all.
"So, that was Daniel's spider robot thingy you had?" Scott asked Frank.
While Frank nodded, All Heart chimed in "Yes, surely, one of the minions of the spider king I told you of."
"Where is the spider now? We would study it carefully and learn more of this king," Luna inquired.
"Its back at the restaurant, in my backpack. It's name is <Deus>," Frank recalled.
"'God'? How presumptuous for an insect." Luna snorted as her magic translated the word.
All Heart shot her a momentary sharp look before moving on. "Now that that matter is settled, shall we resume discussion of our sanctuary here, and alliance?"
The humans were escorted away to their various destinations as the royal trio resumed their diplomacy afresh.