//------------------------------// // Chap 1: My new Life // Story: The Eternal Body Guard // by LukasAngelis //------------------------------// The Eternal Bodyguard By LukasAngelis Chapter 1: My New Life Dear Diary, Journal, (whatever): 6/20/1000 Five Years. It has been five years since I have come to Equestria. Five years of waiting to go home, five years of looking over this little filly grow into quite the young mare. It's finally time for the day to arrive. The one thousandth Summer Sun Celebration. When Nightmare Moon comes and we finally go to Ponyville. But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, I guess since this is such a momentous occasion I should start from the beginning. I still don’t fully remember what happened to bring me to this magical land. But I guess it doesn’t matter; all that should matter is how and when I get back. I've always been one of those guys in the background. It doesn't help that I was a security guard, you know, one of those guys that most people tend to ignore unless they're getting in your way. That was me. I know I was good at my job, or at least good enough to get a couple of personal security guard jobs. I guess one could even consider me a bodyguard on some contracts. Though I did have more experience with just general security. I think I had a moderate life, I was still young, mid-twenties, in decent shape, not too tall, not too short, and had a steady and decent income. The only thing that I didn't really like was that I didn't get to see my kid enough, I had a son from a previous marriage, and when that ended, so did most of my time with my son. I loved him more than anything as any good parent should. I just miss him so much, I wish... ah never mind what I wish for anymore. Anything I wish, I've wished a thousand, if not a million times before. Anyway, I do (or at least did) consider myself quite the Brony. I very much enjoyed the show of My Little Pony. I figured I had seen every episode almost half a dozen times each (at least until the season 5 break). Read quite a few fanfictions, watched a lot on YouTube. Never thought much about it. I just grew to love most of the characters. All I remember of that now infamous night, was it was a normal night of pizza and soda and a TV binge. I had a long and boring day at work that day and was looking forward to just vegging out for the first night of my three day weekend. I remember being so exhausted after coming home that I didn't even take my shoes off or even empty my pockets. I figured if they bugged me enough, they would find a way to handle themselves. I was relaxing in my comfy recliner and rewatching an episode of MLP on Netflix. While I can't remember the names of the episodes anymore, I do remember it was the one where Fluttershy was watching Princess Celestia's pet phoenix. Not my favorite episode but it has it's moments. I like to have it playing in the background just to have something to fall asleep to. Anyway I had fallen asleep and don't remember anything else. Next thing I know I'm landing on my back onto a marble floor, hard. I can easily say that is not the most pleasant way to wake up. I got the wind knocked out of me so I open my eyes and start gasping for breath. Once I actually recovered, I got up to wonder just where I was. I could tell it was daytime and I was in a big hall. Something was definitely not right. Something about the castle seemed familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. Firstly, I would like to say that one of the things I like to pride myself on is the ability I have to handle whatever someone throws at me. In other words, I don't lose my bearing easily, and it is quite hard to fluster me. I felt I had to take inventory to make sure I was all there and what I had: head was there, two arms, ten fingers, two legs, two feet, everything seemed in place. Clothes: one white T-shirt, one pair of blue jeans pants, pair of socks, pair of white and black running shoes, wallet, keys, and MP3 Player with headphones. So everything I had when I went to sleep was still there... interesting. After that assessment I decided to explore my surroundings, maybe find someone to help me. I could mostly tell this wasn't a dream, since that landing pretty much disproved that. And I highly doubt someone could sneak into my apartment, drug me and drag me... somewhere. So that left me with... no logical explanation, not enough information even for an illogical one. At any rate, I had been searching for a couple of minutes and had found not much of anyone. All I had was this nagging feeling in the back of my mind like I should know where I am. As I'm walking along I hear voices from around a corner, as I look around the corner to see where they originate from, all of a sudden everything goes black. As I struggle to regain consciousness, I feel like I can't move a muscle. I hear multiple voices talking around me. "Princess, we found this creature sneaking around the halls, he looked dangerous so we felt it was necessary to subdue him." "Honestly I don't see what is so dangerous about him, I must say his size and shape are a tad unusual but I wouldn't just go accusing him for something like that" At that voice, I knew something had to be wrong in my head. I clearly recognized that voice, but I knew that was impossible, this had to be a coincidence, or just some really vivid dream, there was no possible way that this was actually- "Princess Celestia, what do you want us to do with the prisoner? Should we take him to the cells until he wakes up?" "Princess Celestia???" I had mumbled. "It appears our young friend here is waking up anyway. So you may go stand guard outside the door." I heard the guards respond fervently, "Your highness, shouldn’t we stay in case he causes some trouble? He could be dangerous." I opened my eyes but still couldn't really move, all I could see was the ceiling of an enormous, what I guessed was a throne room. "I believe I can handle it," I heard her give a small giggle. "You're dismissed." I heard clanging and clopping as the guards went back to their rounds. As they were leaving, it was getting easier to move again. As soon as I could I slowly stood up. I was still groggy but my vision was clearing. I couldn't believe my eyes, on the show the castle was always majestic but that's nothing to seeing it in person. My eyes couldn't hold still as it took in the amazing architecture, the awe inspiring stained glass and the enormous... everything in this grand room. All around I looked until my eyes settled on the six foot (six and a half if you add the horn) alicorn princess. The princess, in all her splendor, was as always a courteous host. "Hello, my name is Princess Celestia, what is your name?" Again I find myself quite hard to fluster, but this was pushing even me to a kind of breaking point already. "My name is Lukas Jackson. With all due respect Princess, how in your name did I get here?" The smile from Celestia's face seemed to vanish, "Excuse me? I honestly don't know what you are doing here. My guards found you, as they say, sneaking around the castle. In fact, I was going to ask you the same question." "I don’t know how I'm here. All I know was I was asleep in my apartment, then all of a sudden, I'm here. Then, I go to see where I am and someone knocked me out. That's all I know." "That is very unusual. Where exactly are you from?" "I'm from Dallas, Texas, in America. Planet Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy. I can't really give any more info than that, though I wish I could." "You must be very confused about where you are, you are in my kingdom of Equestria, in the city of Canterlot." "Believe it or not, I actually know where I am." "You do? It is quite strange for a human to know this place is. And even less to be as level headed as you seem to be." "Wait, you know what I am? How do you know I'm human?" "I'll tell you what, you must be exhausted. Why don't I order you a room so you can rest and get some more time to gather your thoughts. "Then you can join me for dinner tonight and we can discuss your dilemma." Being that I was jostled out of sleep, and thrown into a world I didn’t even believe existed an hour ago I had to agree with the princess. I sat down on some steps to try and gather my thoughts while she ordered a guard to ready a room. I was then led by what seemed to be a very wary four foot tall guard earth pony to my room. I found the bed which seemed to have been either adjusted for my size or brought in that is normally for one of their larger guests. The room had reminded me of the episode which Rarity had stayed at the castle, it kind of looked like that. While I still was 99% sure this wasn't a dream, this seemed to be way too lucid and vivid than anything I could possibly imagine. I was so out of it and confused by my whole situation that as soon as the guard left and shut the door, I plopped on the bed and just crashed. After about two hours of sleeping, I woke and just laid there. I was feeling a bit calmer and a lot less tired, but still didn't want to get up just yet, so I just looked up at the ceiling and did what I always did, analyze my position. Here I was, in a place Bronys only dream of going, and this appeared to be fully real. I can find out so much of what really happens here that it’s a dream come true. On the other hand, if I am really here, now my son is effectively fatherless, not to mention my work and my friends, all two of them, will be wondering where I am. After thoughts for both pro and con were rushing in and out of my head for at least ten minutes, I just stopped and realized that there is no point in worrying about this kind of thing if Princess Celestia can just send me back home like that. I heard a guard knock on the door about an hour after me waking up saying that Princess Celestia was inviting me for dinner. I told him to give me a moment to get up and ready. Let me just say that toilets in Equestria take a little bit to figure out. I went down to meet the princess, following the pegasus guard because I knew I would get lost otherwise, and felt like having a conversation. "So what is your name?" "Excuse me?" "My name is Lukas. What is your name?" "Wind Waker." "How long have you been a guard?" "Two years. Are you going to be asking a lot of questions?" "I just figured I'd be friendly, since I have no idea how long I'm going to be here for." "Whatever." We made our way to the private dining room of Princess Celestia where I sat down at what looked like a miniature feast, all looked delicious, and some I might actually able to consume. I was curious as to where the princess was at the moment. I guess I expected her to be announced or something, so I just sat there looking around waiting. For being a private room, it still looked magnificent, I guess the builders wanted every last brick in this place to look as regal and elegant as possible. I wish I could describe better what I saw, but there was just so much even in that (relatively) small room, that I wouldn't even know where to begin. As I was admiring the silverware, I was a tad startled to hear the princess's voice as she entered the room, and as I heard it I bolted to standing as if I was in trouble "I apologize for not being here when you arrived, I had a long running meeting." She stopped with a surprised look on her face, then gave a small chuckle, "You don't have to be so nervous; you can relax." "Thank you Princess, I just thought to somepony of your esteem, I should at least be courteous and respectful. " "And thank you in return, but please feel free to speak openly and candidly." "Thank you again, I must say this food looks amazing. I wouldn't think you would have any kind of meat at all, you know since you are herbivores." "We are, but we get omnivore and even some carnivores as ambassadors every so often, so we have to be able to treat them as they would hope to treat us as well, and since I know humans are omnivores that maybe you wouldn't like some of the foods we have here. Please eat, we have much to discuss." "Yes Princess." "Now first, I must ask again, do you have any idea now of how you got here? And how exactly do you know of this place? I've never known anypony outside our world, especially a human, that knows of Equestria." "First of all, I still have no idea how I got here. I've thought about it for the past few hours, and I haven't come up with anything. As for your second question it might be a bit complicated." I spent the next half hour eating and explaining to her that in my world, their world was simply a TV show that I enjoyed watching. And that their world was, or so I thought, just made up in some woman's head. Since I still didn't know when I was in the timeline; I tried not getting into any specifics, like the adventures of twilight and her friends. I simply mentioned she Celestia herself was on it. "That's incredible, so you know every major event that is going to occur?" "I don't really know. To know what I know, I'd have to know when I am. How is Twilight Sparkle?" "Twilight? My new protégé?" "New protégé?" "Yes, Twilight just became my student, along with getting her very own cutie mark. I know I'm going to be very proud of her in years to come." This blew my mind, I couldn't believe I was so far back in the timeline. There was no way I'd ever see any of the events from the show. Oh well, I thought." "Princess, sorry to change subjects so abruptly, but do you know of any way at all that I can get home?" "Oh, transporting you back home? Hmm... Well, I can't do it right now, but it is possible that there is a spell in the library that may be able to return you. I have a spell for transferring a pony, but transferring a pony and transporting a human is bit of a different spell, but I'm almost sure that one exists somewhere in the library" "That's good news, I guess. But as much as I would love to see this place and learn what I can, I really would like to get home." "The major issue would be finding the world that you are from. There are almost countless worlds, and in all my years, even I have only seen a handful of human world. and never have I taken somepony from them." "So...how long could this take?" "…Assuming that we can find the spell, which in itself could take several weeks. As busy as I am, and that I am the only pony powerful enough to help you, it could take weeks or... even months to find the correct world. And I hate to say, but that's assuming the best." "WHAT!?!? What do you mean MONTHS!? I have to get home! I have a job! I have a SON I need to get back to!" "I understand the frustration that you must be feeling-" "NO, this isn't frustration! This is sadness! This is anger! I was hoping I'd only be here a couple days, not weeks, and certainly not months! What am I supposed to do for months being here?" "I apologize for the news I have given you, But I can assure you that if we can find that spell, I will try my best to get you home. As for what you are supposed to do, we can support you at the castle and you can stay in that room as long as you are here." "I just can't believe this, I can't believe I won't be able to see my son." I was feeling like I was starting to cry. " I won't even have a job by the time I get back. What about my son? What about... I think I need to go back to bed." I stood up from the table and started to leave the room. Celestia asked the guard to escort me back, but she also stopped me. "Lukas, just please promise me you are not going to do anything drastic. I'd hate for only sadness to come from you being brought here." "Just.. fine, nothing bad will happen. I promise." And I stormed out of the room. I knew what she meant, she was hoping I wouldn't like jump out of the window or choke myself with my shoelaces or something like that. And while her concern was endearing, it was also unnecessary. I am not the kind of person to hurt themselves like that, even if all hope had seemed lost. It was just a lot to take in over such a short period of time. Besides if I did end up killing myself, then my chances of going home go from ~10% to 0%. So it would be kind of pointless. I got back to my room and before the guard left I asked for a glass and pitcher of water. I thanked him, and wished him good night. I sat in my room for a few hours thinking about my situation. After calming down, I remembered and realized that no good would come from me worrying about not being able to go home, even if I hated the fact that I am trapped here. I couldn't do anything about it so I need to take advantage of what I have. I needed to have a plan if I wasn't going to die of boredom in this room waiting for some hope to come through. I went to bed hoping that I could come up with something in my sleep. In the morning I got up early to see Celestia's sunrise for myself. And I must say, I have, only a handful of times in my whole life, seen a better sunrise, it was simply magnificent. When I saw that sunrise, I knew that things could still look up, I just have to play my cards right. I was served breakfast in my room, scrambled eggs and toast. And as I ate I started forming a plan. I needed a job here, both because I hated being a mooch, and I needed a sense of purpose. Unfortunately, I knew being a human would greatly hinder my ability to find work. I also knew that while I had knowledge in quite a few subjects, my job skills in most things were limited at best. All I had pretty much known for the last seven years was guarding. I guessed I could try and be a castle guard, but something about that seemed... off. It would be cool, but I knew I could think of something better. Being a Canterlot guard for months might be fun, of course it also might be boring. From what I knew of the show, The guard's job goes from incredibly dull to life shatteringly terrifying in the span of a day. If there was only another way to be able to guard someone, and maybe not be shocked by every major thing that happens. That's when it hit me, what if I was Twilight's guard, her own bodyguard? That way, I could help keep someone safe, still be doing my job, and I would get to "hang" with the future princess of friendship, just in case I really was stuck here. Win/win I thought. Of course I knew it wouldn't be that easy, why would someone put me in charge of guarding Twilight when they don't anything at all about me. I would just have to join the guard first and work my way to that. All there really was to do was convince Celestia. After breakfast, I tried to some of my normal morning routine, mostly exercise. too bad the room wasn't really big enough for me to run around in. All I could really do was some pushups and sit-ups. but it gave me time to think out the details of my plan that I would tell the princess of the sun. After cleaning up again, I asked the guard outside my room if I could have an audience with the princess, he left and came back in about five minutes. He then escorted me back to the princess whom was back in her main chamber. "The guard has told me you wanted to see me about something?" "Yes, your highness. After giving it some major thought I feel I need to decline your offer for free room and board at the castle." "I'm not sure I understand. How else will you be able to survive in Canterlot? You would need bits for food and shelter. How exactly do you propose to do that?" "As I said Princess, I have given it much thought. And after thinking it over, I was hoping, with your divine permission, that I could join your royal guard here in Canterlot." "You want to be in the royal guard? May I ask why?" "Ma'am, I just figure it would be the closest to the job I had before, and in case somebody finds the spell to send me home, I'm right there and ready to go. Not to mention I have both MP training from the army and security training with one of the best corporations where I'm from. So while I would need some specified and refresher training, it would be simpler than bringing on someone fresh." "While that is true, I'm just unsure of how the rest of the guard will act toward a human guarding alongside them." "I'm willing to give it a shot if you are your highness, and I will prove myself to whomever I need to to show that I can do this job." Princess Celestia grew silent in thought for a few minutes, I could see that she was both weighing the options and seeing if I had some kind of ulterior motive. "I will have to discuss this with the Captain of the Guard and see what he says. Until then, I would ask you to stay inside the castle grounds. I should be able to have an answer by tonight." "Thank you princess." I said as I was dismissed. I left the throne room and returned to my room, I spent a couple hours resting and relaxing. I explored the grounds a tad bit (always watching my back so I didn't draw too many eyes) and found myself in the guard training grounds. It had a weapon field (looked mostly for spears, javalins and archery), a track, a sky track for the pegasi, and more areas for different types of training that I couldn't even come close to identifying. I went back to my room after grabbing a bite of fruit to eat. It was quite still in my room, from my window as the sun was setting I could have sworn I could see Ponyville, or at least the town hall. I just wondered when and if I would be able to see it anytime soon. I got a message around 7:00 to go see the princess once more. I went back to the throne room once again a lot more nervous than I had been in a long time. And a lot more nervous than I think I should have been. As I approached Princess Celestia, I saw that there was a unicorn with her in what looked like high military garb. "You requested to see me Princess?" "Yes Lukas, I have spoken about our situation and your solution in to Captain Bronze Star for the last few hours. And while he seems a tad reluctant to let somepony in his ranks that's not actually a pony, he is willing to give you a chance." Whom I had guessed was Captain Bronze Star spoke up,"Listen here son, I don't know what you think you can add to my guard, but my ponies are the best trained in all of Equestria. I don't know what kind of training you think you have from wherever you come from, but from your build I can already tell you ain't got the guff to stand in this regiment." "We'll see about that, good sir." I said trying my best to be confident and keep to my plan. While I will go into greater detail (maybe) of my trials and tribulations of the last five years later, I will give the gist next time I write. We have a party to go to tomorrow. The party of one unicorn named Moondancer. Signed as Always, Lukas Jackson