Chapter 6 - A Royal Plan
(Liam POV)
I slowly pushed myself to my hooves, still holding onto Twilight. She let go as soon as she got a good stance. We jumped off of the engine into soft green grass next to an ivory apartment building. Oh, static land, I missed you so much.
It wasn’t long before the Guard arrived at the scene with scores of them piling into each open door. We were approached by a high ranking Guard. He wore armor similar to a Roman Army Captain, but his was a purple color with a gold trim. His coat was white like mine with blue hooves, eyes and hair with varying tones of blue. Twilight noticed the soldier and immediately rushed towards him.
“TWILY!” he shouted.
“SHINY!” she shouted back. They pulled each other into a tight hug, crying over the recent incident.
“I’m so glad you’re safe.”
“What about you? I thought you were with Cadance on your honeymoon in Baltimare?”
“Duty calls; Celestia, herself brought me here the moment I found out you were on a runaway train. Luckily it stopped before the whole thing did the highest swan dive in Equestria’s history.”
“Well, I wasn’t the only one who stopped the train.”
“Really? Who?”
She gestured in my direction and a look of surprise grew over his face. He seemed overjoyed at the revelation.
“You were the pony that stopped the train?”
“Yes, sir,” I simply said, wiping my nose, lightly chuckling.
“Thank you,” he bowed, “Not only for saving the other ponies on board, but for saving my little sister as well.”
“Oh, so you’re Captain Shining Armor?”
“That’s correct. Captain of the Royal Guard. Mind if you accompany me and Twilight to the castle and tell me what happened?”
I nodded, following the Captain down the clean brick road. Twilight instead decided to go back to the train to get Spike. Poor dragon must be traumatized from this whole shitstorm. Many ponies in the town were fancily dressed and...wait, what? Oh, great; I’m in a town full of rich stuffy ponies. I can feel the negative judgment radiate off their intense stares at me. Bad enough that I used to get that back on Earth, but thankfully nopony threw holy water at me or told me how much I needed Jesus, but I digress. These may be just looking at my burnt jacket
“What’s wrong, Mr…?”
“Silversoul, Liam Silversoul,” I said in a James Bond voice. Too bad my Sean Connery impersonation sucks.
“Liam, you seem tense, anything bothering you?”
“I should’ve known that I would be crashing into a town filled with rich flankholes.”
“Yeah; they seem to be judgmental if you aren’t rich, but they widely respect ponies from the Military, especially ponies that go out of their way to save multiple lives from certain doom.”
That reasurement worked, since my tense muscles started to loosen up and my heart started to slow down to its normal pace. I calmly sighed, feeling like an ass for assuming things.
“You seem a little young to lead a whole division.”
“Well, I enlisted when I was 17, so this is my 10th year.”
“How long were you Captain?”
“A year, got a boost of morale from the troops when me and my wife stopped an invasion a few days ago.”
“What the hell happened?”
“Well, I was going to marry Princess Cadance, Alicorn of Love.”
“Fitting. The sex life must be better than with a Succubus.”
“Anyways, these creatures, Changelings tried to take me away from my wife on our wedding. Our love ended up throwing them out of the kingdom. Speaking of events, how long were you here in Equestria?”
“Believe it or not, it’s my first day.”
“Hell of an introduction to the country. Where were you before Equestria?”
“I have folks in Griffonstone.”
“Really? I didn’t know there were ponies in Griffonstone.”
“You learn something new everyday, like finding out you’re Twilight’s older brother.”
“How did you meet Twily, anyways?”
I paused for a moment, thinking of a convincing story.
“I can’t remember how I got here, but I woke up in her home. She told me I had a nasty bump on my head. Since she’s Princess Celestia’s student, she figured that the Princesses can help me out with my memory loss.”
“Can you also tell me what happened on that train and why you’re jacked up to oblivion?”
“Okay,” I began my story, “It started out as a normal ride, and then the car behind us blew up, which shocked the flanks off us and there was an announcement on the train’s intercom. Those unicorns in combat fatigues or what’s left of them hijacked the train. Their leader and Lieutenant jumped ship before the train hit the tunnel. I got jacked up fighting both of them.”
“Good job. For the capture of those terrorists and saving those ponies, I think the princesses will give you a generous reward.”
“Wait, if we’re heading to the castle, where’s the hospital so I can get fixed up?”
“No need; they’ll understand. They could close those gashes with magic.”
“I know; I’m lucky to be alive, though.”
We came up to the castle gates where two gold-armored guards were stationed. The gates themselves were massive. Grey and dull-looking, but massive. The guards had lances to match as well, the flags of the kingdom’s crest blew in the light wind. I approached the doors, but they swung their lances in front of me, blocking my entry.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Shining Armor said, quickly intervening, “Cool it, men; he’s with me and the Princesses are expecting him.”
“Yes, sir.”
They returned their weapons to their stance and saluted their CO. The doors clicked and slowly creaked open.
I was deeply moved by the beauty of the castle’s interior, well at least the lobby, of course. The floor had a square diagonal checkerboard feel to it. A red carpet with yellow trim ran down through the center of the room with a yellow star in the middle with the traditional North, South, East and West directions. Looking onward, I spotted two glass pane windows atop the half-flight of stairs. The right looked to be a painting of the day sky where the pane next to it was the opposite; the night. Uncertain of direction, I turned to Shining Armor for support.
“Where’s the throne room?”
“Well, if you go up the stairs in front of us and take a right up those stairs, there, we’ll go in a straight line and we’ll see it in plain view.”
“Thanks.”
I trotted up the stairs, only to stop at the top and looked behind to see the Captain still standing there at the threshold.
“You ain’t coming along?” I asked, echoing across the open room.
“I’m waiting for Twily and Spike. Besides, it’s best not to keep the princesses waiting.”
“Thanks again for direction.”
The hall was surprisingly dark for it belonging to the Alicorn of the daytime, but I digress. She must’ve set that up as a means of me making a proper entrance. I wonder if she really is omnipotent. That would explain how she conveniently knew how and when Twilight would solve all those problems during the first 2 seasons of the show.
I emerged from the dark hallway to a bright long room, bordered on glass panes. As I walked down the center of the hall, looking at each one, bearing familiarity with each major event in the show. From Nightmare Moon and Discord’s defeats to Shining Armor and Princess Cadence’s love trumping an invasion of changelings.
I stopped dead in my tracks when I first laid my eyes on the Sun Princess, herself in the flesh. She sat there, looking at me, smiling. Luna was also beside her, smiling as well.
“You can step forward; I don’t bite,” she reassured me. ‘...hard.’ I heard her thought and blushed. Luna noticed my sudden shift in my stance and informed her sister.
“We think he heard thou thoughts, sister,” she reminded her of my thought-speech spell, “He possesses the same gifts and potentials we have.”
“I took notice. So, can you tell me why we have decided to make you an Alicorn...Liam Silversoul, was it?”
I put a hoof to my chin, pondering the thought, but came up with no answer.
“You know, I never really put any thought into it. Why have you done so? Maybe it had something to with the fact that I saved lives in the past and put an uneasy soul to rest?”
“That’s not the only reason,” Luna added, “Sister? Care to tell him?”
“I received a vision about the upcoming events that are about to unfold. After what happened half an hour ago, that has confirmed my suspicions on the matter. Can you give us a brief on what happened on the train when you were with my student?”
“To make a long story short, the terrorists are apart of a Unicorn Supremacy group led by a Stallion who calls himself, Herureiza or Hellraiser in Equestrian. Turns out that they are merely a branch of something darker.”
“And what might that be?”
“I don’t know the details. I snagged a letter of their orders on a piece of paper, but it was mostly burnt. The only thing I could make out was that they were ordered to kill everypony on the train and collect their souls as well as creating a crash to cover up their traces of sabotage.”
“Then my fears were right,” Celestia deadpanned, slumping deeper into her throne.
“Your guards could get more information off of the terrorists I didn’t kill, if they’re willing to spill the beans on their plans. I don’t think this scrap is enough to warrant damning evidence on who’s responsible for this whole mess, even though it seems that Herureiza’s the one pulling the strings, it’s a gut feeling to me that I think he’s only a level 2 goon; the real mastermind is out there, somewhere.”
“Either way, you stopped the terrorists, saved everypony on board, including my faithful student and her assistant. I’m more than thankful for what you have done so far.”
“This is not the only reason for my visit, though.”
“I know; preparations for bringing your family over here to Equestria.”
“I’m guessing I’m returning to Earth the same way Luna has found me?”
“Not quite,” Luna corrected me, “We simply found you by chance and have observed thou for a reasonable length of time. We needeth thou memories for thy journey to thou old dwelling.”
“I vaguely remember what my old home looks like, but I remember the street name. Is that good enough?”
“Yes; we can work with that.”
“The easy part is getting there; the hard part is convincing my old man to join us here.”
“We’ll never know until we try.”
“Okay, but I must warn you; my did is a little troubled.”
“We can subdue him if he should ever become violent towards you.”
I got close to Luna, looking her dead in the eyes.
“He never strikes his family.”
“Then it’s settled. We’re ready when thou art.”
I cracked my neck, preparing for the dimensional jump. Luna placed her horn on mine and lit her’s up. I done the same, letting her connect her magic with mine. The same tingling warmth flashed over my body when I was human, my vision flashing white and then...nothing.