//------------------------------// // What did I do at all? // Story: We will catch you if we can // by proto-alpha //------------------------------// It was a quiet warm morning in Equestria. It was little after Celestia lifted her sun that everypony started to wake up in the city of Canterlot. Some stores were just opening as some fillies and colts were trotting to school, some happy and others didn't want to go. But it wasn't the same some hundreds of meters under that city. In the crystal caves in the underground of the city there was a loud explosion and a portal opened. From the portal started to appear little particles that were starting to form a figure on the ground. When it was complete, it was a human, but it was unconscious. After the human was complete, the portal closed. Meanwhile at Princess Celestia's room, the Sun Princess was having her morning tea when she sensed something was wrong. "What was that?" she thought. For her it was like a tiny electrical shock and that usually meant some powerful magic was just used. She tried to feel where it was from and tracked it to the Canterlot Crystal Caves. "I should investigate this anomaly" Celestia thought. She called one of her servants and a light blue mare wearing a maid outfit came almost instantly. "I want you to tell the captain Shining Armor to gather his troops and to wait in the back gardens, tell him that it's of high importance" the princess told to her servant. "As you wish, your highness" she replied. The pony then was running to the training grounds of the castle. At that place, Shining Armor was having his troops do some routine exercises. The mare approached the white unicorn and told him the princess' message. Shining Armor nodded and called his troops, and in less than two minutes they were at the meeting point. Not too long after, Celestia arrived with Luna by her side. Shining and the soldiers bowed. Celestia told them to rise and started to explain the situation to the captain . "Shining Armor, I need you and your troops to escort us to the Canterlot Crystal Caves." the unicorn frowned at the mention of the place where his wife was held captive for who knows how long, "There was an unnatural amount of magical energy and I fear for the well being of the city and probably all of Equestria, and I need you and your soldiers in case it's something more than just one thing". Shining Armor saluted and responded with a confident smile "We will protect you from anything that want to cause you or Equestria any harm". In the underground, the human started to wake up. It was almost impossible to see in the dark, but there were some glowing stones in the ground that made it possible to see just a little. At first the human didn't know what was happening, and he started to freak out. "Hello!" he shouted "Is anyone there?!". At getting nothing more than his own echo as a response, he started to worry "Where am I? What is this place? Why am I here?" he was asking himself these questions while trying to calm down. It took some time, and when he finally calmed down, he started to ponder about his situation. "Okay, don't panic. Think of this like all those times playing Minecraft, except that you don't have magical fists capable of breaking everything," he looked around, "and nothing is pixelated" he finished his dialogue with himself. Looking down, he noticed the rocks that were about the size of his fist "I could try to find the exit" he thought while observing the only way out of the cave, which was a dark tunnel that lead to the unknown. He gulped and started to walk to what was most likely his doom. Meanwhile, with the other group, Shining Armor was leading the path through the cave, his horn glowing and showing their path. They had been walking for some hours now and the cave was getting bigger, to the point it could fit a fully grown dragon. The group stopped when saw two shining dots in the distance, floating in the darkness. Thinking about all of the beasts that lived down there, some soldiers were shaking at the sight and a one of the new recruits fainted. Shining Armor, who didn't even flinch at the sight just made his horn glow brighter, revealing a two legged figure with a glowing stone in each hand. Celestia magically scanned him and found traces of the magic outburst she felt earlier. She took some steeps forward, and after clearing her throat, she started to talk "Creature, are you a thinking being?" POV of the human I couldn't believe what I was seeing. In front of me there were horses. Some were a little shorter than me by just some centimeters, reaching somewhere around my shoulders, and others had horns or wings! But the two that were taller than me had both! But then, when the last strand of sanity hanged from my body, the white horse started to TALK!! "Creature, are you a thinking being?" She, I assumed it was a female, said. I was in a state pure shock and confusion for some seconds, and when I finally reacted I was sure I was somewhere close to the madness. "A-a-a ta-ta-talking horse. A freaking talking horse". Everyone, except for the white pegasus unicorn got shocked expressions on their faces, apparently they didn't expect me to be able to talk either. "I'll take that as a yes, and we aren't horses, we are ponies" the white hor... I mean, pony said "Who and what are you?" "I'm a human and my name is Fernando. But, who are you?" I answered and returned my own question. "My name is Celestia and I co-rule Equestria with my sister, Luna, as princesses of the day and night respectively, and until further notice we need to take you under ". I narrowed my eyes when she said that I would be taken under custody "But why that's when you want to keep something away from suffering or causing damage, and wouldn't that be like being arrested?" "No, I can arrest you only if you do something bad." she started her response with an amused grin "A custody takes place when you could do something bad" Her answer was so bad that it made me make the 'Are you fucking kidding me?' face and at the sight she just giggled some more. "Looks like she doesn't even take me seriously" I thought. Just then I noticed something, they looked like a cartoon, and everything around me had a cartoonish appearance, even the ponies. "I hope that they don't only look like a cartoon" I thought as I approached Celestia and started my improvised plan "But if you're a pony, how are you so tall?" I asked "From where I'm from, the ponies are barely this height" and I put my hand up to my shoulder. "That is because I, like my sister, am an alicorn, that gives us more power than a normal pony and to have more power we need a body that can resist it" she responded. I made the 'oooooh' face while circling her, acting as if I was inspecting every part of her. When I made the third full circle, I walked to her sister, who was behind her. While walking around Celestia I noticed a mark on her flank that was like a sun and then I saw that her sister's mark was like a moon. "Why do you have marks on your body?" I asked, pointing to the mark on the dark blue pony flank, but this time the princess I was pointing at answered, although a little offended at how I was acting so casually. "That is a cutie mark. It represents our special talent. My sister's represents that she is in charge of the sun and the day, and mine that I take care of the night as well of the moon" After hearing her response I went to the guards, that seemed ready for anything strange that I might try, and Celestia was following me "I need more time to get to the other side of these ponies" I thought. "So, why do all of these ponies have armors, were you going to a war or something?" I asked "No, we were just going to capture something that appeared somewhere around here and I think that what we're searching for it's you" she responded with the same calmed tone that she had used during our conversation. When I got to the back of their group and I had a clear path to the tunnel from where they just came in, I knew it was time for the last part of my plan. "Okay, since there's nothing I can do, I'm coming with you..." I started to say, but I stopped mid-sentence and gestured the best scared face I could muster and shouted while pointing to the other side of the cave "OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT?!" every pony turned their head in that direction, the soldiers prepared whatever they had to defend themselves, the princess Luna also took a battle stance, and Celestia calmly turned her head, knowing that keeping the cool was essential for ambushes. When they all weren't looking at me, I started to run as if my life depended on it. Third person POV "Oh, that is just a crystal bat" Celestia said with the same calmness while she watched the animal hang from the ceiling. "Well, since that was everything, will you come... with us?" when she turned to the spot where Fernando was formerly standing, she noticed the lack of the homo sapiens. The gears in her mind worked for some seconds and made her realize what had just happened "Quick, everypony follow him." Celestia commanded to her army and then turned to Luna "Luna, come with me" And the two teleported to the entrance of the cave Luna as the guards started to run to catch the human. Meanwhile, Fernando could hear the echoes of the hooves behind him, still a little away, but growing louder. He almost missed a path to the left, that was almost hidden by the crystals, where he felt a light breeze that he chose to follow. The soldiers weren't able to spot that part of the cave because their coats made them insensible to the minos things that the skin could easily feel. It wasn't long before he reached an exit, situated to the side of the mountain where Canterlot was builded. He looked up to where Canterlot was located, then to the four hundred meters fall, and back to the city. "If I try to go down there, it will take me much more time than just going up there, and I could probably know more about where I am" he thought. With a sigh, he started to climb up the stone wall of the mountain. In the entrance to the crystal caves, Princess Celestia was waiting for the human outside the exit, expecting to catch him by surprise, but she was the on surprised when she saw her guards, but lacking a human. "Where is the human?" she asked to Shining Armor, who expected Fernando to be already under the effect of a spell from the princess "I don't know. The tunnel didn't had any deviations, and he would never be able to sneak out in the middle of the day" he answered shamefully. Celestia smiled reassuringly "Don't worry, we will catch him" she said, "If we can" she completed in her mind with an unsure tone.