//------------------------------// // Reaching the end of an odyssey // Story: We will catch you if we can // by proto-alpha //------------------------------// The ponies that were invading the building where Fernando was where guided by the officer that found Lyra in the train station last night. They weren't what you would call quiet, not caring how hard they stomped on the floor, or talking about what they would make with the money "Shut up" the officer said to the other ponies "Why? That human is trapped now. It's only a matter of time before he's in our hooves" one of the ponies said, the others quickly agreeing with him "Because even if he's trapped, he noticing us will make everything harder, and the earlier we catch him, the quicker we get the money" the leader responded greedily. Fernando was having trouble moving a beam that was on the floor. He was moving it to the window to make a quick bridge. The downside, if he fell he would get hurt and then caught. After successfully getting it through the window and to the other side, the ponies were almost in the same room. The beam wasn't very wide, only fitting one foot at a time, but knowing better, he advanced slowly while hugging the beam. "Don't look below, don't look below, don't look below he was thinking the whole time he was getting farther in his attempt at escaping. The Princess Luna was observing everything and thought "Well, looks like he will get away, but then she noticed that the ponies were already at the window, "or not" Down again, the ponies were arguing about who would catch him "You go, Mulberry" said one, directing to a dark gray one "Why me?" Mulberry answered, "look, he is a unicorn, why don't you just bring it here?" he motioned to the unicorn next to him "I can't. It's already to far for me to reach it" the unicorn responded "Silence!" yelled the officer, making Fernando aware that they were there, "I'll go there and force him down when my chance presents itself. Meanwhile you go down and catch him when he falls" he ordered to the unicorns of the group, that were three. He then climbed the window while the unicorns were going down the building running, and proceeded to walk up to Fernando. Fernando, knowing that his time was running short, started to slowly stand up to get away a little faster. Noticing that the pony was closing up fast, he thought "I won't make it, I need to think of something". He tried to remember what would a cartoon character do in his place, and almost instantly, he got an idea. The ponies that were still there, plus their leader, could swear that they saw a lightbulb over the head of Fernando, and that gave them a bad feeling. "Hey, what happens if I do this" Fernando said as he jumped and then landed on the beam again, making it vibrate. "Don't do that! Do you want to drop me!?" the pony that was on the beam angrily yelled. "Nooo" Fernando said innocently, "I just want to get away, and in the process I need you to get back to the building or just fall down". At that moment, Fernando saw that some unicorns were already down at the alley "Ha, well too bad. That's not gonna happen" the officer responded. At this Fernando smiled "Well, too bad for you too" he then started to jump, making the beam vibrate some more, and the pony almost fell, but he managed to grip the beam with his four hooves, a little like Fernando was holding before. The jumps helped Fernando get to the other side, and when he was on the roof of the restaurant, he turned and took hold of the piece of wood. The policestallion noticing what he was about to do, got his eyes widened as big as plates and a panicking he started to return to the window. "Hey, suddenly I don't remember how the gravity works" he smiled devilishly "Well, it works in a way that anything in the air falls to the ground" the panicking pony answered, while almost getting to the window "You know, I always learn the things better with an example, sooo" he then pushed the beam and it fell. The pony floated for some seconds, enough to say a sentence "Son of a diamond dog" then he fell. He never met the ground thanks to the unicorns, and by the time that he looked up again, Fernando was nowhere to be found. Luna witnessed everything. She knew from when Fernando started his plan that the pony wasn't in danger, and it was an underestimation to say that she was just humored. She could barely hide her laugh at the scene, and seeing that Fernando wasn't being followed, decided to fly up to him. "That was a close one" Fernando thought as he was running through the roofs that were at his reach. He stopped when the sound of contained laughter reached his ears. He looked for the source and started to run when he saw an incoming object coming in his direction. "Wait, you don't have to continue this whole ordeal!" Luna yelled up to him. Seeing as he wasn't stopping, she got a hold of him with her magic. "Now that I got your attention," she told him in a normal volume, having him floating in front of herself "let me reintroduce myself, seeing as last time it was my sister the one who presented me." she cleared her throat "My name is Luna, the sister of Celestia and bringer of the night" this fired the alarms in Fernando's head "If she's like her and she IS the one that controls the night, just a little lost of concentration won't be enough" he thought, and then noticed her arsenal. With eyes half closed, like when someone does something silly, he then asked "isn't that a little overpowered?" while pointing at the princess. She blushed a little and sheepishly responded "You think that? Well, seeing as how you kept getting away I thought that I would need more things". Fernando was thinking of everything he could do to distract her, but there weren't any ideas. "You pulled just the trick back there" she said, forgetting for now to communicate the actual state of his captivity, if you consider living in a castle as a guest captivity. "It certainly was amusing" she added, while giggling a little. "Mmm... Maybe I can get her so humored as to get free from this magic Fernando thought, trying to remember any joke he had heard, even if it was bad. If someone was already amused, anything could make him or her laugh more. "So, I'm sure the pony fell in the conclusion that he couldn't catch me" he winced inwardly at the bad pun, but it seemed to work, because the princess was now chuckling. "And the others were too shocked by their 'fallure' to do something". He mentally smiled when the alicorn was now openly laughing her flank off. "Oh, stop it, stop it" she said between laughs. Fernando just said "Why? I can't drop the fun to the floor". Luna was now laughing so much that her magic was starting to fail her, but it wasn't enough "and this moment will just sink to our memories". That did it, because Luna was on the floor, holding her stomach and had her eyes closed. Fernando was now free and approached the edge of the actual building, quickly spotting a ladder not so far away. Before he went away, he said one final thing "Hey, I'll drop by your castle some other day" Luna just laughed harder. While going down and still hearing the laughter, Fernando couldn't help to laugh a little, "I guess her laugh is contagious. Some minutes passed before Luna could calm herself, and when she realized what just happened, she got so angry that she started to expel magic from all of her body, giving her an aura of red that communicated pure anger. She didn't even realize that she was hovering now without the use of her wings, nor that she was now using the Royal Canterlot Voice "FERNANDO, YOU HAVE FOOLED ME, BUT I SWEAR TO ME AND MY SISTER'S NAME THAT YOU WILL BE IN THE CASTLE OF CANTERLOT BEFORE THE NEXT DAWN!". Her voice was heard in all of the city, making everypony tremble in fear, some that remembered the name felt a little pity for our protagonist, and Fernando could swear that for a moment his very soul was frozen in place. Twilight, Lyra, Rainbow and Spike, having heard the princess were too very surprised "Well, I guess the princess failed too" Twilight commented. All, except for Rainbow Dash, could only wish that the princess didn't find him again. Rainbow Dash instead, flew high in the sky and quickly found the bright red that could be spotted from Canterlot, and dashed in that direction. "Looks like Fernando's luck got to its end" Spike said. After recovering completely from the shock, the remaining three started to run in the general direction of Rainbow Dash. The little head start that Fernando got before, was useless, because the princess was already upon him, and she has already started her attack with her nets. "At least the rage stops her magic" He thought as he was using an equivalent of a car's tank of nitro. He barely got away from two of the nets, and thinking best of it, he ran to the open street. The crowded streets were what he needed, because the last net trapped a pony that just happened to pass by. It didn't help that now the princess was using the sleeping darts. Fernando noticed that some ponies were falling asleep very near him, and that gave away the use of the darts, so he started to run in a slightly zigzag pattern. More ponies were falling to the swarm of darts, and the princess was closing in on Fernando. Some ponies that did see Fernando joined the chase, and soon from the sky you would see a mass of color moving towards a tiny spot in front of it. Fernando was quickly growing tired, and it didn't help that two darts had scratched him. It wasn't enough to take him down, but he was getting very sleepy. He then heard a war cry coming from in front, in the sky, and looking up he saw what appeared to be a rainbow colored beam coming directly to him. He moved aside and Rainbow Dash missed him by the size of a hair from her coat. She went through the crowd, cutting a straight line in the middle of it, some slightly injured ponies being the consequence, but it didn't stop her, because she started to fly again to him. The time and space seemed to stop when he was so tired that he actually fell to the floor. And while waiting for the mob to catch up to him, he fell asleep. Rainbow Dash and the princess both launched themselves to the fallen creature and were already tasting the victory, when in a purple flash he disappeared, and in the shock, the two couldn't stop themselves and they made a crater in the ground. In a nearby alley, hidden to everypony, was Fernando, and next to him there was Twilight, along with Spike and Lyra. Twilight felt very tired after teleporting someone else from too far away, and it was Lyra who carried him to somewhere where they couldn't be found. Some hours passed before Fernando woke up. At first he didn't knew where he was, until a very strong stench hit him with full force. "The f*** did I just smell" he said as he covered his nose with his fingers. A peg flew up to him, and not caring that it floated, he took it and put it on his face. Finally looking around him, he found himself in what looked to be a sewer, along with Twilight, Spike and Lyra. "Uhm... I suppose that you were the ones that saved me, right?" he asked. "Well, it was mostly Twilight, but yes" said Spike. The statement made Twilight blush "Oh, come on, you suggested the place and Lyra levitated him here, so everyone did their part of the job" she said with modesty. Then she looked to Fernando and asked "Will you let me explain why we saved you before darting away?" Fernando considered his options, and gave in "Seeing as how you're able to stop me and you got another unicorn's help, I'll hear it" "Well, you see, over the past days, you have been fleeing from us. At first, the princess Celestia didn't know anything about you, so she wanted to take you on custody to see if she could learn anything about you. Also, if you behaved well I think that she would even let you wander around the castle" she stopped there to see if he had any questions. He didn't had any, so she continued. "When you got escaped from her in the Canterlot Crystal Caves, she feared the worst, that you could be a threat, and getting away showed that you could trick anypony" Spike interrupted her there "The last part was true" was his comment, a little humored "Yeah, that's true" Twilight said, a little annoyed about being interrupted. "Anyway, she then asked for our help, seeing as we have saved Equestria before. You should know the rest until yesterday. "What happened yesterday?" Fernando inquired with curiosity "The princess, after seeing that you hadn't committed any crimes nor hurt anypony, and after telling her that you wouldn't come with us because of the captivity thing, she accepted that you wouldn't be taken as a prisoner and would be treated as a guest at the castle" she waited again for any questions. This time Fernando did have a question, and he communicated it "What's the catch?" Twilight responded, as if expecting that question from before "Well, you can't be seen by anypony that is not either the princesses, the Royal Guard, or any integrant of the HHT" "I can deal with that" was Fernando answer, really considering ending this whole adventure, but he still needed to ask another thing "You're going to help me get back to my world, right?" "Yes, of course. In fact, I know all too well the princess as to take it for sure that she's already investigating how to send you back" Twilight answered, smiling to show that she told the truth. "Just one more question, how are we going to tell Celestia that I'm coming with you?" Twilight just took out a parchment and a quill and started to write a letter "Simple, I write a letter, then I give it to Spike" she said as she did what she was saying "Then I just burn it with magic fire" the dragon ended while doing so. Fernando observed the smoke that exited the sewer, but it didn't dissipate. "So it is like e-mail?" he then covered his mouth when he realized his error. Not too long after, Lyra and Twilight where in front of him, with equal excited smiles and ready to write down anything he said, and they asked at the same time "What is the e-mail?" he just groaned. They spent a little less than half a hour of explanations when they saw a yellow flash appeared next to them, and then there was the Princess Celestia. The ponies and Spike bowed, and Fernando, seeing as he was cooperating at last, bowed too. "Glad to see you all again" she said with a smile. She then talked directly to Fernando with a serious face, "Fernando the human, for the past days you have been forced to flee, live for yourself, eat... things that nopony should, and all of this while successfully getting away from the smartest and wisest minds of Equestria. Now I have to ask you, seeing as how we misunderstood your presence here, will you be able to forgive us?". Fernando didn't respond right away, and when he did so, it wasn't a direct answer "Princess Celestia, when I first got here, I didn't knew what to do. The only things that never left my side where these stones," he took the glowing stones from his pockets, "I was forced to trick a lot of ponies, while doing nothing bad that my religion frowned upon. I did made some ponies angry and I kind of overdid the ghost fiasco. You say that you will help me get back to my home and that is enough, but now I ask, will your sister and that Rainbow Dash ever forgive me?" as in on cue, there was a tremor, and some cracks were seen on the ceiling. Outside of the sewers, a part of Trottingham didn't existed anymore, luckily it was the part known for its worshipers of Discord and Nightmare Moon, and from Manehattan you could see a mushroom shaped cloud of rainbow-colored smoke. "I assure you, that with time, they will calm down" Celestia said, humored at the pegasus antics, also knowing the part of the city that was obliterated. "Hey, can I ask you something?" Fernando said, not used to talk to royalty. The princess actually enjoyed that he talked to her like that, considering that only her sister talked so casually with her. "And what might that be?" the princess answered "Can we please first go to the castle? I don't want togo through a war zone so early in my life". This made the princess giggle a little. "Of course, but I might need a little help" she referred to the purple unicorn that couldn't believe how casually they talked, and the green unicorn, that right now was talking with Spike about tactics to avoid damage in the surface. The two reacted by saying "Count with me, princess" at the same time. A flash latter and they were at the Canterlot castle.