Darren
Canterlot
Rookie and I had ended up back down in the heart of Canterlot, the streets bustling with fancily dressed ponies constantly giving me strange looks, blissfully unaware of what had just happened at the castle. I’m kind of envious of everyone else right now, wishing I wasn’t involved in such a big incident. If you would have told me last week that I was going to be transported to another universe and save one of their ruling princesses, I would have laughed in your face. Not to mention that I had saved the stallion that was currently trotting next to me. This “experience” just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
I glanced down at said equine. I had never really taken in many of the finer details of him, mostly because I was too focused on other more pressing matters at the time. I did, however, noticed that he was smaller than the other guard ponies I had seen so far, but after what I’d seen, I knew he definitely wasn’t a pushover. He may have been smaller in size, but his build really showed his training, the gold armour highlighting his muscles for everyone to see.
He had put his helmet back on, but with his mane being so long, you could still see some blue strands hanging down his face, obscuring his eyes slightly. I also noticed that his mane acted as the crest on the top of the helmet. Weird design choice, but I guess they were probably made out of horse hair on Roman helmets, so I guess it makes sense. His blue eyes sparkled with an expression of determination with an odd hint of feverish anticipation as he looked down every street and alleyway. It made me smile knowing I had saved someone like him. He still had his whole life ahead of him. I couldn’t help but notice though that he also seemed to be deep in thought.
Suddenly, he walked in front of me and paused, making me stop in my tracks. I was about to question him until he jumped up and sucker punched me in the face, albeit softer than when we were fighting, but still hard enough to make me stagger back a little. I could feel my nose throbbing again. I gave him a look of bewilderment. “Ow! Why always the nose? What was that for?!”
“You promised!” My look became even more confused. “You promised that you would be right behind me before I climbed up, but you ended up falling off the edge and getting yourself killed! If Princess Luna wasn’t so merciful, you’d be dead right now!”
“Well, sorry I didn’t anticipate the ledge falling out from under me. Nice to know I’m appreciated.” I said sarcastically, wiping the blood from my nose.
“Don’t say that! Don’t twist my words. I never said I didn’t appreciate you. You scared me back there. I thought you died! You were unconscious for three days! How could I not be worried!? I worried that I wouldn’t be able to say thank you to my saviour again.”
I thought for a second about what he was saying, and then about what I was saying before calmed myself down. “...You’re right. You’re right. I’m an asshole. I’m sorry… But why thank me? You wouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place if it wasn’t for me. I basically chucked you out of that window myself. I shouldn’t have even tried to get into the castle that way, let alone not surrendering when I was caught. You should be hating my guts, not praising me.”
“You really aren’t from around here, are you?” he arched his eyebrows.
“No, really? How did you guess?” Sarcasm laced my tone.
“I’m just saying. You don’t know what our society is like, do you?” he replied.
“Of course not. I only just got here. The only reason I’m still here is because I was stupid and was out cold for three days. I shouldn’t even be here in the first place! I should be at home, with my family, but nooooo. I’m stuck in this godforsaken world picking fights I can't win and almost getting myself and others killed left, right and centre!” I explained, trying to avoid eye contact with all of the staring ponies around me.
“Well, we believe in the magic of friendship, and I personally believe that there is some good in everypony." I rolled my eyes. "You may have broken into the castle, but you didn’t do it for a bad reason. And yes, you did try to hurt me by throwing me out of that window, but you were backed into a corner with me in the way, of course you were either going to run or fight. And you risked everything, even your chance to go home, just to save me. That shows that you are a good... human, was it?” I gave him a small nod. “Not many ponies would risk their own life to save somepony they don’t know.”
“Well, thank you, I guess... That doesn't atone for anything I've done though.”
“Well, if I’ve learnt anything from Princess Twilight and her friends, it’s that your friends are one of the most important ponies in your life. They'll forgive you when mistakes are made and they will help you out whenever you’re in trouble.”
“Princess Twilight? You mean the same one who brought me here in the first place?”
“Well, yeah. There IS only one Princess Twilight after all,” he gave me a cheeky smile, nudging me with his shoulder, which I shrugged off.
“Yeah... Whatever. Anyway, what does she have to do... with...” I started to ask, but then just remembered something Twilight had said which I must have glossed over before...
"O... kay. I'm just going to forget the fact that that's a little creepy. For now. You seem to know so much about me, but I don't know anything about you, apart from the fact that you're a magical talking pony who has been watching me for God knows how long."
"Oh, of course. As I said, I am Twilight Sparkle. I am the Princess of Friendship, one of the ruling Princesses presiding over the Kingdom of Equestria."
“Oh yeah, she did say something about her being the... Princess of Friendship, whatever the hell that means,” I said, almost uncaringly.
“You realised she said that to you just now?!” Rookie sounded genuinely surprised that I forgot such a seemingly important detail.
“Well, a magical talking pony did just suddenly appear in my living room, so sorry if I wasn’t really paying attention to the finer details of our conversation,” I gave him a deadpan look. “Besides, I think family is a hell of a lot more important than friends. Family members are by your side throughout your entire life. They birth you, feed you, look after you, raise you... Love you. Whether it’s your mother, your grandparents or even your significant other, they will be there for you and support you.” I involuntarily grasped my necklace. Rookie seemed to see this, but didn’t question it.
I could have sworn I heard him mumble “Not everypony,” under his breath as we walked. “What was that?” I asked, making sure I heard him right.
“O-oh, it’s nothing,” he said hastily, not looking me in the eye. I gave him a weird look, but left it at that. Maybe I was just hearing things. “Hey, why do you still have that cloak?”
“Cloak?” he lifted a hoof to point at my shoulder. I looked down to discover that I still had the hood that the criminal was wearing before they got away draped across it. “Oh, that! I’m not sure. I grabbed it off of the pony before they teleported away. Guess I forgot to leave it behind,” I thought about it for a second and suddenly had an idea. “Hey, do you guys have forensic investigators?”
“Uh, yeah. We do have ponies that are specially trained in forensics. Why do you ask?” He tilted his head like a dog.
“If we don’t find the culprit, we could take this to them and see if they can get some DNA from any strands of hair or saliva,” Rookie’s face lit at this revelation.
“Oh yeah! That’s a great idea. We’ll get them for sure!” he cheered, running a circle around my legs in happiness. He was like a child who had just come out of a sweet shop... It was kind of endearing. He is so innocent and... naïve.
“Calm down. We should be focusing on finding this pony first before we get too excited. We don’t want them getting away, do we?” I reaffirmed, blocking his turn circle. He stopped running circles and gave me a firm nod, before we intensified our search.
For the next 10 minutes or so, we searched high and low, in every side street and around every corner, trying to find hide or hair of a suspicious looking pony trying to escape... but all we could see were ponies wearing suits or dresses that would send dirty and scared looks in my direction. I had never really minded being to centre of attention before, but now it was just getting annoying and obnoxious.
I groaned audibly, wiping sweat from my forehead before I stopped Rookie in his tracks as we came to a T section in the road. “We’ll never find her like this. This is taking far too long. She could be long gone by now! We should just give up at this point.”
“No! We can’t give up now. We need to find them. They have to be around here somewhere. W-We can get them...” Rookie said with confidence, but his body started to slouch and he was dragging his hooves. His expression suddenly became thoughtful. “How about we split up. You go one way; I go another way.”
“I don’t know. What if one of us actually finds her?” I asked sceptically.
“Well, just try your best to capture them then. I’ll go this way and you go that way. We’ll meet back here in a little while.” He pointed in the direction behind him for himself and in the direction behind me for my direction and started galloping away.
“Rookie! Wait!” I turned, shouting after him, but he was already out of earshot before I could say anything else. “For God sake! Stupid four-legged ponies, being able to outrun me and my stupid two legs,” I had no choice but to do what Rookie said if I had any change of finding this criminal before they left town. I grumbled as I turned on my heels and headed in the opposite direction to the fleeing Royalguard.
So, I continued the routine of looking in every nook and cranny, hoping to find ANYTHING that could lead me to the pony I was looking for. All determination I had to find this pony was being sapped out of me the longer I spent searching. After another 15 minutes of finding nothing down this straight road I had ended up on, I came to a dead end. I was about to give up, turn around and meet back up with Rookie, when I saw movement down an alleyway out of the corner of my eye across a T-junction within the alley.
I made sure that no one was around before I crouched down and inched my way into the back alley, making sure to make as little noise as possible. This had to be her. It HAD to be. Who else would be sneaking in an alleyway? As I got to the end of the T junction, I didn’t give myself, or them, any time to think about a plan. “Aha! I’m got you now!” I rushed out bullheadedly, ready for a fight...
Only to find the largest raccoon I had ever seen looking up at me from where it was rooting around in a rubbish bin, before it loudly hissed at me and scurried farther into the darkness of the alley. All hope and fire I had left was instantly extinguished, my search derailed indefinitely. I had been looking for the last half an hour with absolutely no luck whatsoever. There was no chance of me finding her now. Let’s just hope that any of the other guards found her, where we had failed.
Once I got back to the T-junction, I found that Rookie had not finished his search yet, so I waited, my foot lightly tapping against the stone impatiently. Fortunately, it wasn’t too long before I saw him trotting around the corner.
“Hey, finally! I thought you weren’t going to show. Get lost?” I asked, cheeky smile playing on my lips.
“No! I was just very careful in my search,” he replied, but I could see the blush on his cheeks. I raised an eyebrow. He cracked immediately. “Ok, maybe a little, but it wasn’t for long, I swear.” I couldn’t help but laugh, his blush only intensifying.
“Anyway, back on topic. Did you find anything?” After a moment, I shook my head adamantly. “Yeah, me neither. Maybe you were right. At this rate, she would’ve probably skipped town by now. There is no hope of us finding her, if nopony else has yet.” His head was hung low in shame.
“Glad you can see some sense. Let’s head back to the castle, reconvene with the other search parties and hope that they found SOMETHING,” I agreed. Rookie nodded and followed me down the path.
As we walked, I couldn’t help but notice that there were more ponies around than there were before. Now that I looked around, we seemed to be in some sort of commercial district. Shops, restaurants, and cafes lined the streets from top to bottom, which meant more ponies to gawk at me. Just what I needed. I continued to walk, trying my best to not let the looks get to me, but it was really starting to make me uncomfortable.
It seemed Rookie had noticed me grinding my teeth down to nothing from trying not to call out for them to stop, because he turned and moved towards two mares who were standing outside of a cafe whispering to each other while giving me glances, and said, “Hey! Why don’t you mind your own business! We have an important job to do and we don’t need you two, or ANYONE ELSE, whispering behind his back!” They gave him shocked looks, before shying away from him, saying apologies as they backed away.
I looked around and saw most of the ponies averting their gaze. I walked over to him while giving him an amazed look. “Wow. That was impressive. You didn't have to do that, you know? It wasn't that distracting,” I praised.
“Your face said otherwise. What can I say? Sometimes it pays to be a royal guard. Now, let’s get back to business,” he said, turning to continue on through the commercial district. I moved to follow him, but was brought to a halt by a fog clouding my sight. I started to internally panic, but I eventually calmed down when I realised that I was having another one of my visions...
I looked to see some foals having fun kicking a football around, or I guess in this case a hoofball. I saw one of the foals, a colt with light red fur and a short black mane with brown streaks curling around on his forehead, kick the ball particularly hard, gaining height and flying in our direction. I had no time to react before it hit Rookie square in the face, the force knocking him off his hooves and making him fly a few feet from where he was standing with a yell of pain.
“...Darren. Are you ok?” I shook my head as the fog parted and I heard Rookie expressed his concern, looking to see him stood beside me with his head tilted in confusion. Then, suddenly, I heard the sound of children’s laughter. I looked down the path in front of us to see the foals dashing towards us with the ball racing along the ground ahead of them.
“Rookie, DUCK!”
“What?” Rookie exclaimed as I yelled, looking over in the direction I was peering to see the red colt start to wind up his hoof to send the ball flying. Knowing that something was up, he literally jumped to the ground, laying his legs out flat so he was spread eagle, landing on his stomach, gasping as the high speed ball came shooting over his head by mere inches, the mane coming out of his helmet fluttering wildly in the backdraft, swearing I saw some strands of his mane catching alight with how fast it was going.
“Buck… that was close,” I could just hear him mutter under his breath, slowly picking himself back up.
Was that a swear word? Did he just… swear? It sounded like it, but I didn’t expect that. I gave him a knowing look, and he gave me a blush in return. “You good?”
“Yes, I’m fine, but let me just get readjusted to being in my body again,” he replied with a chuckle, his muscles relaxing, but I could see that the gears were turning in his head.
He was so distracted he didn’t see the colt who had booted (or maybe hoofed) the ball trotted over timidly. His friends, a unicorn and a pegasus, grabbing the infernal ball and trotted over to the side nervously. His tail hung between his legs like a dog knowing it did something wrong. “I’m so sorry, Mister. I didn’t mean to. Honest!” he apologised in a high-pitched voice, crossing his hooves in front of him in shame.
“It’s ok, bud. It was an accident. I’m sure Rookie knows that, right Rookie?” I answered for him, getting down on one knee to get down to eye level with the foal.
“Yeah… Of course...” he confirmed, giving the colt a small smile, but seemed more interested in staring at me with a pensive and puzzled expression.
“So, I’m not in trouble?” The colt asked, eyes wide in shock.
“Of course not. He’s not going to put you in prison just because you hit him in the face with a ball. And between you and me, I think he might have needed a smack in the head to sort him out anyway,” I said, leaning in close to whisper the last part. The colt giggled at that comment.
“Hey... I heard that! I’m still here, you know?!” Rookie said in his defence, lifted from his thoughtful trance. The colt and I laughed at that.
I sighed as my laughter died down. “You know, that was quite an impressive kick. Have you been practicing?”
He shrugged. “I-I guess. Me and my friends play Buckball with each other all the time. Was it that good?”
“Well, yeah. You would’ve knocked Rookie clean off his feet. I know that for sure. You may need to practice your aim, but if you keep at it, you might be able to do something with that in the future,” I encouraged with a smile. I could see his whole face light up at the prospect.
“Really?! You really think so?! I can finally find what I am destined to do!” He hopped around on the tip of his hooves, glancing back at his flank with anticipation for some reason. “Thanks, Mister!"
“No problem, kid. Now get out of here, before we change our minds,” I finished, ruffling his mane before he trotted off with his mates to practice some more.
“You know, you’re really good with foals,” Rookie stated simply.
“Well, I have two of my own at home. It comes with experience.” Images of Harry and Scarlet crept their way into my mind, a dark cloud forming over my head at the thought of me not being able to see them.
Rookie seemed to notice my downcast look and realised what I might be thinking. “Oh, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No, it’s ok. It’s not like I can take them off my mind... They are the only things keeping me going at this point… I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have them to push me forward.” I sighed deeply through my nose, trying my best to keep them in the back of my mind in favour of more current matters.
Rookie’s reflective look suddenly came back with a vengeance. “So, how in Tartarus did you manage to warm me about that incoming ball? He was just winding up his shot as I looked over, so how did you see it coming?”
“...Well… I-I…” I stuttered, about to tell him to not worry about it. However, I was stopped by more fog obscuring my vision.
“Let’s just get back to the matter at hand. We should get back to- AHH!” My vision self was interrupted by someone barrelling into my legs at full speed, making me plummet to the ground like a brick, moaning as I landed on my back with a thud.
“OW! FOR FUCK SAKE!!! Jesus… and there goes MY luck,” I sighed, sitting back up rubbing my now throbbing head.
“Hey! Not cool! You could’ve seriously hurt somepony!” Rookie shouted after my ‘assailant.’ “Are you ok? That was quite a fall.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just got a headache now, no big deal,” I winced through clenched teeth. I suddenly noticed a distinct lack of weight on my shoulder. I looked to see that the hood that had been there this whole time had suddenly vanished. “Wait, where’d the hood go?!” I frantically searched around for it, not finding it around me anywhere.
“Didn’t you just have it? I don’t… Wait, I think that mare had it in her magic!” He exclaimed.
“Wait, mare?” I glanced at the path in front of me and suddenly saw the mare, a navy blue furred, purple and white maned pony, with the hood in her blue magically aura who was running away quite fast. “Hey! That’s her! That’s the pony we’ve been looking for! Why didn't you say anything?!”
“WHAT?! I didn't realise!” Rookie looked shocked as I swiftly pushed myself to my feet, giving myself a headrush. He quickly cleared his throat and gave me a firm nod, trying to stay professional, even though his eyes showed otherwise. “I-I mean, Sir, yes sir!”
I ran briskly, trying to make up for lost time after my tumble, with Rookie pulling ahead of me because of his four legs. The criminal ran across a crossroads, managing to avoid ponies coming around the corner, as did Rookie. I approached the crossroads and tried to cross it as quick as possible, but I was quite close to the buildings on the right side, so I couldn’t see if anyone was coming around the corner.
Unfortunately, a pony had been coming around, and the two of us collided, sending us both onto our ass along with an assortment of shopping that the pony had been carrying. When I looked up after recovering from the accident, I saw Rookie continue running off into the distance, having not even noticed I had fallen.
“Oh my God! I’m so sorry. Are you ok?” I asked, brushing the book off my head and picking myself up quickly.
The pony, a yellow furred, orange maned unicorn mare, had recovered quickly and was already trying to grab all of her shopping off the ground.“It’s fine. Really. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
I glanced back down the path to see a purple tail slink around a corner and Rookie gallop after it. “I’m sorry, but I’m in the middle of something really important at the moment. I promise, if we see each other again, I will make it up to you. Rookie, wait up!” I promptly started sprinting down the path after the culprit and Rookie.
“Rookie?” I heard the pony say in surprised confusion before I ran out of earshot. I brushed that aside to focus more on my primary objective.
“...Darren! Equestria to Darren! What's wrong with you!?" I heard Rookie exclaim as the fog lifted from my sight again, clapping his hooves in front of my face.
Knowing what was about to happen, I pushed him away from me so I had space. "...You want to know how I knew you were going to get hit by that ball?" He nodded his head. "You see, I'm not going to tell you… but I am going to make you even more confused."
He gave me a perplexed look, before I abruptly spun around and held my foot outstretched, until a certain pony ran by and tripped over it, sprawling out in a heap on the stone path in a daze, groaning in pain. Rookie expressed his disbelief by staring at me and the criminal, awestruck. "Wha… H-how… Who… Huh… WHAT! HOW THE EVERLIVING BUCK DID YOU DO THAT?!” He smacked a hoof over his mouth when he realised the language that just came out of his mouth, peering around to make sure no one had heard him.
I shook my head with a smile, but didn’t address him. Instead, I gave my full attention to the criminal, finally being able to see her appearance. I was right in the gender department, she was definitely a mare, a strong one at that, seeing the muscles clearly defined on her body. She looked like she could be as strong, if not stronger, than Rookie. She had Navy blue fur and a short purple and white mane, just as the vision had shown me, with the purple and white swirling around each other to the end point on top of her head. I could see that the symbol on her flank, which everyone seems to have for some reason, was a brain with a lit lightbulb above it. Interestingly, she also had what looked like a burn scar on her right cheek as well.
“HA! Nice try! Nothing gets past me, bitch! You couldn’t get this if you tried,” I gloated, with an almost maniacal laugh and a pat on the hood on my shoulder. The mare growled through gritted teeth, obviously annoyed that she was bested again. “Maybe next time you should take your time and pick your moves carefully. Now, how’s about we get you back to the castle so you can pay for your- AHHH!” She suddenly whipped her head around and sparked up her horn again, firing out a powerful flare of magic straight at my chest, sending me flying back straight into a wall, before crumpling to the ground, my glasses clattering to the ground next to me.
“DARREN!” Rookie exclaimed, feeling his presence over my weakened body. It felt like my whole body was tingling and convulsing, I could hardly move. My glasses were abruptly placed back on my face by Rookie’s magic as I managed to creek my head upwards to look at him, seeing the most terrified face I had seen on his face since I fell off that cliff. I saw the mare who attacked me quickly get up and rush off with another annoyed growl. “Oh Celestia, no! What do I do? Um… Oh, I know. Don’t worry Darren, we’ll get you back to the castle and get you healed right up.”
“Don’t worry… a-about me…” I strained, my chest screaming in pain just from talking as I lifted my right arm slowly to point after my assailant. “J-just… don’t l-let her… g-get away…”
Rookie glanced to the fleeing pony, then back to me, biting his lip so hard I was sure it was going to bleed. He did this a couple more times before adamantly shaking his head and stirring up his magic. “Oh no you don’t! I’m not going to lose you. Not on my watch!”
I felt the comforting sensation of his magic surrounding me again, except less intense than last time, the energy soothing my body a little, and saw the ground slowly pull away from me as I felt my feet lightly plonk flatly onto their heels again. I tried to release myself, considering the spell holding me up was a lot weaker than last time, but I could hardly stand, let alone release myself from a magical hold that I didn’t have the first clue about.
I slowly managed to grab a door frame on one of the buildings before blinking at him. “Why do you… even care…? G-getting her… locked up… i-is a lot more… important… than saving me…”
“No, no it isn’t,” he stated bluntly, giving me this look that seemed genuinely concerned.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the mental capacity to comprehend that at the moment. “I-if you really care… you’ll g-go after her… For me… We can’t let her… g-get away again… Please… I’ll be fine…”
He started biting his lip again, once again looking between me and the mare, who was just fleeing around a corner. If he continued doing that, I was going to have to insist that he was a starving vampire. After a few seconds, the mare getting farther and farther away with each passing second, I heard him growl lightly and sigh deeply before I felt the field around me lift, the ache coming back with a vengeance as I almost crumpled against the wall of the building, pushing my hand out to stop me from falling. “...Fine. I’ll do it for you. Only because you insist. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.”
“Yeah… l-like I’m going anywhere...” I breathed, trying my best to alleviate the pain as he hurriedly galloped after the culprit, quickly dodging any pedestrians and disappearing around the same corner. “Just great… Why can’t… anything be easy…”
After what felt like an hour, but was only a couple seconds, I tried to push myself off of the wall and stand up myself. I don’t know why I tried, but maybe in my weakened mind, I was going to try and stubbornly get back to the castle. I managed to stand up properly, but my brain lurched in my head, feeling like it was rattling around in my skull. My vision started to become blurry, and even though I was still wearing my glasses, the hustle and bustle of Canterlot became muffled in my ears.
The next thing I knew, the ground was suddenly launching towards my face. Turns out the ground wasn’t firing towards me. I was racing towards it. I landed with a heavy thunk, hearing my glasses clatter to the ground again as they flew off my nose. I laid there as my body started to shut down again, not knowing what was to come this time around.
All of a sudden, I heard muffled shouting before being gently turned onto my back by soft hooves. I tried to make out who the pony was, but in my dazed and weakened state, there was no way that I could even make out a solid block of colour, let alone the shape of a pony. My hearing didn't help either, so trying to tell whether they were male or female was out of the question.
But I didn't have long before once again succumbing to the darkness, welcoming the embrace like an old friend.