Chapter 3
So, today has been eventful, got to give it that. One moment you’re running from horrible wolf monsters in a dark forest. The next, you’re the monster terrorising tiny ponies. Life really is all swings and roundabouts. Now another turn has met me, as I’m now onboard a carriage. Not just any carriage I might add, but one pulled by four white, armoured pegasi that’s flying through the air. There was even two fellow passengers to enjoy the flight with me. Luna, the angry pegacorn and Celestia, the reasonable one.
It probably would have been more enjoyable had I not been trapped behind a permanent golden shield. As well as the fact that my two companions seemed determined to converse without me. “Celestia, what should be done with such a creature? It is my belief it should be sent to Tartarus for its crimes,” Luna declared, while eyeing me suspiciously.
Is that like Greek hell?
The older sister then looked to her companion, “nay sister, We must be more diplomatic in our approach. Sometimes efforts must be made to understand beings different from ourselves.” She is pretty reasonable. “By the way, how are your friendship lessons going Lulu? Think of this as a potential test.” Now that is a pretty weird thing to have to learn, like something you’d teach a child or something.
“They go, slow…We struggle to understand the ponies of this modern age, but We shall endeavour to gain their trust as thou hast, We promise.” Poor grumpy Luna seems to be having issues to.
Looking around the carriage, there isn’t much else to see. Everything is tinted gold by the shield, but I’m also fairly certain this things frame is made of gold. Now that’s flashy and certainly means these guys can waste some money where it isn’t needed. I mean apart from that, the carriage is fairly bare bones. No roof, no sides and as a result no windows which means if I wasn’t within this shield, I might be slightly terrified of falling overboard. Aside from that, the view is amazing. If you ever get the opportunity to fly by Pegasus carriage with my safety shield, I highly recommend it.
As the flight seems to be taking a while, might as well do something interesting like find out what that barrier is made of. It kinda reminds me a little of those bolts the little purple unicorn was firing my way. Wonder if all of these creatures have similar abilities? Those wolves certainly had some sort of power within keeping them together. It was actually pretty tasty. Wonder if this shield tastes similar?
As soon as I let my misty form touch the barrier both the mares turned to look at me. One with a look of anger, “What dost thou think thou art doing?”
The other with a look of surprise and then intense concentration, “It’s weakening my barrier. It's taking almost everything to hold it together.”
Wow I might actually be hurting her, better stop my poking. “Oh, sorry just was wondering what this gold barrier was all about,” I apologised before attempting to look as non-threatening as possible, Which I’m starting to realize is really difficult having no real way of conveying emotions other than waving my legs around. “It’s pretty tasty.”
At that the white mare stares at me before the shield winks out of existence. The blue pegacorn then piped up, “Sister, dost thou think it wise to release this individual just after a potential attack?” I said I was sorry what more does she want?
“I do Lulu. The shield is clearly just a token gesture at this point if this being can consume it at will,” she then turned to me, “you must promise to behave or you will be restrained by physical means.”
“As you wish your majesty, and I must say that city upon the mountainside ahead looks most impressive,” at my comment both the pegacorns turned around to view their home which as I said is very impressive. It clearly disobeys some sort of law of physics, as all that weight balanced on nothing can’t be possible. It also seems like such a terrible strategic choice. Set some bombs in the right place and bye bye city. Anyways the achievement of such structures, not to mention that massive castle is just amazing.
“Ah yes, fiend it has taken our ponies many centuries to build such a wonderous place, thou shalt feel honoured to visit,” the blue furball of pride commented. It became quite obvious at this point we were heading straight for the castles gate house, where what appeared to be at least twenty armoured and armed ponies were waiting. “Now then We have arrived. Please disembark in an orderly fashion with no attempts at escape. Thou would not enjoy the end result.” She said with a stern grin.
I suppose that’s my que to disembark. As soon as I stepped off the carriage, and expertly made landfall, every guard took up what can only be assumed to be a pony battle position where they poised to charge at me. Many of them were also pointing spears in my direction. “Hi guys,” I said while getting to my hooves and beginning to wave. It seemed like the best way to clear the newly formed tension.
“Relax my ponies the current situation is well in hoof,” the sunny pony said while she expertly disembarked without face planting. Before she began walking towards the open gates.
I then heard a slight giggle as the smaller pegacorn followed in her wake. “Thou art not the most agile of beings.”
“I’m just not really used to this whole existing thing.”
“What does thou mean?” she said curiously.
At this point the older pony turned to us, “come on you two. This discussion seems more deserving of the throne room.”
I couldn’t help but act out a gulp. I’m going to be potentially meeting their king or queen soon, perhaps even both. Well, wish I’d thought of something to say, rather than just staring mindlessly out of the carriage. At least the view was nice.
I just had to ask some questions, “so is the queen nice?” Maybe then I can come up with some idea of what to say to prevent my potential execution or more likely imprisonment.
The Moon princess then gave me a strange look, as we walked through some big doors to a massive open room, “hast thou no knowledge of our lands?” Wonder how that was so obvious?
“Well, who knows what a countries ruler is truly like until they’ve met them?”
That seemed to strike a cord with the pony as she seemed to turn away with a slight melancholic look, “Thou art correct. It is difficult for us to express ourselves to our subjects,” she then visibly brightened before looking at me, “however our nation possesses no King or Queen, just two Princesses who rule with the utmost kindness.” Before she took a seat next to her sister upon a large chair I had failed to notice earlier.
“Oh erm… that means this countries rulers are nice?” don’t I feel foolish.
Celestia then politely stated, “Yes young one,” before gaining a more serious tone, “now we are in a more official setting, we can appropriately deal with this situation.”
“Indeed sister", Luna began before turning towards me, "thou can start with where dost thou hail from? Thine origins are clearly not Equestrian.”
Straight to the point eh? “That’s quite a difficult question for me to answer your majesty.”
That gave me some confused looks. “Just try and explain it in a manner that makes as much sense as possible.”
Well here goes, “so, I think it was last night, I woke up in a ruined castle in some spooky woods after time in what I can only assume is the void.” That promptly got me to put a hoof to my chin in thought. “I then tried to flee the woods towards whatever civilization I could find in hope of help.” Guilt started to well up at the next part, “when I came across that pony town, I was so happy to see real people I just tried to greet them but I suppose I might be a bit intimidating.” At this I gestures to my smoky self and both princesses nodded. “The ponies immediately reacted with fear and fled while some attacked me. Regrettably some of the ones who attacked harmed themselves in the process, really sorry about that by the way, please believe me.” From the looks on their faces they just might. “Finally, I decided to surrender to this purple pony I think was called Twilight, before you arrived and you know the rest.”
“That tale does make sense armoured one,” Celestia commented with a hoof on her chin, “However going back to the start of this story, when you arrived in the castle. How did you get there?”
The moon pony also chimed in, “yes and what was meant by thy time spent within the void? Such a place is unknown to us.”
Now this is getting really tricky to think about. I don’t even know what the void really is, it was just black, hmm. “Well princesses before awakening in that castle, I spent a very long time within an unknown place I’m calling the void. It was just a place of eternal blackness containing absolutely nothing but, I suppose me I was there, but not as erm, material.”
“So, pray tell how long did thou spend in this void?” Luna cautiously questioned.
“Don’t really know your majesty. Kind of lost count after a few centuries alone.” Wow really should see a therapist or something. People probably get messed up after that kinda stuff. Oh well.
At that the moon pony’s ears flattened to her head in what I can only assume was a gesture of empathy, “We are sorry to hear that. We too have experienced a similar upheaval in the past.” Huh that was unexpected. Maybe we can share a therapist?
Celestia brought the conversation back on track, “so are you aware of how you escaped this void and if you weren’t material how did you end up with this metallic form?”
Hmm escaped not really sure that’s how it went. “One moment I was in the void the next I was staring up at the most beautiful sight of just things and colours around me. Could even see the moon, which dare I say made the whole experience that much better.” Thought that would get Lunas ears perking. “As for my current form, I think I made it somehow instinctually.”
Celestia then cocked her head slightly in interest, “do you care to demonstrate this method?”
“Oh, sister it’s obvious where twilight gets it from,” Luna commented.
Huh it seems Twilight might be related to these two. Anyway, how to demonstrate? I did change my form to look like a fuller pony back in that castle. Hmmm. Looking at Celestia, she is pretty much the same size as me, wonder if I can mimic her?
So, while staring intently at the solar diarch, which may or may not of made her a bit uncomfortable, my form began to change. I started by focusing upon the legs, which had to be slightly extend while at the same time making them much more slender. I then tried my hoof at mimicking the princesses hoof shoes which were much smaller than my current ones and much fancier. The main body was fairly easy to imitate as it was just that little bit slimmer than what I currently possessed. Her chest piece was the only part of the torso I had trouble with as it had some fancy engraving that I’m pretty sure were impossible to copy. Her crown was then copied and applied directly to the top of my head that had now took on a smaller frame. Fairly certain I look pretty feminine right now. For the final touch, wing guards needed to be added, which I never possessed before resulting in metal skeleton wings with a misty membrane. Wow that’s quite a tiring process. Well, what goes for tiring for me anyways.
Once my changes were complete, I just had to give the wings a couple of test flaps and found they indeed displaced a large quantity of air. In my haste to do this I failed to notice the solar mare had approached me to within almost an inch, so I tried my best to simultaneously bow and back off resulting in a quick comment. “Wait, that transformation was most impressive,” she then looked between her chest piece and me before smiling, “But I must say black isn’t really my colour.”
Huh is that a challenge I hear from the Princess? Changing my forms dimensions was pretty easy why not colour? So, with an extreme amount of focus I found my black plated body changing to one of apparent gold. This is amazing, no longer do I have to look like some sort of evil demon to these ponies. Well, if I can find a way to hide the black mist the rest of me is made of.
Luna chimed in, “this is a most impressive display, but be careful sister she may still have ulterior motives.” She seems to warming up to me so excellent progress. Wait, did she say she?
“Don’t worry sister, in the name of friendship we must remove our prejudices, and the easiest way to remove them is to learn about that which we do not know.” She then began lighting her horn which spread a golden field around me that kinda reminded me of the shield. It tasted pretty similar anyway. Almost as soon as the field started it stopped which was a shame because I was really starting to enjoy it. “It appears your form is incredibly magic resistant”.
Wow she seems really tired all of a sudden. I then confirmed, “When Twilight attacked me, her magic did seem to have little effect.” It’s probably more I eat the magic more than resist it, but that’s just splitting hairs.
Celestia then raised one of her forehooves towards me and requested, “May I?”
Pretty sure she wants to touch me, which if I remember rightly ended pretty badly for one cowboy hat wearing mare. “You may, but I just want you to know that the last pony to touch me fainted, I’ll try my best not to harm you.” I hesitantly reminded.
“I will be careful.”
she then began sliding her hoof along the outside of my chest piece and then moving it along my wing. “That kind of tickles.” At that she smiled and walked a full circle around me. I’ve never felt so naked before even though I’m technically fully clothed. She then eyed the smoke coming from between my wing membrane and decided for some reason to push her hoof through it. Let me tell you that having something push through your personnel space like that is extremely weird, especially when you had to resist consuming the golden light emanating from them. “Okay, now that is a really weird experience,” I stated in a slightly strained voice.
Celestia quickly removed her hoof, “I’m sorry, just trying to complete an examination. I didn’t mean to cause any discomfort.”
“It didn’t hurt it was just…different.” I tried to reassure, “you can continue if that’s what you need to do.” Pretty sure these ponies throw their own safety out the window when it comes to these things.
“Oh good,” the solar princess said with a relieved sigh, “I would hate to cause undue harm.”
After watching from the side-lines Luna made an observation, “So thou art a being constructed entirely out of metal and thou art completely immaterial upon the inside. Art thou truly a suit of sentient armour?” I could only shrug my brand new and most favourite new wings in admission of my ignorance.
Celestia seemed to get an idea and began removing her right fore shoe. I don’t like where that’s going. Neither did Luna apparently, “May We ask what thou art doing sister?”
“It’s quite simple my dear Luna,” she said as she stepped next to me with one shoeless leg, “I wish to test the theory with your permission of course…erm what did you say your name was again?” Oh, dear a name now that’s probably something high on everybody’s list to have.
“I didn’t, it’s been so long since anyone’s called me anything, I suppose my names just faded away.” That is pretty disappointing. My comment seemed to earn me a pang of sympathy from both mares. “Anyway, you can give it a try, but only for a second. The idea of something being inside my leg just... doesn’t seem right.” While suppressing a shudder I held out my right foreleg to the sun princess, before slightly retracting the metal leg braces, “Be gentle.”
Celestia quickly took hold of my presented limb and easily pulled it away from my main body before inspecting it. There was a special slit down the back of it which allowed her to push her limb inside. Now having another person leg inside yours is a strange experience. Especially when they start taking steps around the room, causing the rest of your body to be dragged behind them.
“Hmm Luna this armour is quite interesting,” Celestia said talking as if I wasn’t there again, “it fits incredibly well.” To Luna’s amusement, Celestia continued walking around the room with me stumbling about behind her. “There’s something else as well, like maybe some energy transfer from the armour to me.” I do feel like something’s draining. Celestia then cast a magic barrier in the centre of the room that was A mix between dark blue and gold. “Most interesting it appears to act as a magical battery, sister could you attempt to break my barrier?”
“Wo wo easy now,” what happens if I run out of energy?
“With pleasure dear sister.” At that Luna retrieved a gosh darn halberd from behind her throne and began charging at the barrier. I can’t watch. While trying to cover my face Celestia ended up with her own leg jammed over her eyes causing her to lose balance and hit the deck.
What followed can only be described as what happens when you put a fork in a blender as the younger pegacorn began screaming her loudest while battering Celestias shield. I could definitely feel a drain now. Not wanting to empty my tank I calmly asked, “STOP! YOUR DRAINING ME DRY!”
That got both pegacorns attentions including the older sister who was trying to pull her hoof away from her face.
“Sorry my friend, we just wanted to establish thous limits and see if we could overcome them.” Ouch.
“Indeed, we are and dare I say it, they are quite extreme. My sister’s halberd is magickly enchanted to assist in the breaking of shields like the one I just created.” She then smiled at me, “could you please remove my hoof from my face?”
Woops, at that I put Celestia hoof on the ground again, “Okay, you’ve had your fun, can I have my shoe back please?”
“Of course,” Celestia then went about removing my shoe which immediately magnetted back to its appropriate location, “It looks like we shall have to call this meeting here as my sister and I have another engagement to attend. Sister would you be so kind as to escort our guest here to their room, before meeting us at the carriages?”
“Of course, Celly,” she then turned to me, “Thou must follow me to thy accommodation.” With that we bid Celestia farewell and I followed Luna to my new room, which hopefully wasn't a prison cell. She was walking like a mare on a mission clearly in a hurry. “Could you wait up? I’m not good at the whole moving thing.”
Sadly the blue mare was in to much of a hurry to care for my plight, “Apologies, but thou must hurry if we are to be ready for our departure.”
We kept going at the same pace until we were about to walk past a room with a very fancy moon styled door.
“One moment let us come into this room first.” I just blindly followed her. It doesn’t matter to me where we go, as long as its somewhere interesting, which this room was with all of its night themed furniture. Clearly somebody loves the moon a bit too much.
“Now we are alone, We have a request for thou.” Oh, this’ll be good. “We wish for thou to do the same for us as thou did for my sister.”
“Make an armoured copy? I can do that,” This time was a lot less effort as the only real change was the length of the legs and armour colour. “Ta da,” I tried my best to do a little flourish with my new proportions. Luna even gave me a slight applause.
“Now for the second part of the request,” okay, where could this be going? “We wish to try thou the same way as my sister but in full, We shalt not let her hold this over us.” Well, this seems rather childish.
“Look your majesty,” I said while Luna kicked off her shoes and threw her regalia onto her bed. “Celestia said you were in a hurry and I can’t be the cause of your lateness. Why not get a guard to show me the rest of the way? and maybe I’ll let you later…maybe.”
“Thou art arguing with thy Princess?" The Luna began in a surprised tone, before becoming more jovial, "besides, it only took thou a moment to adorn our sister, this will take no longer.” She then started to stalk towards me with a smile. I'm not her subject, so technically she isn't my Princess.
For goodness’ sake, why is this happening again within 10minutes of the last time. “Fine but only for a second.”
At my admitting defeat, the moon pony uncharacteristically clapped her hooves together, before excitedly saying, "Wonderful." She then waited for me to prepare myself.
Once I was ready, Luna attempted to pull me over with her magic horn, which just felt kinda tingly. After some mild frustration, she walked up to me and began carefully pulling on my helmet. As it turns out, I'm quite difficult to pull apart when not in the mood. Knowing this situation was inevitable, I focused on releasing my hold. This had the unfortunate by product of my form collapsing to the floor in a pile. Well, that’s a new experience.
“Are you alright armoured one?” Luna questioned, while picking up my helmet in an attempt to look me in the eyes. At least she cared a little bit.
“Yes, yes just get it over with,” The sooner this was over, the sooner I could climb into bed. Existing is so exhausting.
“Ah, thou hast acquired the appropriate spirit,” she said with a wink, “thou will see, we are just as powerful as our sister." Whatever Luna.
With no more words, she slid my helmet easily over her head letting her horn poke out the top and began collecting my other parts. Being how the armour was designed to perfectly fit her form, she found the entire process incredibly easy. Well, apart from the wing armour. To be fair it didn’t seem like any of the pegasus guards had any, so it may be an alien concept.
Once I was fully donned, I was again presented with the strange phenomenon of my limbs moving on their own accord, except this time it was my entire body. Quickly finding my head moving to inspect myself.
“Oh my,” Luna quickly walked us to a mirror before admiring herself further pulling what I imagine are various combat poses. She’s making me feel a bit silly here, “Now, dost thou not think we look rather fetching together?” Looking at her armoured form surrounded by my misty self.
“You look very nice Luna,” to be honest the feeling of being worn was pretty nice, as I could feel my energy reserves beginning to gradually refill again. The feeling of a fluffy animal is also quite agreeable. I should get a dog. That would surely let me pet it, right? “Can you take me off now?”
To my surprise, Luna said, “wait, We wish to show our sister,” before heading back for the door. I couldn’t have this, making a princess late to an important meeting? No way. That's going to look bad on my record. With that in mind, I tried to hold her in place. “Thy joints are impeding our movement. Perhaps thou requires maintenance?” Luna surmised, while easily over powering my attempt to halt her progress.
“Look, I think it's best you take me off. Otherwise you're going to be late.” With each slow step the pegacorn took towards the door, I put more strength into trying to stop her, until eventually something gave and all resistance from her seemed to stop. “Ha, I knew you’d see it my way,” I said triumphantly, as I walked us back to the mirror, “you can take me off now…Luna?” Looking into the mirror Luna's eyes were staring straight forward and her face was wearing a gradually falling smile.
Oh this is bad, Luna doesn’t seem to be home. Looking in the mirror, there wasn’t any mist circling us like last time and when I removed the helmet, it quickly changed back into mist before floating into Luna's ears.
“Oh no, Oh no,” this was when I noticed I was speaking in Luna’s voice. Okay, stay calm just gotta cover for this until you can figure out what’s wrong. Okay, I’ll just look like Luna’s regalia so no one notices and then steadily figure out how to escape before anyone notices, brilliant. Not like Luna could come looking for revenge or anything, right?
As soon as I made my change Celestia burst into the room, “Luna are you ready yet?”
“Erm... yes. Actually, no wait. Could we put that meeting on hold? Don’t think I can make it today," I said, trying to get Luna out of this important meeting.
“Nonsense sister. Come along, the griffins are itching to meet you,” Celestia said with a laugh, before dragging me out of the room.