//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 Canterlot // Story: The Phoenix Project // by Cydon //------------------------------// Chapter 7 Canterlot The train ride to Canterlot took the rest of the day with not much else to do save look out the window. The view was breathtaking to say the least but got repetitive after a few hours of nothing but rolling hills and small forests. That is, until we entered a tunnel then it was just dark. Eventually we began our ascent of the mountain that Canterlot itself was built upon and I got my first clear view of the city proper, suffice it to say it was enormous with a multitude of towers and buildings ranging from big to mansion in size. But it was the castle itself that was the biggest and grandest of all with grand towers that touched the sky and gleaming marble buildings covered in massive stain glass windows it was nothing short of impressive even by human standards. I was so awestruck by the view that I didn't notice the final hour fly by and only snapped out of it when the the trains whistle and screeching brakes told me we had arrived. "Hey Professor we made it and we didn't get attacked by Changelings again." The Professor groans and rolls to his hooves standing up slowly. "Lets get this over with I need another nap." "OK Mr sleepy Bones." The Professor looks at me grumpily, but before I can say anything further a knock from the door interrupts us. "Royal guard open up." "Just a moment." Sky replies stepping over to the door and opening it a crack. "How can we help you gentlecolts?" "By order of Princess Celestia Professor Bones and his findings are to be escorted to the castle at once." "Of course, but if you don't mind we will join you my friend has an appointment with the Princess as well." "I see no problem, so be it, gather your things and meet us outside." The Guard ponies trot away, Sky turns back to us. "Is everypony ready?" The Professor is rummaging about the cabin. "Where are my bags I was sure they were around here somewhere." "You left them over there Professor." I say pointing to the saddlebags in the corner of the cabin. "Ah yes of course." He grabs his bags. I grab my pack and my rifle and stand by the door. "I'm ready, see you outside." The others nod and I step out of the cabin and walk to the end of the car. I peek around the corner and see the guards, they were standing in the middle of the station ramrod stiff. 'Man these guys are uptight.' I check the safety on my pistol and remove the clip from my rifle. 'It would not make a good impression to go and shoot somepony.' I step off the train and slowly approach the guards. "Good evening gentlecolts." All but one remained still and I assumed he was the leader with his purple armor. "Good evening to you as well, I am not aware of your species what are you?" He says as he walks up to me. "We call ourselves humans but unfortunately I am the only survivor of my race." "That is unfortunate but I'm glad that you are safe. My name is Shining Armor I am Captain of the royal guard who are you?" "My name is Cydon Imperius and it is a pleasure to meet a fellow captain." "A military stallion huh? We'll have to trade war stories over a cider one day." "I'd like that." It was at this time that Sky and the Professor hopped off the train and made their way over to us. "Thank you for waiting we are ready now." Sky said with a smile. "No problem, come with me please and stay inside the formation." The guards formed a box formation with us in the middle with Shining Armor. "Formation forward." We began our walk to the castle, we marched through the market district various ponies pausing to gawk and stare. Some of the snootier ponies raising their noses with a hmph and trotting away muttering something about the uncouth savages in Canterlot these days. "Hey Armor are the ponies here always this snooty?" "No most of the snooty one are at home today." We all shared a laugh as we continued to the castle gate. "Captain Armor and escort has returned inform the Princesses at once." Shouted one of the guards at the gate. "Thank you guard." Shining said. The guard nodded and we continued into the castle entrance hall. "So anything interesting happen lately?" "Are you aware of Changelings?" "We are... familiar." "Last month they invaded the castle and nearly ruined my wedding to Princess Cadence. Fortunately we were able to stop them and force them out of Canterlot." "Wow, crashing a wedding for a Princess, that's a dick move." "A what?" "A... you know what nevermind, continue." "Well ever since then we have been having problems with small groups of Changelings attacking towns across Equestria." "In that case I'm happy to tell you I personally dealt with a group in Appleloosa before coming here." "How did you defeat so many Changelings singlehoofedly?" "Single what? Oh yeah you have hooves. But yeah it wasn't a big deal from what I've seen of your world my people were way ahead of you in terms of technology." "But how does your technology allow you to beat such odds?" "Quite simply my dear boy I put them down before they could even get close, most of the time anyway." Remembering that I nearly died in my first encounter with Changelings. "Could you show me sometime?" "Will you be at my meeting with the Princess?" "As Captain of the guard it is my duty to attend." "Then I can show you then." We had finally gotten across the massive hall and were now in front of the massive doors to the throne room. The Unicorn guards on each side of the door nodded to Shining and their horns glowed with magic opening the doors to reveal a large throne room massive stain glass windows on each side. Two thrones were situated on the far side of the room one gold with a sun the other blue with a moon. Two regal alicorns rose from their seats as we entered a large white one. 'Celestia.' And a smaller blue one. 'Luna.' next to them were six ponies two unicorns two pegasi and two earth 'PINKIE PIE!' ponies. "Hiya super best friends." Drifted across the large room as Pinkie waved to us I waved back. The six ponies began quietly conversing amongst themselves. "Welcome back to Canterlot Professor Bones and greetings to your companions as well." Celestia's regal voice seemed to carry across the entire room with no effort at all. "I must say though I have never in all my many years met a creature such as your self mister?" We closed the distance between us until we could talk without shouting to hear one another. "I am Captain Cydon Imperius your majesty." "My my so formal, at ease Captain." "As you wish Princess." "Nonsense I get the feeling we will be seeing each other often so we can forget formalities entirely if it is ok with you?" "I can do that Celestia." "Good, now Professor would you like to give me your report on what you found out in the desert?" "Ah my report oh um the Changelings kind of destroyed it." He says sheepishly. "Is the datapad I gave you okay?" I ask. "Yes, I think." "May I see it?" The Professor levitates his saddlebags over to me and I open them up quickly finding and grabbing the datapad. "Good it still works. Is their anyway to make it darker in here?" Celestia thought for a moment and nods her horn starts glowing as a golden aura surrounds the massive curtains and they begin closing, covering the windows and making it dark enough for my idea. "Tara can you make a small projector?" "Yes but I will need to cannibalize the binoculars." "I understand, do it." The forge in my backpack hums to life and in a few minutes out came a small projector. "Perfect." I look at the ponies around me they all had confused stares plastered on their faces. "How? What? Why?" Said the purple unicorn. "You know I don't know all of you yet. I know of the Princesses and I met Pinkie and Shining already but who are you?" Pinkie smiled when I mentioned her and her friends gave her a shocked glance. "Pinkie wasn't lying then, she really did meet a new species." The purple unicorn said. "My name is Twilight Sparkle by the way. Student to Princess Celestia and Ponyville librarian." "And I am Rarity fashionista extraordinaire. I would love to make you some new outfits dear." Said the white unicorn. "Thank you for the offer I might take you up on that." "I'M Rainbow Dash fastest flier in all of equestria!" "So you're the blue blur." "Blue blur? OH yeah that's me." "How fast can you go?" "I broke the speed of sound three times." "No way." "It's true I call it the sonic rainboom I'll show you sometime." "Looking forward to it." "Name's Applejack partner but my friends call me AJ." "I've heard about you, your Braeburns cousin, Sweet Apple Acres right?" "Darn tootin best apples in all of Equestria." "So I've heard, I'd love a sample some time." "I can arrange that." "Thank you." "HI super best friends I'm Pinkie Pie but you already know that it's good to see you again." "Good to see you again too Pinkie." "I'm Fluttershy." "I'm sorry but I didn't catch that." "I'm Fluttershy." "I still didn't catch that." *GASP* "I'm Fluttershy." "A pleasure to meet you miss Fluttershy, don't worry I made a promise to never harm a good pony." Fluttershy gave me a smile and hid behind her mane again. "Now that introductions are done how about I do a little presentation on just what and who the Professor found in the desert." "Wait who?" "Yes, he found me." I hooked the datapad into the projector Tara made and pointed it at a nearby wall. "It's just like the film projector back in my library but a lot smaller." "Excellent deduction Mrs. Sparkle one less thing to explain then." "But what are you going to show us?" "To put it simply my dear, I'm going to show you your friends and the Princesses everything I can. Then when I am done and I deem you know enough about my world I will tell you the story of the end of my world." And so I talked. It took a good deal longer than I thought it would especially since Twilight would constantly interrupt me to ask a question. Eventually after several hours and a basic history lesson of my world complete with explanations of everything they didn't understand such as electronics and self propelled vehicles and even the internet. Everypony yawned simultaneously. 'Damn you ponies and your excessive use of adorableness.' I glance at my watch. 2:35 A.M. 'Wow it's late.' "Congratulations ponies I've told you everything I'm going to tell you before I give you my story." "Aww but there's still so much left to learn." "Yes their is but it is late and I want to get this over with before we retire for the night." *YAWN* "Yeah I guess you're right." "Don't worry Twilight you can study the archives in my pod as long as you want." "OH THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU." "Wouldst thou tell us the story so we may go to bed sir Cydon?" Luna hadn't said much but had proven to be just as eager to learn as Twilight. "I was just getting to that Luna." "Then hurry it up already all this egghead stuff is boring." As much as she didn't want to admit It, I was paying attention during my presentation and Rainbow was just as transfixed as the others. "It started six months prior to my leaving Earth. A terrorist organization had captured a scientist that was developing a new weapon they called it a Nova bomb. The bomb was designed to eliminate all life on a planet by raising radiation levels to a point where exposure meant instant vaporization." "When it was detonated we knew we were doomed so we did the only thing we could. We decided to leave the planet, to leave the Earth the one and only birthplace of the human race. But, we ran into problems immediately. Where would we go? To the moon? To geostationary orbit? Or another star entirely? How would we get there? How many people and supplies should we bring what kind of people would be best suited to survive? To live?" "The decision was made quickly, the only way we could survive would be to send as many people as possible to a new planet orbiting another star, to save time we would send one man pods, thousands of them if we could. But we ran into another problem the time it would take to reach another star even at lightspeed was longer than our lifespan so we needed another solution." "Cryostasis, we would put ourselves to sleep for the journey preserving our bodies so we could reach our new world and start anew. As a Captain of the United Terra army Rangers I was assigned a guard position at the research facility where we would build our ships. The scientists worked themselves ragged trying to finish as fast as possible but it was too late to save everyone." "Radiation levels had grown too high making surface travel suicidal so only those in the facility would live only we could leave our doomed planet. And so, we did." "You mean you all just left? Jumped in your pods and took off?" Rainbow's wings flared her eyes filling with anger. "Unfortunately yes if it were possible to save anyone else we would have but we could not so we opted to save ourselves rather than wait for death." "But then how are you here and no other humans are?" Twilight said quickly as Rainbow hung her head. "My pod's engines were damaged after take off I don't know when they were damaged or where I ended up because my navigational systems are still damaged if I can fix them I could find out though." "We could help you fix it." "Thank you for the offer but I don't see the point other than to say that's my star over there and even if I wanted to leave I couldn't the engines are toast." "Oh." Twilight began pouting using her large pony eyes to give the best puppy dog eyes since puppy dogs. "Ah, Twilight, fine I will fix it in my free time if I can." "Hooray!" "I think that's everything, you eleven ponies now know my story and how the world ended for the human race. I'm pooped lets go to bed yeah?" "But I still have a few questions." "Twi, sugarcube you can ask em tomorrow." "Fine." "Shining Armor." "Yes Princess?" "Have everypony escorted to their rooms we will reconvene over breakfast on the morrow." "At once Princess." Everypony began heading for the door to the throne room to get some well deserved rest. "Cydon please wait a moment." I stopped and turned on the spot walking back up to Celestia. "Yes?" The door to the throne room slammed shut leaving me alone with the Princesses. Celestia's horn glowed and the curtains drew back from the windows letting in the moonlight. "Your species seemed very dangerous and you said you were a member of its military." It seemed more of a statement than a question. "Um." "The way you answer this next question will determine your future in Equestria so think carefully. What is the primary objective of a military?" "I don't know about here but on my world the sole purpose of a military was to protect civilians from those who wish to hurt and destroy and to do everything we could to save lives. Violence begets more violence and all that." "Do you Captain Cydon Imperius promise to never purposely harm any of my little ponies?" "Princess I promise you that I will not harm the good citizens of Equestria." "I want you to Pinkie promise that." "You want me to what?" "To Pinkie Promise." "You mean with my pinkie finger?" "Your pinkie finger? No no like this cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." She said moving her hoof accordingly. "OH! Uh sure I guess, I swear that I will not harm the good citizens of Equestria cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." As I finished the movements I felt a cold shiver like someone or rather somepony was watching me. "It would be wise to never break that promise Pinkie gets.. very... upset if you do." "I get the feeling I don't ever want to break one of those." "Please don't I'm not sure what Pinkie would do to you." "Princess you're more clever than I thought you were." "Thank you." "But I have no intentions of harming ponies, becoming a fugitive in a world where I am alone is not appealing in the slightest." "I see." "And besides if I harmed a pony Sky would never forgive me I made a promise to her as well one I intend to keep." Celestia chuckled. "In that case I wish you luck in your future endeavors." "Thanks I guess?" "Fare thee well we are off to bed." Luna departed with a flash. "I will show you to your room." "Thanks." Celestia trotted to the large doors and with a quick flash of her horn they opened. "Um if you don't mind could I get a room near Sky and the Professor?" "Of course." Celestia walked the halls with me following quietly behind the only sounds were the clopping of hooves and boots on marble. "Celestia do you trust me? I mean I understand if you don't I mean we only just met." "You are correct we did only just meet but I can tell that you have been completely honest with us since your arrival." "Then there is something I must tell you, ever since the train ride to Ponyville the Professor has been acting strangely, normally I wouldn't think anything of it but things are different here you have Changelings." "You think he might actually be a Changeling?" "If he is the real Professor could be anywhere even dead in a ditch somewhere but if i'm wrong then we just waste a little of our time." "We shall investigate in the morning this is your room. I will double the guard, goodnight Cydon." "Goodnight Princess." I open the door and step inside, the room was pleasantly large with a bed big enough for several humans I walk over to the bed and press down with my hand 'Hmmm soft yet springy perfect.' I take a step back and leap onto the bed causing a lump I didn't notice to fly into the air accompanied by an "EEEK" after the lump had landed I poked it with a finger and received a giggle prompting more poking causing more laughter until. "Stop pl..ple..ease hahaha!" "Hey Sky mind if I nap here?" "You might as well I don't think I can anymore." "Oh? More sleep for me then." I say as I lay my head on a pillow, I place my hand on her head and ran it down her back eliciting a blissful sigh as she lay her head on my chest. I continue for a few minutes until her breathing slowed and she fell asleep. I stopped and put my hands behind my head, Sky squirmed in her sleep until she wrapped her hooves around me hugging me tightly, I put my hand on her head again and closed my eyes "Good Night Sky." I whispered slipping into sleep.