Chapter 30
“Wake up!”
A sharp pain in the side of my ribcage woke me from my slumber. The aches of the previous day returned with it. I quickly sat up flailing my hooves wildly, striking something soft.
“Ow!”
I look to the side to see a pony, unsurprisingly. I was surprised to see that it was Cloe and that it took that long for my brain to figure it out. I was also surprised to see a hoof flying towards my face, too fast for me to move. More pain took my senses as the hoof crashed into my snout, making it uglier than ever. I fell back onto the bed, in too much pain to scream.
“You bitch,” Cloe growled, obviously angry at me.
“Why…” I tried asking a question. I hope she got the message.
“Because you hit me.”
“You woke me up!”
“So?”
I rolled off the pony sized bed and onto my hooves, somehow standing after getting decked in the shnoz.
“Girls,” I mumbled quietly to myself as I started walking out of the small room to get some food.
“I heard that.”
“You were supposed to.”
I reached the bar safely, seeing Tony already here. He had an apple pie sitting in front of him as he sat down with a book floating in front of him. I could tell that it was magic by his glowing horn. After some thought, I ordered some apple juice and apple pancakes, which surprisingly exist and joined him.
“What you got there?” I asked as I sat down. When he didn’t immediately answer, I tied reading the title. “Predictions and Prophesies?”
“Cloe told me it’s a good read,” he replied as he took a bite of his pie.
Wow, these pancakes are good. “How?”
He smiled. “You will be surprised what these ponies come up with.”
What isn’t going to surprise me. “Mind if I have a read after you?” I asked him.
He suddenly closed the floating book and placed it beside my food. “Sure but be careful,” he told me. “It’s Twilight’s.”
“But I thought that you were reading it.”
“Finished it already.” He looked at me with a weird look before speaking again. “What happened to your face?”
“Cloe.”
“Ok,” he said as I flicked the book open and started reading.
This book has it all. Nightmare moon was expected but Everfree Forest being infested, reaching the stars, countless wars and even Zerg were not. Ok maybe the wars were. And the stars. There were actually quite a few predictions on wars and even one on trans universal travel. A specific one caught my eye, however.
“Oh, look,” I said flatly as my eyes skimmed across the page. “They predicted the appearance of the demons.”
“Hey there, mister,” someone spoke to me. I look up from the page to see Braeburn.
“Hi Braeburn.” This seemed to have surprised him. Almost as if we haven’t met.
“Have we met before?” And it seems that we haven’t. Probably the pony getup.
“Probably not,” I answer, playing along with the new guy act and going back to reading the book. This is gonna be fun.
“Braeburn, this is Andrew,” Tony tells the uninformed pony.
“Ruin my fun why don’t ya,” I mumbled quietly as Braeburn jumped slightly at the revelation.
He began to stutter, “S-so, yer one of them-“
“Yes,” I say before he can ask anything. “I am.”
The situation was tense. The three of us were quiet, none of us speaking a word. Ok, I’m bored.
I flipped the book shut and turned to Braeburn. “So, how’s the day?” I ask.
Braeburn was taken aback. “uh, good?”
“That’s good, mine has been somewhat good. Got punched awake, decked in the shnoz and now I’m here with a friend and a potential friend with some breakfast, a book and nothing trying to kill us.” I downed the entirety of my juice immediately before continuing. “That’s a win in my books.”
“Ok,” he replied, unsure about what to say.
I stood up and grabbed the book, preparing to leave. “Anyway, I’m off to get an apology and most likely fail.” I pointed a hoof at Tony as I swung the book underneath my wing. “You, sir, have some talking about later.”
He looked questioningly at me, but clarity crossed his face as he realised what I was on about. I could tell from the nice shade of red on it.
“Later, bro’s,” I said my farewell and I left them to their own devices. As I left the building, something in the distance caught my eye. The guards had set up camp on the opposite side of the town, relative to where the exploded hill was. Several tent like structures were strewn about in an organised matter, all of them brilliant white with a golden sun emblazoned on the side. The biggest of them all stood in the centre with a long flag with some sort of princess yin yang logo on it, one side deep blue while the other bright gold, flying from a pole in the middle. I assumed this was some sort of command tent thing, I’ve seen enough movies to tell the difference. I turned towards the guard’s camp and proceeded. Maybe they can teach me something.
I reached the outskirts of the camp before being stopped by two ponies wearing golden armour. Noobs, haven’t any of them played minecraft?
“Halt!” one shouted at me as their spears crossed my path.
“None pass without authorisation,” the other stated.
“How about this,” I began as I laid the book to the side. I walked back to where I was and continued. “You let me through, and I don’t cause serious injuries to either of you.”
“Are you threatening us?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Nope,” I said before springing into action. Pulling at one of the spears, the guard to my left tripped as I swept it out of his grip. I gave a swift kick to his head as I swung my head around, tripping the other one before he could bring his weapon down on me. I swept the book up and began to run towards the centre, by now the guard had gotten up and asked for help. They chased me through the encampment, redirecting me several times in their attempt to intercept me. I eventually made it to the command tent, having snaked my way through the guard’s base of operations. As I stood at the main door flap thing, the guards closed in on me from all sides, leaving only one option. I jumped through the door.
“…and there is the possibility of attack on these three locations.” The captain informed his audience, pointing a hoof at a map spread across a table. Luna sat next to her sister, taking in the details of whatever he said as well as her sister is.
“Sup,” I greeted everyone.
“HALT!” The guards jumped in behind me.
“Oh yeah, about that,” I said as I began to run to the other side of the table, attempting to prolong this chase unnecessarily. I was stopped in midstride as I was enveloped in magic.
“Oh god,” I mumbled quietly as the guards pounced onto me, pinning me down. One of them even hit me in the face, right where it hurts.
“STOP!” the loud, command from Luna resonated through the room, and probably a few kilometres out. The guards followed her command obediently, releasing me in the process. Dusting myself off, I attempted to stand tall but the alicorns in the room were too tall for me to do that.
“What did you do!” Celestia demanded from me.
“Well I was walking by when two guards stopped me. I tripped one and kicked the other, fairly easily must I note and began to run. In reality I was testing their capabilities and seeing if they could stop me on my way here. They don’t know much about human thinking patterns or combat and aren’t very adaptive to their situation, you should look into that.”
“This pony is trespassing on a restricted area,” that one pony I tripped.
“Oi, who are you calling a pony!” I almost find that insulting. Almost.
“Ok, I’ll look into that,” Shining answered. I’m surprised that they didn’t throw me into a cage.
“Anyway, have any of you seen Cloe?”
“I’m right here,” Cloe said from behind the mass of captainness that is Shining Armour.
“You, sir, owe me an apology!”
“No I don’t!”
A burst of magic interrupted the argument and a magic scroll of mail appeared in front of Celestia. She opened it as soon as it appeared and after skimming through it, she read it aloud.
“Send help, under attack, Twilight…”
I knew what was happening. “Mobilise your troops and get to Ponyville as fast as possible.”
A random guard objected. “Sir, why-“
“NOW!” I scream at them. If they don’t listen, I will make them.
“Do as he says,” Celestia commanded. “He knows what’s happening.”
As the guards left and spread the word through the camp, Shining understood.
“What if it’s just a hydra?” he asked the princess, nervousness in his voice. Hell, if my sister was in there I would be scared as well.
“Oh, then it would be dead already,” I answer.
He glared at me, the sort that could kill if it shot laser beams. I looked to Cloe and she looked back. She understood and ran out to town with me.
“How good is your magic?’ I ask as we ran down towards the inn to get our guns.
“Pretty good, I think,” Cloe answered. “Why?”
“We’re gonna teleport.”
“What about Tony?”
“He can catch the train or just stay here and guard this place.”
“That reminds me about what he and brae-“
“Less talk, more rush!”