Chapter 4
One of Those Days
I sat on my bed with my head in my hands, constantly replaying the answer I got from Celestia. ‘I can’t send you home’. Honestly, I knew deep down that it was impossible to return home. I did get hit by a meteorite. It doesn’t happen a lot but I’m almost certain that it’s hard to come back from. Besides, I don’t think there is a way to teleport people from one place to another, let alone across dimensions.
As I sat thinking about what happened a small knock on the door roused me.
“It’s open.” The door opened to reveal Twilight, Cadence, Ruby and Luna.
“Are you ok?” Twilight broke the silence.
“Yeah, I’m fine; I kind of knew it would be near impossible to go back. But you can’t really prepare yourself to accept the fact that I can’t see anyone I loved ever again,” I stated simply. Looking to Luna, I continued.
“Princess Luna, I apologize for my actions earlier. I should’ve taken the news a little better than I did”.
Luna chuckled.
“It’s perfectly fine, Simon. It was hard news to take. I think your actions can be a little bit justified,” she said with a forgiving smile on her face. Cadence simply walked over and gave me a hug; I stiffened up at first, not expecting the hug, but reciprocated the comforting gesture.
“Thanks. I needed that,” I said, smiling at her.
“It’s no problem, I’m happy it helped.” she replied with a smile.
“So, what’re you going to do now?” Twilight asked.
I thought about that for a while, but really there is only one option to choose.
“Well, I suppose I'm living here for the rest of my days” I said, trying to hide my sadness of not seeing my family again. Luna suddenly walked towards the window and opened it.
“I’ll talk to Celestia to see if we can get you a place to stay and means of income. This may take a few days, but will be done as soon as possible.”
“Thank you, Princess, I'm grateful for the help,” I said as I stood and bowed to her. She giggled and flew out of the window and towards the castle. I looked to Ruby who had jumped on the bed sleeping whilst I was talking. I softly stroked her head to awaken her. She licked my hand to show affection when a voice sounded from below.
“Cadence, I'm home, where are you at?” Cadence looked at the door.
“Up here, Shiny,” she called from the door.
A few minutes later a new pony came into the room. He had pure white fur with a blue mane and tail. He also had a shiny shield on his flank. He looked at me with a smile.
“Ah, you’re awake now. Nice you meet you. Name’s Shining Armour, husband to Cadence and brother to Twilight,” he said kissing the cheek of the former and nuzzling the latter. I got up of the bed and walked over to him whilst holding my hand out for a shake.
“Hey Shining Armour, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Name’s Simon,” I said as he completed the hand/hoof shake. Shining Armour let a small smile appear on his face.
“I see you've healed a lot since we found you,” he states as you walk back over to the bed.
“Oh yeah, that reminds me. How did you find me?” Cadence stepped forward.
“Well, it was an ordinary night for me…”
------------Flashback-------
Cadence walked to the door with Shining beside her.
“Have a safe journey, honey!” Cadence said as she kissed her husband and nuzzled his cheek.
“I will. Are you sure you’ll be ok on your own?” he asked with a hint of sadness in his voice at having to leave his wife’s side this late in the evening.
“I will. Don’t worry about me; I’m sure to find something to do.” She smiled at him.
“Ok, just buzz me if you anything happens,” he said whilst motioning to his horn.
This is a way many unicorns communicate with each other long distances; they send a small magical pulse to a specific unicorn’s horn which in turn alerts the recipient of the location of the sender. It used more as a distress signal for the local guard. Each guard has several unicorns that are connected to a group of ponies in a certain area, and alert a group out patrolling the area of the distress. Being the commander of the guard, Shining showed Cadence how to call him in emergencies.
“I will. Bye, Shiny!” she said motioning towards the door in a playful way. As the door closes shut after Shining exits the home, Cadence let out a sigh. ‘Right, now I’m alone…what to do…’
After an hour of doing nothing, Cadence decided to sit outside and look at the changing of the sun and moon. The sun crawls under the horizon and the moon take its place. As the moon was in position, she saw something flash in the sky. On first glimpse it looked like a shooting star, but then it got brighter and larger. Cadence felt something in the air; the magic was starting to get a little stronger as the ‘shooting star’ got closer. To be safe, she walked back into the house and watched through the patio door at the ‘star’. After a while the star smashed into the earth of the back garden with enough force to wake a hibernating dragon. Cadence umped and ducked down as piece of earth smashed against the window.
After a while, she looked up to see smoke, dust and a small crater in her back garden. Instantly her horn lit up, sending a signal to Shining Armour, who appeared in seconds of sending the distress with another unicorn.
“Cadence, what’s wrong?” Shining asked as he wrapped a shaken Cadence in a hug. Cadence said nothing, but looked towards the garden. Shining looked as well, his eyes shot open wide. He turned to the unicorn.
“Get a group of guards her n-” He was interrupted as Cadence gasped and ran for the door.
“Cadence! Wai-” He stopped again as he saw Cadence running after a dog lying down next to something. It was too dark to see what it was, so Shining lit up his horn and released a ball of light into the air about the garden to see what it was. He looked over with wider eyes, and then turned to the waiting unicorn.
“Also, get a doctor! Some…thing has been hurt!” he ordered as the unicorn saluted and ran back to the station.
----Present---
“…After the doctor arrived, he examined you and brought you up here to treat whatever injuries he could see, and Ruby was send to Fluttershy to be cared for.” Cadence finished the story as I sat on the bed, listening to the story being told. Shining Armour left sometime after she started to get some lunch downstairs and headed out to do some shopping. I thought over the story. Something was bothering me.
“You said I landed in your garden in a small crater. When I looked out there it was untouched.” Cadence giggled at this
whilst Twilight explained it.
“Cadence used magic on it to replace the earth that you pulled up in your landing. A simple repair spell, if I’m not mistaken,” she finished, looking at Cadence for an answer.
“That is correct, Twilight,” she said, nodding at the small unicorn. I looked outside and saw the sun disappear under the horizon, and looked at the clock on the wall. It read 8:00. With that, I let out a yawn which everyone caught.
“Looks like everypony is getting tired,” Twilight said as she walked towards the door. Cadence followed, heading to bed where she presumed Shining Armour was already.
“Night, you two, see you in the morning!” Cadence shouted, I wave at them both.
“G’night.” I shut the door and changed out of my suit, folded it up and placed it on the nearby stool. I jumped into bed and went to sleep.