Chapter 3: It’s the end of the beginning of a Tarantino movie… (Please tell me you get that)
The flight to Canterlot didn’t take long probably twenty minutes at most, what did take longer was for me to get over the fact that I was in an open air chariot. Have to say that after only flying on planes, being on something that flies that doesn’t have a roof kinda scares you a bit. So I spent the ride curled up in the fetal position in the middle of a chariot. Naturally this caused some questions to spring up from the girls.
“Dan, is everything alright? Do they have chariots where you are from?” Fluttershy asked. She is such a caring soul.
“Yeah we did, but they stayed on the GROUND!” I exclaimed in a panicked voice.
Next to Fluttershy was Twilight who was taking notes on how Dan was handling being in the chariot. So far he hadn’t been afraid of anything not her and her friends, and not even the princesses really. Maybe where he came from they didn’t have vehicles that flew with this much open space. It was all so curious to her.
“Dan is there anything we can do to help?”
“No, just the sooner we get to Canterlot the better please!!”
For Dan it was a long twenty minutes; but arriving in Canterlot brightened his spirits considerably. For one he had never seen a city that was basically built into a cliff, and two, besides the castle at Disney World, he had never seen an actual castle. The group of chariots landed right outside of the palace gates. There was a line of guards pushing back various ponies, one that had cameras and ones that had notepads. It turns out that all the royalty leaving the castle in a hurried and dramatic fashion attracted quite a fair amount of attention.
The newsponies were wondering why the Princesses and royal couple had left and come back with the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. They were about to start asking questions the only way a newspony knows how…loudly, but the crowd noticed something rise out of the same chariots the bearers were in. None of them could tell what it was they had never seen a creature like that. The shouting had stopped and everyone stared at this creature. It walked on two legs and appeared to have two limbs sprouting from its body. It glanced over at the crowd and even one twitched in fright. It got out of the chariot, and moved towards them, some ponies considered running away in fear but most were frozen in fear. Things got even worse when everyone heard it speak.
“Well is this big group here for little old me? Heh, I guess I’m a celebrity now?”
Everything was dead silent except for the faint sound of a goat bleating in the background for some odd reason. “Tough crowd huh?” The creature spoke in plain Equish.
Princess Celestia walked up next to Dan to try to pull him away from the crowd. “Dan we should move inside the palace, these ponies will be here for hours trying to figure out exactly what you are.”
“Fine with me princess.” Dan turned and began to head for the gates when one voice suddenly cried out.
“Wait!!!” a voice yelled.
Dan turned around to see that a mare (as he had been told about pony genders) had stepped out to the front of the crowd and was standing her ground in front of him on shaking legs. He walked up to her, simply towering over her looking down. He then sat down with his legs folded so he could be eye to eye with this mare.
“Can I help you?” The creature asked her in a calm tone, he gave her a calm smile it sort of relaxed her. But the nervousness was still reflected in her voice as her voice finally came forth.
“Wha…What are you?”
Dan chuckled as this mare asked her question. On the inside his childish side was just begging him “Just say “I’m Batman” and walk away oh please oh please oh please!!!” He mentally slapped that option down. He looked around the crowd and then back to the mare.
“Well, first off my name is Dan…what’s yours?”
The mare was shocked that it was asking something about her. She considered not saying anything but always remembered what her mother told her, “If somepony gives you their name you should give yours out of respect young lady” Since being in the news business she always believed that respect was the key to getting some of the info you needed.
“It’s Crystal…Crystal Clear.”
“Well Crystal, I tell you what. In the case that I’m still in Equestria in a couple of hours, let’s hope so. I will give you and only you the full exclusive on me!” Dan said in a chipper voice.
This was when Dan noted something else about pony cuteness. That when they are in a shock coming from happiness their eyes get even bigger than physics should allow. Physics is now cursing pony cuteness.
“B-B…Bu..But why me?”, she asked still stunned by the opportunity Dan had given her.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step.” And with that Dan got back to his feet and walked back to Princess Celestia who was the only person their now aside from her guards. He guessed that the others had went inside.
“That saying was very eloquent Dan.” The princess gave him a compliment.
“It wasn’t mine, it’s an old proverb back where I come from…I mean the planet dimension thing not where I live exactly.”
“Ah I see…what does it mean exactly?”
“That even the longest and most difficult ventures have a starting point.”
“Do you think it might be hard for you here Dan?” Dan noted some worry in her voice
“I’ve been hurt today more than average by my own self…let me get through the rest of today first and I’ll think about it princess.”
“Fine enough Dan, oh and you can simply call me Celestia.”
Dan paused to think for a second “Hmm, is this because you’re tired of everyone treating you so properly and you just want a bit of normal conversation, so you can unwind to someone who will try to understand.”
Now Celestia paused “How did you…”
“I can be a good judge of character when I want to. I judged that since you're one of the rulers of this land and move a giant nuclear ball of flaming gas at your will, it can be hard to have someone give you a straight and honest answer; so besides you sister who is also in your predicament there is not really anypony to vent to.”
Celestia was silent as they continued walking into the palace, but right before they reached two giant ornate doors; she stopped.
“You're right Dan.”
“I’m sorry I…”
“No no, none of that it is good to know that someone can see what I need, hopefully I can call upon you to “vent” to.”
“No problem Celestia”
They shared a laugh as Celestia used her magic to open the doors. On the other side was a throne room where two thrones sat at the far end. The whole group was in the room and, as usual, Rainbow Dash was impatient.
“Jeez Dan it took you long enough…Oh hey princess.”
“Yeah well I had to promise a brand new reporter her first big scoop of her career.” Dan gave a cocky smile as Celestia gave him a confused look.
“How did you know that?”
“She had a brand new pencil and notepad which had never been used and had a temporary badge to someplace called Equestria Daily.”
“That was very observant of you. Now to the matters at hand” Celestia said as she moved to her throne. Once she had taken her seat she spoke again.
“Dan the uh…”
“Human, princess.” Twilight added
“Human; thank you Twilight. You were summoned here by my student Twilight Sparkle.”
“I guess that’s how I ended up in the tree.”
“Quite. Now I have since gone over Twilight’s notes on what they have asked you so far. I would like to know more about wherever it is you come from but I have a more pressing question. It seems that you are very comfortable in this land of ours and seem to have knowledge of this place…I would like to know if you do and how you have obtained it.
OK now besides the whole “I eat meat thing” this was definitely one of the questions I was worried about coming up. After thinking about it I just decided to answer honestly and in the best way I could.
“Well…you are right about me knowing about this world and you and your ponies Celestia.” Gasps came from almost everyone in the room. And quicker than I could blink, Rainbow was in my face.
“WHAT!!! What is that supposed to mean, huh? Are you a spy?”
“No Rainbow, I’m not a spy…I want to tell you how I know you all, but I honestly can’t even begin to think about telling you how I know what I do.
Silence hung heavy in the room. No one really knew how to approach this. That is until Luna spoke up.
“I think I might know of a solution. Instead of thinking and trying to speak how about we let your mind do all the thinking?”
Apparently Celestia knew what she wanted to do “Luna that is a great idea; we can enter his mind and he can just show us what he wants to show us.”
I didn’t even think they could do that. “Um is it safe…that’s really my only concern here?”
“Oh besides some mild nausea, there isn’t anything bad that can happen.”
“Girls what do you think?” I asked wanting to hear their opinions.
“We’ve never been in somepony else’s mind before, it will be pretty neat!” Twilight spoke for the rest of the group.
Everyone; even Shining and Cadence, were in on this so I decided that it couldn’t hurt.
Celestia then stood and moved over to her sis as their horns began to glow.
“Alright then, everyone be prepared this may feel a bit weird.”
The glow from their horns then mixed and spread over everyone in the room. Dan felt a tingly effect come over him, and then his vision went black; not like he was passing out. He blinked his eyes and then he realized he was in an entirely pitch black room with everyone that had been standing in the throne room.
Shining felt like being a little on the defensive side “So where exactly are we now.”
Celestia offered up an explanation. “Right now we are in the “entrance” to Dan’s mind. If he were to think of anything it would show to us here.”
“Ooh that sound cool but first I wanna try something out.” Dan took a deep breath and then started to shout.
“HELLO!!!”
He waited a few seconds before and echo came back. “HELLO!!!”
“HOW ARE YOU!?!?”
“HOW ARE YOU!?!?”
“I ASKED YOU FIRST!!!”
“I ASKED YOU FIRST!!!”
“OH THAT’S REAL MATURE!!!”
“OH THAT’S REAL MATURE!!!”
Everyone watched him puzzled at why he was doing this and sure enough after thinking for a few seconds he shouted again.
“I’M AN IDIOT!!!”
This time there was more of pause before the echo came back
“YOU’RE AN IDIOT!!!”
This made everyone laugh for about a minute, even though Twilight was astounded by how an echo would come back different.
“Don’t think about it too much Twi; it’s my mind even I don’t think it makes sense.” Dan reassured her.
Celestia took the reins from there “Well then Dan, how this should work is think about what you need to tell us and it should pop up here and we should be able to comprehend and understand it.”
“Well OK then. Now then everyone a bit of rules. Please keep all arms and legs inside the ride at all times and questions if there are any will be answered at the end.” Dan started to concentrate about everything he knew about these ponies which came from a TV show back from his dimension called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
The information came out like someone had opened a floodgate. Twilight and her friends saw all their adventures up until Shining and Cadence’s wedding. Everyone besides Pinkie seemed to be having a bit of a hard time with this.
“OH, COOL!! I remember doing all this cookie and crazy things…HEY there’s the time I thought you guys didn’t like my parties anymore and I went all loco in the coco!!!”
After it all stopped everyone looked towards Dan, he didn’t look so good and Twilight offered her help.
“Dan are you OK?”
“I…I feel….nauseous.”
“I think….I’m gonna need…”
Celestia magicked up a trash can and floated it over to Dan “This should help.”
Dan accepted the trash can, nodded his head politely at Celestia and then vomited into the trash can.
“HURGHAHLHLHLHLLLL!!!”
He held his head at the rim of the basket for a couple of seconds before he decided to speak again.
“OK I think that was every-HURAGHGGHLGHLGHLG!!!” Apparently it was not…all of it.
After he vomited a second time he settled down and gave himself a little time to adjust once that was over he began again.
“OK so…any questions on everything you guys just saw?”
Celestia had the only pertinent question at the time; so she asked.
“Yes. How do you think the adventures of Twilight and her friends as well as things about us were first seen in your world?
“Well the person who came up with the idea for the show is a person by the name of Lauren Faust.” Dan quickly noticed that both Luna and Celestia both flinched when they heard the name “Faust”.
“From what I can think about it is that the events that transpired here somehow “leaked” into my dimension to my planet, and into the head of Lauren who then brought you to life in a children cartoon whose popularity took off like a rocket.”
Celestia mulled over the answer for awhile and then went a little ways off into my mind to confer with her sister. Meanwhile I went to talk Everyone else.
“So how is everyone taking this?”
Cadence spoke up in a happy manor. “Even though it’s kind of weird seeing it again it sure is nice to know that people saw my wedding…and my husband not noticing that I was switched out for the changeling queen.”
“Cadence I told you that she had me on mind control the same time they took you I’m sorry and it will never happen again.”
Everyone laughed at that for a bit before I then asked the girls, “What do you girls think about this?”, Weirdly enough, in some cosmic coincidence.
“I think it’s delightful that people look to us as sort of celebrities”
“We are so famous it’s awesome!!”
I was about to ask the rest of the girls but Celestia and Luna came back.
“Dan we have concluded that what you know about is OK and we would like to ask something else of you.”
“What Exactly do you have in mind?”
“We both thought that since we are in your mind we could continue evaluating you like Twilight had begun earlier but being here would allow us to get the information faster about your species and such.”
“I guess you could but I’m gonna warn you everything mankind has done is not all sunshine and rainbows. We have done things that we regret.”
“We’ll take note of that, and we want you to know that anything other humans have done will not be harshly judged and punished on you.”
“OK I guess, but since there is a lot I am going to split into two parts; history first then culture and stuff like that.”
“That is fine with us, you can begin when you’re ready.”
I honestly didn’t want some of the ponies here to know about the wars humans had fought and the number of people who had died but eventually, I think it would have gotten out somehow.
Images started playing out around us. It started with the earliest knowledge of humans; how we lived then, how we coped, and how we evolved. Everything started to move faster. Towns popped up and that about where the fighting began. Everything kept going and I saw a lot ancient civilizations, old rituals wars fought with formations of legions of troops. Everything that happened past World War II. It all happened in a couple of minutes.
Everyone sat in silence at what they had just seen. Feeling a bit dejected and somber I muttered. “And that’s the first half.”
“Um Dan?”
I looked up to see Fluttershy staring at me with her caring eyes. She moved closer and wrapped her hooves around the back of my neck and gave me a hug. It cheered me up a bit.
“OK then lets get through part two, this one is a bit happier.
In a flash more things appeared books, art, music, you name it. I was sharing everything humans created that wasn’t about murdering each other. Well in the actual sense. I looked around and everyone was in awe. Then came the things that people did to bring happiness to others. People volunteering for things, caring about one another, and leaders who spent their life trying to get people to be better.
After that had ended I felt a bit more relieved at what I had just done. Twilight had a happy look on her face.
“Wow Dan I can’t believe all the potential that you species has its incredible!”
“I think you ponies can be the same way; it will just take you awhile. Do you think we can get out of here now Celestia? I think I’m done playing with my thoughts for now.”
And as I finished the sentence there we were back in the throne room. And it took a bit for my eyes to adjust going from black to all those bright colors again.
“Well Dan as we have seen your people do have a lot of good about them but…”
“We have some problems I know.”
“Yes that would be the best way to put it. My sister and I only require one more thing of you before we render our sentence.”
“Well I have come this far no reason to stop now.”
“Very well then Dan the last thing we want is…”
Celestia was interrupted by a guard who burst through the doors in a panic. He ran till he came to a stop in front of the princesses
“My princesses there is a fire in one of the buildings in Canterlot!”
That caught everyone by surprise
“Which one my guard?”
“It’s the carriage factory your highness.”
I felt something wrong in the air that moment. I looked down to everyone around me and I could see very worried faces on both Applejack’s and Rarity’s faces.
Twilight then said in a distressed voice, “Wait the carriage factory!?! Cheerilee and her class are supposed to be visiting there today…right now actually."
Everything clicked into place right there in my head. If Cheerilee's class was there so were Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. “Oh no…”
Rarity started to panic “That means that Sweetie…”
She never got to finish that sentence as I turned on the spot and began to run at a full sprint towards the door. Celestia staring wide eyed at what I was doing called out.
“Dan what are you doing!!!”
I didn’t give an answer there wasn’t time. I just kept running.
“Guards stop him” Celestia ordered. She might have thought that I was trying to escape or something, or that now I was revealing my true colors… I couldn’t blame her; I would have thought of it as well. The guards unfurled their wings and began to hover about two feet off the ground thinking that the creature would simply plow into them, they thought that putting a barricade in his way would simply deter him from his course of action. But he kept moving towards them at fast pace. And then one of the guards blinked; and when his eyes opened again the creature had disappeared. In the span of three seconds the guard looked in every direction he could; he wasn’t to his sides or above him and he sure was not behind him yet. The last place he checked was below him and sure enough the creature was…sliding below him and the guard next to him. One of the guards also saw Dan… wink at them?
What had happened was that the whole time, Dan thought of sliding below them, and apparently he had been right in this decision. Dan got up quickly after sliding underneath the guards and broke back into a full sprint. It was a very short distance from the throne room to the entrance of the palace. He noticed that the guards were closing the gate in an attempt to keep him from leaving. Dan thought quickly to himself “Oh I hope this doesn’t hurt too much.” To the surprise of the guards Dan didn’t stop at seeing the gate closing instead he sped up. A few steps before reaching the gate Dan turned and threw his shoulder in front of him. His shoulder hit the gate first with all his speed and power behind it, the gate was not much of a match considering that it wasn’t fully closed. A couple of guards went flying out a bit and the group of newsponies was again, silenced and shocked by the creature they had no information about.
That was the only time Dan stopped in his running. He looked at the crowd and then above their heads he could see the smoke from the fire off in the distance. Knowing the crowd would try to mob him with questions he decided to take a bit of a scary approach. He took in a deep breath and with all of his might as he began running again, his voice boomed “CLEAR A PATH! OUT OF THE WAY!”
The ponies were frightened by the volume he had just put out and sure enough; got out of his way. He charged forward towards where the fire was coming from, he was on a mission and nothing would stop him.
“Mr. Dan!”
The voice caught him kind of off guard he looked around and noticed that a pony was flying next to him. It was Crystal who he just noticed was a Pegasus.
“Ohai Crystal.” He said laboriously through his running
“Did something go wrong? Why are you running away from the castle?”
“I’m not running away from the castle, I am running towards the fire at the carriage factory; someone might need help.”
“But can’t the fire fighters take care of that?”
“Possibly but there may be a class of students trapped in the factory, I'm not leaving anything to chance… Say can you do me a favor?
“Ummm sure?”
“Go back to the castle and when the princesses and everyone I was with come out, tell them where I went; I may have caused a misunderstanding in running without telling anyone…heh.”
“You RAN from the princesses!?!?” Crystal gave Dan a crazy look.
“Yes I did, now GO!!!”
Crystal turned on the spot and began to fly back to the castle leaving Dan alone in his mad dash to the fire.
Dan wasn’t exactly a fully in shape person. Running in full sprint all the way there would be exhausting. But in the back of his mind certain thoughts kept him going “Nobody is going to get hurt”, “I won’t allow it”, and “I’m here to help; it’s just my thing” these thoughts kept pushing him past any limit he thought might stop him.
Finally after a couple of minutes he arrived at the fire. There were ponies in fire gear with hoses and buckets trying to put out the blaze before them. He saw one pony who was directing everypony else, he walked up to him deciding what to say. He knew Applejack wouldn’t like his decision but this time he had to lie a little.
“Hey chief, Princess Celestia Sent me here to help you, what’s the situation?”
“Oh thank the sun we get some help, what’s happened is that…” The chief finally got a look at who he had been talking too, and was surprised at the creature before him.
“OK chief I know I am weird looking, but lets deal with the fire first.” The creature demanded him and snapped the chief out of his gaze.
“Oh yes. Well right now the worst problem is that we have a group of school fillies and colts trapped in there with their teacher, the fire has cause the outside door mechanisms to melt and lock the doors into place, so we can’t get through them yet, and even if we did there might be a chance of a back draft which could cause an explosion and do more damage than anticipated.”
Dan felt something drop in the pit of his stomach. He thought about anything that he could do; which is when he noticed a window that was slightly open. If it was open that means that if it opened more there was no chance for a back draft.
“Chief there is an open window over there we can get someone through there and have people get out through there. I need a bucket of water.”
The chief handed him a bucket of water which Dan then poured over his head and body soaking his hoodie and rest of his clothes to the bone.
“Chief after I go in I want you to station ponies with a jump net outside this window understood?”
“Uh sure, but what do you mean go- HEY!!!!”
Dan took off in a sprint towards the window, he knew that it would probably be too hot to touch with his hands so his only options was…”CRASH!!” the glass splintered around him as he curled into a ball, protected his face and jumped into and through the window. He felt some slight pain but once again he shrugged it off.
There was Fire all around him and boy was it hot, that was the reason he had soaked himself; but his little trick wouldn’t last forever; he needed to work…fast.
“Hello is any one there?” He called out as he made his way into the building. He yelled a couple of more times before he heard a familiar voice call back to him.
“Oh yes is somepony there? Me and my students need help please!!”
He walked towards the voice taking a couple of turns before he finally saw what he had been hoping for. There in a small tucked away room not touched too much by the blaze, was a purple colored mare with a bunch of younger ponies gathered near her.
“Oh there you are…” Cheerilee began to say but noticed that she wasn’t talking to a pony. Being a teacher and put in charge of the well being of the young minds of Equestria; Cheerilee immediately went on the defensive towards this unknown creature that appeared in the middle of a fire.
“Who are you and what are you doing here!?! I’m not going to let you harm my students!!”
The creature laughed calmly for a second before speaking to her again. “ Well my name is Dan and the Princess and Twilight Sparkle have sent me here to help cause they heard that you might be in trouble.”
“Twilight Sparkle sent you?”
“Yes I know it may seem weird but we can’t afford to think about this for too long, this fire is only looking to get worse. So you are just going to have to trust me. Please?”
Cheerilee looked into the eyes of this creature and read the intentions in his eyes. She saw that it only wanted to help her and her students get out.
“OK then, I’ll trust you.” She said to Dan before turning to her young charges. “OK students everyone calm down and be brave. This creature named Dan here was sent by the princess to help us get out of here.”
I then decided to address everyone “Uh hi class… I found a way that we can get you guys out of here. I broke through a window and made an opening so just follow me and we will put this scary situation behind us.”
The students still seemed a bit apprehensive about following me, so I tried a little diversion tactic. “OK then, after we get out of here everyone is going to get ice cream!”
Apparently ice cream works in situations like this. None of the children spoke to me but I could see that they were more relaxed now. I told them to follow me closely and be careful. I traced my route back to the window I had jumped through and I looked out to see that the fire ponies were indeed waiting with the jump net. I also saw The princesses and Twilight and her friends looking at me incredulously.
“Oh hi Twilight and everybody”
“Dan….WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE!!!!”
“Helping…oh hold on a second.”
I turned back to the group behind me. “OK fillies and colts who’s ready to get out of here? Just come here and I'll put you on the net.. Come on, someone step up.”
They were still a bit apprehensive to me; fortunately someone decided to break the ice. A little unicorn filly with bright yellow eyes and purplish gray (damn my color blindness) walked right up to me and stood on her hind legs and put her hooves towards me. For me, it was a sign of trust…also it was so damned adorable.
“Thanks.” he muttered as he took the filly into his arms and lifted her towards the window; and moved her through the broken remains of the window and over the net. He then dropped her gently on the net where she bounced with a giggle and made her way off to safety near a group of firefighters. Dan looked back to the rest of the kids and said “Who’s next?”
Over a couple of minutes he got all the children out of the building. The last up was Cheerilee. Who kind of protested being picked up.
“I think I can manage getting-oh!?!?” she said as Dan picked her up and proceeded to move to the window.
“Sorry miss my way or the highway here.”
“What’s a “highway”?” She asked as she hit the net and began to make her way to the class
“Alright I think that’s everyone.” Dan shouted as he began to make his way out of the Window before something caught his attention. A scream rang out from the building. Wait it wasn’t one scream it was three screams all done in unison. He froze one foot out the window as he recognized those three exact screams and who they belonged to. He also noticed three ponies charging towards them. Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash moved towards him at a frightening pace. He thought out exactly what he had to do even though he knew some wouldn’t like the situation. When the three mares got close he blocked them and pushed them back before turning back into the building and yelling behind him.
“I CAN’T RISK GETTING ANYPONY HURT, SO STAY THERE I GOT THIS!!!”
Dan ran back into the building his clothes were now much dryer than they had been when he had started this. He knew that he had to work fast. He ran to where the screaming was, it was a bit farther off than where he found Cheerilee but he was glad when he walked into a room and found the Cutie Mark Crusaders huddled in fear in a corner.
They saw him about as quickly as he saw them and needless to say, they were frightened at a weird creature appearing out of nowhere. Their screams were sound barrier shattering but Dan pressed on hoping that they would hear his words.
“GIRLS YOUR SISTERS SENT ME TO HELP YOU CAN YOU PLEASE STOP SCREAMING!?!?!”
The noise stopped immediately as Dan looked back at the little fillies. Their eye were red but still wide with wonder. Applebloom was the first to speak.
“Our sisters sent yah to get us?”
“Yeah I’m here to get you guys out of here.”
Slowly the girls looked at each other. They were still frightened beyond belief but hoped that this creature before them could help them.
With a small nod to each other they all looked at Dan and in unison said “OK…”
“Great that’s one problem-” Dan started to say but stopped as he heard a lot of creaking come from every where in the building. He thought quick and decided that the structure might have been compromised from the fire and the building may come down on them. Thinking quickly again he grabbed the crusaders in one arm and opened his hoodie with the other. He placed them inside saying to them. “You girls will be safer in here. Don’t come out till I tell you to.” He zipped up his jacket and began to move back toward the only exit he new.
He was almost there when he heard major cracks and splintering. He looked up to see that the roof….was getting closer. Dan managed to move a couple of feet forward before he was struck. “AUGH!!!” was the last thing he said before everything went black.
Outside ponies screamed and gasped as they saw the structure fall. Three friends screamed in horror at the sight not simply because of it but because of what was inside. And one lavender unicorn felt like something had died inside her.
Consciousness came back to Dan with a bout of pain. His sight took a bit longer, he thanked whoever he had to that he wasn’t dead. A quick look around showed that he was still under the massive roof of the building, and that he had a bit of a crawl space to move about in. He also noticed that he was on all four, his hands and knees in pain from being in this kind of prolonged exposure. He didn’t have to wonder long before he felt something move inside his sweatshirt. And that’s when everything came back to him. He quickly opened his sweatshirt and three little fillies came tumbling out in a heap. After they sorted themselves out he spoke to them.
“Glad to see that you three are OK.”
He got a sheepish “thank you” in reply. He finally got off his knees and sat on the ground. He sat in a daze for a minute before Scootaloo said something.
“Hey excuse me mister…?”
“Dan.”
“Dan…What is that red stuff on your head thingy?”
He reached and felt his forehead. He felt moisture on his finger, he looked and saw blood. He had apparently sustained some blow to the head which was bleeding. Sweetie bell broke him out of his diagnosis.
“Hey there is more on the floor…what is it?”
Sure enough as Dan looked he saw little pools of blood on the floor, apparently his head wasn’t the only thing bleeding.
“It’s my blood…” he told the children. He could feel a little light headed so he must have lost a small amount but not enough to deter him.
“What does that mean?” they all asked
“It means that if we don’t get out of here soon; I’m going to be useless.
He could only think of one way out and he hoped that he still had the strength and willpower to pull it off.
“OK girls, I think I can get us out of here so back into my sweatshirt.
The girls nodded obediently and climbed up him and back into his sweatshirt. Dan moved till he found what seemed to be the center support for the roof and then he went onto a kneeling stance below it. Putting his hands and the back of his neck against it he started to push. He was somewhat thwarted by the weight of the roof but Dan tried to push through.
He thought of everything that had happened till now. He arrived in a magical world, apparently made friends with colorful ponies and basically showed everything but his innermost personal life with them. If there was one thing now that wasn’t going to happen it was that he was not going to lie down and die. He wasn’t going to die at all he was going to give the girls back to their sisters and keep on living and tell death to go take a fucking hike.
He felt his body wavering as he continued to pour all his power into the unmoving structure. He wanted it to move so badly, but it just wouldn’t budge. He felt heat in three places on his body right now. One was in the middle of his forehead filling him with willpower and helping his mind and the other two were at both of his hands and it felt like his body was being fueled with power. He felt the roof move up under his power and he kept pushing at it. He wouldn’t stop until it was no longer an obstacle.
Outside the ruins of the carriage factory many things were happening. Fire fighter ponies were busy running around doing their jobs and wondering how they could move the roof. Newsponies were snapping pictures and trying to piece together what had happened. And then there was a group of ponies that consisted of three princesses, one prince, one school teacher with most of her class, and one lavender unicorn with five of her friends who stared at the wreckage with sadness and horror. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack were in an absolute mess. They were crying up a storm while Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie tried to comfort them. Luna, Cadence, and Shining Armor talked silently about what had taken place.
Princess Celestia stood tall next to her student in silence, pondering about the events that had unfolded. A creature new to Equestria had come and within moments of hearing about the fire and that the siblings of his completely new friends were in trouble ran to help without prompting or whatever. She was pondering how selfless Dan could be until something disturbed her gaze. The wreckage…moved. It shifted slightly in place. Celestia opened her mind’s eye to take note of any magic that could be there. To her surprise she felt a soft flame of magic. But it didn’t stay soft it started to grow a bit, it simply willed it self.
“Twilight.” She softly said as a smile came to her face once more. Her student looked to her and inside questioned why her mentor was smiling. Celestia gave a small nod towards the pile which since she last glanced was moving more. Twilight seemed amazed by what was happening before her.
“Princess, do you think it could be?”
Celestia gave the smallest of nods which brought up Twilight’s spirit greatly.
“Indeed Twilight we may see a miracle here yet.”
The movement became bigger so that now everyone was starting to see it. Ponies all around stared slack jawed as the roof slowly moved upwards. It did so as the roof began to move up a few feet before it stopped. And then suddenly a sound rang out from somewhere underneath the roof and it was sent flying skywards until it was nothing but a speck. Twilight and her mentor glanced at where the roof had been and waited for the dust to settle. They heard something that sounded like shuffling but it was not a pony.
“Dan?” Twilight asked nervously to whatever was moving out of the dust. Sure enough Dan came slowly shambling out of the dust all torn up and bloodied. With a quick look Celestia could have sworn that she had seen a small flame in the middle of Dan’s head and also on his hands.
“Well that was fun.” he said weakly. As he walked towards the group Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack met him half way looking up at him with pleading eyes. He smiled calmly knelt down and unzipped his hoodie.
“You can come out now.” he said as three little heads poked out of his hoodie. The three little fillies hopped out and were immediately swept up in hugs and kisses by their respective sisters. Dan could hear background noises from the other ponies around but he couldn’t make it out due to exhaustion and blood loss. He managed to get back up and walk to Twilight and Princess Celestia. He looked like he had a lot to say but he was only able to say one thing.
“I think…I’m gonna take a nap now…”
And with that he was unconscious again.
During his sleep, Dan could have sworn he heard voices in his head. From what he could pick out he heard things like
“See I told you that Danner was a good guy.”
“Bill I think she can already tell that”
The last he heard was an immaculate sounding voice agreeing with the past two.
“Yes I do believe you are correct, he will be very helpful in time.”
After that sentence Dan woke up. He noticed that he wasn’t at the ruins of the factory anymore. He guessed from the high ceilings that he was in the palace. The bed he was in was just big enough to fit in; although it was extremely comfortable. He grabbed hold of the blanket on top of him and threw it off. What seemed weird to him then was that he had completely new clothes on. He ventured that Rarity had something to do with it.
He managed to stand up after a little while and looked about the room he was in. he found the door and walked towards it, he found it unlocked so he simply opened it and walked out. Outside of that room he noticed a sign with an arrow pointing left. Guessing it was for him he followed it. It led him to a pair of doors. After pushing them open he was greeted with a nice sight. Apparently everyone was waiting for him at a rather large dining table. Celestia was the first to notice him.
“Well, it looks like someone is finally awake again.” She said with a bemused smile.
Heads turned to his direction and in one moment all the ponies were upon him. He was basically tackled to the ground by six ponies and three smaller ponies. Everyone was saying everything at once and Dan couldn’t process what was going on.
Celestia cleared her throat and silenced the room with an “Ahem.” Everyone stopped what they were doing and let Dan stand. Celestia approached Dan and began to speak.
“Well Dan before everyone has their say I have something I would like to announce. For what you have done today you have shone true bravery and selflessness. Now despite everything we have seen about your species I find it null and void in this situation and from now on I declare that you shall be allowed to stay as a citizen of Equestria.
“Thanks Princess.” Was all that Dan could say at the moment. He couldn’t figure out anything else…although apparently Pinkie had about the right idea.
“OH OH OH I know exactly what this situation calls for, wanna say it with me Dan?
Dan looked at the pink pony and said. “Pinkie it would be my honor.”
“Okie Dokie Lokie. Well go on three. Ready? One. Two. Three!!!”
Both of them shouted in happy unison “A PARRRRTTTYY!!!!”