//------------------------------// // So It Begins // Story: Guess This is Home Now // by Night--Mist //------------------------------// It was a normal spring day in the state of Montana. People were going about their daily lives as were all the Animals. Chad Harding, a former Marine of a special branch for ones who possessed magic, who had cacajun skin, dark brown hair and beard at his chin and silver blue eyes, was watching nature as it performed its necessary routine. The vegetarian was always fantasizing having a life within something like one of the fantasy worlds Hollywood would make up, where people lived in harmony with one another, not be on the brink of war that could end civilization. He wished he could be a character in one of the children's movies or shows, just to escape the pressures of today's world, and the ever growing trend of mistrust that his people were developing both inside and outside his country. He knew if things didn't get better soon his kind would drive themselves to the brink of annihilation. It was the last thing he wanted and he had found a group of individuals that called themselves Fighters For a Greater Tomorrow (F.F.G.T.). He felt it was a long shot, but thought why not stick to people who followed his line of thinking. He found out they were groups of scientist, engineers, pilots and other do gooders that were even in military, who were trying to better the worlds technology for peaceful purposes rather then warlike purposes. The President of the United States actually funded them and was with them every step of the way. When the F.F.G.T. found out about Chad they figured his magic along with anyone else they could find with his abilities would be able to help them accomplish their goal. He agreed as long as his magic was never used for violent purposes, and it never was. Today, they were conducting an experiment that could transport anyone to anywhere on the globe, aside from current war zones. They had gone through many tests and each had been successful with plants, animals, and other objects. It was time to test it on a human. Chad volunteered to be the test run and cast a spell on himself that would regenerate his body should the test fail and make him a pile of dust. Soon Chad went onto the platform and he had his father's old sword with him, should he run into trouble on the other end. The scientists thought his weapon of choice was questionable, but let him go with it. Soon they set the coordinates and the other settings to their proper places and asked Chad for the go ahead. He gave them the thumbs up and they had pressed the button that would transport him. Little did he know that just before the button had been pressed, two scientists had gotten into a fight sending one of them flying at the controls. When the controls were bumped, the settings had been changed and the button pressed. Chad felt a sensation go through his body, which he thought was normal. Light flashed before his eyes as he was teleported out of the room. And thus when he did not show up at the point of origin on the other side, the scientists claimed it a failure and conducted no further tests. Meanwhile in Equestria Twilight and her friends had just been recognized for their heroic efforts in the battle against Discord. They were spending some time with the Princesses and Twilight's brother, Shining Armor. "Sure is a beautiful day," Twilight says. "Darn Tootin'. With Discord back where he belongs, nothing could ruin today" Applejack says. "Quite Right. We thank you all very much for saving Equestria," Luna says. "It is nice to see all of Equestria in harmony once again," Celestia says. "Yeah, and you've got to stop being the one to save all of Equestria. It's starting to get embarrassing having you save my rump like this," Shining Armor jokes to Twilight. "What and miss a day to see the look on the guards faces? Keep dreaming," Twilight says. Everypony laughs at her comment as they enjoy time in the royal fields, right next to Canterlot Castle. As they walk through the fields, a flash of light appears above them. Right after the flash of light, Chad Harding began to fall, screaming, not expecting to be off the ground. All that went through his mind was 'Oh Snap Gravity WAAAAAAH!'. As soon as Chad hit the ground he started bouncing in summer saults down hill and then rolled while saying, "Da, oof, ah, brbrbrbrbr." He finally hit a far wall, with some blood lightly trickling from the right of his forehead, as he tried to regain his senses while rubbing his now hurting neck as he quotes Bugs Bunny from the Loony Tunes, "I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque." Everypony laughs at his comment, wiping away their initial shock to his presence. Chad finally regains his sight and sees many ponies, brightly colored ponies looking at him with curiosity. He then thinks, 'Is this a dream?' He tries to get up but feels a pain in his right shoulder. 'Nope, definitely not dreaming,' he consludes as he sits against the wall. He then sees himself and notices he now had a more midevil look to himself. The next thought that comes to mind is, 'Where am I and what have I gotten myself into?' Before he could contemplate further he was surrounded by guards in armor and spears pointed closely to his neck. He gulped as one of the ponies in armor asks, "What are you and how did you get in here?" Chad was too nervous to speak and was beginning to sweat at the thought of if he moved, his life would end. Shining Armor, then trots up and says to the guards, "Lower your weapons stallions, you're all frightening the poor creature. Sorry about them, they're a little uptight after the defeat of Discord." "Wh-who in the w-world is D-Discord?" Chad asks, still nervous, but finally feeling comfortable enough to talk after his shock of talking ponies, and from this point he thinks things couldn't get weirder nor surprise him if they did . Shining Armor's jaw dropped and he asks, "How have you never heard of him? Belay that, what are you exactly?" "I'm what's known as a human where I come from sir," Shock Wave says in a less nervous tone as the other ponies trot in closer to listen. "What do the humans name you?" Princess Celestia asks. "My name is Chad Harding, your majesty. But everyone just Chad" Chad says, noticing the crown upon Celestia's and Luna's heads and answers their following questions still a bit nervously. "Well Chad, let us be the first to welcome thee to Canterlot in the magical land of Equestria," Luna says. "Thank you y-your highness," Chad says. Soon everypony present introduces themselves and Twilight asks, "May I ask where it is you are from?" "I'm not sure you would believe me if I told you," Chad says. "We've had odder run ins then this. Can't think of any right now, but," Rainbow Dash says. "Well, I'm from an alternate world that somehow found a way to transport me here. My home world is a violent place that I'm not sure any of you would like to see. Seems something went wrong with the scientists' experiment and," Chad says before Twilight interrupts. "Wait they have scientist in your world? Were you one? Can you perform Magic?" Twilight says before Celestia clamps her mouth with magic and says to the purple mare, "Twilight, let the boy speak. You are a boy right?" "Yes your highness, and to answer her questions, yes there are scientists, no I was not one, and yes I can perform magic, but I'm still learning. To continue, when the test went wrong I ended up here as you see me now," Chad says, seeing that his blue midevil shirt and trousers had been slightly dirtied along with him, as well as his sword. "May I ask, do you know how to get home?" Shining Armor. "Unfortunately I don't. The machine they were using was a one way transport and with out another one like it I can't go back, plus I don't know what to find to build it in this world, and no magic exists in my world to transport me back, so looks like I'm stuck here for now sir," Chad answers. "What did thou do exactly, back in thy home world?" Princess Luna inquired. "I was a Marine, a warrior for my kind your highness," Shock Wave answers. "A warrior, like our royal guard?" Celestia asks. "Well sort of, I wasn't at the castle most of the time, I was far from it trying to keep distant threats at bay if you get what I mean your highness," Chad says, thinking it would be better not to tell them his home wasn't ruled by royalty. After many more hours of explaining his story and getting more comfortable with the situation, Chad finally lets them know why he has a sword, but tells them he will not use it on any of the ponies unless they were to threaten his own life and even hands it to them until Shining Armor tells him to keep it because of it's meaning to his family. "Well that was quite a story. We do believe thou and we're sure everypony else does too. Why don't we have our guard take thee to our hospital to have a look at that wound on thy head," Luna says. Chad was confused at first but soon touched the right side of his forehead to see dry blood on his fingers once he pulled his hand away from the sting it left. "That's probably a good idea your highness," Chad says. Chad soon gets to his feet with some help from the guards as he is led to the hospital wing in the castle. He was amazed by the scenery of this world and wondered what kind of reality he was now a part of. When they get to the hospital, the doctors do what they can for him, bandage is wound and after a few hours of examination and cleaning, he seemed to check out fine. They offer to take his clothes off, but he explains it would be better to at least keep his pants on, so they did not protest he took his shirt off and laid his sword aside as he revealed his military dog tags he had kept on his neck. Seeing that he was alright, he puts his shirt back on, grabs his sword and reattaches it to his belt, and walks out to see that the ponies had been talking about him. "Is something wrong your majesties?" he asks the princesses. "No, actually, we were talking about what we should do for you since it appears you'll be living in Equestria for the foreseeable future and..... You said you were a warrior?" Celestia asked. Chad nods. "We were talking to Shining Armor about taking you under his hoof to train you as a royal guard for Equestria, that is if you need training and you wish to do so. I know it sounds all so sudden, but I did a magical scan of you and you show a lot of good magic flowing from you. You seem to have great potential as a protector for Equestria and we hope you accept," Celestia says. Chad was taken by surprise by this offer and he thinks it over for a while, and not wanting to disappoint the royal ponies, who seemed too nice to reject an offer from, he says, "Well, this is a bit overwhelming your highness, but I do accept. I just ask that you give me some time to settle in and give the rest of the ponies some time to get use to the idea of something like me being around. Plus I need to find a place to stay." "Well ya'll could stay at my place in Ponyville at the apple farm, Sweet Apple Acres, that is, if it's alright with you your highnesses," Applejack offers. "I think that's a good idea, Luna how about you?" Celestia asks. "It's fine with us," Luna says. "I could put my magic and other skills to good work on an apple farm. Thank you for the suggestion... Applejack right?" Chad asks. "Eeeyup, ya got it," Applejack says. "Well as soon as you settle in and the ponies are settled with the idea of you being around we'll send Shining Armor out to speak with you, I hope neither takes long," Celestia says. "I'm sure it won't, besides, I'm sure, Twilight, I think was her name has more questions to ask me. I thank you and your guard's for your help your majesties," Chad says. "Happy to help our newest subject of Equestria," Luna says. Chad laughs nervously as he and the Princesses walk out with Applejack and her friends who were being given a carriage ride home to Ponyville. The Princesses had him join them for the ride and the guards transporting them were told to keep an eye on him should anypony want to cause him harm and they agreed. Chad, Spike and the six element bearers bow to their rulers before climbing into the carriage and taking off to Ponyville, with all six ponies and the dragon asking Chad questions. "Sister, do you think we should have told him?" Luna asks as they watch the carriage roll off into the setting sun. "In time little sister, in time," Celestia says as they head back to the castle. As Chad rode with the bearers Elements of Harmony and the dragon called Spike, he looked out the window of the carriage as conversation strayed away from him and he says to himself, "Guess this is home now. I'd better learn get used to the way they live."