//------------------------------// // Chapter One // Story: Second Chances at a New Story // by Vulpibard //------------------------------// When I regained consciousness again what I felt was dirt, well padded dirt, all along the right side of my body. It was pretty obvious without opening my eyes I was a pony now, so I just stood up without opening my eyes. Funny enough, the limbs felt longer than you would’ve expected, my four legs and wings felt uninjured and in place luckily. I wasn’t a cripple, so the story was already restricted in options. That left my horn, sensitive and hard feeling, just like a horny horn should be. Wait a minute... My eyes snapped open and I looked at my new alabaster form for the first time. I attempted to swear, the funny thing was that just as the words were escape my mouth until they turned into the phrase “horsefeathers.” So I went along and said that instead, grinning broadly I repeated it. “Horsefeathers, horsefeathers, horse feathers... whore’s feathers.” Hey, that worked! which left only one avenue to get my daily quota of swearing in; “Aw hail naw, this might be fun!” But still, an alicorn OC? I wasn’t sure if it was Dues’s fault, but I felt like venting. “If by any way I’m Celestia, you’re in for it!” Actually my main was grey, so I wasn’t Celestia or any other pony princess. So maybe despite being a fanbase hated OC, I may be able to salvage this. And who knows, I may even have some fun with the others! Smiling, I couldn’t help but dance a little jig, which wound up with me faceplanting into the ground and rolling into the bush to my right. I could hear singing faintly on the other side. Taking the time to finally look farther than my own two cloven hooves I began to look at the setting. Two well groomed hedge walls stretching in front and behind, splitting into two paths after a while, and vocal ambience to my right... I was hopelessly lost, I mean it might’ve been the maze in Canterlot that Discord trapped the elements in, or it could be a random garden somewhere in Manehattan. The singing of course came with the world I was in. I stifled a laugh as I crawled to my feet. Heh, Equestria. Well walking like a horse isn’t too much trouble, it’s crawling on your hands and knees only you move a LOT faster, likely ‘cause your body was actually built for it. But moving on it took me quite a while to get out of the maze, several rights and an absent minded left later and I approached the statues which I recognized as the entrance. I sprinted for the final stretch and emerged victorious, right into a plethora of gasps. I glanced around at everyone-pony looking my way with jaws dropped and decided there was only one sane thing to do here: “Two hearts becoming one, a bond that cannot be undone?” And that’s when madness started, everypony in the garden began running around and crashing into each other until eventually they all found their way behind the princesses and elements, I also noted several armed guards making their way for me. Well maybe introducing myself so soon after an invasion wasn’t the smarter idea. Smart or not, it didn’t help me when fifteen of Celestia's shining guards were surrounding my and thrusting some pointy sticks. Now I know my weapons of war, medieval studies was my masters in college, waitaminute. No, a Doctorite, Applied anthropology was my masters. Anyway, those little pokey things were pretty low on the spear quality. “Funny,” I said as I pushed one around with my hoof, causing the guard holding it to turn red, “They look a lot better from a distance.” Then, glancing up to Cadence, “You should probably keep that in mind, princess, your stallion’s spears may not be suited for you.” At that moment, all of the guard turned red, even their captain. Almost all of the nobles and party guest had a similar reaction, only complete with full jaw drops. “H-How dare you! Just who are you?” Shining Armor stepped forward menacingly. He stuttered, could that be seriously true, or is he intimidated? Either way I decided to step back and look at my situation, imagining myself in his shoes. It didn’t take very long for the scene to come to mind. We finally drove off the changelings thanks to Twily and her friends, my wedding was completed and everypony was dancing happily. Looking around the merry scene I found my bride. Cadence was sitting off to the side of the snack bar, looking more beautiful than ever, I didn’t waste any time with second glances as I briskly walked to her. There was so much to talk about now, we could finally be happy. That’s when I heard the gasp behind me. Spinning around, my vision turned red, no one should dare to disturb my happiness, or the safety of Canterlot, again. I saw a white alicorn standing next to the maze, Celestia? No, it was a stallion with a grey mane. Enemy? More than likely, I didn’t know of any alicorn other than the royal sisters that wasn’t an enemy, my wife not included. I began growling and stepped forward, I think he said something but I wasn’t paying attention. Signaling my guards I watched in pride with the swift effectiveness that they circled him with. That’s when he did it. Twiddling one of my guards spears in his hoof as if it was some cute toy, looking at it with such a sceptical gaze. He was either an absolute fool or very powerful, and alicorns are also never fools. “Funny,” he said, “They look a lot better from a distance.” How dare he insult my guards! “You should probably keep that in mind, princess, your stallion’s spears may not be suited for you.” How dare he insult me!! Taking a step forward with barely concealed rage, I let him know my mind, then he froze. I felt like I just got hit in the back of the head before my vision returned. Woah, that was intense! Did I really just- I looked at the captain again, still slowly edging forward. Well, he was quite peeved, wasn’t he? Shaking my head, I decided to do the only logical thing in my position. “I surrender.” The guard stopped. “What?” He growled. “What?” I repeated, “Upset you didn’t get your little fight? I surrender, there’s nothing I can do against you right now.” I would also have apologised for crashing the party except, well, I really wouldn’t. It’s not like it was intentional or anything, I didn’t even know I was in Canterlot until I left the maze. Standing perfectly still I watched as they tried and failed to fit a pair of cuffs on me. “You guys are pretty small aren’t you?” One of the guards looked up and blinked. “I mean, really, you only come up to, what, my chest? Maybe I should start calling you all my chibi ponies, eh?” He blinked again. “You don’t know what that means do you?” The guard looked back to his job and I sighed. No point in trying there, I looked at the crowd on the other side of the gardens. The princesses were discussing something with the elements and Shining Armor, and the latter looked back at me with a cool anger. I smiled and waved back, lifting one of the guard’s holding my feet who clung on for dear life. “Well, pretty light too, huh?” I said as Shining turned back to his group. The guard in question shivered and began backing away, muttering how he was going to look for bigger handcuffs, so I turned back to my other ‘captor’. “Is talking to your prisoners illegal here or something?” I asked. “Please don’t take it personally,” A vaguely familiar voice sounded behind me. I spun around to look at Celestia, flanked by the elements, Luna, Cadence, and Armor. “They’re trained not to.” I looked the group of ten up and down several times over while they did the same. We sat like that for awhile before Celestia broke the silence. “Would you follow me?” I looked at my guards, still trying to fit cuffs onto my legs. Celestia coughed and they began backing up. “Would I follow you? Nah, not in a million years, I’m too much of a rebel. But I will come with you, where’re we going?” I mentally kicked myself for the bad joke as Celestia smiled and led me off.