//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: The Angel of Equestria // by Robobrony //------------------------------// Chapter 3 “You wanted to see me sir?” “Agent Jonathan, would you mind explaining to me how you let a million dollars-worth of research slip through your fingers?” “I’m sorry sir, but it wasn’t my fault. The subject just……disappeared.” “I DON’T WANT EXCUSSES, you had the subject cornered and you expect me to believe that he just disappeared?!” “S-Sir, I don’t know what happened, we’ve been scowering the globe for any sign of the subject but nothing has come up, it’s like he just vanished off the face of the earth.” “I don’t care what it takes, that subject can give us the potential to increase our military strength! YOU WILL FIND THE SUBJECT AND BRING HIM BACK! Otherwise, you can kiss your job good bye. Do I make myself clear agent Jonathan?” “Y-Yes sir, I will do whatever it takes to find him.” “Good, you will have access to all the latest scientific machines we have, DON’T disappoint me Jonathan.” ***** The carriage carrying Charles soon came to a landing and stopped in front of a tree with windows, a balcony, and a door that was open, just in front was a unicorn mare with a purple coat, a dark blue mane and tail with a dark purple and pink streak through them, and on her flank was a dark pink six pointed star with five white smaller stars around it. Next to her was a small bipedal creature with purple scales, a lime green belly, green frills on the side of his head, and green spines going from the top of his head down his back. The two stood there to greet their new house guest and waited for him to emerge from the carriage. Charles opened the door to the carriage and stepped out. The carriage shifted down and up as he stepped out. He turned his attention to the guards. “Thank you for the lift.” He said to them. The unicorn and little dragon were stunned to see such a creature before them. They knew something different was coming from Celestia’s letter, but they had no idea how different their new guest would be. The two pegasai took off back to the castle and left Charles to meet with his new caretaker. Twilight decided to start off with introductions. “Um….hello there, welcome to my home, we’ve been expecting you. My name is Twilight Sparkle and this is my number one assistant, Spike.” Charles eyed the two carefully, his attention seemed to be focused more on the little dragon. “Charles.” Is all he said. “Well, it is very nice to meet you Charles, why don’t you come on in and we can get better aquainted.” Twilight offered. She and Spike turned to enter the place and Charles followed in. Upon entering, Charles first took in his surroundings. The place was large, it had shelves upon shelves of books all over the walls. To his right, he noticed a set of stairs leading to a door. On the right, he saw another door. At the center of the room was a table with a carving of a horse head. After taking in the sight, he removed his staff from his back with his right hand and tapped one end of it on the floor once, resulting in the staff producing four protrusions on each end, turning it into a makeshift coat rack. Twilight noticed this and took great interest in it. “Whoa, what is that?” Spike asked first. Charles stood his staff up, took off his leather over coat, and placed it on the new coat rack. “It’s my staff, it’s my main weapon, but has other uses as well, as you can see.” “That’s really clever, can it do anything else?” Twilight asked. Charles then turned to her and answered. “It is capable of being whatever I need it to be.” Twilight then motioned to a light blue sofa on the far side of the room near an arch way that looked like it led into a kitchen. “Why don’t you have a seat? Would you like some tea or something?” “No thanks.” Charles simply answered as he took a seat on the couch. Twilight was having trouble trying to figure out what to say. “So…….what is earth like, I am curious about it. I’ve never met a human before, let alone a creature from another world.” “No surprise there, your princesses told me that I’m the first human they’ve ever seen. No one here has ever seen a human before.” Charles responded back. “I guess I don’t mind answering some questions about it, just don’t ask any personal questions.” “Of course, thank you for answering my questions.” Twilight then levitated a stack of scrolls, a quill, and an inkwell over to her. “Ok, ready to go.” “So, what is earth like, best way I can describe it…….chaotic. It is a mess, no two humans are alike, humanity itself has a spectrum of good and evil.” Twilight was writing down everything Charles said. “What do you mean by that?” “Humans have the capacity to be good or evil, in a scale, you have humans who will gladly give their lives to save another on one end, on the other, you have humans who will do whatever it takes to get what they want, even if it means taking another life.” “Oh my, that sounds awful.” Twilight exclaimed. “But even the humans at the good end of the spectrum still see me as a monster because of how I look.” “So, humans don’t usually have wings or magic, Celestia did tell me you had those in her letter.” “No, I am the only human with such things, which is why I was considered an outcast back on earth, humans just can’t accept another human with magical capabilities.” “Gosh, I can’t imagine what that must be like, it must have been really hard.” Spike mused. Charles then looked at the little dragon. “I have a quick question for you.” He said to Twilight. Twilight stopped writing for a moment. “Of course Charles, what is it?” “What exactly is Spike, I’ve never seen a creature like him, he kind of looks like a little dragon or something.” Charles asked with a curious expression. “Well that’s exactly what I am, don’t you have dragons on earth?” Spike asked. “No, dragons only exist in mythology and fairy tales. Dragons don’t exist on earth.” Twilight resumed writing. “So, if you were an outcast, how did you get along, didn’t your parents try to help you?” Charles clenched his fists at the mention of them. He answered with a bit of a growl. “I have nothing to say on the matter and I will thank you to stay away from that.” Twilight and Spike recoiled a bit at Charles’s mood change, they could see the anger in his eyes. “Sorry, sorry, um, let’s move on to something else then. Celestia did also mention in her letter on how you got to be how you are, something about little robot bugs or something?” “Nano bots, tiny little metal robots that look like bugs.” “Right, do you still have them in you, can I see them?” “Sorry, but as soon as they were finished doing what they did to me, they self-destructed. In other words, they blew up on their own.” “That means then that your world must have some advanced technology. What kind of things does your world have?” “Well, so far from what I’ve seen, your world doesn’t seem to have much in technology.” “That’s true, we do have electricity and trains, and a few other small things. What kind of things do you have in your world?” Charles then spent a while explaining to her about the different forms of transportation to start off with like cars and planes and boats, as well as jets and such. Twilight was very amazed at all this. What really through her for a loop was when Charles revealed that humanity had developed a way to travel into space and send satellites to look at other planets in their solar system. That brought up another question that Twilight had to ask. “So wait, does that mean that your sun and moon move on their own?” “Our sun doesn’t move at all, our planet moves around the sun, how could you not know that, isn’t that how it works here?” Charles asked with a bit of confusion. “No, Celestia and Luna move the sun and moon. Celestia raises the sun and Luna raises the moon.” “Your joking right?” Charles still couldn’t believe it. “I assure you I’m not, they are the most powerful alicorns on Equis after all. So how does your planets and moons move?” “Well, like this world, Earth has only one moon, it orbits around our planet through a gravitational force the Earth emits, it, in turn orbits around the sun which is stationary. Because of this, the moon is visible during the day as well. And also, every couple of years, we have what we call a solar eclipse.” “What’s a solar eclipse?” Spike asked. “A solar eclipse is when the moon moves into a position where it completely blocks out the sun and makes the Earth darker. There is a similar even called a lunar eclipse where the shadow of the earth blocks out the moon.” “WOW, this is all so fascinating, your world sounds so incredible.” Twilight complimented. “It’s not that great, it has plenty of things that make it bad as well, trust me, you’re better off not going there, I spared telling you about the darker side of earth because even I don’t like to talk about it.” Charles then let out a yawn. “Oh my, I’m sorry, you’re tired aren’t you? Here, let me show you to your room and you can get some sleep. Tomorrow, I’ll show you to where you need to report to for guard duty.” “Thanks.” Charles then got up and followed Twilight to the second door he noticed. Twilight used her magic to open the door and led him in. “Here you go, I hope the bed is big enough for you, if not, I can make it bigger with a spell.” Twilight informed. Charles followed Twilight in and took it in. He saw a window on the far wall with a bed just below it, a nightstand next to the bed and a door on the other wall that was open, Charles could see that it must be the bathroom. He walked over to the bed and inspected it carefully. “It is a little too small for me, but I can make it bigger myself.” Charles then raised his left hand and pointed it at the bed. Twilight and Spike watched carefully as this was Twilight’s first chance to see a strange creature she had never seen before use magic. Charles’s hand was enveloped in a white aura, the bed then became enveloped in the same aura and expanded a bit more so he could fit comfortably in it. “There we go.” “Wow, I’ve never seen a creature that isn't a unicorn, or alicorn, use magic before, how good are you with it?” Twilight asked in wonder. Charles turned to her to answer. “Good enough.” Was all he said. Twilight felt a little dejected at his answer but let it go, she didn’t want to offend him. “Well, I hope you have a good night sleep. I’ll see you in the morning ok.” Twilight said before leaving him. “Yeah, sure, good night.” Twilight and Spike then left the room for their guest to get comfy and rest. Charles sat on the bed, removed his shoes, socks, and pants, then laid down and got the covers over him for bed. As Spike and Twilight made their way to their room, Spike couldn’t help but wonder something. “Is it just me, or did he seem rather cold?” “What do you expect Spike, you read what Celestia wrote in her letter to inform us about him, and what he said himself, he was considered an outcast by his own kind just because he had wings and magic. He must feel very lonely. I just know we can help him, me, you, and our other friends.” ***** “Hold him down!” “LET ME GO, DON’T DO THIS! PLEASE!” “Sir, His heart rate is sky rocketing, we need to stop.” “No, keep going.” “But sir, he’s just a boy, he won’t survive this.” “Yes he will, keep it up.” “STOP IT, PLEASE, IT HURTS SO MUCH!” ***** “NNNOOOO!” Charles quickly sat up in his bed panting heavily and sweating. He quickly looked around his surroundings and remembered where he was. “Nightmares, I hate it when that happens.” Charles looked out the window to see the sun just now rising over the horizon. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and put his pants, shoes, and socks on. He got up and made his way out of his room. He made his way over to the front door and stopped in front of his coat and staff. He put on his coat, grabbed his staff and made the protrusions disappear, made his way out the door and went around the back. Upon making it to the back, he noticed a back door to the tree house. “Wish I saw that sooner." He just made his way to a nearby small tree and leaned up against it. Charles brought up his staff and it was then enveloped in a light blue flame, turning it into a guitar, a Gibson style guitar with a black coloring. “Maybe a bit of music will help me feel better.” He started to strum a few notes. What he didn’t notice was Twilight was on her balcony and noticed Charles out there. She didn’t want to disturb him and was curious about human music. Charles used his magic to make it so all the instruments needed for the song could be heard while he himself played lead guitar and sang. The music faded, Twilight had made her way downstairs near the beginning of the song and stayed near the back door to listen to the whole thing. “That was beautiful, a little sad but beautiful too. What was that song?” Charles turned his guitar back into his staff and looked to her. “Just a song that usually expresses how I usually feel, sometimes performing it helps me feel better when I’m feeling down. It’s called Away From The Sun, it’s from a band on earth called 3 Doors Down.” “So, does that mean you’re feeling sad about something right now?” Twilight asked with concern on her face. “Kind of, I just had a bad memory come up in the form of a nightmare.” “Do you want to talk about it, we are friends now. If you ever need to talk about anything, I’ll always be ready to listen.” Twilight informed with a smile. Charles kept his straight face. “That’s nice of you to offer, but the last thing I need is false hope.” This confused Twilight. “What do you mean false hope.” “Do you really expect me to believe that you want to be friends with something like me.” He gestured to his whole body. “Look at me Twilight, back on earth, I was an outcast, and I closely resembled humans in appearance. If it wasn’t for my wings, I could’ve passed for a human as long as I didn’t use magic. Now here I am in a world of magical talking ponies. If I wasn’t an outcast before, I’m certainly going to be one here. I doubt anyone would want to be friends with me, not that I need them. I’ve been getting along just fine on my own since I was a kid. So I don’t want, nor do I need, friends.” When Twilight heard him mention that he had been taking care of himself since he was a kid, she just had to ask something, but then stopped herself when she remembered that Charles didn’t like to talk about his past. She opted for another route instead. “Well, whether you believe me or not, my offer stands, I am letting you stay here you know.” “Yeah right, your only letting me stay here because princess Celestia ordered you to put up with me.” “That’s not true!” Twilight exclaimed. Charles looked at here with an expression that said ‘I don’t believe you.’ “Really, so did she write you a letter saying ‘Dear Twilight Sparkle, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind housing an alien from another world for a while, if you don’t want to, that will be fine and I will send him to someone else’. Then gave you the option to refuse?” “Well….not exactly.” Twilight was trapped, he was right, Celestia did ask her to take care of Charles in a way that didn’t really sound like she was asking her and gave her a chance to say no if she wanted to. “There you go, as far as I’m concerned, you are just following orders from her to let me stay here. I am grateful for you putting up with me, but I know you don’t want me here. It’s fine, I’m used to it, so don’t go telling me that you want to be my friend when you don’t really mean it.” “But I do mean it, I really want you to think of me as a friend. I don’t know what you have been through to make you so cold, but I want you to know that no matter what, I will be your friend, I will be there for you and you can count on me for anything. If you even just need to talk about something, I’ll be available.” Charles just looked away and to the side. “Whatever.” “Come on, let’s go inside and have some breakfast. Spike is already inside making some pancakes.” Twilight said with a smile. Charles just followed in and took a seat at the kitchen table to eat. Spike finished preparing the meal and brought them over to Twilight and Charles. “Here you go Guys, breakfast is served.” “Thank you Spike.” Twilight thanked happily. “Thanks.” Charles simply said. Spike then grabbed his own plate and sat at the table to join the others. Charles took his first bite of the pancakes and was pleasantly surprised how good they were. He never showed it on his face though. “These are pretty good, thank you for the food Spike.” He said in a monotone manner. “You’re welcome, glad you like them.” Spike said with pride. After breakfast, Spike then took the dishes and began to wash them. “Thanks again Spike, you’re an excellent cook.” Twilight thanked again. “Glad you liked them.” “Now then Charles, shall we head out and get you started on your guard duty, Celestia already sent word to the guards here to expect a new recruit.” Twilight asked with a smile. “Might as well, I just want to make a living for myself here so I can start being on my own again. I’m not exactly comfortable being stuck in a place with someone else. After being on my own for so long, I just feel like I’m mooching off of you here already, and I don’t like it.” Charles said. “Charles, you’re not mooching, it’s just a friend helping another friend.” Charles said nothing to that. “Come on, let’s get going” Charles got his staff on his back and followed Twilight out the door and into the town of Ponyville to start his new life in Equestria.