"By order of Princess Celestia, open the door this instant!"
All present ponies plus one human all jerked their heads towards the door to the library, snapped out of their shocked state. the old oaken door was soon shaking on its hinges as a loud pounding began, and the voice repeated itself. "Open the door, NOW!"
The purple pony stood up, still shaking from John's tale. "I'll uh... get the door, I guess." She slowly trotted towards said door, the banging of a hoof on wood never ceasing. The moment her hoof moved the latch at all, the door was slammed open with a loud crack, sending her head-over-hooves across the room. John watched as four tall, ponies entered the room. They all looked identical, with a sleek white coat and light blue tail. they wore spartan-esqe golden armor which sported a Mohawk of the same color as their tails. They each had a pair of wings sprouting from their sides, and a large and burly build to them. Their blue eyes quickly scanned the room, before coming to rest on John, causing their eyebrows to crease into a sharp angle. The front and foremost guard spoke with the same gritty voice heard from before. "you are under arrest by royal decree of Princess Celestia, human!"
That last bit surprised John. They knew what he was? Why was he being arrested again? He wasn't about to simply let them do whatever it was to convicts in this place without a fight. He didn't get sucked into some portal just to be arrested. John stood up slowly, before raising freshly clenched fists into a fighting stance. He didn't need to say anything in reply to these police ponies, or whatever they were. His posture told them enough. The lead guard snapped out a quick charge! before he galloped strait towards John.
John waited until his attacker was almost on top of him before spinning to the side. He continued his spin while extending a fist, bring it smashing into the passing pony's side, both winding him and knocking him to ground. The rest of the guards hesitated at seeing their apparent superior taken down so fast, but two more of them charged forward nonetheless, one slightly farther ahead than the other. The lead guard turned 180 degrees when he got close to John, and swiftly bucked out with his legs. Unfortunately for him, John caught his legs, holding them in a tight grip. The guard was then flipped onto his back with a loud thump as John shoved the offending limbs upwards. But when the second guard arrived only a split second later, the wind was driven with great force from John's lungs as the pony's head rammed his stomach. The charge continued , barley slowed down from the added weight, until John was slammed into the far wall with a grunt of pain. The guard smirked, thinking his target was finished. he was wrong, so very wrong. This truth was given to him in the form of a knee crashing into his throat, knocking him back with a whiny. As soon as he was free, John crossed his arms over his shoulders, before swinging them in wide arks into the sides of the guards throat, who was knocked out immediately. John gasped in shock and pain as he felt two hooves connect with his back, sending flying into the wall yet again. Darkness swallowed the edges of his vision as he fought to maintain consciousness. Such was not the case, however, as he felt yet another buck push his body against the wall a third time, finally bring the darkness to cover his whole vision, swallowing him whole.
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John awoke to a throbbing pain in his head. He grained sitting up, without opening his eyes. It felt like he was on a... bed? Why on earth was he in a bed? He slowly opened his eyes, and took in his surroundings. he was in what appeared to be a square-shaped prison cell, roughly twelve feet across in both directions. The walls were a pristine white, almost blindingly so. he was sitting on a clean, pony-sized bed with dull red covers. One wall, opposite the one his bed was at, was a colonnade of steel bars, with a heavy marble door on the left side, that was separating him from an equally white hallway, with busts of random unicorns sitting on Greek style pillars.
John couldn't see anyone outside his cell, so he sat on the bed, and thought. Why did he get arrested? Other than his display of resistance, of course, but they had tried to arrest him before that. Was it because he was human? He didn't see how that warranted his imprisonment, unless this was some sort of racist dictatorship. But no, They had mentioned a princess. A monarchy? Their certainly wasn't any government back home, certainly not a monarchy. What had become of those six mares he had been with? were they arrested as well? Or was this some sort of complex trap?
Unfortunately, John's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a door opening, A slow and creaky sound, almost ominous in nature, to the right of his cell, followed by the echoing sound of hooves on cold stone. John sat waiting for what seemed like hours, an eternity even, as the hoof steps became louder and louder, closer and closer.
A guard, as identical as all the others that John had seen, stepped into view, wearing a face entirely devoid of emotion. The guard turned his head, and reached into a small pouch at his side. The guard pulled forth a small, crystal clear gem from it, Cut into the shape of a diamond. The guard looked strait at John, and the gem briefly glowed a sickly green color. Immediately, John felt his limbs seem to grow heavy, and his eyes begin to feel heavy. he felt sluggish and weak. The guard replaced the gem, and turned one again to John, the slightest hint of a smirk upon his face. "Princess Celestia requests your presence." The guard pulled a large, steel key from another pouch, inserted it into the lock, and opened the door to John's cell. the guard trotted up to John and slung him over his shoulder with as little ceremony as possible. "You'll be much too weak to do anything in your state. Don't even bother trying to escape." John was too tired to respond.
The guard hauled John down a seemingly endless amount of hallways, all the same bleak, white marble passageway that had been outside John's cell. He tried to keep a mental map of where he was going, But his efforts were thwarted by the unountable number of twists and turns, ups and downs that he and the guard traversed. The occasional pony passed them by, and all of them gave him extremly odd looks, like theyed just seen an alien. Of course, this made perfet sense, considering they had just seen an alien.
John began thinking once more on his situation. He was being held prisoner for unknown crimes, in a strange new world, with strange new creatures. He had fought one such creature, a manticore, and won. Then he had met the ponies, who considering the circumstances, were fairly nice. Then he had fought some sort of guard/police force, and been knocked out. Now he was under some sort of magic gem thing's spell, and was being brought to a "Princess Celestia", whoever that was.
John's thoughts were interrupted when Guard carrying him stopped. He heard the sound of a massive wooden door opening, and then his forward progress continued, Into a huge room that John could only describe as epic. A long red carpet with golden lining ran down the entire length of the room. Huge windows that depicted scenes of battle and victory over some sort of creature that looked like one of, well, everything. Massive columns of stone, at least three feet across, lined the side of the room, each with intricate spiraling designs sprawling up and down their lengths. As he and the guard reached the bottom of a small staircase, John was deposotid on the ground, before he heard a stiff and formal your Majesty, followed by the sound of retreating hoof-steps.
John felt his odd state of tiredness immediately lifted from his being as he heard the huge doors he had entered through close, and he jumped to his feet within a split second, whipping his head towards the staircase, and took in the monarch that he had heard of many times by now. She was much taller than the other ponies, roughly the same size as John himself. She was adjourned with a golden necklace, and large golden shoes that glowed with the radiance of the sun. Her coat was a pristine white, the same white as the halls John had traveled trough only moments ago. A huge unicorn horn took up almost all of her forehead, along with a golden tiara. Huge wings, each four feet in length at least, spread wide to her sides. But the most interesting part was her mane and tail. They were blue, pink, and green at the same time, running in strips down their lengths. They seemed to flow in a nonexistent wind, simply hanging in the air and defying gravity. A deep scowl was on her face, and John would bet good money that it had to do with him.
Celestia spared no time in introductions, speaking in a regal and elegant, yet currently rough and demanding voice. "Who are you and how did you get here?"
John decided that wasting time thinking of some sort of lie could end very badly for him. "My name is John Abraham, princess, and i'm here by accident." Apparently using sarcasm was totally fine, though.
Celestia's frown deepened at this news, her eyebrows looking like a giant "V". "And what exactly was this accident, Mr. Abraham?"
Look at us, already on a last-name basis. Sarcastic thoughts aside, John proceeded to explain for the second time how he came to this place, and not once did Princess Celestia interrupt or suddenly yell out 'LIAR!' or anything of the sort. As John's story reached its closure, Celestia brought a hoof to her chin, and muttered, almost too quietly for John to hear, "So my suspicions were correct..." She lowered her hoof back to the ground, and adopted an apologetic face. "I am sorry to have put you in jail, Mr. Abraham, but the last time humans were here..." A slight shudder ran down Celestia's body, before continuing. "Anyways, I am afraid I must keep you here a bit longer; I have an offer to make to you."
This greatly confused John, this whole conversation. There have been humans here before? What did they do that caused Celestia to shudder, and what exactly would this offer have to do with? Everything was happening so fast, he didn't know what to think of anything anymore. He hope he would get a chance to sleep soon, hopefully without getting knocked out this time. He sighed, resigning to his fate of a puppet of destiny. "How long do I have to wait exactly?"
"With any luck, my student and her friends should be here any minute now."
"Wait, who? an why does this 'offer' concern them?"
"You'll just have to wait until I tell all of you, won't you?" With that, Celestia let an extremely non-regal an troll-ish grin posses her face, before giving a small chuckle. John, on the other hand, was frustrated with his inability to gather any knowledge on the subject. Just then, the huge wooden door was once again pushed open, and some familiar faces passed through the open doorway.
"Princess? what was it that you wanted me and my friends fo-"
the purple mare stopped, as she noticed John standing only a few feet away from Celestia. She saw the human, John if she recalled, turn and look at her, and she saw surprise etch itself onto his features.
"What the he- shes your student?!"
Princess Celestia only giggled more, trying and failing to hide her grin behind a hoof. "Indeed. Have you two met? John, this is my prized pupil Twilight Sparkle, and Twilight Sparkle, this is John." Both the pony and human simply stared at each other, Twilight wondering what exactly had happened after John's arrest, and John wondering how he had managed not to learn her name before now. All of Twilight's friends walked up behind her, with equally perplexed faces on them, before a blob of pink smothered John's face.
"John, your all right! when all those meanie-begenie guards came in and went all bang! Pow! Crash and then left with you I was sooooooo worried, even though I had just met you, and then I was like *gasp* i left the sink on! and ran back home to turn it off!"
John was entirely confused by the small mass of vaguely related sentences that had just come out of the pink ponies mouth. "Uh, glad you care, miss...?"
At this, the pink pony gave and even bigger gasp, and immediately began bombarding John with words yet again. "Oh my sugary sweets, I didn't give you my name! How rudie Mc rude pantsie of me! I'm Pinkie Pie, and I love sugar and spice, and everything nice! especially the spice part, I love to eat my cupcakes with hot sauce!"
"Uhhhhhh..." John gave a pleading look to Twilight, only causing her to giggle.
"*ahem* while we're at it, why don't I introduce everypony? This i Rarity-" he pointed to the white one with purple mane. "-that's Applejack-" he pointed at the orange one with a hat. "-This is Rainbow Dash-" the flying rainbow one "-and this is Fluttershy!" she concluded, pointing to the shy, cream colored one, who was currently shivering and hiding behind Applejack. John committed the names and faces they belonged to memory, and then remembered something else entirely.
"Um, what was the offer you had for us, Celestia?" All eyes turned toward the Princess, who only just managed to wipe a smile off her face as all the ponies looked at her. She cleared her throat, and adopted a serious expression; It was time for business.
"The offer I have for all of you is this. Actually, let me tart with some back story. Recently, something has felt... odd with the world, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was wrong. I had my suspicions, which were only now proven by the means of John's arrival. I realized that rifts between worlds; portal, if you will, have been appearing all over Equestria. The spell I cast to separate world, cast many millennium ago, must finally be coming undone." She paused when she saw the eager hoof of her favorite student in the air.
"Princess, why can't you just recast the spell? Does this have to do with the Elements again?"
"Allow me to explain. I was not the one cast the spell. Rather, I was the one who created the spell. It was not even ponies who had casted that spell, but rather, a race forgotten in the winds and tides of history. A member of this race is standing among us right now, as we speak."
All eyes turned towards John, surprise on their faces. John himself was just as surprised by this revelation as anyone else. human had been here? They had used magic? How did Celestia make a spell from millenniums ago? But all of their attention turned back towards the princess as he began to speak again.
"Yes, you heard me right. It was indeed a human who used the spell I had crafted, and separated the many worlds in this universe. The humans used to be a part of everyday Equestrian life, you see. But, at some point, They had grown blood thirsty. Their true nature burned through their peaceful disguise, and the human race as a whole became more violent and angry with each passing day. The time came when I had no choice but to banish them to another world, using the elements of harmony. I left the human race to their own devices, hoping that their violence would never again reach Equestrian soil. That is why, when I heard that you had appeared in ponyville, I sent my guards to capture you. I can see that you are not as blood thirsty as they were."
Princess Celestia paused, partly because she wanted to give them some time to digest some information, and partly for dramatic effect. She allowed a smile on the inside. She had always been a trickster. It was just so much fun! But she had a story to tell. On with the show, as it were.
"the only way that we can restore this spell is by placing the runes of power needed for the spell to work on your arm, John. Then you must travel to every portal that comes up, and seal it with the magic. I need you, dearest student, to accompany him along with the other elements of harmony. You may be traveling to remote parts of Equestria, and John may need some extra protection. Do you accept this request?"
Of course, all ponies and human present could tell this was not a request. This was something that could change an entire universe, almost certainly for the worse. What would they say if they refused, that they had something more important to do? All of the ponies present bowed, and gave out a chorus of "of course, your majesty." But John did not bow down. Not yet.
He was deep in thought, swallowing everything Celestia had said in her tangent. The boundaries between worlds, which had been created with a spell cast by humans, was deteriorating. The only way to fix the problem was to have magic runes placed in his arm, and go around sealing every portal they found. if the entire country of Equestria was filled with creatures like the manticore, John could see why the protection of "The Elements of Harmony" were needed, whatever they were. there was still so much unexplained to him, so much he didn't know. He realized that he didn't really have a choice in the matter.
He looked at Celestia, and sighed. "I accept your offer. So how does one put on these runes of power?"
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Dear gods, I just wrote this entire chapter in one day. And it was almost all in one sitting. I can't believe I just wrote that much. But this is good. If I can keep writing chapters this long, I'm set! I also just realized that this chapter took a random turn for the happy. Expect some sort of pointless and overly sad tragedy in the future.As always, keep giving me feedback, so I can improve further. I think I might be improving some!