//------------------------------//
// How the other half lives. 
// Story: Tales of a Lonely Pony 
// by Echo Montana Juliet 
//------------------------------//

	When he walked out, he was in the same room, but without light. Before, the wall was open, now it was closed. Wishing he'd brought the candle with, he tried going back through. It was solid again. He sat in the dark for a moment and began to think. He gripped his head for a moment in thought, and was surprised to find a small pillar had found a way to it. Not questioning it quite yet, he created a light source. The room looked the same from the other side of the mirror. He began to walk around the obelisk again, this time it was different. Prince Halderon's copper cutie mark had been replaced with a shield similar to that from the gold space, but instead of a heart it was a purple looking star. In place of the shield on the gold plate was the crystal heart. Iron Hoof's iron plaque had some evil looking crystal stalagmite. He stood and stared at it for a while.

"Piercing...."

He shuddered. He'd also noticed the words had changed. The shield still had the word 'Protection' but 'Hope' was with the crystal heart. The piercingly evil crystal had nothing under it. No words. No other symbols. Just the strange crystal. He decided to forget about it for the time being, and needed to get out of that confined space. He started to bash the wall in the same spot he had done before. The wall caved quickly, but instead of an empty court this time, he received the staring eyes of guards, a jester looking pony, various passerby, and someone who looked an awful lot like Prince Armor. He chuckled nervously, and bolted out a nearby window. Through out his life his legs were the strongest he'd ever known. He hit the ground, and the impact didn't even stun him, unlike the colt he nearly stomped. he ran straight for the outskirts where he knew he'd find his father's villa. He suddenly realized there was no wall. The giant amassment of permafrost and stone wasn't there. He ran along where he figured it might be, while being pursued by pegasus guards. He still managed to locate the building, however. He ran inside and sat, back against the door. Resting while the guards hammered on the door, demanding he come out, he looked around. Looked like it did when he was but a young colt. Finally finishing the processing of what he'd just been through. he'd come to find that he'd either gone back in time, or that this is just a completely new dimension. The guards finally stopped hammering the door, and a new voice was heard. Kinder, but still demanding.

"Sir, would you kindly step out of the villa."

He took a moment to respond. that voice seemed utterly familiar.

"Who are you, good sir?"

There was no reply. There was whispers, of which he couldn't make heads or tails of. The voice spoke again.

"What did you say? I didn't quite catch that."

He stood and thought for a moment about that voice. A voice he hadn't heard in the longest time.

"Your voice is familiar to me, sir. Do I know you?"

Again, there was a pause. More whispering that was muddied by the door.

"You appear to be speaking in a tongue unknown to me. Could you try speaking proper?"

Now this confused him. He could understand the stallion on the other side of the door just fine. It seemed to him that he should be able to speak just fine to the stallion too. He thought about the conundrum for a moment, and realized it probably had something to do with the obelisk. He probably wouldn't last long against those guards. he was built for survival, not for fighting. He stood there, and thought. He came up with an on-the-spot solution. He father had always kept spell books around, some of them had been for translation. They might have been temporary, but it could work. All he had to do, was figure out how to do the spell. He stood, concentrating. The guards had stopped waiting and continued to bash on the door, but he ignored it. His new horn flashed quickly and he felt changed. He spoke to them.

"Stop! Stop!"

They stopped. The previous voice spoke again.

"Thank you, now tell me, why are you here?"

He thought about that.

"I needed refuge, and I remembered a place like this from my childhood."

The voice sounded more consoling now.

"I see. May we come in?"

He produced a short laugh.

"If you wanted to come in. why didn't you?"

The voice took it's time replying.

"Well, you see, the door appeared to be locked from the inside."

Confused, he looked at the door. There was no lock there.

"Sir, your door does not have a lock from the inside."

"Well it certainly isn't locked from the outside. No lock here either."

"Then how did it get locked?"

"You're a unicorn, aren't you? Couldn't you have locked it yourself?"

He rubbed his neck and replied in a nervous manner.

"Well you see, I'm... rather new to being a unicorn. A strange turn of events lead me here, and now I'm afraid those guards will have to bring down the door if you cannot open it."

There was more whispering from outside. Finally the guards began to take down the door. When the door fell the voice finally had a face put to it. It was his father, both stallions looked surprised.

"Father?"

"Son?"

They embraced for a brief moment, before the guards dragged them apart. The Prince Armor looking stallion had shown up, just as the pegasi we taking him away.

"Hold on! Bring him to me."

The guards did as they were told. Dropping him off in front of Armor, the prince started talking to him.

"Okay, I have a lot of questions for you, mister. I want some answers."

He nodded.

"First question, where did you come from?"

He could feel the spell wearing off. It was slow, so he needed to act quickly.

"You may want to wait a second. I require a translation spell to speak, and I can feel in wearing off."

Prince Armor looked confused.

"I only understood half of what you said. Wait a second for what?"

He sighed, held up his hoof, and began to concentrate. He managed it quicker than before, due to the lack of noise.

"I needed to preform a translation spell. I appear to have an issue with speaking."

Prince Armor was growing impatient.

"Must I repeat myself?"

Realizing that he hadn't answered the question, be began to quickly think of how to answer that.

"I came from the small room you saw me exit."

"I'm not playing games here, boy-"

This shocked him. He should've been old enough to be Armor's great grandfather, but he got called 'boy' instead.

"Boy? Of all the ways to try and insult me, why boy?"

Prince Armor looked like he'd had enough of his shenanigans.

"Have you seen yourself recently, you don't exactly look much older than a colt. No matter! How did you get into the room?"

"It's... hard to explain. I'd have to show you."

Armor looked quite displeased at these words.

"Fine then, show me."

Prince Armor had the guards escort him to the broken wall, where they met up.

"Okay, now show me. How did you get in here."

More of a demand than a question, he walked inside. The room was dark as ever.

"I need some light, to show you."

Armor snorted in some kind of intense dislike.

"You have a horn, why not light it yourself?"

"I'm new to the magic scene. I can't exactly multitask with such a thing."

Begrudgingly, Prince Armor used his magic to light his horn. It might as well have been a broken glow stick. You could see the light it tried to produce, but that's it. No other light was in the room. It was still pitch black.

"Okay, now show me."

The guards looked as confused as he did. Was Prince Armor just being rude, or did he actually think the room was lit up. He hesitated.

"What's the hold up?"

"I can't see."

Armor growled at him in the darkness.

"What do you mean you can't see? I just lit up the entire room!"

The guards tapped on Prince Armor's shoulder.

"Sir, no you didn't. The only thing lit up is your horn, sir."

Now Prince Armor was growing angry. He began to yell.

"Am I the only one who can see the light?!"

The guards were cowering by the entrance, and he had backed up against the obelisk.

"Pr- Prince Armor, would you be so kind as to quiet down. You're n- not helping the situation."

Armor had finally given up. He walked out of the room.

"Guards, chuck him into a cell. He's got until morning to be ready to tell us how he got in there."

The guards saluted, then proceeded to carry him off to jail. He sat there and thought of how he could tell them about the obelisk. He didn't sleep that night.