I woke up sometime in the morning, inside a high-tech plexiglass and steel cell. Outside stood two guard ponies wearing golden armor and each brandishing a pretty wicked looking spear. I slowly sat up and a wave of nausea passed over me.
"Your Highness, the prisoner is awake," the guard in the left said into his radio.
"Thank you, sergeant. Bring him to me please," said the voice on the other end.
"On it"
The two guards then turned around and while one pointed his spear at me, the other unlocked the door, and then leveled his spear to my face as well.
"Move it," said the sergeant in an irritated tone.
"Whatever," I said as I raised my hands over my head and let them lead me out of the cell and down the corridor. That's when I heard feedback in my bone mic
"Alpha, are you their?" I whispered.
"I am back sir, and I've managed to review the any all data from the tablet that I discovered earlier," he said.
"Good, and...?" I whispered expectantly.
"The files were quite extensive, however there is an interesting bit," said Alpha.
"What?" I whispered.
"Most of the files are no more than 6 months old," he said.
"Well, that is interesting," I said under my breath.
'That means that their is, or was, another human at my level of technology here on this planet, other than that primitive prisoner I fought earlier. But what were they doing? Why update files on a tablet, let alone so extensively, just to leave? No, whoever they are, they are still here. And they could know more. So, I need to find this human, and find out what they know, and convince them to help me get out of he....' My thoughts were interrupted by Alpha continuing.
"Sir, there is another issue," he said.
"What is it," I said back.
"There would appear to be a security code blocking me from access to other files hidden on the tablet. My readings show that these other files are much, much older in origin,"
"Well, maybe I can help. How long is the code," I said.
"From what I can tell, sir, it is roughly 30 characters, give or take," he said.
"Hmm, and it's in English?" I asked.
"Yes sir,"
"Then there is only one thing it can be," I said
"What is that, sir," he asked patiently.
"supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," I said confidently.
"Files unlocked. Good work, sir," said Alpha.
"I try,"
At this point we had reached a largest of double doors than opened suddenly, and I was pushed into a throne room. Only a throne room with six thrones. And each had an element of harmony symbol on it, along with the element bearers in their respective seats. The thrones formed a half circle in the back of the room, and I was led to the center, where they could all stare down at me. I was then chained to the floor, and a purple aura covered the chains in what assumed was a strengthening spell. Which could only mean one thing, they were afraid of me.
I then noticed the others in the room. Above the six element thrones, there were four other thrones, one made of gold, the second a darker stone, and the other two were what appeared to be crystal. All the seats were filled. Around the seats stood a fair mixture of ponies and humans.
Standing next to a certain lavender unicorn was the prisoner I fought earlier, only he was now wearing a completely white suit and tie. Next to the highest gold throne stood a young man about my age, clean cropped hair, and wearing a blood red leather jacket, a white t-shirt, and blue jeans. Next to the crystal royalty was a fairly beautiful young woman a bit you younger than me, in an all black power suit with high heeled boots. The other people in the room included a group of six younger ponies, only one of them appeared to have a metal claw instead of a front left hoof. On the side of a rainbow maned pony was a blue stallion wearing purple goggles. There was also a teen boy staring at me half hidden in the shadows wearing what appeared to be an alligator vest.
I cleared my throat as they sat unmoving, unblinking. They just stared.
"Uhh, hiya folks. I think there's been a bit of a mix up here, so if you could just let me go, we can forget the whole thing," I said, uncomfortable with the silent staring.
"We have known that you would come for a while, and so we prepared," said the white alicorn sitting on the golden throne.
"Ahh, well prepared you were," I said, shuffling my chains slightly. "But just so I'm clear, what were you preparing for?"
"Your arrival was feared, but we vowed to keep you locked away while the other horsemen fulfilled the prophecy," said the dark blue alicorn, obviously ignoring my question.
"Uh huh. Well I......wait, did you just say horsemen?" I asked in shock.
"Of course she did," said the orange farmpony that knocked me out and dragged me here.
"Honestly, darling, even scoundrels like you aren't this clueless," said the white and blue pony sitting next to her.
"Hey, look here , sister, I am anything but clueless," I said with a bit more flare than I am proud to admit.
"Please, do you even know who we are?" Asked the purple alicorn.
"Somewhat."
"Prove it," said a cyan pegasus on the end.
So I said all the names of all the ponies I knew, which left out the one in goggles, the boys in the group of kids, and all the humans.
"Huh, so not completely clueless," said Rarity.
"Nope," Applejack agreed.
"Now," I said, "tell me about this horseman business you've got going on."
"Very well," said Celestia, "Long ago, it was told that there were other worlds, in a cluster we later came to know as the Multiverse, inside of which anything and everything is possible. It was then prophesied that strange creatures from another world would travel through strange portals, and that it would begin when one such creature awoke from his tomb. The prophesy went like this."
"In due time, the Horsemen will arrive,
born of the creatures from which we derive.
It will begin when three golems will come forth short but fair,
After achieving great feats that turns filly to mare.
Then move on with a creature found in ice,
Locked in a chamber marked CRYOGENIC DEVICE.
After the dust then all settles and the smoke has been cleared,
In will come the Conquest with a love life that's smeared.
Next will be quarrel, and not a moment too soon,
For then will be War that he an take with a swoon.
Third will be tricky and you must prepare,
Else Famine will take you and stir up quite a scare.
Finally comes the most feared out of all,
For Death will come knocking and if not handled right,
Then that is the end of you all,
And also, ironically, the end of your plight.
But when the horsemen unite and their powers combine,
Then your issues will resolve and your world will be fine.
However, if unite, the horsemen do not,
Then a Great War will have to be fought.
There will be great loss, leaving you to ask why,
Why did you have to kiss your world goodbye?"
"So forgive us if we aren't on the 'join death' party train, mister" said Pinkie Pie, surprising me.
"You're kidding, right," I asked incredulously.
"What do you mean," asked Queen Celestia.
"That prophesy of yours clearly says that we have to work together to defeat great evil, and that if we don't, then there will be a Great War. I don't know about any of you, but to me, Great War sounds bad," I said.
"That's why we locked you up. Then we can let the three Horsemen, that don't threaten us, fight for us. And meanwhile, the fourth Horseman can sit back and do nothing from his cell. Thus Great War is avoided and we can use the ability of the Horsemen,"said the queen.
"You don't think you need the power of all four Horsemen?" I asked.
"Not when the fourth is Death itself," said one of the colts sitting on the side.
"What did I ever do to deserve any of this. I haven't done anything against any of you..without provocation," I said while gesturing to the prisoner in white, "and even if I did, I'm sorry. I never meant anything that I may have done to offend."
"No, you just kill," said the man in the alligator vest from the corner. As he emerged from his hiding spot and made his way to me, he kept speaking.
"You are a deadly being," he said halfway down the stairs. "Living beings have a deeply programmed hatred for death, and you're the Death," he had reached the floor and moved towards me slowly. "Everything about you just leeches trouble, horrible trouble that'll kill anyone involved," he was in my face by now. "So you tell me, why should I feel sorry that my animal instincts tell me to either avoid you at any cost, or to kill you before you kill me?"
"Fine, alright, fine, if you don't want to get to know me, then fine. If you don't want to give me a chance, then fine. If you just want to strike first and ask questions later, then fine," I said angrily.
"Hey look..." Princess Twilight started.
"No you look. I've lived in a country that's biggest flaw was how it started playing world police. And after they ran out of enemies to police, then they started into prevention. So they gave preemptive strikes for the sake of nothing more than one drop of bad blood between us and them. So go ahead, lock me up for something I may have a slight chance of possibly doing, but you'll be locking up any chance you have of us ever being allies or possible friends or anything. But go ahead, lock me up," I spat to them all as held my wrists out, prepared for the chains to be replaced by cuffs and for me to be dragged back to my cell. But it never came, instead I heard the Queens voice in a softer, kinder tone.
"Very well, we will provide you with one chance, and only one. If you screw it up, then you are going to be locked away forever. Deal?" She asked.
"Deal," I said in return. "Now, let's try this again," I said as the chains fell off and I moved toward Applejack. I held out my hand and said, "Hello, my name is Remy, Remy Smith. What's your name?"
***
"Do you really trust him?" I said to my sister, Queen Celestia, later that evening during our private conference.
"No, sister, I do not. But he brings up some valid points, and he does have some qualities lacked by the others," she said.
"Like what," I said with question.
"Like fear. The others don't strike fear like he can, and our enemies could use some fear," said Celestia.
"I don't know. I still don't trust him, not yet," I said as I looked out the window to my sisters sun setting over our land.
***