//------------------------------// // Adjusting // Story: Destiny: The Five // by THOSEideas //------------------------------// Ponies? ~snort~ oh ya, that was much better. Shin walked along side the...pony, and was having a really hard time concealing his amusement. Apparently the pony beside him had noticed his ill fated attempts. "Why do you laugh?" Shin swallowed his amusement and glanced over at the mare next to him, which turned out to be a mistake. After seeing her completely serious face staring at him intently he broke down into howls of laughter. She was actually serious! Ponies! He was in a land filled with Ponies that spoke english and used magic. He must have gone insane. "What is so funny?!" The mare started to chuckle as the Human next to her fell to the ground and held his stomach as he exhausted his air supply. "Wooo~snort~you have no idea what~HAHAHAHA!!" The mare continued to gawk at the Human as he filled the castle with his jubilant laughing. After about five minutes Shin sat up in the middle of the hall where he had fallen and wiped the tears away from his face. "Heehee, I needed thaaaaaaa-oh, was I that loud?" Shin had looked up and saw that he was surrounded by Ponies of all colors. Some where pink, yellow, red and sometimes blue, he was in a world filled with rainbow colored ponies that used magic. "BWAAAAHAHAHA!" Clestia woke up to the sound of somepony laughing their flank off, Guuuh! How come she never got a break? Celestia slid off of her bed and didn't even bother remaking it, as soon as she banished this pony from returning to the castle she was going back to sleep. As Celestia walked out of her room she looked up at the moon and groaned, she was supposed to be up in fifteen minutes anyway, oh well. Princess Celestia angrily trotted towards the noise and every step she took it just grew louder. At least she wouldn't have any trouble finding this pony. As if in answer it stopped, really? Celestia stopped and stood in the middle of the hall, where were all the guards? Celestia cast a worried glance around her until she heard the laughter again. She was now running towards the noise, for all her days of living in the castle she had only run theough the halls twice before. She was pissed. Celestia expected many things when she rounded the corner of the hall, but what she saw wasn't one of them. She saw all her guards and staff forming a circle around something; she saw Luna's horn sticking out of the crowd and it was right in the center. If this was Luna's fault she was going to send her to the moon again...well no she wouldn't but still... Princess Celestia gently forced her way through the crowd and made it to the inside circle. She saw the Human in a fetal position, clutching his stomach and laughing his heart out. "WOULD YOU BE QUIET!!!" The Human stopped laughing and stared up at Celestia with tear stained eyes and a surprised look on his face. "Do you know how late I stayed up talking to your damned Ghost! Way past late!" The Human's face cleared and he chuckled as he stood up and wiped his face with a blood stained hand. Blood? "Huh, you have no idea how long he can talk for, where is he by the way? I hate to admit it but I miss him." "Luna was supposed to fill you in on everything, why didn't you?" Celestia turned her angry gaze back to Luna. "You blame me? You gave me thirty minutes to tell him everything about Equestria! Poor planing on your part Princess Celestia." Luna rarely used Celestia's title unless she was angry or being annoying. Celestia glared at her sister, then shifted her gaze towards the ponies that surrounded them. "What are you all still doing here? Get back to your posts." They all hurried to follow her orders, not even bothering to ask what the thing that had been laughing was. "Now, Human if you will excuse Luna and I, we will go raise and lower the Sun and Moon." Shin stared at the white pony apparently named Celestia, had she said raise the Sun? Shin watched as the two ponies walked to the nearest railing and stared up at the Moon. He saw (Luna he was assuming) horn glow and then saw the Moon slowly fall towards the horizon. Shin's unbelieving eyes followed the Moon as it sank below the horizon and the sun took it's place. Unfortunately, Shin hadn't stopped staring when the sun started to rise, so he got a full frontal assault on his eyes. "Damn! How the hell did you do that?!" "What do you mean? We were changing the time of day." "Yeah...I noticed, but HOW?" Celestia and Luna gave Shin bewildered looks as if he should have known the answer. Was this an everyday thing? Was their magic that powerful? That is so OP. "Anyway, I have the Day court to attend so Luna will tell you everything you need to know. Oh, please keep your voice down the next time you laugh. You woke up the whole castle." Shin nodded and bowed, just like the Awoken do back on Earth. Fortunately, Shin had the mis-pleasure of meeting the Awoken queen so he knew how to handle royal figures, even if he was just a soldier. Celestia dipped her head briefly and walked away down the hall. "Sooo...wheres my armor?" Shin looked up at his armor, it had a crack in the helmet where his head had struck the sea floor and had several tears throughout the softer areas. Where was his ghost when he was needed? "Hey Luna, where is my Ghost?" Luna looked ar Shin and shrugged, great. The walk here had been mostly uneventful and Shin had asked as many things as he could think of, like: "Do you have any enemies?" "Do you have Guns? "How about electricity?" He was so original, but hey, his life had been built on protecting people, so he was planning to protect everyone he could, including ponies. Shin looked back to his armor and found that his Hand Cannon was holstered on the thigh of the right leg. "Did anyone touch that?" "Yes, but we couldn't figure out how it worked." "Did anyone stare down the long end of it?" "I believe so...why?" Shin just shook his head and pulled his armor off the rack and slid it on with practiced ease. Luna observed him the whole time and watched how he carefully laced his cape around his neck. His cape had a story of its own, now it had the right to say it had been dropped from orbit. Shin didn't even know what it was made of, but it hadn't torn a single time since he found it in the hands of a dead Hive scum. Shin fit the last strap on his arm and finished puting on his armor. The last thing he had was his helmet, but he kept that off and pinched it between his hip and his left hand. "So you are telling my that in all of Equestria you don't have enemies?" "Well we do have change--" Luna was cut off as Celestia's voice summoned everypony to the court room for a meeting, she also said that the guest shouldn't come. Shin amiled as he knew what the meeting was about. "Is there anywhere I can wander? "Absolutely, here follow me and I will show you our gardens." Luna led Shin through the Castle and out into a massive garden complete with statues of all sorts of wierd creatures. Shin looked around until he saw a bench and sat down on it, his leg was still bugging him. Shin let his mind wander as he sat in the peaceful garden and listened to the birds chirping. That was something he had missed from Earth, the persistant birds had survived everything the Darkness could throw at them and spat in its face. Shin lost track of time as he stared up at the sky and saw ponies flying from cloud to cloud, sometimes moving them other times sleeping on them. Whatever. Shin sat in the silence and was about to get up when he saw a pegasus flew down to him (luna had told him about the different species in Equestria). The pegasus had a bland green coat and small beady eyes which he used to stare at Shin with intent. "You need to leave here, Human. Do not be alarmed, I have been observing you for sometime, and I must tell you to not trust the ponies you are living with. They are untrustworthy and rule this kingdom with fear and an iron fist. Come with me and I will show you what the Hive can offer." Shin slowly sat forward and rested his head on his knuckles as he rested his elbows on his knees. "Did you say the Hive?" "Why yes I did have you heard of us?" "...so do not worry about accidentally speaking about the Human, we have ensured that it is impossible for you to betray the secret we all share." Celestia finished her speech and sat back down on her throne, all the ponies in the room were the ones that worked in the castle and knew about Shin. Celestia had plans to keep this secret inside so that she didn't worry about panicking ponies. Thank goodness she had remembered to alter the memories of the ponies who had witnessed his arrival. The ponies in the room had all agreed to keep the secret and willingly had the spell cast on them. Now it was Luna's turn to give her speech about what she learned from the Human. "Morning all. Now before I start, I want to warn you all that this Human seems to like to be-" Suddenly the Court room doors were kicked in and there stood the Human dressed in his full body gear with his 'Hand Cannon' as he called it, in his right hand. But what was even more surprising was the bland green pegasus drapped over his left shoulder. Shin walked down the middle of the room and the ponies rushed to get out of his way as he approached the two Princesses. "I feel...I was denied, critical, need-to-know...information. Mind explaining how a part of the Hive happened to get on this planet?" Everypony in the room stared at Shin as he threw the pony at the foot of the throne and looked at Celestia. "How could you forget such an important detail? I mean they are only the most threatening force alive in the universe, they are partially responsible for the condition of my planet. Granted they looked different, and didn't talk to you, they just wanted to kill you." Celestia shifted her gaze from the Human to the pony at her hooves. Hive? What was he talking about? Unless... Celestia cast a revealing spell and released the magic that was hiding the true identity of the pony. Instead of a pony laying there it was actually a changeling. "Ah, that looks more like the Hive I'm used too. Should I have killed him? I mean, I figured we could try interigating him so I knocked him out instead." The ponies who had heard Shin looked in horror at him, kill?! Had he really meant it? Shin was completely oblivious to this reaction and was busy staring at Celestia. "Well I must congradulate you for capturing a Changeling alive, but no, you shouldn't have killed him. Also, what are the Hive?" Shin sighed with relief, the Darkness hadn't struck this planet just yet. That lifted a huge weight off his shoulders and he holstered his gun back to its place on his thigh. "As soon as we find my Ghost we are going to have to have a serious talk between all of us. We have had too many half hearted attempts at it and that has just confused everyone. Why is everyone looking at me?" Shin shook his head and turned on the spot, starting to walk towards the door. He wasn't stopped but he felt all the stares on the back of his head as he rounded the corner and his cape whipped out of view.