Chapter 4: Meetings
“And who are you supposed to be?”
It was night now in the Crystal Empire, a long day had been spent training the Crystal guards on how to prepare for ambushes and surprise attacks during their scouting mission and Shining Armor was extremely tired. He had to teach those rookie’s easy ways to camouflage then move on up to attack methods all while maintaining communication with their own individual scouting teams. Frankly the unicorn was overjoyed that the day was over and he’d be back home with his sweet wife.
“Cadence” he said as he trotted towards the guard inventory removing his gold plated armor that had his cutie mark insignia placed at the peytral. Of all the equines he loved coming back to, there was no one more aside from his own family that he loved spending time with than his princess of love.
And boy did she deserve that title he thought a small blush coming to his cheeks. One that he quickly cleared away as he began trotting through the castle halls and nodding his head to each guard of his return.
The moment he had entered the throne room to check and see if his wife was there, the pegasus commander Moon Shine trotted up to him.
“Your Highness” the pegasus bowed.
“Sir Shine” he said walking by, but stopped as he noticed the commander was following him. Turning towards the chamoisee pegasus Shining asked “Is there a problem?”
“Actually. There is sir.
“The Princess returned to her room only an hour ago. Yet shortly after she requested medical herbs from a medical team and has forbidden anyone from entering her room” the chamoisee pegasus stated with a slight touch of concern.
“I was told to inform you immediately upon your return, to meet Her Majesty upstairs in your resting quarters, Sir” Moon Shine finished his report with a saluting wing.
Shining Armor just stared, processing what he had been told. Moon Shine’s voice called the stallion back from his shocked state of mind. “Y-Yes?” Shining Armor asked still confused.
“What are your orders?” Moon Shine asked, a few other guards that had been present now began trotting behind their leading commander.
Shining Armor in all honesty wasn’t sure what to say. He’d just gotten back from a training session with the rooks, was sweaty, tired and in serious need of a “cuddle” with his wife. Now that he was being told this possibly horrid news he was sure he wouldn’t be getting a good cuddle session with his love till the following week. Quickly glancing at the now gathering group of soldiers that were joining him, he could see some of them were nervous. Unsure of what to do.
Moon Shine, his charcoal messy mane, slightly covering his left eye, looked completely calm but the concern in his voice hadn’t gone unnoticed. Instantly Shining whipped into what he likes to call “Serg. Mode.”
Standing up straight and tall on his hooves Prince Shining Armor gave his troops a serious look. “Any news on why she won’t let anyone inside?” he asked now turning to his resting quarters. Moon Shine and five other guards followed behind their prince.
“None, Sir” said a unicorn to Shining’s right.
“Is she injured?” he asked his voice lacking almost all sense of concern as it remained strict and austere.
“Not from what the medical team reported after they delivered the medicine the Princess had asked for. When she stopped them at the front door she looked perfectly fine” stated Moon Shine who was directly beside the light grey unicorn.
“I see” Shining Armor stated, though his face was grave and thoughtful he had no idea what could possibly make his wife keep everyone out of their room, and require a medical team to deliver her healing herbs. It wasn’t like her to behave in such a mysterious and bizarre manner.
“I’ll go first, if there’s any sign of trouble prepare to attack” he ordered. The group of guards nodded, as they all climbed the spiraling steps leading up to the royal bedroom.
As they got closer Shining could feel his heart beating. What if she’s hurt? What if there’s something in there keeping her captive and making her heal it?! What if-
Shining abruptly stopped, which brought about several grunts behind him since Moon Shine ended up having his team rear end him.
“What’s wrong Your-” Shining held a hoof up, his ears erect. He had heard something from within the room that was now only a few steps away from them. On the front of the gold bedazzled doors was his cutie mark, and from the looks of it nothing showed signs of a fight, struggle or battle since the doors hinges were still in tact.
Carefully Shining Armor began tiptoeing towards the door, he could hear movement in the room now, and his wife’s voice.
“Can you please lower your weapon, I can’t help you if you have it up like that. Besides no one’s going to hurt you” Princess Cadence said.
That’s it! his horn glowing a light rose, the heavy royal doors swung open in a swift movement and the unicorn burst inside his quarters, letting out a warning snort as a sign of his anger. Looking around, Shining quickly scanned the room until his eyes stopped on the zebra now laying on their bed.
The other unicorns had trotted inside their horns aglow as well, and Moon Shine’s wings spread open in a hostile manner, that is until they saw the zebra now laying on their leader’s bed.
Princess Cadence had just got back from the sink carrying a bandage wrap in her magic till she saw the cracked wall and the wide open doors, and the look her husband was giving the zebra on the bed at this moment.
This looks bad was the first thought that popped into Princess Cadence’s head, but Shining Armor was still pretty shocked at what he was staring at. It’s not like he hadn’t seen a zebra before. He knew Zecora and heck she was the only zebra he knew. No it wasn’t that Shining Armor thought that his wife might be cheating on him and this fellow may have been injured by one of the guards in his attempt to get inside, no no it wasn’t anything like that at all.
He was staring at the armor that the zebra was wearing, the same armor that had been partially removed so that Cadence ccould work on healing this new stranger in his bedroom.
“Sir” Moon Shine said, almost as stunned as his leader as he stared at the Proto-Tool that was now pointing at them. “What should we do?”
Shining couldn’t think, his mind was frozen. The tech this zebra was wearing, the armor, all of it was foreign to him. And what was worse was he looked a mess! The cuts and bruises on his forelegs made the soldier cringe a bit, that is until Moon Shine spoke again.
“Sir?”
Clearing his throat Shining slammed a hoof on the ground, directing everyone’s (including the Proto-Tool which had been set to motion detector), attention to him.
“Cadence, we need to um...talk about our new guest here” he stated completely forgetting the guards were there.
A sigh of relief escaped Cadence’s pink lips. “Yes I agree” she said with a relieved smile. Her horn glowing a light blue, Cadence slowly began closing the door as Moon Shine began directing all the other guards out, having caught the hidden message by reading the atmosphere.
“So um Cadence do you mind telling me who this is supposed to be?” he asked pointing a hoof at the half-broken armored zebra. “And why is he in our room?” he said casting a quick glance at the periwinkle colored zebra.
“To be honest I’m not really sure” Cadence said, as she trotted around the bed and her husband, the gauze bandage following behind her. “He never really gave me his name” she said as Rook eased himself up so she could bandage his side.
“Yet you’re helping this stranger...that not only looks like he went one-on-one against a pack of timberwolves but is still pointing his weapon at me?” Shining Armor asked slightly confused, more by the fact that this new fellow hadn’t said a word the entire time he was here. Yet for some reason Shining’s military instincts weren’t alert by the presence of this zebra at least not as they were before.
Rook on the other hoof didn’t say anything not because he was being cautious but because he was confused as the rest of them. He’d never met creatures like these on earth before and he’d done an extensive study on all earth based life forms. The light cerise winged creature that had been helping him as he knew her name to be Cadence. At least that is what she had told him when she started helping him. He was going to give her his name- till those horned horses barged in, and the one staring at him now was, as he believed, to be Cadence’s husband.
Suddenly feeling a tingling sensation on his face Rook felt the bruise on his forehead slowly disappear. Looking more surprised than pleased the Revonnahgander was about to speak that is till he felt Candence’s hoof touch his shoulder, telling him to sit up.
His chest plate sliding off his body the Plumber couldn’t help but feel a faint flush of awkwardness at being exposed in this manner. But he had no choice but to bare with it, as he winced his side burning by the alcohol applied to the injury, followed by soothing herb mixed in the gauze.
“So, who are you?” Shining Armor asked again as Cadence went in circles wrapping the gauze around Rook’s side.
“I am Rook” he said pausing with a slight wince as Cadence tightened the wrap a bit.
“Sorry” she replied with an apologetic smile . “So Rook, where did you come from? Obviously you’re not from here, am I right?”
“What makes you say that?” Shining asked as he took the rest of the gauze in his magic when she was done wrapping up Rook’s torso.
“When I was coming up here I felt a magical disturbance. That and there was a bright light that flashed in this room before he appeared. His armor was all busted up and whatever fight he’d been in must’ve been serious” she stated wrapping pieces of the broken armor in her magic.
“The details are too many for me to explain right now. But I am here on a mission and I plan on completing it” Rook said as Shining Armor levitated his gear back to him.
“And what would that be?” Shining asked as Cadence trotted across the room gathering pieces of the broken armor.
“I must find my friends, he along with two others were most likely sent here since the portal I took to get here brought me to this location.”
“Hm, I see” Shining Armor said as he watched Rook slide his broken armor back on and place the bizarre gun on his shoulder. “What’s this friend of yours name?”
“Ben. Ben Tennyson”
“No way!” Rainbow Dash refuted.
“Ok now you’re just throwing fibs at us” Applejack stated in disbelief.
“You’re telling us that you single-handedly defeated a 8ft humanoid squid monster that was trying to destroy your planet. With a watch?” Twilight asked her voice dripping with skepticism.
“Hey it’s true! If I had the omnitrix right now I’d show you. I mean how else do you think I have this for a mark” he said pointing to his flank.
The girls looked at each other. “Well I mean anything could’ve happened for you to get that. While I’ve never seen a cutie mark like that before it could mean pretty much anything” Twilight stated.
Ben merely shook his head his confident smile not faltering. It was only natural that they wouldn’t believe him, after all in this world it didn’t seem like they had aliens or anything of the sort. Aside from the possible close to global wide dangers these six mares had faced so far it wouldn’t surprise him that they wouldn’t believe the guy who’d saved his own galaxy more than twice and with the help of friends stopped a worldwide invasion at the same time settling a global war between two different species.
“Ben, you don’t really think we would believe something so, well insane?” Rarity asked politely from her seat.
“I mean it’s one thing to tell us that you fought against an alien, but to tell us this Kevin Levin and you use to be mortal enemies, tried killing each other for almost an entire year and are now friends as well?"
“Hey we didn’t just become friends like that. It took quite awhile”
But Rarity either wasn't listening or didn't care to take notice of what Ben had said, "Not to mention that you saved the world and the creator of your watch all when you were 10 yrs old?” Rarity further commented an eyebrow raised in skeptic questioning.
“Hey it’s true!” Ben said firmly.
“We’ll believe it when we see it” Rainbow Dash retorted her hooves crossed. Ben would’ve said more but the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs drew their attention away from the conversation.
“Spike! Where have you been?” Twilight said seeing her assistant coming towards them, out of breath and sweaty. The young dragon looked frightened Ben however was busy admiring the fact that there was a real life dragon standing before him. Sure he’d faced off against dragons when he was fighting the Forever Knights but those were all mechanical, this one was real!
“Spikey Wikey what’s wrong?” he heard Rarity ask. Stifling a laugh at the nickname the hero tried to maintain a straight face as the dragon began speaking, taking in long drawn in breaths each time he managed one word out.
“Ur...jor...out...side...Snips and Snails!” he said throwing his arms in the air in insane gestures. “Run!”
“Um, what now?” Applejack asked.
“I think he said there’s an Ursa Major outside” Pinkie Pie said.
“An Ursa wh-” Twilight began only to be cut off by an earsplitting, ear piercing roar, that shook the very castle and everything and everyone in it. The roar, literally sent everyone in the castle into the air by a few inches even Rainbow Dash who was already flying somehow managed to float into the air without flapping her wings before hitting the ground like the others on her hooves.
“W-W-What was that?” Fluttershy squeaked.
“Whatever it was my ears are killing me” Ben stated.
Spike however had continued to shake like a little leaf that was being pushed by the winds. “T-The Ursa Major! It’s here!” he stated as he zipped onto Twilight’s back.
“You were serious!” Twilight said her look of shock instantly changing to fear.
“What kind of dragon jokes like that Twi?! I’m not a comedian here jeez cut a guy some slack!” Spike said fiddling with his tail.
The argument would’ve continued if it weren’t for the screams of terror now being made across the entire town.
“An Ursa Major! We’re all gonna die! RUUUNNN!!!”
Twilight and the others followed by Ben all rushed out of the castle. Upon reaching the exit and running a couple feet from the castle they saw a mystical ball of fur right in front of them.
“What is that?” Ben asked a trembling Fluttershy. She only managed to squeak in response.
“I-I-It’s a Ursa Major...” Twilight said her wings flopping to her side as she and the others looked up into the heavens.
“A Ursa what?” Pinkie directing Ben’s light green eyes upwards was the only answer he got in return.
There almost a football field’s distance away was a giant bear. It’s body appearing to contain stars and the night sky in its very fur. And at the very center of its head it appeared to have some sort of star or symbol on its head. All Ben could think when he saw it was “That thing’s as big as Way Big.” Looking slightly surprised that this world had creatures as large as a Toku’star, Ben and the other mares just stared in utter shock as the constellation bear began tearing up things, searching for something within the town. Causing houses to be crushed under its paws and building structures that were all uninhabited getting wrecked.
Ben only had one thing to say as he saw the fear and terror in all the pony’s eyes.
“It’s hero time” he said with a grin.
The sky was bereft of light, guess it was natural when it was now nighttime and you had spent most of your day stuck in a forest that had been trying to beat you down with rain.
Kevin was still with Discord, and the several eyes that had been staring at them had now started to show signs of movement, whether this meant they were coming towards them or leaving he didn’t know. What he did know is that they couldn’t stay in this forest much longer. They needed an escape plan.
“Hey” Kevin called Discord who had been floating around aimlessly.
“Yeesss?” Discord asked in that annoyingly hopeful way of his.
Kevin bit back a scowl at how cheery this dragon was. “Help me with Gwen I need to get her out of here, we can’t stay in this forest much longer and I can’t leave her the way she is now. Put her on my back for me.”
Discord stared in silence, the draconequus knew quite well that he could simply just teleport them out of this forest with a snap of his claws. But where would the fun be in that?
“Of course” Discord said as he levitated Gwen’s pony draconequus body onto Kevin’s back.
“Thanks” Kevin stated, crouching then with a huff he readjusted Gwen on his back gently tossing her up before she landed safely on his shoulders, both her wolf paws slightly drooped against his shoulders while her head rested on his mane close to his ears, her breath making the steel stallion’s ears twitch every now and then.
Once Kevin had made sure that Gwen wouldn’t be falling off his body so easily and her rather long tail was being kept up by his own dark night colored tail, the built stallion began trotting forward with Discord lazily flowing behind him. They hadn’t taken more than a few steps, forward when they heard the sound of a raucous roar of a pained creature. Though it was far, the sound was very, very audible. Like it was right beside them.
As if the horrid sound of the beast weren’t good enough, a murder of crow flew overhead, flying directly above the small party. Together Discord and Kevin remained still, silent watching the crows fly over them, it wasn’t until the last member of the murder flew by did it get eerily quiet.
Kevin held his breath, the air was full of tension and he didn’t want to add anymore to it. Taking a careful step forward he began moving slowly with Gwen still on his back.
SNAP!
Jerking his head in the direction of the sound Kevin looked to see the hoof of Discord standing on the broken twig, looking away innocently. Drawing in a deep breath the steel stallion sighed. "Damn it Discord" he mumbled harshly.
Then everything went to hell.
As if the roar of the beast, from the distance had excited them, five timberwolves slowly stalked out of their hiding place. A manticore soon following behind them, all looking rather hungry for a pony salad. Kevin froze in place.
“Looks like Tennyson’s bad luck has started rubbing off” he said feeling a bead of sweat forming as he took a quick glance at Gwen. “Hey Discord!”
“Yes?” Discord said sounding rather disturbed by these sudden turn of events.
“Can you get us out of here? You know. Quickly?” Kevin asked as he began backing away from the advancing manticore. The beast licking its lips sensually.
“Well” he said thoughtfully, having to duck at the incoming wolf claw that came at him. “I do believe that would be the best option” he stated raising his paw. And just as he was about to snap, Discord suddenly felt a stinging sensation in his lion arm. Looking down he saw that embedded in it was the pincer of a scorpion tail.
“Oh poo” he said frowning. The next thing the draconequus knew was he was on the ground and incapable of movement. Great, just like when I was trapped in the stony prison, could this day possibly get any worse?
Now being backed to a corner Kevin had only two options. Escape with Gwen. Or help out the guy who’d been keeping him company since he’d awoken. The timberwolves were getting closer and the manticore had set its sights on Discord now, to Kevin he wasn’t sure if the lion like beast merely wanted to play with Discord or actually eat him because at the moment the creature was merely staring down the immobile draconequus without making any further advancements.
Turning his head just in the nick of time Kevin managed to jump out of the way before a claw landed a hit on him (and Gwen), barely managing to keep his girlfriend on his back Kevin was beginning to wish he could take the former. But deep down, he knew he couldn’t.
“Tennyson. If I get out of this I’m going to slug you for letting your bad luck rub off on me” Kevin stated as he slowly slid Gwen off his back.
“Alright you ugly mutts. Let’s do this” he said taking a stance between Gwen and the nature based creatures before him. Just as the timberwolves were about to attack and the manticore was going to strike Discord, in a moment of a brief gust of wind, the trees that had been blocking the night sky swayed from side to side, their leaves revealing a part of the full moon. And for an instant Kevin thought for sure by the end of this night he’d be caked in injuries and twigs, but his worries were broken when he caught the glimpse of eyes peering down at him from that full moon.
“What in the world?” he said, oddly enough drawing the timberwolves attention to the sky.
In a large flash of blinding light that enveloped the small vicinity the group was in with their attackers, a figure emerged. Clad in a crescent moon peytral, a dark blue winged unicorn stood tall and proud radiating everything that defined the word FABULOUS as she descended gracefully from the sky and landed on the ground. When the light had cleared Kevin stood amazed his jaw slightly dropped as he stared at the surprisingly beautiful creature before him.
So overcome by the sudden appearance of this creature Kevin didn’t take immediate notice that the beasts attacking them were frozen- with fear. Seeing his chance the steel stallion was about to attack until the dark winged unicorn said in a stern voice: “Leave.”
To this day Kevin Levin will never forget how fast a manticore and a pack of tree-bark wolves could move within a span of 2 seconds. Roadrunner had nothing on them, because no sooner had those words left the alicorn’s lips did they disappear faster than lighting yelping and whimpering all the way into their homes.
It took a second for Kevin to say anything as his levels of interest in this creature began rising along with his newfound respect for her.
“Who are you?” Kevin asked as the winged unicorn’s horn became caked in a cobalt blue aura gently lifting up Gwen in her magic, and the same for the paralyzed Discord who still had the sullen look on his face.
The winged unicorn smiled kindly once she’d made sure that the two were properly secured in her magic and no harm had come of the group. Turning to Kevin the dark alicorn spread her wings, her gentle smile appearing incandescent.
“We are Princess Luna, it is a pleasure to meet you.”