Alan stared at the shining blades pointed at his neck. Slowly he looked up to see who was wielding the shiny weapons at him. He saw that the swords were held by twelve angry and somewhat scared unicorns wearing royal guard armour. Standing behind those unicorns was another row of unicorns. They were unarmed but their horns pointed at his head. And towering over all of them was Princess Celestia. She was wearing shining battle armour that seemed to glow with the power of the sun.
“Wow I have really shitty luck today,” Alan managed to squeak out before a spell from one of the unicorns caused electricity to flow through his body causing him to fall to the ground twitching.
One of the unicorns then came up to him. “Stay where you are criminal scum!” Shackles were shoved painfully onto his wrist and pulled behind his back.
“Hey what gives? I haven’t done anything!”
The guard didn’t answer but instead kicked him in the stomach. “Stop resisting!”
Alan doubled over winded and couldn’t say anything. He was promptly hauled to his feet and pushed to the ground in front of the Princess.
“Human… You are being arrested and will be sent to the Canterlot dungeons. This is preventing any violent acts you may commit. What do you have to say?”
“W-what have I done? I just found myself here and I haven’t committed any crimes. I would never hurt anyone.”
Celestia turned and stared into the sky. “What you say may be true. But it may also be false. In the past your kind has come here and killed many of my ponies. We cannot risk that happening again.” Celestia turned back and bent close to Alan. “I am doing what is necessary for my people. Will you come peacefully?”
Alan bent his head down in thought. “I will go peacefully. But I hope you will see that I am actually good and not evil like the humans that you had visit you before.”
Princess Celestia smiled and turned towards the large gathering of guards before her. “Prepare to move out to Canterlot.” Turning back to Fluttershy’s cottage she saw the Elements of Harmony standing in the doorway. “I will need you all to come to Canterlot as well. We need to question you all about this human.”
Twilight nodded and they all made their way towards the carriages in the yard. Two guards hauled Alan to his feet and shoved him hard in the back to get him to start moving. Alan turned to the pony responsible annoyed.
“Hey you don’t have to be so rough!”
Before he could start walking again the guard he yelled at turned and kicked him square in the side of the face. The force of the kick knocked Alan’s glasses off his face and blood started pouring out of a gash on his cheek. Alan fell to his knees but quickly got back up. Princess Celestia turned around to see Alan’s face bleeding and the guard getting ready to kick again.
“STOP! We need this human alive and uninjured. Go and wait by my personal carriage we need to discuss your actions.” The guard who kicked Alan bowed quickly and trotted over to her carriage. Princess Celestia trotted over to Alan and examined his face. Alan spit out a tooth along with a large amount of blood onto the ground. Celestia frowned and stood up tall.
“There is nothing we can do right now about it. When we get to Canterlot we will get my personal doctor to fix you up.”
Alan just nodded. He was in too much pain to answer properly. The other guard lightly pushed him in the direction of the waiting carriage and Alan got in. As Alan got in, Twilight picked up his fallen glasses. She looked over at him and felt her heart sink with sadness.
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As soon as the carriages stopped on the Canterlot airstrip, Alan was rushed inside the castle and down into the dungeon. The further down into the dungeon they went the colder and darker it got. In the cells along the hall were ponies that had done horrible crimes. Every pony in the cells backed into the corner when they saw Alan pass. This made Alan feel worse. Eventually they came to a cell separated from the others. Alan was pushed inside and he fell to the ground.
“You will stay in here until we need to examine you,” Princess Celestia said. No sign of emotion showed on her face. “I will send my doctor down to fix you wounds….” Celestia suddenly looked sad. “I am sorry for what the guard did. He was scared of you and his emotions got the better of him. Are you feeling alright?”
Alan looked up at the Princess standing in front of him and he sighed. “I guess I’m fine. I think I’m just a little upset that this was how you all reacted to me. I mean I’ve never hurt anybody! I can see being scared of something you’ve never seen before but … not throwing me in a dungeon and locking me away. What will it take to get all of you to believe I’m not a bad person? That is all I have to say your highness.”
Celestia looked at Alan for a few more seconds before turning around. “They act this way because of the stories told about your kind. The ponies think they are fairy tales, but that is nowhere near the truth… Long ago almost one thousand years ago a human came to this land. It was a something nopony had ever seen before… Without mercy and without prejudice it attacked. It killed the old, the young and anypony else that came in its way… I sent my guardponies after it, but it took three divisions to take it down.” Celestia turned and looked Alan in the face. “After that I put tales about the human in books. It was my way of making sure my ponies would be afraid of humans, and avoid them if they were seen. Now if you will excuse me I need to go.” Celestia turned to go but was stopped by Alan saying something.
“I’m sorry for what my kind did to your ponies. But I assure you… I am not like that.” Princess Celestia smiled. “I know you are not like that. I can tell by looking at you.” With that Celestia walked off down the hallway. The guardponies shut the barred door and took up positions next to it. Alan sighed and leaned up against the wall before falling asleep.
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Alan was woken up by the sound of hoof steps coming down the hall. Alan could see a brown unicorn colt with a jet black mane coming towards the cell. He was wearing a white lab coat and a pair of glasses. When he reached the cell he showed the guards something and was let into the cell. He stood at the other end of the cell staring at Alan and Alan stared back. After a few minutes the colt coughed and stepped forward. For some reason he started talking very slow and loudly while making lots of motions with his hooves.
“HELLO THERE. MY NAME IS DR.HOOFSTADTER. I WILL FIX YOUR WOUNDS.”
Alan stared at the doctor and shook his head. “I know what you’re saying you dolt.”
Dr.Hoofstadter’s face dropped as he realized how much of a foal he must have looked like. “Oh. Well is it alright if I look at your wounds? The Princess informed me that you are not dangerous but I will still ask that you stay over there. I can do it from here.” Dr.Hoofstadter’s horn glowed red and he closed his eyes. Using his magic he pulled out a pad and quill and began writing. At the same time Alan could feel the gash on his face healing and his tooth that was knocked out start to grow back in. After a few minutes the healing was done.
“That was amazing how did you do that?!?! Wow! I wish I could do something like that!” Alan looked at the doctor who was already out the door and going fast down the hall. Alan realized that the ponies were still afraid of him and he looked at the ground. The sound of more hoof steps made him look up again. Coming down the hall was Princess Celestia and all of the Elements of Harmony. All of them entered the cell and stood in a semi-circle around him.
Celestia stepped forward and smiled at Alan. “We have questioned Twilight and her friends and we have found out from what they have seen you are not evil. I will now examine your soul to see if that is the truth or you were just putting on an act. Are you alright with this?”
Alan nodded and tried to stand. Falling several times he suddenly was encased in a purple glow and brought to his feet by Twilights magic. “Thank you. If you need to I will let you.”
Celestia stepped forward and put her horn to Alan’s head. A bright yellow glow surrounded Alan and it looked as if he was being hit with a gust of wind. Several minutes later it stopped. And Celestia stepped back.
Alan looked around and saw Princess Celestia had a look of shock on her face. “What happened? Did you find evil in my soul or something?”
Celestia shock her head. “No… I saw…Magic!”