• Published 7th Mar 2012
  • 1,186 Views, 6 Comments

An Angel Among Ponies - thunderclap



Grant Walker used to kill Angels, now he has to work with a few ponies to get himself back home

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An Angel and the Moon

I was staring up at the ceiling of Twilight’s library home, unable to fall asleep. I wasn’t really trying that hard anyway. I was just lying on the couch and thinking about everything that had led up to the situation I was in, which basically meant my entire life. Physics may not have been my best subject but I had read enough science-fiction to know about the Multi-verse Theory. And considering I was already in one alternate universe, I was inclined to believe that there were an infinite number of others out there. That would mean that the odds of me getting home were astronomical, to put it mildly. Even if Celestia or I did find a way to send me back, how long would it take, days, months, years? And what if when I got back the war was already over? What if Angels or Demons won while I was away? Would I try to create a resistance with some sort of broken remnant of humanity? Would there even be any humans left? Or would humanity actually win? I wasn’t so arrogant to actually believe that I would be the only hope for humanity to win. I may be one of the most powerful members of the Clergy, but in the end I’m just one soldier. And I may have devoted most of my life to training and fighting, but there were members that had much more experience than me. I let out a sigh and called out to Gabriel.

‘Hey Gabriel, you awake?’

‘Yeah, I can’t sleep either.’

‘I just wanted to say, I’m sorry.’

‘What for?’

‘You know exactly what!’ I snapped at him. ‘If I had just taken that angel seriously then we wouldn’t be here! But no, I had to be an overconfident jackass and toy with the bastard! It’s my fault that we’re here. It’s my fault that we may never see home again!’ I internally screamed at him, feeling myself shake in anger on the couch.

‘Grant, don’t do this to yourself. You always try to find a way to blame yourself for your problems, even when it couldn’t possibly be your fault!’ Gabriel shot back, his normally even “voice” rising. ‘If you want to play the blame game then I’m just as much at fault. I didn’t say anything while you toyed with that grunt. I thought the same thing as you. We could take it easy with him; he wasn’t anything that we hadn’t already fought dozens of times before. Besides Grant, you had no idea that you would be able to break through like that.’

‘And ignorance makes it any less my fault? If I had just merged with you and used my sword that grunt wouldn’t have lasted a minute, and we wouldn’t be in the mess we are now.’

‘We’ve been over this, Grant. Sometimes the only thing we can do is to simply put one foot in front of the other. We can deal with this as we need to. We could always think of this as a vacation. We’ve never had one of those, and lord knows we could use one.’

That actually got a chuckle out of me. ‘Alright ya crafty bastard, I can play tourist on holiday.’ I told him, my mood lightening. ‘Still, I don’t think I’m going to get any sleep tonight. How’s about we get a start on reading Equestrian literature?’ I asked, getting up off the couch.

I’m sure if Gabriel had control of our eyes he would’ve rolled them. ‘Sounds fine Grant, just try not to make too much of a mess.’

‘I make no promises.’ I told the angel in my head.

I crept along the library. I wasn’t wearing my boots so I was easily able to avoid making any sound. Then again, I could probably be stealthy even if I was wearing shoes made out of cymbals and bicycle horns. I used my abilities to improve my night-vision and scanned the shelves until I found what I was looking for. I pulled out a book with the title, The Rise of the Nightmare. Just by looking at the book it looked like it was their version of a Shakespearian play. Considering my love for the Immortal Bard I had a good feeling about this. I looked along the shelves again and pulled out a few history books. Two of them detailed the history of Equestria and the world, and the other detailed the history of literature and art in Equestria. I then snuck around the study area, pulled out some paper, ink, and quills, and set all of my materials on the large desk. I noticed the candle and quickly lit it. I cracked my knuckles and opened my first history book.

Now, you might be wondering why I needed the history books and writing materials. Well, I mentioned that my step-father was a literature professor. Well, he was the one who taught me how to read. He also taught me how to analyze what I’m reading. And in order to do this I needed to understand the history behind the work and where the artistic scene was at the time. Yeah, it’s nerdy, but I think it’s fun. I finished all of the history books after a while. I’m guessing it was a few hours. I don’t know; I tend to lose track of time when I’m reading. I think I was halfway through the play when I just sort of blacked out.

I woke up on the couch of a familiar living room. I looked around at the sparsely decorated room and recognized it as my home back in Colorado before I went off to the Clergy Academy. For some reason I felt strangely aware that I was in a dream. I got up from the couch and walked over to the kitchen. I knelt down at a familiar spot and ran my hand along the tile, recalling something that had happened here.

“It looks so much cleaner than when I left it.” I said to no one in a neutral tone.

“Greetings young Walker,” a voice from behind me called out. “We hath been waiting for thee to enter our realm.”

I turned around and saw a navy blue alicorn with a dark mane that shined like the night sky. And standing next to her was Gabriel. He looked strikingly similar to me, minus the glowing skin, wings, and his eyes didn’t have pupils or irises, adding to his statue-like appearance. I would’ve been surprised except the history books, and the play I read mentioned an alicorn named Luna being able to enter dreams. I gave her my best grin and stood, noting that I was a little taller than the alicorn.

“Good tidings milady. Thou must be Princess Luna. Thou art far more comely than we were led to think.” I told her, kneeling before her, taking one of her hooves with my hand, and gave it a kiss. Luna flushed at this while Gabriel rolled his eyes, which looks really weird when he does it I might add.

“We thank thee for thy praise, Sir Grant. We did not expect thee to be versed in the old ways. Also, thine other half told us that thou were a ‘braying jackass’ were his words. But we find that report to be a lie.”

“My dear lady, where we are from one must always strive to learn proper manners and speech.”

Luna gave me an approving nod and continued. “We art sorry for intruding upon thy mind; we simply wished to see if our sister’s claims of an interesting new being were true.”

“Well, we hath always tried to be interesting at the least. Though we would think of other words to call ourselves by, wouldn’t we Gabriel?”

“Could you please stop talking like that? She was able to understand me fine so you can knock off the old English.” Gabriel stated.

“You know as well as I do that the correct term for the dialect is Elizabethan or early modern English. Old English is the dialect that Beowulf or even The Canterbury Tales was written in. If you want to learn the difference I could always speak in the little bit I know.” I answered smugly. Gabriel just glared at me. Our little exchange caused Luna to laugh.

“You two behave more like brothers rather than two halves of the same whole,” She said between snickers. “Art you two always like this?”

Gabriel and I exchanged a look for a moment and we shrugged simultaneously.

“More or less,” I answered, “though we do agree with each other every once and a while.”

“We art glad to hear it, now we must be off. There are many more dreams that we must check upon. Farewell, young Walkers, we hope to see thee again, but hopefully it will be face to face next time.”

“I hope so too,” I replied with a smile. “Oh, but before you go,” I said as I walked over to Luna and wrapped my arms around her chest to give her a tight hug.

I could feel Luna’s already warm fur heat up a little bit and she seemed at a loss for words. “Young Walker, why art thou doing this?”

I pulled away from her and gave her a big grin.

“Just something I promised I’d do. Just to let you know, if you ever want to talk with someone, I could be there for you. I may not seem it, but I’m not that bad of a listener.”

“Well, thank thee young Walker, we shall keep that in mind.” Luna said still seeming a little confused, but the small smile on her face seemed to show that she appreciated the sentiment.

She said goodbye one more time and she disappeared in a flash of light similar to the one that Celestia left in. As soon as she was gone I could feel the lucid nature of the dream was slipping away. This could mean that I was waking up, or I was returning to whatever machinations that my unconscious mind could cook up for me. I honestly hoped it was the former. I really don’t like my dreams. Especially if it was going to be similar to what I had dreamed after I passed out from the hydra venom.

Twilight’s POV:

I woke up early in the morning the same as I always do. Though the slight morning fog I usually have was nowhere to be found. My mind was racing at blinding speeds due to the person that had decided to sleep on my couch. I was still hesitant about trusting Grant completely, but I didn’t quite know why. I mean, he willingly shielded my friends and me from a hydra using his own body. Maybe it was how he reacted when he’d heard Pinkie’s voice, or maybe it was his attitude in general? He seemed to enjoy being smarmy and sarcastic and at the same time he seemed to like hiding things. Then again, maybe I was being too paranoid? Grant was a stranger here, and had next to no idea about our world and culture. And he was only sixteen. Maybe he was just scared? I was sure that if I gave him the benefit of the doubt and help him adjust, that we could help each other learn a lot about our respective worlds.

With that in mind I hopped down from my bed with a smile on my face and went about trying to find a way to help Grant acclimate being in Equestria. I glanced down at Spike and saw that he was still happily snoring away. I giggled a little as I thought that he was probably dreaming about Rarity in some capacity. I did my best to creep quietly to the bathroom so I could freshen up for the day. Once I was done with my shower I went downstairs to grab a quick breakfast and maybe do some studying to see if I could help Grant. I had never heard of a spell that could breach the veil between worlds, but this library has held some surprising information before, so I was hopeful.

After my shower I crept downstairs and saw something surprising when I looked over at my study area. Slumped over my desk asleep was Grant. I walked over to him as quietly as I could and saw that it looked like he had fallen asleep while reading last night. I sighed as I noticed that a candle he had been using was now nothing more than hard wax on the candle holder. I was just about to wake him up when I noticed that he was covering a pile of parchment with his head, and it looked like he had written something on them.

Overcome by curiosity, I gently removed the papers from underneath Grant’s head and looked over them. The first few pieces of parchment seemed to just be notes for a few history books that he had read. I was impressed Grant was very thorough and noted the most important parts of Equestrian history. The next set of notes related to the history of literature in Equestria. I wasn’t that surprised about this, he did say that he was interested in classic literature. The next set of notes is what really surprised me; it was an analysis of a classic play that talked about the story of Nightmare Moon. I pored over his analysis, hoping I could gleam something about his inner thoughts.

The Rise of the Nightmare is very similar to plays written by Shakespeare back home. The main character is Princess Luna, younger sister to Celestia. The play goes into great detail about her sadness about her subjects sleeping during her nights, and how she gets no visitors during Night Court which makes her feel like she’s not doing enough to help her sister. This sadness eventually gives way to jealousy, and in the end she becomes corrupted by these emotions and turns into Nightmare Moon. The theme of this play definitely seems to be innocence lost. Luna starts out as an innocent and slightly naïve character before overcoming to corruption and temptation. There aren’t too many characters in this play, the only real reoccurring characters are Luna and Celestia, with the occasional guard, servant or noble-pony. Luna is a very tragic character, though Celestia seems to be more of a metaphor for a conscience rather than an actual character. She seems a little too perfect in this for my tastes. Throughout the play, Celestia will always tell Luna that they both have their place, and that she is just as important as her even if she doesn’t realize it.

(Note to self: if I ever come across Luna, give her a hug. She seems like she could use it.)

I found myself letting out a sigh. The analysis, while interesting, didn’t really reveal anything about Grant that I didn’t already know, except maybe for the hug part. I then walked over to Grant and attempted to wake him up.

I kept a healthy distance from him (not wanting a repeat of the last time we woke him up) and softly said, “Grant, I think you should wake up.”

Grant’s eyes then shot open at the mention of his name. I then braced myself for whatever he was about to do.

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