Chapter 3: First Impressions
As a guard, Gray had spent his fair share of time in and around dungeons. Making sure the prisoners didn’t get too rowdy, ensuring that they were being treated equally regardless of their crime or social status and making sure the other guards didn’t slack off and let prisoners escape.
But for all of his time working the dungeons with the unsavory few that got into the castle uninvited he had never once found himself to be on the opposite side of those locked wrought iron bars ... well he could cross it off his bucket list now anyway.
Not much to see really, a few spiders indicating that not many people came down this way and a single torch down the hall being the only source of light meant that almost nothing was visible so he just resigned himself to his thoughts.
Gray had actually regained his consciousness quite some time ago. A slight headache and a bloody nose but that was nothing compared to what he had to deal with on his original quest though, then again being squashed into the ground by a barbarian four times his size wasn’t something he really wanted to repeat.
These thoughts aside Gray couldn’t help but wonder where the guard was. When he had awoken all he saw outside his cell was a horse that gave him a stern look and then wandered off up the hall. Now as impressive as it was for a horse to be able to make proper facial expressions Gray highly doubted that they would make very good guards. Maybe the actual guard had abandoned his post and left the horse to cover for him. Wouldn’t be the strangest story he had heard during his life.
Then something occurred to him. Forget ‘where’s the guard?’ WHERE WAS HE? Last thing he remembered was flying through a mirror and being knocked unconscious. It definitely wasn’t the Wizards castle, if it was he would already be dead. The floor was hard but not metallic nor sandstone so that ruled out Phillipe’s Industrial Castle and the ‘Sand Castle’. And it wasn’t any of the Kings castles for if it were he wouldn’t be in a cell to begin with.
Oh well nothing left to do but wait to see if anyone comes.
***
It seemed like days passed sitting in the small dark cell of his, probably had too. The horse had come back and dropped off food a couple of times, surprisingly good food as well, and each time Gray became more and more certain of a single fact. The dominant race here, wherever ‘here’ was, were in fact the horses. Now many would think this would come as a great shock, I mean ‘dominant species turn out to be horses?’ But really after fighting zombies in a volcano, ninjas on a boat and being kidnapped by aliens Gray had become virtually unphasable by the oddities in his life.
He had quickly become bored of waiting and had decided to take stock of anything his captors had left in his personal hammerspace. His captors obviously weren’t very bright because they had taken absolutely nothing from him... maybe he had been kidnapped by aliens again.
35 sandwiches sat ready to be eaten, 17 potions ready to be drunk, shield strapped to his back, his chainsaw, bow, boomerang and shovel still readily accessible not to mention an ungodly amount of gold and gems. He felt kind of bad for claiming the Four’s things as his own but he would need them far more than they did at this point in time.
These horses would be in for a big surprise if they tried anything, but, if they played nice so would he. Even if he was a knight of the King, it wasn’t his place to hand out judgment so he would let them make the first move.
And move they did when all of a sudden there was a loud thump of a door opening and the clatter of armor coming down the hall. Quickly getting to his feet Gray made sure he was ready for whatever fate might be in store for him.
5 more horses stood outside his cell, each seemingly trying to out-frown the other. There was a click from the cells lock and then what appeared to be their leader spoke “Follow us and no sudden movements.” plain and simple orders. What was odd about it was the fact that the order was spoken at all. Back in his homeland most if not all communication was made with wild hand movements and while if wasn’t completely unheard of for some creatures to adopt speech as a form of communication it was just something that crashers were incapable of.
Gray must be really far from home for speech to be the main form of communication. He soon began walking up the hallway following what looked to be a white horse in purple armor with blue mane and tail. As they left the dungeon Gray came to a stark realization. Everything was made of crystal, ranging from the vases that lined the walls every now and again to the very floor he stood. Even a majority of the ponies that he saw seemed to be made of some weird living crystal.
This whole castle was amazing; he had never seen crystals carved before. Well, he had, but only by a fellow by the name of Hatty Hattington and he was quite mad. Anyone who cried rainbows and owned a whale orb that cried gold is completely off his rocker. The only person stranger would have to be his brother Pink. Now that was a fruit if he ever sa-
He was quickly knocked back into reality as the guard behind him gave a rather hard shove to get him walking again. While rude it was to be expected, he did vividly remember punching something in the face when he first got here so they obviously thought he must be hostile. And so with this little reminder Gray held his head up and continued to follow the only pony that wasn’t a possible creation of Hatty.
Finally reaching what appeared to be their destination the four crystal guards took up positions outside the great doors that obviously lead to a hearing room where royalty would listen to their subjects. Upon opening the great doors all heads turned to Gray. As guessed it was a large hall like structure with a throne at one end and a carpet leading up to it. The occupants of the room however were three horses. Scratch that they were unicorns... with wings.
A white one stood to the left of the throne, a billowing mane of many colors, lavender eyes transfixed on Gray, not cold or cruel but curious. She wore gold jewellery with patterns carved into it and a purple gem placed into her crown and collar.
To the right of the throne was a slightly smaller dark blue one, mane sparkling like the night sky, aqua eyes glaring at him hard enough to make him feel as though he may spontaneously catch fire. More jewellery worn in the same fashion as the white ones but in a dark blue color to compliment her coat.
On the throne itself though is what seems to pass as an average sized (average still being a good half foot taller than him) pink horse... unicorn... pegacorn? Mane and tail a swatch of pink purple and yellow, purple eyes and a kind smile gracing her features. Again jewellery, but this time far simpler. Gold shoes, necklace and a tiny crown that bordered on comical.
They all stood there for a time the purple armored guard taking a position by the foot of the stairs leading to the throne. Silence reigned as Gray began to shuffle his feet. Thinking of the life decisions he had taken to bring him here, in a castle possible owned by Hatty Hattington, being held prisoner by talking horses... yup his life had taken a real turn for the worse somewhere along the line.
Finally it was the midnight blue one that spoke first in quite possibly a voice so loud it actually pushed Gray onto his backside “WHY DOST THOU NOT KNEEL BEFORE US?! DOS THOU NOT REALIZE THOU ART IN THE PRESENCE OF ROYALTY?!”
Kneel? Why would he kneel to them? They were not the King he didn’t even know who they were. All Gray knew was that they had left him in a dungeon for a few days before meeting him. Not really the best of first impressions regardless of their self proclaimed royalty. So in response to this ungodly loud question Gray simply stood up, tilted his head slightly and raised an eyebrow and stared as if asking 'why?'.
This small display of defiance however did prompt a response from the largest of the three, a gasp escaping her lips. “You. I’ve seen you.” She spoke in just a confused whisper as she approached him, but in the now silent hall it almost felt as if she were yelling “You are the one from the paintings”
Finally reaching him the horse lay on her forelegs to adjust for his significantly smaller frame. Almost at eye level she began to speak again, slightly louder but still gentle and caring “I am Princess Celestia of Equestria, raiser of the Sun. You may remember me, we had... quite an interesting first meeting that left us both a little worse for wear, you probably more so than I. But that is in the past now and I know harm was not your intention.”
Oh great so the first creature he meets when entering this new world happens to be its monarch and what does he do? He punches her in the face. Good going Gray. A sheepish look now plastered on his face he started to scratch his neck from embarrassment. “It is alright I hold no grudge against you but I would be very interested to know who you are.”
At this question Gray froze, eyes wide with shock. She wanted to know who he was. She wanted to know who he was! Gray’s chest was fit to burst from joy. No one had ever bothered to ask who he was. They were always too busy ogling the Four or just ignored him from his generic look. Tears welled in his eyes as he moved forwards wrapping his hands tightly around her neck. He began to sob from sheer happiness. Someone actually cared who he was. He wasn’t a mindless face in a sea of gray.
His moment however was sadly cut short as he was telekinetically wrenched from Celestia and violently thrown into a wall. “UNHAND OUR SISTER VILE CREATURE! YOU SHALT NOT HARM HER AGAIN!” came the booming voice of the blue horse.
Scrabbling to his feet Gray shrugged off the impact, the wall was probably worse off than he was. A quick look at the wall confirmed his assumptions; one of the stained glass windows had cracked from his impact too its supporting wall. Happy that he had come out the victor of that fight he turned to face his new opponent. Guards entering the room weapons drawn, ready to strike down the one who had apparently attacked their princess.
The faces of those present at the time ranged from frustrated anger aimed towards her sister from Celestia, shocked apology from the pink one on the throne, stoic determination from the non-crystal guard and blinding fury on the horse with the night sky mane. “Luna he was not attacking me he was simply giving me a hug!” Celestia cried in an attempt to subdue the situation.
This plea however fell on deaf ears as she strode towards him, horn flickering to life with a dark blue aura. The guards at the doors also seemed to have figured out the situation and began to charge poor Gray, spears pointed at him glinting in the light of the room.
It was at times like this that Gray was happy he always had a simple contingency plan.
Fight or flee?
So here's chapter 3. Not sure what it is but there's something I'm not quite happy with in this chapter. Maybe it's because its a bit bland. Who knows. Definitely not me.
Anyway I found some music that I thought I would share
It's a great song. Not mine of course but I just thought you should all go and appreciate its magnificence.
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quick! eat a sandwich!
and damn if the Castle Crashers soundtrack is one of the best i've ever heard
so simple, yet elegant, and it still fits the game perfectly.
Why you leave me with cliffhanger
Fight! Come on Gray, Show those crystal ponies the kind of power a Crasher has. Don't kill any, but still, kick the living crap outta them!
chainsaw her horn and spear tips off, DO IT!
Fight them!
3638345 Because I work for the Devil as a summer job.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
I hate cliffhangers, good job on the story though.
activate SANDVICH POWAR! Also great cliffhanger.
HOLD IT!
Luna really is now trying to kill Our (I think?) Armored protagonist,All because he gave celestia a hug whilst crying and sobbing?
Fucking hell,Luna knows what hugs,Crying and sobbing are,Why the everliving fuck did she go beserk?
3640851 First thing he did when he got there was punch her in the face. Now he's made a sudden movement towards a ruling Monarch in what could easily be considered a hostile movement considering past events and the current situation.
Luna don't care. In here eyes this small unknown and possibly lethal creature has assaulted her sister, insulted them all by not kneeling in the presence of royalty, and could for as far as she could tell just tried to strangle her sister.
Seems like a reasonable reaction.
3640863 So she's violent and impulsive,Or quick to react,and quicker to anger.......Reminds me of something
3640865 No I'd say she's just defensive of her sister. Gray did rocket punch her in the face remember.
3640889 Celestia getting injured cant be THAT big a deal,I mean honestly,She's atleast a milenia old,And isnt wheelchair bound,So her bones gotta be a bit toughened
3640892 Its less the fact of how badly he hurt her and more the fact that he did it at all. If someone punched your hypothertical sibling in the face you would be wary about them regardless of how hurt your hypothetical sibling was.
3640911 If someone punched my sister,My response would vary based on the attackers age compared to hers,If it was someone around her age (Im pretty sure she's like 6) Id just tell them to break it up,If it was someone my age (15-16) id be getting punchhappy,If it was in between id likely just lift them off the ground and haul them to the nearest parent/guardian,And if it was older than me,Id be out for blood.This is due to being protective of my MUCH YOUNGER sibling,Luna is the younger one though
3640916 Both of them are over a thousand years old. Calling one of them the younger sister is probably more of a formality than any real kind of status thing.
This chapter was worth the wait! :) I choose flee because fighting them would make the situation even worse.
Fight.
Flee!
Fight
3674389 pussie