117 The Eternal Guardian

by Nanofield

Chapter 3: Learning

^Equis^
{50AD}
23:30
[Celestia]

Wonderful, it is willing to help us. Now to figure out how it can communicate with us. How do we manage that? I think for a few seconds before a thought appears in my mind. “Seeing as you can understand us, but due to your inability to speak to us we will have to ask a series of yes and no questions. Then we will go from there. Is that agreeable?”

I receive a nod from it. “Thank you. First, do you have a gender?”

Another nod. “Are you male?”

Once more, a nod yes. “You appear to be skilled in combat based off of your speed and strength. Can you fight well?”

I can see that he shows some enthusiasm in his nod this time and it is accompanied by a short grunting noise. “Are you able to read?”

One more nod. That's good. Maybe he can learn equestrian, if it isn't the same scripture that he knows. “Thank you. One more question.” I do not expect this to work but it is worth a try. I levitate the spell book to him with an inconsequential page open. “Can you read this?”

He looks at the page for a second, then looks at me and shakes his head no. “If we taught you how, do you think you can learn to?”

He seems hesitant at first, but I receive a short nod from him. “It is late now, rest for tonight and we shall have one of our scholars begin teaching you tomorrow. Now my sister Luna shall show you to a room where you can sleep for tonight, for I am certain that falling from the sky must have made you more tired than you already are at this late hour.”

I wish I could ask him more, but that will have to wait till we can better communicate with him. I am sure that he has questions of his own as well.

00:00
[John]

So, the princess wants to ask me a few questions. Fine. The questions that she asks are all simple, when she asks me about my combat abilities it is hard not to smile at that. She asks me for help, then she asks if I can fight. Shouldn't she ask if I can fight first, then for my help? Not long after that, she moves the book she was reading over to me asking if I can read it. I already know the answer before I see it but I humor her anyway. As expected, the writing looks like gibberish. Next she asks me if I could learn it. No, I couldn't, but the computer in my armor could store the data for quick recall, and if I'm stuck here I will need to be able communicate with them, I nod.

She informs me about starting lessons tomorrow and suggests I sleep now. I don't really need any sleep, I’ve only been up for about 4 hours and falling from the lower atmosphere is no big deal for me. It's almost becoming a habit, almost. But considering the fact that it is night time here, I can't really do much about it. All of the questions that I have will need to wait till I can ask them. Where am I, what kind of creatures are these horse like things, how did I get here, and can I get home? I will just have to play nice until I can find out. I also want to learn more about this war before I jump in feet first.

*****
4:30

Waking up early, I leave the room I'm in to go look around and maybe get a bite to eat. Since it is so early the princess probably won't have whoever it is that's supposed to teach me to read their language ready yet.

I make my way to the kitchen and find that there is another small horse like thing in there. This one is a light green unicorn with a light red mane. It has a tattoo of a kitchen knife on its side, strange. It looks at me with fear in its eyes and then runs off screaming something about a monster. Looks like the princess didn't tell the other creatures here of my presence.

I make my way over to the storeroom and find lots of fruits and vegetables. I have my armor's computer scan the food to check for anything that I can't eat and, finding nothing wrong with the food, I grab an apple. I have my armor open up the mouth piece so I can take a bite. It was rather good tasting, better than what I normally eat.

After finishing off the apple, I hear a commotion coming from back in the kitchen. I leave the storeroom and find six guards, five unicorns armed with spears and one pegasus with a crossbow. I also see the unicorn I encountered a few minutes ago hiding behind the guards. I'm not concerned by the unicorns or their simple weapons so I walk passed them, ignoring their orders to stand down or to stop. I head out of the kitchen to go back to the throne room where I'll hopefully find the princess. The guards aren't happy about me not listening to them so they follow me out. I'm mildly amused when they throw their spears at me only for them to bounce off my shields like twigs. By this point, twelve other guards joined in. When they realized that I couldn’t be impaled by a spear or shot with crossbow bolts, they tried to stop me with their magic but all it did was slow me down a little, if that.

After a few minutes of walking with now about 20 guards trying to stop me, I find the princesses in a hallway. Both princesses look at me with surprise, then at the guards behind me. Princess Celestia instructs them to stand down and informs them that I am a guest in the kingdom, good to know. She walks... Trots? Yea, trots. She trots over to me and apologizes for the inconvenience caused by the guards and tells me that she will inform them of my existence later on and that the only reason she hadn't yet was that she didn't think I would be up this early and didn't see the need to. She then asks me if I normally wake up this early, to which I give a shrug.

*****
7:00

I finally meet the small horse creature that is supposed to teach me to read and write. He is light brown with a medium dark brown mane and has an hourglass tattoo; I'm starting to wonder what’s with the tattoo thing, and is also wearing a blue tie but no shirt.

“Welcome, Mr.... um, well, the princess told me that you can't speak. My name is Dr. Whooves. I will teach you to read and write. I don't know your name and I don't suppose you want me to call you Mr. Creature do you?”

I can't help but give a small chuckle at that, I shake my head no. This one has a sense of humor; I think I could get along with him.

“Princess Celestia informed me that you are here to help with the war; that would make you a warrior of sorts. Or maybe a tactician. You would need a name while here. Or we could just wait till you can write it down.

That sounds fine to me so I give him a nod.

“OK, today I will begin teaching you the basic pony alphabet. I will write it on the board and you will copy it.”

*****
10:00

We spent about three hours going over the alphabet and how to make words. It is actually simpler than English. I can't write a full sentence yet though. However, it is a start. Dr. Whooves said that with the speed of progress that I am making, I should be able to read and write in a week at the most. Using the armor's computer did make it easier. After the lesson, I head back to the kitchen for some more food seeing as all I had was an apple. On my way I encounter princess Luna going the same way as me. She asks me if I'm hungry too, I nod in confirmation. Once in the kitchen I see the same pony, as I now know they're called, that I encountered earlier. There are also a few other ponies around there cooking food. Luna instructs them to make food for me and her, but pauses for a second. She then asks me what I eat. I turn to her and, forgetting that I can't speak to her, try to say that I eat meat and fruit but all she hears is the same garble as last time. Luna realizes her blunder and asks me if I eat plants. Technically I do, but I prefer meat so I roll my head side to side hoping that she understands. Luckily, she seems to get it and asks me if I eat plants and meat. I nod my head to her. At that, she starts to go pale. She then asks me, with much nervousness in her voice, if I'd try to eat them. I let out a small chuckle at her, completely understandable, question. I shake my head no, which seems to calm her some. I wouldn't eat them. Well, maybe. No, bad train of thought. No eating the pitiable pastel ponies.

While waiting for the chefs to make some food for us, Luna shows me the dining room where we will be eating. The marble table is long enough for 20, maybe 30 people to sit at. Luna sits at the immediate right of the end seat and motions for me to sit across from her. Noting the fact that I weigh around 1000 pounds, I'm not certain that the chair can hold me. I move the marble chair out of the way and stand where the chair was. She insists that I sit however. I try gesturing that if I sit the chair will break. She doesn't seem to understand, and she is persistent that I sit. Not wanting to upset the princess, I sit down very gently. As soon as I let myself sit on the chair fully, it breaks out from underneath me. I'm not surprised and regain my balance before I fall down. Luna looks at me with shock, probably because I broke a marble chair just by sitting on it. I move the bits of broken chair out of the way and go back to standing as I was before.

It's not long before Princess Celestia enters the dining room. She looks at me standing and asks me to sit. Before I move, Luna informs her sister that it is not the best idea that I sit and she motions to the broken chair on the side of the room. Celestia understands and doesn’t press the issue. She then sits down on the end of the table by me and Luna. It's not long after that before the pony with our food shows up. Both princesses are eating a mix of fruits and vegetables but I am given baked chicken, a baked potato and an apple. I open up the mouth piece of my helmet and begin eating.

I notice the look on the both of the princesses' face as my helmet opens to reveal the lower portion of my mouth so I can eat. Luna asks me if it is all armor and if the real me is underneath. I nod to her, and begin eating along with the princesses.

*****
12:30

After lunch I am led by the two princesses to what looks like a war room, it has a map of what I assume is the world. I guess it’s time to learn about the war. I am informed about all that I really need to know over the next four hours. They are out classed in everything except one thing, me. I could go up against the entire griffin army single handed and win. But that's not how I plan to do this. If I go up against an inferior force that has no chance for survival against me without trying an alternative, than I am no better than the Covenant. I want to try to make peace first. If that does not work than the king can more than likely be handled like how we handled the prophets, assassination. With my new armor, that would not be a problem. It would spare lives that don't need to be lost in senseless combat. But if it does come down to full combat, then I will not hesitate.

After we are done in the war room, we head outside where there are a dozen, griffin shaped, straw target dummies set up. Celestia turns to me and requests that I show her what I can do to dispatch the targets. Knowing that this is important, I need to show her what I can do; but I don't want to over do it. I move in front of the first target dummy, about ten feet away. I activate my energy sword and begin.

17:00
[Celestia]

We all head outside where I had some targets set up for him to use so he can show me and my sister what he can do. When he begins, I am surprised to say the least. He moves in front of the first one and the same blade that he used last night shoots out of his arm. He is motionless for a second or two before he bolts forward as two streams of fire shoot out of his back. In less than a second, the dummy's head is no longer attached to its body, the straw of the neck is all singed. I then realize that he truly could have taken my head off last night and I could not have done anything to stop him before he did.

He then moves back about 20 feet from the next target and his sword disappears. Before I can ask him why, his right arm seems to change and in its place is some sort of silver rectangle. He points it at the next target and it makes a loud popping noise as what looks like short beams of light shoot out and hit the target square in the head. Its head now has four holes that are slowly releasing smoke as if it was burned.

The remaining targets are hit by similar weapons, one fired a lot of beams at once, another made the target and five others explode in a big inferno. I am quite satisfied that he is more than capable to help with this war. Once there are no more targets for him, we head back inside for dinner. We all eat about the same thing as for lunch. Then, seeing as it is still early, I tell him that he has free reign to do whatever he wants till sundown, within reason.

18:30
[John]

After dinner, I head outside and wander around for a few minutes. I see a statue that I can only describe as a genetic experiment gone wrong. I head back in the castle and wander the halls. Not having much to do, I go to the room I was provided and practice writing. When it gets late at night, I go to sleep. Thus marking the end of my first day in Equestria.

Comments

[The crossover Trooper]

Really looking forward to the rest of this story.

[Nanofield]

4582888 Thanks

[Shadow-Dancer]

I like how chief is potrayed

[enblzn]

I know this is really late. But I felt like I needed to write this anyways. The story ideas is really good andd has a lot of potential, but it feels really rushed and needs to go into detail. The interactions and reaction are what make the story so good and so far there hasn't really been much of it. Let us know what the characters think of each other and how they react to each other. Otherwise it goes too fast and doesn't turn out as good.

[DEAD_ACCOUNT_01]

Cant... Stop... Reading... Help me!

[Spartan III]

AMAZING

[Radioactive Dragon]

5758407 MY GAWD NOT EVEN MLG CANT STOP! IF MLG CANT THE NOBODY CAN!