OC, Oh Crap!

by SmokeShadow95

Equestria (Again? Yes, Again)

Cadance paced back and forth. She was waiting for the rest of them to get here. Celestia could do nothing to calm her nerves. Then they were there, in a flash of light. Cadance bounded forward as the light faded. She skidded to a stop as she saw the two figure before her. Tessla and Austin watched as she stopped, stood and stared at them.

“Hiyas,” Austin said.

Cadance screamed in terror and blasted away before anypony could stop her. Austin was gone and there was now a rather large dent in one of the walls. Cadance panted heavily as Twilight backed her away from them all a bit. She got Cadance up on her throne and did her best to calm her down.

The other ponies looked back to where Austin had impacted the wall. Each of them grimaced when he hit. The very loud, sharp crack he made when he hit told everybody that it hurt. A lot.

Fluttershy flew over to help him. She put her hooves under one arm and helped to lift him up from the floor. He was okay, but the black shirt Rarity had given him was shredded. He took the rest of it off and Rarity made it go away with some magic. Austin walked back to the rest of them with Fluttershy just over his shoulder.

“Oh, are you sure you're okay? That was a pretty hard hit?”

“Yes, Fluttershy. I'm fine. I'm pretty sure the shirt took more damage than I did.”

“Man, first Luna nearly hugs you to death, and now Cadance blasts you into a wall. You are not having a good day, are you?” Tessla couldn't help but poke fun at his best friend.

“Yeah, I know. Anypony else want a crack at me?”

Applejack' glanced over to her left. She quickly shoved her hoof into Rainbow Dash's mouth. She smiled as Rainbow Dash tried to get away, and get the taste of apples out of her mouth. Austin saw this and gave AJ a nod of appreciation. She nodded back and held Rainbow Dash down for a big longer.

The rest of them got a laugh out of that. Even Rarity. Celestia just watched. A blast like that would have put any normal pony in a three day coma. But this thing, Austin. He just got up and walked it off. Why? How?

“Okay. It's safe for everyone to come closer. Even Tessla and Austin.” Twilight gave the announcement and they all moved closer to Cadance. She had indeed calmed down and offered and apology to Austin.

“I accept your apology, Princess. But if I may ask: Why did you act so when you laid eyes on me?”

Earlier that day. . . . .

It started off as such a normal day. It was a weekend, so Cadance was able to get a little free time in her schedule. She also got a little leeway when it came to the rules. Instead of having a grand royal breakfast like one would expect of a princess she was helping herself to a nice bowl of oat cereal. Yes, she was getting it herself. It was a lax weekend, and many of the guards were given the morning off and not coming in until later that day.

Shining Armor was doing his duty as Captain of the Guard and doing a check of all posts. He didn't always support giving the guards the morning off, but he understood why. They had families too. He was lucky in that way. His family, his wife was the Princess. He lived in the castle full time.

Now, he was leaving one of the guard posts. Nothing to report, just like the rest. Just like usual. He liked his job as Guard Captain, but there were times he found his post in the Crystal Empire Palace well. . . .boring. Most days were like this. Checking posts. Changing guards, or switching posts were the most exciting things he did most of the time. Some days, he wished he could go back to playing RPG games with a group of friends. Luckily, this day was not going to be one of those days.

As Shining Armor patrolled the posts he stared up into the sky. Currently he had three Pegasus guards circling the Palace skies. Normally, there were at least twelve out at any given time. He literally had just a fourth of his normal force. Eh, he could work with that.

As Shining Armor watched the skies, he saw something. A big, bright, hot, frightening something. It was just a big ball of fire falling from the sky that looked to be on a crash course for the Palace. Shit! Shining cursed to himself and ran for the point closest to the falling object. He sent the three Pegasus guards to rally the others and prepare the Princess for any fallout if he couldn't stop this. They went without hesitation and he moved off in the opposite direction. He was headed for the giant ball of fire falling from the sky.

Shining Armor reached the tippy toppity top most tip of the highest point of the tallest tower that he could get to in time to save the Palace from the present threat. Admittedly, he had to crawl the last dozen or so feet, but he got there still. He dragged himself to the balcony hoof after hoof, and hoof after hoof he pulled himself up to the ledge. He heaved as he righted himself. He couldn't avoid looking down, and he almost hurled. He hated heights, or at least looking down from them. He yanked his head back and focused on his mission. Gotta save the Crystal Palace, and Cadance!

Shining Armor focused all his energy into the one spell he knew would work. The one spell that always seemed to work. It was pretty much the only one he used. His magic flowed into his spell and the magical barrier went up around the Palace. It was moving slow, though. He must have used to much energy just sprinting his way up here, and then slowing to a walk, and then a trudge, and then a crawl. Yeah, that might have done it, maybe. Anyway, Shining tried everything he could think of to get the barrier to move faster and faster, but it wasn't working. Then he heard something. It was in his mind, but all too familiar. Let me use my magic to help you, Shining Armor. Well, you don't say 'No' to a princess, now do you? That was a rhetorical question. Cadance used the power of love to help her husband, but still it was not enough. Something got through. Some thing.

The barrier was moving faster now. It almost covered the entire palace. One might question why it was not covering the entire Crystal Empire, and the answer is simple. Shining Armor could tell the trajectory of the falling object from the first moment he saw it. He knew it was heading for the Palace, so that is where he focused his spell. Now, back to the important stuff.

The barrier was moving faster now. It almost covered the entire palace. Only a small patch of openness remained open. By some twisted joke of fate it was the patch right in the path of the falling object, and it was moving faster than ever.

It crashed down right as the barrier went up. The edges of both met in a loud, flashy explosion. Shining Armor dived for the nearest cover as the object soared above him. The small impact with the barrier with the barrier sent it off course and directly into the Palace. Close enough anyways.

Cadance was just sitting down, eating her breakfast, when all of the sudden a Pegasus guard burst in through a conveniently open window. She was annoyed at the interruption, but still it was her royal duty to hear him out. She shut the window behind him as she listened to his report.

He explained that the Crystal Palace was under threat from a flaming object falling from the sky and that Shining Armor was taking care of it. Cadance listened intently, but she was really imagining the guard talking with a really high pitched voice and beating up some changeling. She got the most of it. Palace threat. Shining Armor was handling it. That was all she needed to know. She trusted her husband to handle the situation. Once the guard was done she bid him farewell. She was about to take another bite of cereal when she heard a crash that sounded thunderous in the empty space of the dining hall. She looked over to see the Pegasus guard with his face still planted in the window pane of the same window she had closed. She blushed ever so slightly as she peeled him off, opened the window, and pushed him through. Then she closed the window and returned to her breakfast. It happened about five minutes and thirty seven seconds after that, give or take a second.

Cadance was still chewing the last bite she took of her cereal. Shining Armor had been gone a while. She was still waiting for him to come back. Normally he was back by now. Eh. She shrugged it off and went in for another bite. As the spoon neared the bowl she noticed how bright the room was getting. She looked out the same window the guard nearly shattered earlier and was horrified. A bright, flaming object was falling and it was falling directly at her. She screamed as it made impact with the window. It was not what she was expecting.

It was alive. Whatever it was that fell, it was alive. She just stared at it. She didn't scream. She didn't run. She just stared. The thing was big, very big. Almost as big as she was, but not quite. And it was wrapped in the most mysterious of garments. A large coat of three different shades of green all splotched in what appeared to be random order. Strange, very strange. Cadance nearly screamed again as it started moving.

The thing had a rather small head compared to the large coat it was wearing. It tried to move its small head only to find it stuck to the glass. The thing peeled its cheek away with some effort and it was now looking inside the window. With some confusion it looked around until it found Cadance, shaking in her chair and clutching the back like it was brave Shining Armor there to protect her. The look of confusion was replaced by sheer delight as a gigantic grin grew upon the things face.

“Princess Cadance?!” The thing said in a muffled voice. “You are so amaziiiiiaaaaaahhhhhhh!”

The things sticking to the window was fading and it lost grip so to speak. Mid sentence it popped off the window like an old sticker and fell with a shout. Cadance was left alone with her bowl of cereal and her Shining Chair.

“I thought these things only happened to Twilight.”

Meanwhile, the thing survived its fall from the window. There was another part of the Palace with a flat roof and all that not to far below. It took a moment, but the thing picked itself up and dusted itself off. Remarkably, the coat was not at all damaged. It got up and looked around. It noted that he was indeed in the Crystal Empire and that this was not a very vivid hallucination. So, in short, it was happy. As it looked around, though, it couldn't help but noticed something was missing.

“Where is that conveniently located door that's always there for when people need it?”

That is when a pony he had not seen until just then chimed in. It was a Pegasus pony who looked to be wearing damaged guard armor. Strange, but helpful. The pony reached a hoof toward the sky and pointed to a door that was conveniently located just a few feet away. It was easily missed, but there. The thing gave thanks and marched off to find the Princess, leaving the injured guard to lay there in his agony.

The thing walked through the halls of Palace like it owned the place. He passed by several ponies and nodded its head. It even waved to a few. When it passed by another guard it mentioned the Pegasus outside and the guard ran off. The thing took a right down a corridor and found itself in the same room it was looking into from the window. He even saw his face print in the window glass. He also found Cadance there. She saw him just as he saw her. By then it was too late.

The thing laid eyes on her and ran up to her with surprising speed for something of its size. He reached her just as she jumped out her Shining Chair and was heading for the nearest escape way. She screamed and the next the she knew she was in its arms. She screamed some more, but eventually ran out of power. She went limp in the things arms and stayed like that for a while. That was also the point when Shining Armor burst into the room. Needless to say, it did not end well for the thing that fell from the sky in a ball of fire.

Back to the present. . . . .

Everypony and everything else listened as Cadance explained what happened. Many a pony had wide eyes and eyebrows in the manes. Even Celestia was finding it very hard to keep a straight and professional face. She was simply astonished at some of Cadance's behavior.

“Cadance, you and I will have to have a serious talk about the way you handled some of the things here today.”

“But it's Saturday, Auntie Celestia.” Cadance complained to no effect.

“With all do respect, that is a conversation that can wait for another time.” Twilight interjected herself in between the two royals. “Right now we need to focus on the thing Cadance spoke of. Cadance, where is your thing?”

“In the dungeon.” The voice came from none other than Shining Armor himself. He walked into the room via a side passage and stood next to his troubled wife. “Where else would it be? It assaulted my wife?”

“I highly doubt that.”

Shining Armor turned his gaze to the newest voice. It was the one voice he didn't recognize out of all the ponies there. When he saw what made it he moved to copy his wife. Surprisingly, Austin didn't move to avoid the blast, or hide behind somepony else. He stood there and waited for it. Shining Armor was all to happy to blast him too, but Twilight intervened just in time.

“WAIT! Shining Armor, don't blast him.”

“Twilight, why are you protecting that thing?”

“Cadance has her thing. This is kinda my thing.” Twilight's weak explanation did little to stop her brother. It was only confusing him more. “It is a really long story and one you are only going to hear if you power down.”

Cadance got down off her throne and walked up to her husband. She nuzzled her horn with his and he powered down. He was always powerless when it came to her. She then stepped forward and looked to Twilight and Austin.

“Let's hear him out.”

“Princess Cadance, you said the thing that 'attacked' you was wearing a big green coat, yes?” Cadance nodded. Austin continued. “Was it about this tall?” Austin held a hand up about four inches above his head. Cadance nodded again. “This big around, and with red cheeks?” Cadance nodded twice more, and put the pieces together.

“You know this thing?”

“I do, and he is not a thing. He is a friend of mine. His name is Ben, and he was not attacking you. He was giving you a hug.”

“I don't believe you,” Shining Armor said accusingly as his horn lit up again. One look from Cadance, however, and he powered down again

Austin took one step forward towards Cadance. “If you have any trust in me, or Twilight's or Luna's judgment then do one thing. Give Ben a message.”

Cadance gazed deeply into the eyes of Austin. His deep brown eyes would give her all the answers she needed. And they did. “What is the message?”

“Tell him 'Camoskimo'. He will understand. He will know it's me.”

“Very well. I will escort him up here if he does indeed know of you, Austin. You shall remain here.”

“Of course, Your Highness.”

Austin backed up into the group again and both Cadance and Shining Armor disappeared down the same corridor that Shining Armor came through the first time. They were gone for about fifteen minutes before they returned. At first, it just seemed like a large shadow was following them. Only Austin and Tessla knew what it really was. Before too much longer a large mass of green and flesh came walking out behind Cadance and Shining Armor.

Ben immediately recognized Austin and Tessla. He moved right up to them both and they shared the same greeting that Tessla and Austin did when they first met with one another. It was strange to see as Tessla and Austin are around the same size where as Ben is bigger than both of them.

“So. . .” The moment was broken up by Luna's voice cutting between them. “You all know each other then?”

“Yeah, we do.” Austin replied with a smile on his face. He was in a strange, and yet somewhat familiar world, but at least he was amongst friends.

Comments

[SmokeShadow95]

I am aware of what you pointed out, but our thoughts were that we look different from the Canterlot High humans and so Twilight wasn't sure what to think of us

[Kobitsu]

5507541 It used to be her element

[SmokeShadow95]

5507761 Just because she no longer has the jewelry to wear doesnt mean that she no longer has the element. She still represents honesty.

[Kobitsu]

5507914 Then why don't they refer to her as such? Because she and her friends aren't the elements anymore

[SmokeShadow95]

5507971 Yes they are. The Elements of Harmony are more than physical objects. Each of them still represents the Element they had. Just because the jewelry is gone does not mean they are no longer the Elements of Harmony