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Prologue: Journal Entry2,167 words
Chapter 1: The Royal Powers4,131 words

Chapter 1: The Royal Powers

The human lay asleep, or rather in an unconscious state, against the crumbling concrete walls. Vines creeped down the walls, protruding through the cracks. The room was almost an exact replica of where he had come from, except for the obvious signs of abandonment and aging. Doors still stood in their arches, but had been left open from the time when they were in order. The doorways were in each corner of the room, against the walls farthest away from the Stargate, which seemed to defy the aging effects of time.

Diamond plate metal, or what would have once been, made up the ramp leading up to the Stargate. Rust covered every inch of the ramp, climbing up the poles that held the guard rails in place and spreading through them as if it was a virus. It was obvious where people, as it would have been assumed, walked across the ramp, small grooves worn down across it. A small glow radiated from the ring, a few chevrons still locked in and glowing a dull sunset orange. It gave the room a source of light, in what would have been saturated by pure darkness. The Stargate had no defined source of power, but it was pulling it from something, or at least from somewhere. If they were still fueling it with power where Nathan had come, then he still might have a chance of returning home.

Labored breathing echoed throughout the room, Nathan still sleeping soundly against the concrete wall. His hands lay lip at his side, fingers twitching as he dream. They were lightly cut up from his entry into the world, as landing on numerous small rocks would do to any person. A bead of cold sweat formed upon his brow. Dust caked his face with dark spots, some lighter than others. His nose had bleed a small amount, a trickle flowing off of his upper lip and onto his coat. The once white lab coat that rested over his shoulders had become dirty; stained with small droplets of blood here and there, as well as being covered in large amounts of dust and filth.

A glass window fogged by dirt and grime over the years held a dull reflection of the room, the human laying motionless and the Stargate sitting in its locked position directly across from the window. The glass had sat vacant and unaltered for so long, that it even began to slowly drip downwards and the base of the windows had become thicker than the upper portions were, causing them to sit loosely in their frames. One of the glowing chevrons proceeded to deactivate, the orange glow ceasing to exist with a small clicking that echoed throughout the room. With a small bit of glare removed from the fogged glass, one could see on through to the other side where a control room had once been. Part of the room had caved in, rubble strewn around and a few chairs toppled onto their sides. Some papers lay on the ground blank and wrinkled, the moisture that had seeped through the cracks bleaching the words away. The control panel itself seemed to be in an orderly condition, apart from the thick layer of dust that lay over the scratched screens and various buttons. It could all be in possible working order, if there was a source of power.

Nathan let out a groan, shifting in place as he fought against the fatigue that plagued his mind and the aches that shot through his body. He was met with a slight pain and dryness as dust fell off of his eyelashes and into his eyes as he tried to open them. He recoiled back a bit, surprised that something had fallen into his eyes. The human wasn't to sure where he was, and he couldn't remember much from when he had been asleep either. The only memories that was... nothing. Everything in his mind was gone, lost in the depths of his own sub-conscious. After clearing his eyes of the debris, he looked down at his hands and for some odd reason expected them to be hooves. His eyes fell upon his normal hands, with all ten fingers accounted for. It struck him as being strange that he actually expected them to be a horses hooves, but something else was nagging at his mind with a stronger force.

He looked around the room, the dark creeping out of his vision as his eyes adjusted to the surrounding darkness. With another groan, Nathan placed his hands on the ground and rolled onto his knees to give him better leverage. His knee landed on a small pebble, pushing against his tendon and triggering him to pull his knee back, almost sending him off balance. Placing his foot down where he had knelt on the pebble, he forced his body up. His body just wanted to rest, the impact that he failed to remember had bruised him, and the sudden transfer through the Stargate sent his body for a spin. Equilibrium was still off, and he was barely able to force himself up and off of the ground. Nathan lifted a foot to try and take a step, but his broken equilibrium sent him off balance as he toppled to the ground, kicking up dust with a muffled thud.

Sprawled out on the ground, he lifted his head and gave the room around him a bit more scrutiny. It all looked familiar, even though he couldn't remember anything. The ring that took up a better part of the room felt like it had become a part of his life, and the room felt like it was his home in a sense. But it all felt off, like he was in a copy of it rather than in the original. Another chevron clicked off, the room glowing darker as the orange glow dimmed into nothing. He climbed back onto his hands and knees, afraid to stand up again.

“Where the buck am I...” he mumbled to himself.

...Buck?

The city of Canterlot gave a gentle glow in the night, the candles and lamps in ponies houses giving their light into the dark. The mountain side shimmered in the lights, the streams glimmering as it flowed over rocks and to to its end at a massive waterfall. Stars twinkled high in the cloudless sky, the constellations easily visible. It would have been a great night for astronomers. A full moon gently lit the countryside, and pressed shadows back into hiding. It would have been a great night, but there was a commotion throughout Canterlot.

It wasn't any normal issue however, there were far to many of Luna's soldiers flying throughout the skies. The Lunar Guards were flying about, gathering troops from both her own reserves and Celestia's. From the looks of it, one could easily assume that the Royal Sister's were arranging for a full out invasion. Some ponies opened the front doors of their homes and cautiously peeked their heads out, looking towards the skies. Most ponies hid back inside their homes and boarded up their doors from what they saw in the sky, but others stared in admiration and wonder at the feat. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of Guard ponies, some wearing the seal of Celestia, and others barely visible against the night sky in Luna's required uniforms. It was a sight for the ages, and it even dwarfed the legends of the soldier force called in during the era of Nightmare Moon.

Some of the ponies who had thought of themselves fit for an impending war took off in a gallop towards the main castle, hoping that they could fight for Equestria. But they ran to the castle grounds pointlessly, as there was no war coming. They merely fed off of the excitement of the troops coming and going, their immature minds thirsting for some sort of action. Hundreds upon hundreds of male and female ponies crowded the golden front gates as the uncountable amount of soldiers filled the barracks and the front lawns. It was utter chaos at the castle, and the commotion awoke a Princess out of her once peaceful slumber.

Celestia brought her hooves up to her eyes and rubbed away the crusting mucus. She craned her neck to the left and right, a small pop and crackle radiating from her vertebrae. Huffing and rolling her eyes back, she gave a glance over to her tiara, which became engulfed in an aura that glowed just as the sun did. It filled the room with a dim golden light, fading as Celestia gently placed the tiara upon her head. Still sitting in bed, she sent a quick bolts of magic to set fire to the wicks of candles to give the room a decent amount of light. She stepped out of bed, placing her hooves on the ground and taking a large breath in. Exhaling as a sigh, Celestia prepared herself for what may lie in the commotion from the courtyard. It's most likely just another group of colts that had a few too many ciders, she thought to herself with confidence. But the confidence she instilled in her opinion would only place more shock upon her at the sight of what was truly happening.

She casually walked across her room over to the balcony and looked down upon the crowd massing outside of the castle gates along with the troops gathering inside of the courtyard. Troops walked about with mission in mind, every single one of them walking with purpose in their step. The once beautiful flower beds were now a flattened mess, trampled carelessly by the soldiers. Celestia's lower jaw hung open in awe at what was displayed before her. An anger began to build up inside of her, but she was able to control it where other ponies would have gone off on the ones in the courtyard and whoever started this mess in the first place.

Luna, Celestia thought to herself as she looked down upon them and noticed a majority of the ponies were Lunar Guards.

Luna looked down upon the massing of her guards and soldiers, pleased with the outcome. She had asked for the most loyal guards and soldiers for a possible war situation, and the number of ponies who were loyal until their deaths were far greater than she had originally thought. Turning back to the pony who stood behind her ready to perform any said command, Luna gave Shining Armor a small nod and a smile to signal him that his work here was done. He gave a bow to Luna before heading on his way out of her chambers, and made haste to get back to organizing the troops. She had always been surprised at what a great colt he was, and the amount of things that he was able to do at any given time was invariably amazing. It was almost as if he was always doing one thing or another to keep Canterlot and all of Equestria safe, and frankly, it amazed Luna that he wasn't more tired than he appeared to be.

Luna stood in her room, the queen sized bed made neatly on the other side of the room, a nightstand on each side of it. On top of the nightstands rested a single candle, as well a reference book for the last thousand years of Equestrian history to help Luna learn about what had happened when she had been exiled to the moon. She hadn't been reading it as much as she should have been, but she had began to skim through the pages. It didn't seem like much had happened, but the world around her had changed so drastically. It never made sense how something that seemed like such a drastic change in the present was nothing but a spec on the historical radar.

Now that Shining Armor left her alone, Luna could get back to trying to pinpoint the strange flux of energy that she had felt earlier that night. There was also the presence of a creature, somewhere, that she sensed. She couldn't tell what it was that could have possibly given off this strange amount of energy, but there had been a buildup in the magical energy flowing through Equestria in the past weeks. It had begun to dissipate at one point, but it had suddenly surged to a level that she had never felt before. With that surge she felt a new presence in the world, and what troubled her most about it was that she had no idea who – or what – it was.

Luna huffed with mild defeat, the wonder of this thing lingering in her thoughts. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, trying to give herself some consolation that it would be alright. After all, she had practically awoken the entirety of the Royal Guard, along with some civilians. Within her own mind, Luna told herself that there was nothing to worry about, but she didn't believe what she was telling herself.

She opened her eyes while letting out a sigh, and was surprised at what had appeared in front of her. Glaring at Luna, Celestia stood with an eyebrow raised and head slightly tilted down, visually asking her what it was that she had done. Luna jumped back a bit, startled still somewhat frightened of her sister. She thought of lying to her, and just saying that it had all been a mistake somewhere in the command line. It could have worked, had less of the soldiers and guards in the courtyard been specifically part of her Lunar Guard. Defeated yet again, Luna was about to make up an excuse to try and save her own flank in this situation, even though it may place some other pony in trouble. Before she could make anything up and dig herself deeper, Celestia spoke.

“Sister, what is the meaning if this?” Celestia asked with an annoyed tone. “I could have understood if this was a training exercise, but this is the middle of the night.”

“Well,” Luna said hesitantly, “it could be –”

“No, no it can't.” Celestia spoke, cutting Luna off. “The next training scheduled is next week. And please, Luna, remember that there is no reason to fear me. Now, what is the reason for you gathering the entire Guard?”

Luna puffed out her chest and spoke loud enough to where Celestia would get the point, but to where other ponies wouldn't be able to overhear their conversation. “I have felt a powerful force of energy this night, and have felt it pulsing through the magic that flows in Equestria. But I do not know anything about this, and even stranger, I feel a presence of negative energy. It's almost as if there is a creature who absorbs magic rather than expelling it as we do.”

Celestia looked at her sister and gave a small nod. “Yes, sister, there is a creature such as you have explained. But I can assure you, that this one is harmless. Others of his kind, however, may not be.”

“You mean to tell me that there is a creature in Equestria that I do not know of?!” Luna shouted in the Royal Canterlot Voice. “Why hast thou not told me of this!”

“Luna,” Celestia replied coyly, “Have you even read that book of Equestrian history that I had given you? There was a purpose to that.”

Luna looked away from Celestia with a sheepish smile, but now she was far more curious about this creature. “But how can it not possibly thrive on magic...” She thought aloud, but became on something Celestia had said before. “How could you possibly know if this creature is safe?”

“Now you're calling it a 'he'? Everything on our world has some sort of magic.” Luna said matter-of-factly. “What is it?”

“What you call an 'it' is a human, and it is a he.”

Nathan stayed on the floor, balanced on his hands and knees. He didn't want to have to take the chance of falling to the ground harder than he already had, and if he could avoid it, he would. Giving a glance at the bulkheads that stood open, he mentally prepared a plan of attack for escaping the facility he was in. The memories of his past and his short term memory were blank, and he had no recollection of how he got where he was or how he had gotten here. It didn't matter what he knew, but his gut told him that he needed to get out of this place. And that's exactly what he did, he put the feeling in his gut to action.

He slowly crawled over to the concrete wall, maneuvering around fallen slabs of concrete and rocks as the equilibrium inside of his eardrums partially balanced out. Placing his hand on the cold concrete, he slowly eased himself up from the confines of the dusty and rubble covered ground. Leaning against the wall, he braced himself so that it would be fairly difficult for him to loose balance. He slowly extended his right leg to stretch it and relieve the feeling of restlessness in it. Doing the same with his left leg and accidentally stretching it father than he should have, he quickly pulled it back as he felt his tendons pull past their limits. He took one of his hands off of the wall and gently massaged his leg to rid of some of the soreness in his leg. Nathan was becoming more confident in himself, even though he had just hurt himself by stretching. Maybe even a bit too confident.

Slowly taking both of his hands off of the wall, he balanced on both feet and a small grin cracked upon his lips. When he went to take a step, he put all of his weight on the left leg, forgetting that it was the leg he had just injured. The weight on his knee and the leg shot a bolt of pain through his body, forcing him to topple to the ground. Even with the small defeat of his injured leg, he dragged himself over to the wall. A bit of pain shot though his leg again as he put some weight on it to stand, but he went on determined and stood again. This time, he remembered to keep the weight off of his left leg as much as he could, and thought to use the walls as a support rather than trying to trudge along and injure himself further. He took a step, and then another, a limp in his step as he avoided pressure on his left leg. Nathan was walking again, even if it was with a limp and using the support of the walls. He began on his journey through the facility, the leather covered journal that held who he was left in the gate room, resting near a pile of rubble.

He began to hobble out of the gate room, making his way through the opened bulkhead. Just as he passed around the corner and the Stargate was out of sight, a flash of light emitted from the Gate Room. He stopped dead in his tracks, slowly turning his head and looking over his shoulder and expecting something to come flying out at him. Nothing ever came out, and the flash didn't occur again, so Nathan went back on his way in an attempt to escape. He thought he would be home free soon enough, but a static sound became audible behind him, and Nathan became curious to what was happening in the Gate Room. Turning around and heading back, he sidled against the wall and made his way to the edge of the opened bulk head. The static sound had become louder, and it sounded like bolts of electricity were touching down in the other room. It almost reminded him of lightning, but without the thunder. Nathan was about to stick his head out of the door, but a loud crack echoed through the hallways as a bolt of electricity came into contact with a piece of rebar sticking out the concrete wall just across from him.

Partially deafened, he tried to clear his ears, but that was to no avail. The curiosity plaguing his mind got the best of him, and he stuck his head around the corner even though that would risk getting shocked by lighting, or whatever it was. His head passed the event horizon of safety, from there there was no going back. In the center of the room was a small ball of light, which was gradually growing and illuminating the room as it got brighter. It just kept growing, and it seemed like there was a shadow inside of the ball of light... make that two shadows. The light was becoming increasingly brighter, and was starting to get to the point where he had to squint to see anything and keep his vision safe. With a thunderous cracking and a bright flash of light, he was sent flying back against the concrete wall, nearly knocking him unconscious.

A light clicking echoed into his ears, and it faintly reminded him of what a pony would sound like walking on stone. It didn't make much sense for there to be any ponies here, seeing as how there was nothing in the room before. But anything could happen, he didn't have the faintest idea on where he was. Thinking that it couldn't be any worse than what he had already gone through, he gathered his thoughts and gathered motivation to get up. Maybe they know where I am... He thought to himself. The motivation implanted into his mind, he slowly pushed himself up off the floor, a migraine building in his head. Nathan stood for a second, making sure that he would be able to keep his balance, and luckily he did.

He rubbed his forehead with one of his hands and hobbled out of the hallway and back into the Gate Room, not even thinking about the possibility of what lay beyond being hostile. Nathan stopped just as he entered the room, his hand falling to his side in disbelief. He just stood there and stared at the creatures in front of him. They seemed to be a pony, but they had a horn and wings. One if them was the purest white, with a sun tattooed on its rear for some reason. Its hair flowed as if there was a wind blowing it around, the strange multicolored hair flowing from side to side. The other was just the opposite. Its coat was a deep midnight blue, a moon on its rear end as well. Its mane flowed just like that of the other too, but it was colored like that of the midnight sky. It was like a pegasus and a unicorn combined, but that wasn't a normal sight. Hell, they were all just myth. Wait... how did I know that? He asked himself. But I don't remember anything still... He decided to try the one thing that seemed fitting for any pony that a person could possibly encounter.

Nathan crouched down on his right knee, and began to make clicking noises and signaling to them to come to him. He even had the audacity to call them horsies, and he assumed that they would come to him. They didn't, but one certainly seemed to be getting agitated at what he was doing. It looked at him, and preyed deep into his mind and soul. He just stared back as if nothing was happening. Suddenly, the black one reared back and seemed like it attempted to speak, or rather yell, at him. But all he could understand was the thundering neighing of the horse, or whatever it was. He just looked on at it, when the white one raised a hoof to the other. Its horn began to glow like a chest of gold in a movie. The horse seemed to strain as it grew slightly in luminosity, a small ball forming at the tip of it's horn. It stayed small, but seemed to get a bit brighter with every second as it channeled what looked like magic into it. With a small pop, the orb of light was sent flying at Nathan, who dove for cover thinking he was being attacked. He felt the orb contact his body, but he felt something flow through him rather than tearing his body apart. He looked up to the ponies, with a look of confusion.

“This is the human?” Luna asked. “Why are they so... hideous?”

“Sister, he can understand you now,” Celestia replied with a coy smile.

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Arby

Arby #1 · Jul 23rd, 2012 · · ·

... well okay. You still want the image or is this totally fine? o_o

P0nies

P0nies #2 · Jul 23rd, 2012 · · ·

957465 Well, this works. but I never expected it to get approved so soon. I would like the image, this was just a temp. If you don't want to, you don't have to.

Arby