New Friendships (My First Fanfic)

by Blazer

3

I approached the castle, panting slightly.

Following the group had been a challenge, as they had passed through numerous checkpoints, which I was forced to either sneak around, or even pass through. Luckily, the guards didn’t appear to have any suspicion towards me. They probably didn’t receive the “mystery pony” memo yet.

As the group left for the main gate, I veered left, heading up towards the mountain upon which the castle sat. It was a steep climb, and it took a couple of hours to ascend, but I was able to get about 50 or 60 feet above the ramparts.

While I walked the entire way, I had imagined myself jumping onto the rooftop via the mountain above it. I had seen it when my younger brother played that Assassin’s Creed game. Now that I had what the jump really would be right in front of me, I was beginning to have second thoughts.

Instead of the five or six-foot jump I had imagined, it was at least a dozen feet. I peered down the slanted slope, which actually provided a rather suitable surface for building up speed, but it still didn’t seem like enough room to jump that distance.

I backed off from the edge a little.

“Okay, Keith, you’re biting off a little more than you can chew here…” I said, trying to convince myself that this wasn’t necessary.

“Remember that curiosity killed the cat… No need to get too involved in what’s going on here. I’ll just walk—”

I slipped on a small patch of shale, sending me galloping down the slope, screaming all the while.

“AWAAAAY!!”

I ran with a heavy hooffall, nearly tripping up as I approached the edge, crying the entire way.

“Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod!!! Mo—”

My front hooves planted firmly into the rock. Instinctively, I pushed off of all four legs, sending me flying out into space.

“mmyyy—!”

My front hooves frantically searched for reprieve as I left the comfort of solid ground. I started falling, my upward momentum lost.

“Heeelp!! Heee—”

I was cut off when my face collided with stone. Blinking the stars from my eyes, I slowly sat up. I had just made it over the rampart, and the walkway I was sitting on led to a tower with a large wooden door. Dusting myself off, I stood up.

“Whew. Doesn’t get any closer than that.” I glanced around the ramparts cautiously.

“Man, the guards must be deaf or something. Lucky for me, I guess.” I shrugged, and headed for the tower door.

I entered, following the steps down to the upper floors of the castle. Closing the oaken door gently behind me, I continued down the bright halls. Surprisingly, I found no guards. There wasn’t even a patrol to be found.

“The must all be at the Princess’s emergency announcement.” I said to myself.

Turning the corner, I ran into an ornately carved doorframe, which led into a small balcony with a half-wall for a rail. The balcony was positioned under the shadow of the roof’s rafters. Various banners hung suspended on ropes, displaying colorful coats-of-arms and symbols of various counties or territories.

I peeked over the edge, squinting to see the gathering below.
~~~

Twilight looked around expectantly, searching for any other possible arrivals. For some reason, it just happened to be her and the girls; not even the guards were around.

Pinkie Pie bounced over to them. “Hey, girls! What’s going on? Somepony just banged on my door and told me to get to the castle ASAP!” She explained, somehow not fazed over the sleep she was losing, if any at all.

“The Princess said something about an emergency meeting, so she gathered everyone to the castle.” Fluttershy explained, yawning sleepily afterwards. “I hope nopony’s hurt.”

Rainbow Dash grinned confidently. “I bet it’s nothing. Probably just some goods got stolen from somepony, and the Princess wants us to go nab the thief.”

Twilight shook her head. “It’s gotta be something more urgent than that, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight nodded towards the Pegasus guards. “She wouldn’t even spare a Royal Guard for something like that, but she’s assembled more than half of her guards here.”

Rarity blinked sleepily, her eyelids half-closed. “Well, it’d better be quick. I’m losing my precious beauty sleep by the second!”

The Princess’s voice silenced them all. “You’ll find out soon enough, girls.” She landed daintily on her front hooves, a tired smile on her face. The girls bowed slightly. Twilight walked forward, a more energetic smile decorating her face. “I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again so soon, Princess.”

Rainbow Dash huffed impatiently. “What’s the emergency, anyways. We were searching for the—”

Twilight shushed her, not wanting to reveal their mystery pony just yet. “We saw that light you described to us yesterday, so we went to investigate it. Lucky that we had Spike with us that we received your message to return to the castle for the announcement.” She explained.

The Princess raised an eyebrow. “I’m impressed with your vigilant attitude, Twilight. You’ve become more observant than I have.”

It was Applejack’s turn to become impatient. “Enough with the intros, remember why we’re here.” She reminded the two.

“I’m sorry, Applejack. I’ll get back on track.” The Princess apologized. Her face grew serious, the tired smile disappearing from her face. “We’ve had some strange indications that there could be more trouble from that Dragon you moved down from the mountain. This time, I don’t think that a harsh talk from Fluttershy could even make him lift a finger for us.” She turned to the Royal Guards. “Lieutenant, bring them forward.”

Two injured guards were led forwards. Their bodies were covered in either bandages or severe burns, neither of them looking very happy. They also limped badly, their walk hindered by numerous splints. Fluttershy recoiled in horror.

“Oh my!! That’s horrible!” She exclaimed.

“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.” The Princess continued. “The town of Apple-Palooza and the native Buffalo tribe are now threatened by the dragon’s new residence. The Chief of the local tribe and Sheriff Silverstar have yet to make an attempt to do something about the dragon, but Braeburn took the initiative and informed me of his situation.”

Applejack grinned. “Good ol’ Cuz.”

Twilight stepped forward. “So we’re serving as the support?”

The Princess nodded. “My Royal Guards were no match for the dragon, but I’m sure that the keepers of the Elements of Harmony should have little difficulty in tackling this situation.”

Rainbow Dash nodded enthusiastically. “You bet!”
Applejack smiled a little. “I haven’t been there in ages! Can’t wait to say hi to Bloomberg again!”

Rarity scowled. “I still haven’t forgiven you for stealing the sleeper car for the entire trip!”

~~~

As the conversation slowly escalated into an argument, I suddenly felt very tired. So tired, that I began losing my balance, my head swimming in a sudden flood of vertigo. Their voices became muffled, my vision growing blurry almost simultaneously.

The balcony started spinning, slow at first, but faster as time went on. Already disoriented, it wasn’t long before I lost my balance, tumbling over the rail, head-over-hooves. The last thing I remember was someone screaming, “Look out,” a thud, then everything fading to black.

~~~

I awoke with a start, the sun streaming through my blinds. I shielded my eyes, squinting in the bright rays. Morning already? What the hell..? I slowly sat up, rubbing my eyes profusely. I looked down, distracted by thought.

As I looked down, I noticed my ripped Calculus homework. I sighed, holding up the pieces. “Aw, crap… Millsback’s not gonna be happy about this…”

Bryan suddenly burst into the room. “Keith!! What the hell!! We’re going to be late if you don’t get your sorry ass into some clothes!!” I searched frantically for my cell phone. “W-what?? What time is it?” I asked.

“It’s 8AM, and our classes start at 8:20. What more must I say?!?” He huffed.

I started getting up, but as I got to my feet, I immediately sat back down. The vertigo was still messing with me as well as my equilibrium. A dangerous hindrance that wasn’t worth trying to ignore.

“I don’t think I’m going to school today… I can’t really stand easily.” I said weakly.

Bryan squinted suspiciously. “Hey, you okay? I noticed you fell asleep pretty quickly last night.”

“Well, let’s just say I don’t feel 100% today.” I commented, falling flat on my pillow.

Bryan shrugged. “Suit yourself. At least call ahead and tell them you made me late.”

“Mmmph.” Was all that I could muster.

The vertigo continued throughout the morning and well into the afternoon. I had already emailed all of my teachers about my absence, and was waiting for responses to trickle in.

My mom had already called in, asking about why I had to stay home. However, I was too distracted by my vertigo to return her call, later joined by a minor migraine. In addition, I was still confounded over what had occurred in my “dreams.”

It was apparent that I had probably died, theoretically, as nobody would survive a fall from that height, despite there being some possibility of an exception, since it really wasn’t real.

The tangibility still perturbed me, which set me back at square one. “Why am I even worrying about all this?” I asked myself.

I also began to think about how I get to Equestria. Was it simply through sleep? Or did it only happen when some higher being chose me to go there? Was “destiny” or “fate” a real factor in this??

I thought it’d be a good idea to find out. After a quick glass of milk, I lay down, allowing myself to be overcome by the weariness of the early morning. It only took a couple of minutes before I had fallen asleep.

~~~

“Look out!!” Rarity screamed.

An orange blur whistled down from above, crashing into the clean marble floor, which shattered on impact. A huge amount of dust was sent up by the resulting crash, obscuring the result of the grisly fall.

Several guards landed around the seemingly-unfortunate eavesdropper, squinting hard to see through the huge cloud. Rainbow Dash was the first of the girls to approach the site. “W-what was that?!?” she coughed.

Princess Celestia looked very worried. “It looked like a pony, unless my eyes deceived me..”

Fluttershy’s imagination began to drift, and she fainted from the imagery. As Rarity followed suit, Applejack shook her head. “That couldn’t have been a pony! Who would be crazy enough to jump that!?”

Twilight noticed the dust had begun to settle. “Looks like we’ll find out.” She said grimly.

Everypony’s jaws were set with apprehension, except those that were unconscious. A creamy-orange body was soon visible, with a wild silver mane that sprouted from the head and rump. A male pony lay on top of the shattered marble. His chest rose up and down with regular breathing. He looked rather comfortable despite the jagged marble pieces that he lay on.

Spike’s jaw dropped. Rainbow Dash was suddenly very excited. “T-that’s him!! That’s our mystery pony!!” She cried.

Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Mystery pony??”

Twilight grinned sheepishly. “We’ll have to explain it to you another time.”

Applejack peered into the hole. “Whoa… so THAT’s what he looks like.”

Fluttershy peeked in. “Aww, he looks so cute when he’s sleeping.”

Everyone peered over at her, confused looks on their faces.

Fluttershy noticed the glares, and shuffled her hooves.

“Uh, right. Sorry…”