Episode 2: The Technicolor Kingdom PART 1: Awakening…

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon.”

The child begged for her to stay, ‘Please don’t go’

But for some reason she left anyway. As soon as the door closed, he knew he was in trouble. He stayed behind the rocking chair, trying to hide.

The man still sat in the recliner, but now he was staring directly at the child. He beckoned for him to come over.

The child didn’t want to, but he knew that there was nowhere he could be safe.

-----

Garion rolled around in his bed. The sheets blanketed half of his face, leaving his eyes open. He silently watched the moonlight that flooded the area in front of the enormous, ornate window. After a while, he glanced at the forest of pillars around him, before he flipped over to try again.

Forcing his eyelids closed he fought to drift into a slumber, but something wasn’t letting him. His mind had proved to be the most active part of him, and now it was powered up to the max; he was just too excited and nervous to sleep right now.

He decided to analyze the room he was lying in; an attempt to make him drowsy enough that he might slip away:

The room was large and rectangular, about thirty feet wide and twenty feet long. Four pillars stood in the center, dividing the room into nine equal quadrants. The ceiling was about fifteen feet above the ground, and the floor was made out of marble. Aside from the large balcony, there were no other windows in the room, and the door was set in the midpoint of the wall opposite to the balcony. The bed sat in the left side of the room with an ornate table and dresser.  Several other groups of the same furniture were set around the room, since it was meant to hold more than just one person. In the center of the room was a round table with a few chairs, a bookshelf, and an unlit fireplace.

Garion groaned and got out of bed. This obviously wasn’t helping and chances were that he wasn’t going to be sleeping now anyway. Without a clock in the room, he removed the phone from his pocket to locate the time, which somehow seemed aligned with the seconds of this world, although he didn’t know why. He also couldn’t figure out why the phone automatically charged without the use of a power port.

As soon as he pressed the button-of-power at the end of the device, a sunset photograph appeared on the screen, showing the time that claimed to be 2:30am. The photograph itself was not a cartoon, which confused Garion because at this time he would have assumed that anything in this world including him would have been cartoon, and yet this image hung frozen in time, continuing to display the in-line depths of his own world.

Garion walked around the room and tried to contemplate exactly what was bothering him right now:

He was a human, in an entirely different universe. For the two days that he had been there, everybody including him had been taking the situation casually.

That wasn’t right. This was no situation to be delicate about. But still, here he was taking a vacation at the capitol of Equestria, for what reason he didn’t know. One moment, he was on a train thinking he was going to get help from a princess, and the next he found that nothing could be done or even said from her before he had to go to his quarters.

While he was contemplating the full meaning of his situation, there were several details that he needed to consider. One was that he would no longer be able to eat some of the foods he used to eat, like brand label chips, or familiar restaurants that he used to love going to. Second, was that everything that he used to involve himself with, like internet, television, and other media ports were now completely gone, leaving him only with his phone that functioned oddly.

Garion paced anxiously around the room, trying to clear his mind to no avail.

The most important and undeniable point that he tried to ignore, was that he was ultimately alone, as there were no humans in this world except for him and Aaron.

The sad human walked to the balcony in front of him and melted in the ghostly silence of the night. Not a single wisp of wind passed by, and the only sound that he could hear was his own breaths. He breathed so quietly that he could actually feel the essence of something spectacular coursing through the very fabric of the castle, the air, and the world all around him. This world was magical, and he being a human was the contradiction to it. He shouldn’t be here, and yet he was. This shouldn’t be happening, but it couldn’t be denied.

This world could have been anything, and yet it was Equestria, and nothing else.

A tear fell from his eyes, as he whispered quietly, “Everyone that I’ve ever met, I’m never going to see again.” That was the big picture that he had tried to hide. He could try to act like it didn’t matter, but it would still come to hurt him in the end. Who was he now? Who would he marry one day? He was alone, and isolated.

Garion stared silently at the mountain beyond Canterlot, about ready to break up, when he heard a small clack sound behind him.

He spun around, unprepared for the disturbance. The noise had sounded like a footstep in the hallway. He suspected somebody was either spying on him, or just standing outside his door for no apparent reason.

Garion took his chances and approached the hallway, which was pitch black in contrast to the ghostly silver walls of the suite, if that was even possible.

When Garion stepped into the corridor, he looked glanced left and right. Both directions were desolate and dark, without any lights around. Hauntingly ominous, there were countless doors and intersections, and both seemed to end a hundred feet away, but the darkness swallowed any signs of the end. The ceiling was square, but occasionally arched at the intersections. What seemed odd to him was that the hallway was unlit, as he would have expected the castle to have torches around. Instead, the darkness gave the familiar resonance of dreary silence that he felt in his own home at night.

Garion walked back in his room, unsure of what it was that he heard, when it sounded again.

He ran into the hallway, knowing for sure that something was up. He instinctively walked down the right-hand path, feeling a little uneasy about the idea of someone sneaking around him in the dark. He knew there were guards that patrolled the castle, but he couldn’t see any. He thought about maybe checking the ponies next door, to see if they happened to be part of it, but that would be rude.

But then he saw movement within the corner of his eye. He glanced in that direction just in time to see a tall, thin figure disappear behind a corner. By instinct, he followed it, eagerly wanting an answer.

Garion cautiously approached and peeked around the corner. A hallway extended about twenty feet away, where far away he saw the creature rush through a door. He hastily followed after, as if in a dream. He did not care about what he was doing, or what may come of it, but he didn’t want to miss out on what was going on. Whatever this thing was, it seemed nostalgically familiar.

The doorway led to three flights of steps that made a U-shape around a veranda three stories below. The stairwell extended upward, after which he ended up back in another maze of pathways and hallways.

At this time he didn’t know where to go, until he heard an aspiration echo behind him, within the same floor. This made him have to take several manual routes before he could get to where he thought he needed to be; passing underneath different assorted architectural arches and room.

His scrambling eventually led him to an alcove where a door was hanging wide open. Garion took deep breaths from all the running. He then took note at the fact that he was lost and didn’t know exactly why he ran all the way here, but he moved forward anyway. It seemed that this was the way to go.

Garion walked guardedly onto the terrace that he was led to. The giant wall he was standing on circled around the back entrance to the castle and took hold of the battlements. He looked around, but saw no sign of the person he was pursuing. Garion frankly didn’t know what he would have gained from chasing them in the first place.

The sides of the walls were crenulated, which means indented, like what typical medieval walls would have at their top edges.

Once he approached the forefront, he could see the majesty of the castle in its whole. Indeed, it was nearly completely dark and silent. Behind him, the road to Canterlot city trailed down over a few hills, starting from the gate beneath him.

He felt himself shaking again from the epiphanies he was having, so he slouched over the rim of one of the indentations, facing the capitol city. The city sung with blazing light in contrast to the stark darkness of the castle. He began to feel claustrophobic.

‘Why am I here?’ he thought, attacking the same question again, ‘God, is there something you’re trying to tell me?’

“Hey, what are you doing out here?” uttered a voice, and Garion turned to see a guard standing behind him. He was notably more… Orange than the other guards he knew. He didn’t know why, but all the Canterlot guards for whatever reason seemed to have been limited to only shades of blacks and whites. This was probably the first colored pony he had come across.

He also had a particularly smoother voice than the other soldiers, who were also, all unanimously gruff-voiced. The guard carried a lance, as was expected, and Garion was still amazed at how they were able to do so. The pony approached, and asked, “Are you ok, sir?”

“I think so, or at least… As far as I know,” responded Garion, staring blankly at the ground.

“Well, in that case, I’ll ask you again. What are you doing up here?” said the guard, standing upright.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I… wandered around and sort of ended up here,” Garion elaborated, leaving out his pursuit, so that there would be less chance of the guard thinking he was crazy.

“Oh, well do you need any help getting back?” asked the soldier.

“Nah, I might just consider taking a walk around the city for a while before I come back. Can I ask you a question, sir?”

“Affirmative,” acknowledged the guard.

“How is life like here? I mean, for you everything may be normal, but for me this world is so alien and out of place to me. How is a lifetime here like?”

The guard tapped his hoof at the ground, thinking to himself before he blew through his lips and answered duteously, “Well, it’s full of surprises. Some of them are good, some of them are bad, but they always turn out right in the end, eventually. I don’t understand everything that happens, but there is usually a reason for them. You just sort of learn to… appreciate the small and big in life, whether or not they be good things or bad things. But I wouldn’t know about an average life, I’m just a guard.”

Garion took that answer and chewed on it for a while, before finally speaking. “Alright then. Can you tell me where the nearest exit is?” he asked.

The guard motioned over to a small gate house cubicle ten feet away. “It should be unlocked from up here, so if you just follow the stairwell, you should be able to get to ground,” he directed. But as Garion began to venture in that direction, the guard said, “Ooh wait… that’s right. I forgot; I’m actually not supposed to let you leave right now.”

Surprised, Garion countered, “Whoa. Are you getting hostile?”

The soldier just leaned against the wall and sighed, “Nah, it’s just that we don’t want you wandering around if you don’t know the place yet. You’ve only been here for a couple days, so the princess just wants you to hang around until we can begin to grasp what needs to be done.”

Garion, feeling increasingly drowsy, replied sarcastically, “Oh so what are you going to do if I leave?”

“You’re not going to leave,” the guard put simply.

“Oh REALLY? Gosh, you’ve really got some attitude,” Garion articulated, “I like that. So what’s your name anyway?”

“My name is Flash… Flash Sentry,” he answered kindly.

“Flash? That’s a strange name,” commented Garion.

“Well, so is yours,” Flash retorted.

“Hey, I was named after a fantasy book character!” claimed Garion.

“So?” challenged Flash.

“What? I bet you wish you were named after a story book character.”

“Not really.”

“Fine, mister oh-I’m-so-tough-and-strong-and-don’t-need-anything-else. So can I just call you Flashlight?” Garion asked.

“I’d rather you not.”

“Flashdance?”

“No.”

“Ah, but it’s fun to say,” Garion persisted.

Flash Sentry removed his helmet, revealing a blue mane beneath, and said, “Flash or Flash Sentry is cool for now.”

“How about, the Flash?”

“Lame.”

“Classy Flashy?”

“No.”

“Alright, FINE. So who named you anyway?” asked Garion, still slightly pursuing the subject.

Flash Sentry gave Garion a straight look and replied, “My mother.”

“Why? Why Flash Sen-”

“I DON’T KNOW! Why are you so persistent on this?” Flash finally interjected.

Garion cringed a little at the outburst. “I was just curious. It seemed that everyone else had a reason for their name, almost as if they had to know who they were going to be, before they were named.”

“Maybe, but I don’t know,” Flash Sentry said with less enthusiasm, looking away.

After standing still for what seemed like three more minutes, Garion eventually began to feel like he was alone again, and brought himself to say, “I’m sorry if I’m a little irritating sometimes. I have Attention Deficit Disorder.”

Flash looked at him, and with a smile, he iterated, “I’m sorry for yelling. You’re not annoying at all, but holding this stupid, heavy thing is.” Flash said, putting down his lance against the wall.

“How do you guys hold those things?” Garion asked.

“Didn’t you see me lugging it on my shoulder for the last ten minutes?” Flash remarked.

“Yeah, but I just didn’t know how.”

“We just… hold them, like this,” Flash Sentry demonstrated, raising the weapon high with his hoof cuffed around the handle.

“But how do you use that in battle? How do you even run like that?”

Flash stared inward for thirty seconds. “We just..............................hold them?” the guard answered awkwardly.

“How do you fight with them?” persisted Garion. So far he had been able to strike up a good conversation with this guy. He was also glad to see that he was beginning to feel less depressed because of it.

Flash raised his eyebrows at the lance, saying, “Well, I haven’t yet had the opportunity to fight in a real battle with them. But what we do is, we take this end here… in our mouths like this-” Flash then gripped the handle between his teeth, and raised the point to a horizontal level in the air.

“That’s adorable,” Garion commented, “So I assume you just wave it around then?”

Flash nodded his head, and swerved it tutorially. Unfortunately, Flash had to look away from Garion in order to hold the lance. He underestimated his distance from him. A loud thump hit the human in the chest, and Flash suddenly realized that he was now standing alone on the wall.

The soldier dropped the lance and looked over as quick as he could. “Oh geez,” he uttered.

Garion lay frozen where he was, looking up at a starry sky. The wall lined the bottom half of his vision. He didn’t move until Flash Sentry’s head appeared over the wall.

“Are you all right!?” Flash called.

“Am I dead!?” Garion called back.

“No! Of course not!”

The human then began to move around, realizing that he had managed to fall into a pile of hay. Luckily, his body parts were intact.

After reassuring himself that he was still alive, only then did he realize that the castle was beginning to move away from him. Flash Sentry watched in shock, and that’s when Garion realized that he was rolling away.

He remembered the drop behind and wondered if he should jump out, but declined as the wagon picked up speed. The world ahead of him then became a blur as the wagon was thrown downhill.

The next few moments of his life would escape his sensible conscious. Nothing seemed real. All Garion could do was wait for the ordeal to be over. He couldn’t think clearly, and nor could he add logic to the present.

The world of the castle left his vision, and shooting stars suddenly lapsed the rapid universe. At first he accepted the possibility of giant fireflies, but he looked behind him, toward the oncoming road, and was able to see houses passing by, with torches and lanterns lining the path. It all caused a headache for Garion, having to comprehend it too fast. But for what he could guess, he didn’t actually go through the city itself, but rather, he passed it.

The torrents of wind which raged violently around him suddenly changed direction, now forcing their way on top of him. Garion opened his eyes and saw the sky staring him face to face. He discovered that he was lying down flat on the floor of the wagon, and that he was probably now moving in upward direction.

The sky focused it’s splendor onto the lost human. Everything that Garion saw in that sky seemed to take his hand and remove him from the world that he knew. Suddenly, it came to him that he could no longer feel the hay or wagon, but he didn’t care. There was nothing he could do now, as the night took over his mind.

When Garion finally touched the sky, he looked up to see the sleeping world miles above him. His hair stood straight up, as if he were underwater, or that gravity had suddenly turned itself upside down. Still, he couldn’t understand where he was, or why he was here. He couldn’t possibly be scared, nor could he feel any other emotion.

When he couldn’t go any further, a cloud caught him and pushed to the left. He drifted in an orbit, while lights flashed around him. The night was truly beautiful, but also frightening at the same time. It carried him and sung quietly to him. The stars were literally five pointed shapes sparkling around him, dancing  in their various forms and constellations.

The cloud then carried him towards a city. But not a city too far from his memory. It consisted of towering steel, and flashing lights. The moon watched the drifting human, as he began his odyssey.

----------------