A New Day, A New World.

by Ditz

First published 21st of December, 2012

A human forsakes his life on Earth, and goes to Equestria with a dear friend.

(Character tags will be changed accordingly as the story progresses)

Forsaking his life back home, John begins his life anew in a new world.

And despite his best efforts, a fresh start does not mean a carefree life.
Something he soon, manages to find out.

Day l

“Is this real life? Or is this just fantasy?”

The words by Freddie Mercury had never been more appropriate, as I feel myself slowly descending into… Someplace… I really don’t know what’s going on even now. I feel something soft on my grip, but I can’t seem to be able to make it out, this place is just too hypnotic for me to care over some body pillow.

Speaking of place, I guess I should tell you where I am, but the truth, is that I don’t really know. I am still falling - Oh, guess I forgot to mention I have been falling for what could be long, or maybe just a few seconds, in this place, there was no way of knowing.

Who am I? What am I doing here? Is this even real? And who am I even talking to?

Maybe, I should try waking up…

The first thing the man noticed, was that he was extremely comfortable, and such comfort usually meant staying in bed, of course, he realized he’d have to get up in order to go to work.

“Wait, I have a job?” he thought, confused about the words he'd just thought of, but the urgency of the thought seemed to want to keep him out of his comfortable resting place. Realizing that going back to sleep was pointless, he reluctantly opened his eyes.

“What in the hell…?” were his first words as he came to notice he was in a big room, a grand set-up, it brought him memories of pictures he’d seen back in school with castles on them, and this had been a very familiar setting for him in that sense, yet, the fact he was there made him question it.

‘Castles? School?’ he tried racking up his thoughts, but to no avail. As he searched his thoughts, he attempted to remember his name, but to no avail, which frightened him. "What am I doing?" he thought, slapping himself. "First things first... find out where the heck I am."

He slowly got on his feet, and quietly walked around, he noticed a sports bag hanging from the side of his bed and quicklyi checked its contents; clothes, a lighter, and a folded object that upon further observation, turned out to be a pocket knife were found inside. Deciding that being in a strange environment weaponless wouldn’t do him any good, he pocketed the knife, and made his way to the door leading outside the relatively safe sleeping area, opening it slightly to check for company, he made his way outside.

“Whoa!” he gazed upon the long hallways with amazement, if he had doubted the place was a castle before, he didn’t doubt it now. Banners with pictures of the sun emblazoned on them adorned its walls, a red carpet ran along the length of the floor, and upon further inspection, he found that banners in the hallway bore similar aesthetic designs.

“Hello?” he called out to strangely empty hallways before covering his mouth at his dumb decision, he tensed up as he heard footsteps from one end of the hall. Senses kicking into overdrive, he ran into the opposite direction, and hid himself in the first intersection he came across, fearing his life, he ran to the end of that hallway, a feat that took him quite some time due to its length.

“Where am I?” he asked himself multiple times looking outside from a couple giant windows into the now visible night skies. Coming to the conclusion that safety was better than questioning his current existence, he continued.

He ran for a few minutes, coming across something that in his mind, simply said "a huge metal door” he stared at it in wonder for a few seconds before moving on, but stopped when the twin doors suddenly opened, revealing what he only described as a “big room”.

‘Clearly, I’m a master of linguistics.’ he thought struggling to find the right words.

“Come, there is much to discuss.”

He turned frantically at the sound of the voice, but found no one in sight, his first impulse told him to ignore it, but for some reason, he felt drawn to it, wanting to follow it. Finding no aggression in the soothing voice.

“Against my better judgment…” he said, as he made his way into the dark room, finding no human life to be seen. Unfazed, he kept his sight on what appeared to be a throne, he squinted his eyes trying to make out anything in the darkness, but his concentration broke at the sound of the enormous doors closing behind him, not realizing he was already halfway in the room.

Any calmness he felt was now gone at the potential new threat, he reached into his pocket and took out the knife which he quickly unfolded, as terrified as he was, and the fact that the guards there might have had guns, he wasn't going out without a fight.

Of course, he didn’t count on the knife being wrestled from his grip by an unseen force.

“Hey! Give that back!” he called out in anguish. Realizing as his only weapon was now gone, and the fact that he had no escape, he closed his eyes in panic and chose the best solution for himself at that point.

“Please, don’t hurt me too bad.” he put his hands in the air and stood in place, closing his eyes in panic, waiting for some sort of punishment from his unseen attackers.

The room was silent, but the sound of steps could be heard.

“I will not hurt you, please, open your eyes.” he heard the voice from earlier say.

Timidly, he slowly opened them. He then closed them again before opening them to the same sight; it was now illuminated by chandeliers hanging high from the ceiling, the room itself reminded him a lot of movies he'd seen as a child.

“I used to watch movies?” he thought and scratched his head, caught off guard by the stupidity of his own question, but those thoughts were quickly pushed aside by what sat in the throne itself.

A winged/horned white horse stood majestically, with flowing mane that reminded him of cotton candy, horseshoes that were more fancy that anything he’d ever seen. The sight brought back images of a little girl's fashion statement for horses. "With wings and horns..." he thought.

“Ah… Hello, horsie… I’m not going to hurt you… Now, if you’ll excuse me…” he was about to turn tail and run, but what he saw next brought him to a stop.

“I know you must be confused, and I can understand why, but please, I am not a “horsie” as you just referred to me just now,” the man stared in shock as the mare (whom he realized it was female by voice alone) talked to him, and slowly, began backing away.

"Um, this is weird..." he noticed, gulping in fear.

“Perhaps it might be better if I brought her out. Twilight, please, come on in,” the man just looked around quizzically at the side door that had just opened, but became deadly calm when he saw another horse—or rather, a pony—come out.

“John! You are okay!” the magenta colored pony called, she ran to him and began nuzzling his leg in affection. Confused, 'John' backed away slowly from the purple mare who flinched in surprise. “John? What’s the matter?” she asked, looking slightly hurt at his dismissal. Doing his best to ignore the sad horse, he mulled over the name, feeling a familiarity to it.

Before he could ponder too long, an influx of memories began assaulting his mind, instantly bringing him up to speed, he groaned at the suddenness of the moment and grabbed his now aching head, trying to nurse it back to health.

“How… do you know my name?” he asked the unicorn who only stared with mouth agape, she turned towards the taller horse who only shook her head and motioned her to go over to him. She slowly trotted towards her but stopped to look back at John who only gave a deadpan look, bringing a sigh from the purple mare.

“My apologies, I have yet to introduce myself; I, am Princess Celestia, and I am the ruler of this land, the purple unicorn you see here is named Twilight Sparkle, and she is my most loyal student. Now, would you like to introduce yourself?” she asked, still talking in a soothing tone, he debated speaking out of term, but decided against it.

He didn't want a kick to the face by a horse that size.

“My name, as, um, Twilight said, is John. Now if I may be a bit forward, what is going on, and where the hell am I?” he cursed at his lack of tact, but being in what appeared to be a land of talking horses seemed like a good reason to be angry. He looked over at the purple unicorn who just stared at the floor in response, he made a not to ask her when the time was right.

The ruler only stared with soft eyes and got on her hooves, she walked towards the window behind her throne and stared into the moonlight, she stood there for a few uncomfortable minutes, nearly causing John to cough under his breath to regain her attention.

Fortunately for him, she finally seemed to be taking the initiative.

“Twilight, take him to his room. I need to go relieve my sister from her post, and as you probably know, I must also raise the sun as well, I will be with you both soon enough,” Twilight nodded and gave the royal horse a close approximation of a hug, then nodded to John who returned the nod in turn before following Twilight out.

As soon as they made their way outside, the lone human noticed two new ponies standing at opposite sides of the door they had just exited from, they stared surprised for a moment, but quickly regained their composure, and returned to what he assumed was their job as guards.

They walked silently for a while, and John who at that point had had enough, chose to break the awkward silence.

“Raise the sun?” he asked with curiosity to the silent mare.

“In our world, the sun is raised by Princess Celestia herself. On the other end of the spectrum, is her sister named Luna, whose job is to raise the moon—Just added that in case you wanted to know,” John only stared incredulously at the back of what he now thought was an insane pony, but decided not to question it further.

He was now in a world that apparently housed sentient equines, another incredibly ridiculous thing added to the list certainly wouldn’t hurt.

They walked along the slowly filling hallways at a brisk pace, drawing glances from passerby ponies who stared in amazement at the young human, some approached him curiously, but all backed away almost instantly.

John, ignoring the craziness around him, was submerged deep in thought.

‘What’s going on? How come I am taking this better than I should have?’ he suddenly bumped into Twilight who had stopped, where he noticed the door to the room he woke up in.

“Want to invite me in?” he asked, giving her a playful grin earning him one in return from the strange being.

“Are you sure you don’t remember anything?”

“Nope”

“Just making sure.”

They entered the room, and John quickly locked the door behind him wanting no interruptions from the random guards or a certain “Sun Princess”.

“Okay Twilight, talk.” he wagged a finger at her, but only got a small giggle from the mare. “WHAT IS SO FUNNY ABOUT THIS!?” he was at the end of his patience, and laughing it off wasn’t going to solve it in his book.

“John,” she began giving him a serious look. “Your mind was affected when we entered something called ‘The Door’. You have what we believe to be short term memory lost, you will probably regain it in a few days, then we c-”

“I don’t care about that! When can you send me back home? I OBVIOUSLY don’t belong here,” he closed his eyes and breathed in, trying to contain the full extent of his contained anger towards Twilight. With effort, he repeated what he wanted in a much calmer manner. “When… can I go back…” he asked again in rasped breaths.

“John, when I arrived in your world, I didn’t know, I’m sorry, I…” she stopped talking and took a quick mouthful of air before resuming her explanation, and reluctantly mouthed out the words. “You can’t go back.”

"W-what?" his heart sank, and his mind became a minefield of emotions, confusiontaking over anything else. His body had gone numb, and he fell back on the floor hitting his head on the shiny floor, he felt the throbbing pain in his head instantly, but ignored it. Twilight was next to him in a flash, mouthing off questions along the lines of whether he was okay or if he needed to talk.

In his mind, neither question would yield a positive answer.

“John, I may not know what you are feeling, and I know this won‘t make it any better, but you have to know that you chose this,” she explained.

“Can you repeat that again?” he asked, while slowly turning his head to face her, giving her a venomous look.

“You chose to come here to my world… with me,” sick thoughts filled his mind at the realization that he might have inadvertently forsaken his life ‘Crappy life, sure, but my life nonetheless’ he began forming thoughts of conspiracy from part of the ponies themselves. ‘What if I was abducted to be forever used as a guinea pig? What if they want to put their weird alien ponies in my stomach!’

Twilight noticed the distraught look John was giving her and recognized it, she had seen the look whenever he had been over thinking things—something she quickly sympathized with— but quickly recalling a certain spell, she focused her magic on her horn, and touched his head, much to John’s increasing terror.

Twilight laid uncomfortably on the wooden floor, not being able to sleep on a bed had kept her in a lousy mood, and she needed to get the attention of the human, but had not been able to wake him from his deep slumber.

‘It must be a human thing.’ she thought amusedly.

“Oh man, I need to stop drin- Oh, wait, I don’t drink,” the now awake human said, following by stepping on Twilight whose breath was quickly thrown out of her body by the weight, she managed a loud enough groan that was not missed by him.

“How the fuck did Michael even manage to put this fucking horse in my house!?” by this time Twilight had gotten on her hooves, and she didn’t take kindly to the misconception the human was presenting, and decided to act against it.

“For your information, I’m not a ‘horse‘, but a pony, I understand we are both part of the equine family, but I consider that rather rude,” she said managing to include the minor tidbit.

The human turned to the sound of her voice and stared flabbergasted at her, unbelieving of what he had just heard.

“I need to start drinking right now,” he muttered keeping his attention away from Twilight, which didn’t bide quite well with her.

“Please, don’t ignore me. Well, now that we have that out of the way, let me introduce myself,” she cleared her throat and began the introductions she had practiced back home. “Greetings! My name, is T-”

The human let out a shriek interrupting Twilight who just rolled her eyes annoyed of the human disregarding her schedule.

‘This is going to be a looong day...” she thought as the human rambled off in panic.

Twilight suddenly broke the magical connection, an act that send her flying to a wall, leaving John gasping for air. He quickly recovered and looked around the room bewildered, until finally coming across Twilight. She watched as he walked towards her at a rushed pace, causing the hurt unicorn to panic, but much to her relief, saw a worried look on his face.

“Twi? Are you okay? I’m sorry for acting like a jerk, please answer me!” he let out words in a blur, causing Twilight to miss most of the intended message, but smiled getting the gist of it.

“Do you remember now, Mr. Grump?” she asked teasingly.

“You tell me,” he enveloped her in a tight hug that left her gasping for air, feeling the danger he was putting his best friend, he loosened his grip and let her rest on his arms.

“So… what now?” asked John, realizing that he had to begin anew.

”Now, you live, of course,” Celestia’s voice echoed in the room, as she manifested in a ball of white light that partially blinded the pair.

John quickly got on his feet and turned to bow while holding Twilight, an act that caused the Princess to raise a brow in surprise and Twilight to squirm in his loosened grip.

“I want to apologize for my early rudeness, your majesty,” she scanned him for a few seconds and gave a soft smile that John quickly returned in kind.

Then the smile faltered, and the Princess spoke in a serious tone.

“I, Celestia, decree that the human known as John, will be allowed to live in Equestria. He will be treated as any other of my little ponies, and he will be expected to follow the rules abided by our land in return. For the time being, he will be on probation, he will be watched over by Twilight Sparkle from Ponyville, and he will be expected to learn about the magic of Friendship by getting to know more ponies, just like my most loyal student has.”

John simply stared in confusion.

"Wait, what?"

Twilight beamed at the praise and clapped her hooves excitedly at the mention of John staying with her, the Princess raised her hoof and she stopped her motions, returning to full silence while Celestia gave her final thoughts.

“You may leave the castle whenever you wish to. I will make sure a written copy of what I have decreed is send to Town Hall back in Ponyville, there will be a meeting to speak of this in due time, but for now, relax,” she gave the pair one final curt nod, and made a beeline towards the door.

Both human and unicorn let out a sigh, relieved that everything had gone well.

“Oh, and John?” Princess Celestia called him from the door.

“Um, yes, Princess?”

“Welcome to Equestria.”

Author's Notes:

My first sequel! And the last time I post a chapter of anything until after New Year's.

I had a rocky start with this one I must say, but I think it went okay.
I'm looking for something I can use as cover art, if someone is willing to help me find some, or maybe someone I can refer to so I can do a request, any help is welcome.

I appreciate any feedback from you guys!

-----

Why, hello there. Didn't see you come in. If you are still reading this, here is your first and ONLY warning regarding what you read in the notes. I have been adding notes regarding the chapter you just finished reading, and will do so for every chapter moving forward. If you are enjoying the story, I heavily recommend not reading the spoiler marked parts, otherwise, go nuts. It's honestly something I'm doing for myself. A way to reminisce, I suppose.

Notes 1
This chapter was the beginning of a looooong journey that's still going, I'm rather comfortable about this chapter, and was much easier to edit, I must admit.

Also... I'm still hoping for that cover art that isn't me stealing one.

Morning Encounters.

‘Okay. Maybe that hit to the head was worse than I expected…’

John found himself laying in bed once again without any sort of memory of how he had made it there to begin with, a slightly dull ache on the back of his head being the only thing he could feel with great clarity at his waking moments.

“Oh man, what did I do last… night?” he looked outside the room’s window and noticed a bright light, completely blinding him the moment he stared. He rubbed his eyes and nearly cursed the sun... but just nearly—he did not want to anger the Princess in charge of the celestial body.

He noticed the direction of the sun, and realized something was amiss, what really helped him catch his attention was the fact that the sun was being raised instead of being set.

“D-Did I just sleep for a day?” his stomach growled as if in response, much to his embarrassment. Shrugging it off for the moment, he directed his attention to the bag on the bed and grabbed a change of clothes, and looking further in, he found the knife he had lost the day before. "Guess they didn’t find it too dangerous," he shrugged and was about to put the bag down when something else came to his attention.

“Oh, right, how could I forget?” he inserted his hand deep into the bag and grabbed the lighter he had forgotten the day before, he lighted it up and stared at the fire created for a few seconds before dissipating the flame, and putting it on his pocket. “Better keep it where I can’t lose it," after some fiddling, he made his way out of the room.

He found himself walking around ponies who continued the previous day's looks, or in rare cases, totally avoiding him completely. "The Princess might have had something to do with that…" he guessed.

After uneventfully walking for a long time, he finally stopped in the middle of a hallway and let out his rage at his inability to find his destination. "Wherever the hell that is!" he shouted in a mental note.

“WHERE THE HELL AM I!?” he yelled at nothing in particular, the statues at the side being the only 'ponies' that he could see in the empty hallway. "Oh man… what do I do now?" he thought exasperated at his bad luck, while his stomach growled as if to simply rub salt on the metaphorical wound.

“Be quiet! I’m trying to find us food you little c-… oh great, now I’m talking to my own stomach,“ he groaned, rubbing it softly. “What’s next?” as in response, his ears caught the sound of a scratching noise.

“Who is there?” he asked, already chalking it up to his mind playing tricks on his hungry self. “I-I have a lighter… It has fire!” he finished lamely, taking out the lighter and putting his finger on the trigger, hoping that its (hopefully) alien nature would scare his (probably) non-existent assailant(s).

“Whoa, whoa! Calm down, sorry to bother you!” John’s ears perked up at the sound of the voice, its pitch slightly infantile, his mind already placing it to a kid. He looked behind him and found something quite unexpected.

An overgrown purple lizard stood right before him.

Fear was the first emotion that rose within him, but his analytical side only chose to study the odd creature: it was definitely purple, slightly lighter than Twilight’s, with what seemed to be emerald green scales on its body instead of a mane. It had a spiky tail that it kept perked up in the end. He also caught its face, which simply stared at him.

What he did not realize was that the lizard was now also talking to him.

“Hellooo? Anypony home?” he called out, bringing John out of his stupor.

“Did… you just talk? For a lizard that sure is an achievement,” John recognized the purple lizard’s smarts.

The purple lizard only gave John a deadpan stare, followed by a face palm and a groan.

“You are definitely Twilight’s friend, she told me a bit about you,“ he fidgeted in place for a few seconds before continuing. “Anyway, I‘m a dragon, and don‘t you forget it!” he breathed a small stream of green flame in demonstration of his status, causing John to flinch and fall back on the floor.

“H- How do you know Twilight? Are you together or something?” John mentioned out loud without thinking, causing a gagging sound to come out of the young dragon.

“Together? Well, if by that you mean living together, then yes, we are,” John’s mind raced to a certain event, memories that didn't belong to him; a vision of a purple dragon helping him put away books, a dragon sleeping calmly on a basket on the floor, and finally, an image of the same dragon being hatched from an egg.

The realization became clear on his face, and he stared at the young dragon in front of him who continued his confused look.

“Is there something on my face? Or do you have another “witty” line for me?” the dragon asked in a derisive tone.

“No, it’s nothing... I'm sorry, Spike,” he apologized, making the dragon's eyes widen in surprise.

“How did you know my name?” John gave Spike a good look, only now realizing it was shaking very slightly. He had to give it credit for not running away in sight 'Then again, here I am myself'.

“Well, certain purple unicorn gladly shared some bits about her assistant,” almost instantly, Spike stopped shaking, giving John a knowing smile.

“Number ONE assistant, thank you very much!” this brought an amusing chuckle from John who only rolled his eyes as a response.

'Odd...' he perked up and began analyzing his conversation with the dragon, he saw the natural -yet timid- flow of it and how well he was keeping up. "Wow... I guess she did teach me some stuff," he thought satisfied at his new found ability.

“Ahem!” he was broken out of his thoughts once again by Spike, who stared with narrowed eyes.

“Oh, yes, Spike?”

The dragon still stared, but his next words came out in a friendly tone. “I heard you say you were hungry, everyone in the castle did more than likely,“ he muttered under his breath before adding “And I’m heading to get Twilight right now so we can eat some breakfast. Wanna come with?”

John’s stomach gladly replied for him, bringing a brief laugh from the dragon.

“Guess so. Lead the way!” John stated, eagerly following behind.

He was able to keep up easily, Spike's stubby legs made him a slow walker in comparison to John himself, but he held back his pace, using the opportunity to try to make some small talk with his new acquaintance.

“So, what’s your world like?” John was taken aback by the dragon beating him to the punch, but it was a question he had expected, and was ready with an answer.

“It’s very different. We rely in technology, and magic doesn’t exist, or I’d rather say we just aren’t magical beings, I mean, who knows? Maybe magic is real,” he finished looking to the side in embarrassment, realizing he might no have been as ready as he expected. Spike seemed to mull over his words, trying to understand, but his face twisted oddly, apparently holding something back, a little fact that John brought up to him.

“Well…You are like me, right? Well, sort of…” Spike babbled on while John stared totally lost. Spike closed his eyes and gave a deep breath before continuing. “You control fire, right? At least you said so…” John smiled at this, realizing what the young tyke meant. He took out the lighter from his back pocket and brought it to life, gently protecting the flame from whatever elements that tried to extinguish it while lowering himself to Spike.

“Whoa! Pocket fire?” Spike exclaimed in excitement, rapidly closing into the flame, extinguishing it with the small wind created by his fast movements. s“Where did it go!?” he frowned at the lighter, and reached a claw to touch it, but to his dismay, the lighter was quickly moved out of the way by John, who held it in his hand protectively.

“Hey!” the dragon complained at John’s sudden lack of cooperation, John stared back realizing what he had done, and chose to give Spike an explanation. Or at the very least, something for him to avoid getting added to his future list of things to eat.

“It’s something very important to me, Spike…” he said simply, while putting the lighter back on his pocket. "I'm sorry."

“Oh, okay, it's my fault really..." Spike mumbled, barely able to hide his disappointment, and both simply stood in silent for a few seconds before John broke it.

“Twilight?” John reminded him, and the dragon nodded, the pair resuming their trip towards food.

“…No, I need to put this here…”

Twilight Sparkle mumbled to herself, concentrating on the task at hoof. She was a pony who always tried her best to make sure she caught up to her studies, and she reprimanded herself for her negligence as thoughts of her calculations ran alongside with her thoughts of her lack of effort that had caused her to fall behind on various projects.

“Oh no! I have to hurry! If I don’t finish fast, the princess will be disappointed, then I won’t be able to stay as her student, and then I won’t be able to stay in Ponyville! Which means I will have to stay here in Canterlot… Then magical kindergarden!” she stopped for a second as the realization kicked in.

“NONONONO!”

The worried unicorn repeated the same lines for the thirty-seventh time that day, all while she levitated objects from side to side, multitasking three different things at once. She had been able to keep up her magic flow steady, but as her body and mind became strained, so did her magic, which began to waver in return.

“Hey, Twilight!”

"Ah!" she yelped at the sudden sound, and at that point, every object around lost its magical grip, dropping like a rock.

Everything suddenly slowed down, and Twilight looked at every object dropping and noticed a flask, one that she didn’t bother to treat with care—one full of a very explosive liquid. Horror was plastered in her face as she realized the error of her absentmindedness.

It was far too late for that, of course.

“No!”

It was a very fine morning, it always was when she was involved.

I finally got some time alone with Tia, and we decided to have a picnic in the gardens, even if it had taken us a while to get the guards to leave, it had been well worth it, regardless, who would have thought we could even relax like this?

I didn’t, that’s for sure.

I slowly enjoyed an apple fritter while Tia simply basked on an especially warn sun she had raised just for this day. She had been waiting for this and she had “pulled out all the stops“ as I had heard some of the guards say. It was just an off day so we, as sisters, could spend time alone. There were no formalities here—we even chose to take our regalia off, which was something that we nary did nowadays.

"Luna," I was shaken from my peaceful thoughts by Tia's call.

“What is the matter, sister?” I asked, giving her a smile to make sure she didn’t think I was angered by her sudden forcefulness. She sighed before replying, and that sigh could only mean one thing...

“Luna, I need you to go check in on our visitors. I apologize for cutting our time short, but I just found out some last minute appointments and I have no time to check, and I'm afraid to say they might be getting in a bit of trouble,” as she finished, I stared at my sister, confused of her completely unplaced request and said the only thing on my mind at that moment.

“Excuse me?”

The faint sound of an explosion suddenly reached the ears of the mare sleeping soundly, interrupting her well deserved slumber, she groaned slightly at it and nearly chose to ignore the ruckus that was probably taking place.

Almost.

She groggily got on her hooves, then hastily brushed her mane and instinctively reached for her crown that she lazily put on, cursing the old thing and its need to show her royalty before walking down the staircase of her tower as per usual. The long staircase was, as always, empty and devoid of any ponies, after all, with its bare walls and lack of decorations from any sort, it was quite an unwelcome sight, and something that Luna always tried to find the time to fix, but never did.

“Maybe a small table, with a vase… and flowers! Yes, other ponies would enjoy that, but there is not any space… A painting, perhaps?” she mulled over her idea until reaching the end of the staircase and opening the door leading to the main part of the castle, she wasted no time and headed for her sister’s private lab, which according to her sister’s words the day before, was being occupied by Twilight Sparkle doing her usual study catch-up.

“She is a very talented mare, but her own compulsiveness will be her undoing,” she thought as she reached her destination.

Her thoughts backed-up her fitting thought further as shown by the smoke coming from under the door.

"Oh no..." she reached for the handle with her magic and raised a small shield as she entered, protecting herself from the remains of the smoke as she looked inside and found one of the strangest sights: an odd creature stood on its hind legs. There was no hair on its body, but its head wore a small patch of it. It also wore clothing of some sort that seemed to be slightly singed, probably by the explosion that had taken place. "What in the...?" at this point, all analysis was thrown out the window when she noticed the creature shaking the limp body of Twilight Sparkle on its grip. Fearing the worst, she abandoned any sort of civility. grabbing the strange creature with her magic, and lifting it in the air, forcing a cry of surprise out of him.

“Hey, what are you doing!?” it yelled to the Princess who only duly noted its ability to speak.

“Thou has hurt one of my subjects! And for that, thou shall be punished.” she had preferred to use the newly learned “you” instead of the old speech, but she found it easier to remain threatening when using the archaic talk.

“Huh? What? You got it all wrong!” it seemed to shake on her grip, fear emanating from every muscle in its body. Luna was a pony who disliked bringing fear to other creatures, but the sight of her dear friend had caused that certain care to be thrown out of the window.

“Please! If you would let me explain!” it yelled in desperation, causing the Princess to realize that she may had possibly reacted a bit rash. Reluctantly, she loosened her grip, but kept her stern voice.

“We are listening.”

Neither would know what would take place in the next couple of minutes.

John and Spike made their way inside the room, Spike proceeding to call Twilight as she levitated a good dozen different objects around the place.

There was a yelp, and every single floating object came crashing down into the ground, and in the instant it happened, John managed to see Twilight suddenly teleport in front of them, followed by raising what seemed to be a magenta barrier just as the sound of an explosion ringed in his ears. He reached to cover them from the loud explosion, watching as Twilight's barrier suddenly broke apart, sending her flying to the nearest wall. Him and Spike were treated to the same fate, as the not quite subsided explosion finished its chaos.

A ringing sound plagued John’s ears preventing him from listening to the noise around him, he opened his eyes with difficulty, and looked around the mess of a room, finding small fires in some areas, but otherwise, looking intact. He groggily got on his feet and found Spike laying next to him, holding his head in pain.

“Spike, you alright?”

Spike quickly shook his head at the question, and was glad to hear the dragon speak up. “What do you think…?” he quickly opened his eyes and got on his feet, but his apparent injuries prevented him from moving a single step.

“Argh… check on Twilight…” needing no further incentive, he moved to the (hopefully) unconscious body of his adoptive sister, and he found himself helpless without knowing a way to check for a single sign of life, and instead stared at her, looking for signs of breathing.

Twilight’s slow moving chest reassured the human of her condition as he placed her in his arms, and began shaking her softly, trying to bring her back to consciousness.

“Twi…?“ he called “Twilight! Please wake up!” he begged, hoping for some sort of response, but he quickly grew impatient, which only made him shake her slightly harder, hoping for at least a weak response. Noticing he wasn’t making any progress, he was about to put Twilight down when the door was suddenly opened, revealing another pony.

‘Maybe he/she knows someone who can help!’ he put Twilight slowly on the ground and looked at the dark pony staring at him, her eyes seemingly showing contempt. His body began trembling at the sight, sensing the danger that the mare obviously was.

Out of nowhere, he felt himself being lifted in the air, a bluish sort of aura surrounding his entire body. He yelped in surprise and gave a shocked stare at the pony who only returned him an angry look.

“Hey, what are you doing!?” he asked the mare lifting him into the air.

“Thou has hurt one of my subjects, and for that, thou shall be punished.” the use of the old English “thou“ caused John to raise a brow in confusion, but decided it best for a later time.

‘Subjects? Wait, could she be… shit!’ he decided to explain himself before further angering the other Princess.

“Huh? What? You got it all wrong!” he told her a bit desperate to get his point across. He racked his brains for a solution, but found there to be none other than to give her the truth.

“Please! I can explain!” ‘Smooth…’ he hoped that would be enough to get on the Princess’ good side, and found the pressure of the magic slowly dissipating, only to be stopped a few inches from the ground, the Princess closing in on him.

One standing and the other floating, they stared at each other face-to-muzzle.

“We are listening."

“Can you call some assistance for Twilight first, though? Please?” the Princess looked past John, noticing the unconscious body of Twilight and nodded.

“Hmm…” her horn glowed a bright blue, and two Pegasus appeared on the spot, looking around surprised at their current teleportation, but quickly perked up at the sight of the Princess.

“Please, take care of the unicorn Twilight Sparkle and make sure she receives medical attention,” she ordered in a serene tone. She looked around and noticed Spike trying to get on his feet as well, but failing miserably. “Please, make sure to take Spike as well, he is also in need of medical assistance.

Both Pegasi nodded and grabbed the pair, quickly taking them out of the room to what John assumed to be the hospital.

“Now talk,” John gulped at the sudden return of her angry tone and hastily recounted the story since his arrival while the Princess herself looked around and found the flask that seemed to be the source of the explosion. After silently examining it for a few seconds, she sighed in relief.

“She is lucky that each of these flasks are protected against each other like this, otherwise we would have had a castle in flames right now,” she threw the flask aside and without asking anything more, dragged John through the castle's hallway. Other ponies stared and talked to each other in hushed voices, as they made it to John’s room, where she deposited him in the bed and said: “Stay here, I have business to attend to. We will speak later."

“Y-yes…” he replied as she closed the door. "Wait..." he thought, remembering something.

“The lighter!” he rummaged throughout his back pocket, finding said lighter surprisingly intact, he rubbed the carving on it and gave a sight of relief, putting it back on his back pocket, then, returning to his bed... Right before remembering Twilight and Spike’s condition. He made a beeline to the door, full well on the mindset to disobey the orders, but was only met with distraught to find out his path was blocked by a guard.

“Hey, let me out!” he demanded to the guard.

“None shall leave this room! According to Her Majesty, you must remain here until she allows it,” he finished his line and returned to saying nothing again. Knowing there was no point in arguing, John closed the door and laid down in bed to try to sleep the worry off, but sleep wouldn’t take him, as his mind replayed the events of the morning. It took him but a few seconds, and after thinking about the guard outside for a few minutes, he finally realized.

“They are keeping me prisoner here… I got to get out of here! Gotta find Twilight!” his fear vanished as the gears in his brain turned, and he grinned slyly as a plan—a very desperate plan in his case—popped into his mind.

‘I hope I don’t regret this.’

Being a royal guard was a very profitable job, and it had its perks.

Free healthcare, big Hearth’s Warming Eve bonuses, and of course, being the most boring job there could possibly be. The princesses, being the most powerful beings in Equestria. really made the need of guards redundant.

These thoughts crossed the mind of Gleaming Guard as he stood in front of the ‘hue-man’s’ door, knowing Princess Luna herself had given him the task kept him planted on his spot, there was only one enemy to defeat: Boredom itself.

It hadn’t been much of a problem for him, of course, he might have been the new guy, but his talent involved guarding. But while his name emphasized his talent, said name also brought mocking from the other guards, including some shame from Shining Armor himself who laughed at such ‘obvious’ name, especially for someone in the Imperial Guard. He hadn't let the ridicule deter him, however, as he was ready to prove himself as he knew he could. He wanted to show the other guards what he could be capable of, and following the orders of a Princess would be enough to bring some respect to him.

At least in theory.

“Hey, you might wanna let me outta here.” the hue-man called from behind the closed door. Guard simply looked back and sighed; he just needed to focus on his job, but the creature seemed to have other plans.

“I don’t think so, buddy, Her Majesty’s orders,” despite his annoyance, Guard laughed at the creatures’ feeble attempts, but chose to humor him. “What are you gonna do?” he challenged him.

There were a few seconds of silence, and Guard expected him to go back to bed, but was surprised by his next words.

“I’ll burn this castle down; didn’t you know our kind breathed fire?”

Guard flinched at the hue-man’s threat, but quickly marked it as a bluff. “Yeah, right, a-as if, hue-man!” he replied nervously.

Silence took over once again, and the hue-man made no further comments. Guard grinned to himself in victory and returned to his post, but it was shortlived, as a sudden smell filled his nostrils.

“W-what’s that?” he asked, reluctantly reaching for the door.

“I warned you, didn’t I?” the thing said, the obvious smell of smoke intensifying

‘Smoke!’ he ran headlong into the room, immediately coming across a small piece of paper slowly burning on the floor. He didn’t have time to react as he felt a sharp pain in his head, and fell on the floor with only one thought in mind before losing consciousness.

‘Bucking… Dammit..’

"Sorry, dude, nothing personal," John apologized at the unconscious guard on the floor, knowing how much trouble he, along with the guard would get into.

He bolted out the door and ran aimlessly, finding scared ponies on his path. Noting that he would only get lost in the craziness of the royal palace, he stopped and asked the first pony he found.

“Do you know where the hospital area is!?” the fancy-looking stallion only stared in terror as the unknown creature shook him for answers, slowly processing the words, he pointed towards a staircase in the same hallway.

“F-follow the staircase and then, follow the hallway from there, the 3rd door to the right should be the plac- PLEASE DON’T HURT ME!” John released the pony and gave a curt nod in thanks.

The pony meanwhile, fell unconscious at his traumatic experience.

John ran straight to the stairs, being careful not to trip, thanks to the ponies’ lack of hands, nothing had a “handrail” which he needed to move down safely. He looked behind him and found a couple dozen guards following him, what he didn’t expect, was the guards all following him at the same time throughout the staircase.

He stopped at the bottom, amused at the guards lack of hindsight, the group remained stuck in the staircase, struggling to get out of their self-inflicted conundrum. Chuckling at the sight and thanking his luck, he ran along the hallway and made it to the door in question. He quickly reached for the handle, but was unable to turn it, likely due to the fact that two dark pegasi held him in place at that moment.

“Hey, let me go!” he looked around desperately, attempting to find any sort of help from someone, but finding none. With nothing else to go to, he resigned to a desperate plan. “Princess!” he shouted for help, but was disappointed when no one answered. Thankfully for him, it was but a small delay. as the pair of double doors was suddenly opened, causing the young human to beam in relief.

Spike stared confused at the sight, he had bandages on his head and was sitting on the edge of a bed, both Princesses stood alongside him, looking at John with mild surprise (with Luna looking more than a little angry) and finally, a bed that held Twilight, the pony which gave John an incredulous look.

“Eh… Hi, Twilight?” he greeted her sheepishly, causing a certain white colored Princess to chuckle slightly at the display.

“Please, let him go, we will handle this from here,” Celestia commanded, with the guards dropping him with a thud.

“Ouch! Gee… Thanks…” he walked into the room, doors closing right behind him, causing an involuntary gulp to rise on him. Celestia nodded, and motioned him to move over the bed besides Twilight as the pair of princesses moved to the front to face all in the room.

She took a deep breath, and began.

“Do you have any idea of the ruckus you’ve caused?” Celestia asked, keeping her face from showing any emotion. Twilight was ready to give a response, but was quieted down by her raised hoof. "Didn't Princess Luna tell you to stay put?"

“Y-yes?” he replied looking down at the floor, he loathed the situation he had been put it, reminders of days when he had been a “bad boy” coming to mind. Doing things without thinking was one of his issues, but he never expected for such things to follow him even here.

“You tricked one of the Imperial guards and knocked him out, left a fire hazard in your room, scared a stallion half to death, ridiculed dozens of our Imperial guards, and disobeyed a direct order from me,” Princess Luna recited the crimes to him, only causing him to shrink in fear at the angry tone she had evoked.

“Sister, let me take care of this,” Celestia spoke, taking over the accusing once more. “Indeed, those have been your crimes, and I will have to bring some punishment for hurting one of my guards... But for now, I will allow you two to catch up," she said mercifully, letting John breathe a sigh of relief. "But John," it was but a single sigh. "Expect your punishment to reach you in a few days time,” he only nodded rapidly to the Princess, who approached him and whispered something in his ear ‘There is only so much I can do, don‘t ruin your chances here.’

John stared at her with a guilty look, but she only shook her head and turned to Twilight.

“Twilight, remember what I told you, but with that, I must return to my duties. Luna here is probably expecting to go back to bed, so if you will excuse us,” human, dragon, and pony nodded as Celestia made her way out. Luna followed closely behind as well, but turned to John who gave her a weak smile, and snorted in return.

“… Great, now I have a Princess as my enemy!” he said, thinking back on the damage he had done. Twilight only gave him a smile, all while Spike laughed, confusing him as to their behavior.

“What’s so funny?”

“John, I didn’t think you had it in you,” Twilight said looking surprised.

“Yeah! That was amazing!” Spike continued excitedly, but dropped back on the bed as he lost his balance.

“What are you guys talking about?” suspense was one of the things John despised the most, not wanting any further stalling, he urged them to talk.

“The escaping, the running away from Imperial guards, the fire!” Spike explained while John recounted the events on his mind. Coming to the realization, he thought on any of his times back home, even in the darkest moment, the most difficult struggle, he would have never done any of that.

"I couldn't even hurt a fly..."

“Y-you are right… I gotta sit down…” he did so on a nearby chair, bringing a loud roar from his stomach as he did.

“Looks like somepony is hungry.” she took a tray of food from the side and handed it to him.

“Isn’t this yours?”

“No, Spike ordered it for you; he had a hunch you’d be here soon,” she replied giving the pair a look in return. “I almost forgot! Spike? This is John. John? Spike! Although you probably already met each other,” John gave the dragon a grateful look and extended his arm, shaking the young dragon’s claw.

“Of course, Tw- *burp*” a green fire emanated from the dragon’s mouth, with a letter materializing on the spot, and safely landing on Twilight’s bed.

“What is this?” Twilight picked the letter up and opened it. She read it once, her eyes static at the words on the scroll, with her eyes traveling back and forth from the top to the bottom as she reread it, bringing John to ask the obvious question.

“What the heck was that!? And Spike, you owe me food!” John looked sadly upon the floor where the tray laid with food smeared on its surface, he cursed the suddenly appearing green flame and wished death upon it, but Twilight had a response for him before he could vocalize it.

“Princess Celestia send a letter.”

“What about it?” said Spike. “She tends to do that.”

“No, she apparently send a letter to Mom!” Twilight replied, and Spike’s eyes shined with realization as he rushed to read the letter and then stare at John.

“What’s the matter?” John asked confused.

“Sorry to say this John, but they want to see me," Twilight answered warily.

“I still don‘t follow.”

Twilight facehooved and simplified her response. “My parents want to meet you.”

……

“Oh…”

Author's Notes:

My longest chapter so far!

Took FOREVER since I've been so occupied and all.
But expect even slower updates now that I will be moving from my place.

Enjoy!

Notes 2
I enjoy this chapter, and not to toot my own metaphorical horn, but the fire idea is one of my best... If not the best I've had yet. (New Note 2017: not anymore! I got better ideas, turns out) Anyway, this started the fun of writing again, I'm actually having fun editing these chapters as I go along.

Hurray for improvement.