A hero is a man who does what he can. - Romain Rolland

Princess Celestia continued to look down at me, smiling. Now, I was nearly six feet tall, but she still had quite a few inches of height on me. From my rough measurements, I guessed that most ponies around here were four feet tall, but Celestia was nearly double that. If she wasn’t smiling in a non-threatening way, I would’ve been scared.

“…Warrior?” I asked in confusion. Several ponies had come outside by this point to see what was happening. Considering the ruler of their kingdom and an alien were standing outside having a conversation, I’d be surprised if they weren’t curious.

“Yes. I summoned you to this world so you may aid us in fighting against a great evil that shall soon rise.” Celestia spoke the last bit with a grim tone, as if she feared the evil. Why would she fear it? Isn’t she the princess or something?

“Hold on a second,” I demanded. This was getting really weird, really quickly. “So…you brought me here.”

“Yes.” Celestia nodded.

“To fight against a great evil.”

“Yes.” Another nod.

“Because you think I’m a great warrior.”

“Yes.”

I sighed and slowly facepalmed. “…You didn’t check my résumé, did you?”

“I don’t understand.”

“I…” I then noticed the crowd of ponies around us. It looked like the entire town was here. “…Can we talk about it later? Somewhere more secluded?” I didn't want to say I was a weakling in front of the entire town.

“If you wish, Rylan Watch.” She leaned closer and spoke in a whisper that the other ponies couldn’t hear. “At midnight, come to the field you first landed here in.” I nodded in confirmation, and she backed away. “Now, my little ponies, I must be heading back to Canterlot. Be kind to our friend. Treat him as you would treat me.”

With that, Celestia got inside her carriage and the armour-wearing pegasi lifted off, flying back to wherever she came from. I was too busy fighting the urge to find a tree to smash my head against after hearing there was actually a place called Canterlot here.

After the princess left, things got awkwardly silent. I looked and saw the ponies all looking at me, as if expecting an order. She said to treat me as they would treat her…I really don’t like being the centre of attention, though…

“Uh…change of plans,” I announced. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t treat me like royalty. Act like I’m just a normal pony, okay?” It felt weird asking others to treat me like a pony. Definitely the kind of thing that sounds hilarious when taken out of context.

They all nodded, and Bastion stepped forward. “As you wish, human.”

“Please don’t call me ‘human’. Call me by my name. Rylan.”

“As you wish, Rylan.” Bastion nodded to the crowd, and they scattered, heading back to their business. I did, however, notice them occasionally looking back at me. I can understand why. I turned to the six girls who brought me here, who hadn’t left.

“So…what now?” I asked in genuine wonder.

“You live in a library.” I stared at Twilight in disbelief.

“Yes.”

“You live. In a library.”

“…Uh, yes?”

I shook my head. “And I thought I was a nerd.”

“Hey!” Twilight glared. “If you’re so smart, where should I live?”

“It’s called a house. You should check them out sometime.” Hearing laughter, I turned and saw Rainbow Dash rolling on the ground, laughing. (Not joking, she was literally ROFL-ing.) “See? Rainbow agrees with me.”

Twilight sighed in defeat. “Rylan, you may be a human, but you’re still painfully annoying to get along with.”

“Apparently you’re forgetting the fact that I’m a human in a land of talking multicoloured ponies,” I nearly snapped. “I hardly think I’m the one who’s gonna be annoying to get along with.”

“Ya live in our town, ya live with us ponies,” Applejack grinned. “And if we have to put up with ya, ya have to put up with us.”

“Touché.” I sighed and watched as Twilight opened the door…without touching it? “How’d you do that, Twilight?”

“Do what?”

“The…thing. With the door. The door. It opened.”

Twilight looked at me in mass confusion, and I realized how dumb I just sounded. “Doors do that, you know.”

“You did it without touching it!”

“Magic.” Twilight gestured to her horn. “Unicorns can use magic. I told you that, remember?”

“I kinda forgot after the mood went from These ponies want to kill me to The princess thinks I’m a warrior, so forgive me if my memory of previous events is a little fuzzy.”

“Can you stop being snarky for one second?”

I stretched my neck like the Engineer. “Nope.” Twilight facepalmed (facehoofed?) before walking inside, gesturing for the rest of us to follow.

Inside the library was, naturally, books. There were several shelves of books, each one filled up full and the books sorted alphabetically, by colour, and based on subject. First ponies, then ponies with OCD? This is gonna be great.

“It’s getting late, so we’ll show you around the rest of Ponyville tomorrow,” Twilight decided. She used her magic to pull some books from the shelves, each one surrounded with a faint purple aura. “For now, you should read up on Equestria, since you don’t seem to know much about it.”

“And what are the rest of you gonna do?” I asked as Twilight deposited a pile of books half my height right next to me.

“We’ll figure out what to do with you.” The purple unicorn beckoned her friends into another room. “Come on, girls. Let’s give him some peace so he can read.”

After they left, I sighed and sat down on the surprisingly comfortable carpet. Rather than read all the books I was given, I checked each one’s title and tossed aside the ones that didn’t look relevant. Books labelled things like The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide didn’t seem important. By the time I was done my own method of sorting, I only had three books left.

I picked up the first one, Equestrian History, and began to read. I read about how Equestria was made and the strange evils that attacked the land, such as Nightmare Moon and Discord. If I’m being honest here, Discord sounded pretty cool except for the ‘take over Equestria’ thing.

After I finished speed-reading, I put the book down and grabbed the next one. Strange Creatures of Equestria. One of the pages was bookmarked, and I turned to it on instinct. It was about – guess what? – humans.

Humans are mysterious, mythical creatures that are claimed to not be from Equestria. Not much is known about their appearance, as nopony is still alive who has seen one. They are known to be great warriors that will be called upon when a great evil threatens Equestria.

Little is known about their powers aside from rumours and gossip. Some ponies think humans can transform at will. Some think humans are capable of magic more powerful than any unicorn or alicorn. Even more believe humans can wield the Elements of Harmony all by themselves. However, none of these claims can be confirmed for obvious reasons.

I shut the book, as the article ended there and went on to something called a parasprite. It bored me, so I turned to the next book. (My attention span isn’t very long, can you tell?)

The last book was simply titled Ponyville, so I figured it was essentially a handbook about this town. It was certainly thinner than the other two books. Opening it up, I started reading, actually curious this time.

Everything the book told me about Ponyville was stuff you readers probably already know. It included traditions, holidays, special events, and so on. By the time I finished reading, I was suppressing yawns. The girls still hadn’t come out of the back room. …No, Rylan! Bad dirty mind! Bad! I was about to go knock on the door when Twilight came out, still talking to the others over her shoulder.

“…it’d make more sense.” She turned to me. “Finished already, Rylan?”

“Just the important stuff.” I gestured to the three closed books beside me. Twilight sighed.

“Come on, Twilight! You honestly couldn’t have expected him to read all those books you gave him!” Rainbow defended me, flying in the air. I wondered why she couldn’t just walk on the floor, especially considering that’s what Fluttershy was doing, even though they were both pegasi.

“Well…I guess not.” Twilight sighed again, this time in defeat. “Anyway, Rylan, we were talking about getting you a place to stay for a while. At the moment, you can stay at any one of our homes except Rainbow’s. Unless you can fly.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Uh…no.”

“Then you can stay with any of the rest of us. Take your pick.”

I looked over the six mares – well, five, not counting Rainbow. I definitely didn’t want to be around Pinkie any longer than I had to, so she was out. I also didn’t particularly care for Fluttershy, who still had not said a word to me since that one apology a couple hours back. Twilight…well, she had been on the receiving end of most of my taunting and sarcasm so far, and I was smart enough to know spending the night with someone you’ve been making fun of was never a good idea. That left Applejack and Rarity. Hmm…annoying Southern accent, or being called “dear” every five seconds?

“Eh…Rarity,” I finally chose.

“Oh, good! I can finally take care of that little disaster!” Rarity practically jumped in joy. I did a double take.

“Disaster? What’s going on?”

“Why, your outfit, of course!” She gestured to my clothes. “Have you ever seen such a horrifying sight?”

I gave her a deadpanned look. “You’re asking if I have seen anything worse than a blue shirt and gray sweatpants?”

“…Yes?”

I considered telling her tales of my life back home, but decided it would be best to let them stay innocent for a while longer. “Just leave my clothes alone. They’re comfortable and that’s all I care about.“

“Why do you wear clothes, anyway?” Twilight asked. “It’s not like we do.”

I finally realized all of the ponies were lacking one thing: clothing. I then realized that I was in a room of said ponies, all of whom were female. Well…awkward.

“Uh…” I began to divert my eyes to avoid looking at them. “Humans are…anatomically different.“

“…What?” Rainbow sounded confused.

“We’re…built different from ponies.”

“Well, of course you are, silly!” Pinkie laughed and bounced around. Do they really not get what I mean? I sighed and finally looked at them again, glaring.

“We prefer to keep certain parts of our body covered up.”

Realization flashed across their faces, and in unison the six ponies blushed, diverting their eyes as I had done earlier. Awkwardness. Called it. I’m a genius. Give me my Nobel Prize.

“Er…well, I still think you need better clothing than that,” Rarity finally spoke up. “I could just make you some more…”

“You know what, go ahead. Just don’t make me look like an idiot.” I stood up. “What now?”

“We should probably head to my place now. It’s almost nighttime.” Rarity gestured out the window and I saw the sun setting. Surprised, I looked at my trusty watch. Eight-thirty.

“…Huh. So it is. Alright, let’s go.” I picked up my backpack and pulled it on. Thinking again, I pulled it off and unzipped it, pulling out my two knives. One of them still had some blood on it from the pegasus I stabbed earlier (if you’re worried, he was brought to the hospital and I was forgiven, so all is good). I slipped them into my shoes.

“We’re just walking through town, Rylan,” Rarity dryly remarked. “I don’t think you need to protect yourself that much.”

“Last time I thought that, I got this.” I rolled up the sleeve of my jacket and showed the huge scar I had on my left arm. Rarity winced at the sight. “Trust me. I’ve played enough video games to know that right when things look peaceful, something bad’s gonna happen.”

“…Video games?” Rainbow asked from the air.

“Oh, right. You don’t have them here.” I rolled my sleeve down. “Video games are basically just games that you play on a screen of sorts. You use devices called controllers to control what happens on the screen.” That was the shortest explanation I could think of.

“Interesting,” Twilight remarked.

“Yeah, it’s a lot better than it sounds. My favourite game is probably Halo: Reach. For some reason, I find something cool in the idea of landing on an alien planet and killing everything you see.” Silence answered me, so I looked around the room and saw the horrified looks on everypony’s faces. Whoops. “That…came out a lot worse than I intended it to.”

The time I spent at Carousel Boutique was pretty boring. I had a meeting with the princess at midnight, so I couldn’t go to sleep or I’d miss it. So I mainly just stood there, letting Rarity measure me for new clothes and hearing her complain about how unfashionable I was. Personally, I didn’t give a damn about fashion, but as much as I tried telling her that she didn’t listen.

Finally, she finished, so I sat around and watched her work. It was pretty boring. I couldn’t think of any conversations I could start. Finally, my watch showed the time as being ten minutes to midnight, so I stood up to head out.

“I’ll be back in a short while,” I called over my shoulder as I left. Rarity was too busy working to reply or stop me. Perfect timing.

I didn’t bring my backpack, but I kept my knives in my shoes, just in case. I kept a sharp eye out as I walked through town. Thankfully, the only ponies out and about seemed peaceful enough. They gave me a smile and a wave as I walked by, which I returned.

After a while of walking (and, admittedly, getting lost in the dark) I came to the field I had landed in when I woke up in the sky. I recognized the tree I had sat against and saw Princess Celestia standing by it.

“Hello Rylan,” she greeted me. “I trust things have been going well?”

“I’m a human who was mysteriously warped to a world of multicoloured talking equines and told I have to fight a great evil that will try to destroy this place if I don’t stop it using my great warrior powers.” I grinned and shrugged. “In all honesty, not the strangest thing that’s happened to me, so I’m good.”

Celestia chuckled. “I sense you doubt your skills.” Well, she’s quick and to-the-point, isn’t she?

“Kind of…” I put my hands in my pockets. “I’m not a warrior, princess. I’m just some guy who leads a crappy life. I haven’t killed a thing in my life, unless you count video games. Sure, I’ve put a few people in the hospital in self defense, but that’s it.” I sighed. “I don’t see any way I can help. Sorry.”

“Don’t be. Rylan, you may doubt your ability to handle this task, but believe me, you can do it. You just need some help.” She appeared to start using her magic, as her horn began to glow. I watched in awe. After a few seconds, she summoned a large box and deposited it in front of me.

“…What?” was all I could get out.

“Open it.”

I shrugged and reached for the box. I opened the flaps and looked inside. Inside I saw…a Legend of Zelda ripoff! (A sword and a shield.) Amused, I reached inside and pulled out the sword. My nerdiness compelled me to hold it over my head.

“DUN DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN!” I hummed. I turned back to the princess, who was looking at me like I was an idiot. “…Inside joke.”

“Ah.”

I reached back into the box and pulled the shield out. This time, I avoided acting any weirder than I already was. “Wait…you’re giving these to me?”

“Of course. They are yours to keep, to fight with, or even to name.” Celestia nodded and smiled. I raised an eyebrow.

“Name? Yeah, because I’m seriously going to give a name to an inanimate object.” Jokingly, I raised the sword to the sky dramatically. “By the power vested in me as a great human warrior, I dub thee, Ihsoylr!”

Crickets chirped. Celestia blinked. I stared at the sword I was still pointing at the sky.

“Yeah…no,” I finally said, lowering the sword. Finding a sheath in the box, I slid the sword into it and slung it over my shoulder, using the strap to keep it attached to my back. I hung the shield over it.

“Before you leave, I have one other thing to give you,” Celestia stopped me. She closed her eyes and her horn began to glow. I felt a strange wave pass through me, but this felt…good. After a few seconds, the wave passed and the princess opened her eyes, her horn no longer glowing.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I gave you a little bit of healing magic,” she answered. “By focusing, you can now heal others. However, by doing this, you will transfer their injuries to yourself.”

“…Why?”

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,” Celestia quoted. “You can’t magically heal someone without someone else being hurt.”

“I guess that makes sense,” I shrugged. In reality, I didn’t completely understand it, but I was tired from lack of rest and wanted to just get back to Carousel Boutique and sleep.

“That’s all. I will contact you when it is time for you to head off to find and defeat the evil that threatens Equestria.” Celestia turned to go. “Until then, spend your time adapting to pony life. Make friends. Enjoy yourself.” With a flash, she was gone. I stood there, confused, until I turned and walked away.

Arriving back at Rarity’s place, I walked inside and looked around. She was still working. I facepalmed and checked my watch. Half past midnight. Whoah, didn’t realize I was out that long.

“Hey Rarity, it’s getting late,” I mentioned nonchalantly as if it wasn't hilariously obvious. “Where am I staying tonight?”

“Oh, of course! Here, I’ll show you to the guest room.” She put down her tools and beckoned me to follow her. She brought me upstairs and took me to one of the bedrooms. As we arrived, she noticed the sword and shield I had on my back. “Rylan? What are those?”

I looked and saw what she was talking about. “The princess gave them to me.” I pulled off the shield. “This shield.” I pulled the sword out of its sheath. “And this sword…Ihsoylr.”

Next Chapter Preview:

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