(coronation time)
Hours have passed since the train's departure from the Ponyville station. Chance has been evading train staff checking for stow-aways, and everyone in general, since departure. Currently, he is hopping from car to car, roof to roof, to avoid staff.
"I see a castle in the distance," Chance thought outloud, kneeling on the roof of a train car. The curved surface of the cars were difficult to maintain balance on, but he found a way to hold on.
By applying pressure to the tips of his fingers and the base of his palm, Chance was able to grip the roof like a basketball and pretty much spiderman-ed the whole ride. I know what you're thinking, what about his feet making noise as he moves foreward? I will strangle yo... Well, over the years, Chance has mastered the art of ninja-walking. Yes, it's an art.
That capital city of Canterlot drew closer. Chance heared loud squeals comming from under him. That is surprising since the sound of rushing wind practically deafened him.
"Wow," Chance said in awe. "It's beautiful. I'm gunna end up fanboying over the architecture."
The castle was beautiful. The towers, observatories, balconies, and... a river? An artificial river? Storm drain? Doesn't matter, it's a way to get into the city without being noticed. As the train drew closer to the river, chance saw the front of the train enter a tunnel just above the river, and it's coming in fast. This has to be timed just right, or else chance is gunna be splattered on the cliffside like a bug on a car's windshield.
It was all or nothing. Chance ran over to the caboose, careful not to make noise. He stopped on the last car before the caboose. A waterfall cascaded over them, the cool mist felts great in the warm mid-afternoon air.
"Mmm, that feels nice," the human said, closing his eyes as the mist dampened his skin.
It was time. The tunnel swallowed the cars before his, as Chance prepared to leap off the train. He closed his eyes and leaped off the train. Chance opened his eyes to see the horrible mistake he made. He jumped too late.
"Aw shit," was the only thing that left his mouth before he hit the cliffside shoulder first. So much pain. The human hit the water like a rock, and just sank to the bottom. Air bubbles rose to the surface in large quantities, as chance screamed in pain underwater.
[meanwhile] "Twitchy tail!" the pink pony yelped, jumping out of her seat and holding her plot.
The other ponies looked at her with surprise, then they dived under their seats, one after another.
"What's gunna fall Pinkie?" a rainbow maned pegasus asked from under her seat.
As quickly as it happened, Pinkie's tail stopped twitching. It just stopped twitching. "Huh?" she said. "That's weird, my tail stopped a-twitch a-twitchin'."
"That's never happened bafore," an orange mare said crawling out from under her seat.
"I agree with Applejack," said a white unicorn as she emerged. "Whatever was falling has probably fallen."
[back in the river] Chance breached the surface and breathed a lungfull of sweet dioxide. He held his shoulder in pain. He hit the cliff side hard. It would be a miracle if there wasn't any broken bones. Slowly, the human rolled up his sleeve, and it stung... like... HELL. The skin was scraped at the impact site, bruised in the surrounding area, and from the feel of it, a small hairline fracture on his clavicle.
"Damn," the human hissed in pain. "This isn't good. I got to find something to bandage this up when I get in."
Chance rolled his sleeve back down, wincing as the wet cloth made contact with the open wound on his shoulder.
"Ok," he said. "Now I gotta figure out which way to town." The human just went against the current and swam up river, with one arm of course.
Of course it took a little extra work to swim against the current, let alone swim with one arm, but Chance took it anyways. He always liked a good challenge, every now and then. For example, Back when he was in high school, he would always take the more difficult projects in architecture class. Whether it was a two story home, or a dodecagon (12-sided polygon) shaped house, drafted and modeled in 3d, he would take up the challenge.
The trip upstream was a challenge indeed. Chance was already panting and using the cliff face as support against the current. The cool water soaked into his clothes and is more than likely pruning. It had been several minutes since his plummet from the train, and his unintended injury, and Chance had made some progress upstream. Even though the pain from the fractured clavicle was just under unbearable, he powered through. To top it off, he found something promising, a storm sewer outlet, and near by too. Of course there's going to be a little bit of climbing involved.
"Almost there," Chance grunted panting. "Just a little more."
Chance fell back on the rocky river bank, just bellow the storm sewer outlet's opening. Panting, tired, and in pain, the human looked up at the drain above him. He slowly got up and looked over to the horizon. The vast amounts of green... greens was beautiful. The way the sun hit the fields and forests was simply devine. But enough of that.
The human climbed to the storm drain outlet, unfortunately he was forced to use both arms. He pulled himself into the drain, saying "ow" repeatedly. There was a trickle of water running through the drain, making it especially hard to maintain a grip. It stank in there, like the drain of a clogged bathtub, with hair. Chance dry heaved at the smell as he rose to his feet and repositioned his wounded arm.
"Ugh," He said. "Smells like 'Batman and Robin!'"
He started to make his way into the storm drain. Gags, dry heaves, and splashing footsteps echoed through the moldy concrete tube that ran under the capital city of Canterlot. Chance had his uninjured arm covering his nose and mouth in an almost vain effort to block out the unpleasant smell of the storm sewer.
Granted it was dark in the concrete tube, but Chance was still able to see even with the lack of light. The sun barely shined through the occasional storm drain and rarely man-hole, or "stallion-hole?", covers, plus the light from the human's glowing irides, there wasn't much light to work with. He progressed alot, got pretty far into the capital city. He looked up from a storm drain and saw many ponies pass by without even noticing him.
"And when you're down here with me, you'll float too," Chance mumbled looking through the storm drain grating. He observed the ponies for a while and noticed they were all heading into the same general direction. "Hmm, where're they going? No matter, I got to get out of here before I throw up...some more."
Chance ran to the nearest man-hole and climbed up the tube. The light blinded him when the heavy metal lid was removed. Clean air rushed into his lungs as the human litterally dragged himself out of that hole with one arm. He breathed deeply as he looked around at the scenary.
The buildings looked... regal. Really nice looking, white with barely any imperfections. The roofs were lined with... gold?
'What a waste,' though Chance.
The roofs were swirly cone shapes and had a flag pole at every tip. Cute. No ponies around for some reason. Curious, the human went to round a corner in hopes of seeing anypony. Fortunately a breeze swept by and made his shoulder sting. The area of his shirt that covered the human's wound went form gray and white stripes to red and black.
Chance made haste to find something to find the nearest first-aid kit. More than likely the wound in chances shoulder is crawling with bacteria and such. That and it was time to change out the bandages on his arm from the previous night.
[time skip]
Chance roamed through the mostly empty capital city of Canterlot, and he wondered, 'Where the hell is everyone?' So far, he has been able to avoid the 5 ponies from Ponyville, along with several guards on patrol, and some random rich-looking ponies. He did break into a business to switch out his bandages and bandage up his shoulder wound, all though the hairline fracture on his clavicle was something else.
Anyways Chance was currently closing in on Canterlot Castle. One problem though, a MASSIVE crowd of ponies stood between him and the palace. A sea of ponies as far as the eye could see. Suddenly, a voice. A barritone of a generously flirtatious demeanor. It was all familiar to Chance.
'That voice,' Chance thought. 'Could it be?'
Chance traced the sound of that voice to the end of the alley he found himself in. As he neared the source, he could hear another voice accompanying him. Their conversation became clearer and clearer as he neared despite the huge noise that eminated from the crowd, so he knew he was close.
"Wow, Mr. Mane," said one voice. "You are such a gentlecolt."
"It is my pleasure," said the other. "And please, call me 'Bruce.'"
That was it. That voice was that of the Dark knight himself. (I love the Kevin Conroy Batman the best, and I like to imagine Bruce Mane's voice being his. Mainly because I grew up with that Batman.) Chance inched his way to the end of the alley. Peeking around the corner he saw him, Bruce Mane
'Bruce Mane,' Chance thought. 'Heh, word play.'
Bruce was a sky blue earth pony with a slicked back dark gray/black mane and 3 pentagrams as a cutie mark, and wore a white collar with a black tie. He was with a unicorn mare, pale gray with a rusty red mane. Her cutie mark is covered by a silver dress.
"Ok, Bruce," said the mare with a giggle. "What brings a stallion of you status to Canterlot?"
"Well Ms. Valentine," Bruce said. "I was comming to see the Princesses on plans to expand Mane Enterprises to Canterlot, but it seems that they're pretty busy at the moment. I guess that I may have to extend my stay, not that I mind"
"Oh, Bruce," she giggled. "Behave yourself."
"Ok," Chance said. "Im out of here."
The human winded through the alleys of Canterlot in his effort to infiltrate the castle. Of course, this is all in the name of keeping the universes safe. It's not like he enjoys doing this. He consantly wishes of returning to his home, but clearly he has none at the monent. He's had little forms of shelter since leaving his dimmention. Yeah, he's had a few close calls with death but that's for another time.
"This place has less security than I expected for a capital," Chance said. "Even with an 'event' going on, there's still too little security even for a capital. Normally I would be arrested upon arrival. Something doesn't feel right about this."
Suddenly a tower of the castle was illuminated in a magenta light from within. The light grew brighter and expanded. The light engulfed the tower and soont he castle itself. Upon close inspection, the light was a forcefield, and it was expanding, fast.
"Not good," Chance said, scanning the alley he was in.
By this time the forcefield had engulfed the entire castle and is consuming the courtyard. Chance found a dumpster not too far away, but was it close enough to beat the field that aproaches?
Throwing caution into the wind, the human sprinted to the dumpster. The forcefield was very close. With the dog-like reflexes that he picked up from another universe, don't ask, the human leaped head-first into the dumpster, making the lid close, just barely evading the forcefield.
The energy field engulfed the dumpster and continued to cover the entire capital city of Canterlot. It stopped and dimmed down to a dark magenta color. Soon after its seemed to dissipate to nothing.
Chance grit his teeth and held his breath to hold in the painful scream that was in his throat. That and he was in dumpster. The human waited till the pain in his shoulder dulled away.
"Damn," he said in a strained voice. "Probably not one of my best decisions."
Chance held his shoulder as he slowly opened the lid of the dumpster enough to peek through the opening. What he witnessed nearly gave him a heart attack. His glowing eyes met the passing armor of a guard.
'Shit,' he thought. 'Shit, shit, shit, shit.'
The guard passed by as though he didn't see the human in the dumpster. Chance ducked back in almost as soon as he saw the armor. There he waited in the foul smelling dumpster for minutes, nearly suffocating from the horrible smell. He could not take it any more, he burst through the lid and threw up on the ground in front of him.
"Oh God," he said, breathing heavily good 'ol fresh air. "That was close."
The human realized something. The armor was different than the ones on the guards he previously encountered. The guards he avoided had white fur with blue manes and golden armor, gray fur with silver manes and the same armor, and others gray ones with dark blue armor. This one, no. This one was different all together. The armor was bright silver, their fur was a lighter white than the other guards, and the mane was red.
"That was... Different? Are they on to me? They should be if I made it this far, and if not, they need a serious overhaul on security."
Chance climbed out of the dumpster, brushed off any trash that stuck to him, and continued his journey.
"I need a fricken shower when this is over."
[time skip]
"There it is," The human said. "The castle. Where the fuck is security. At least some a cop or something."
Chance looked around for a way in as he cursed the lack of security. He knows he's breaking into a castle, WITH royalty living in it, but it strikes him as odd that there is very little security in the vicinity. If Chance was storming the White House, he'd be taken down almost immidiately. But this, it's just too easy.
"Well," he said. "It's been a while since I last used this. Hopefully I don't overshoot it."
The human dropped down on one knee, and concentrated. He took a deep breath and leaped high above the ground, over the castle walls, and to the ground on the other side. He landed quietly and luckily, no one was around. A small headache formed when soon after he landed.
"Now I remember why I stopped using that," Chance said holding the side of his head.
Chance learned to use the power of his own mind in one of the universes he's visited. He usually doesn't use it unless he really needs it. This is due to the amount of energy it requires and the physical toll it takes.
The human drug his feet to the nearest wall and kept going, using the wall as a crutch. His head still hurt as he trudged on through. Through the castle doors, and up the many stairs, Chance made his way though the castle interior.
"Wow," he said looking around. "This place is beautiful."
The cieling was high and arched. The windows were large and brought in light like no other. It was truly it was a beautiful sight to behold. At the end of the hall of windows was a 4 way intersection.
"Oh, great."
A door opened in the hall directly infront of of his. In a panic, the human ran down the hall to the right. He found a janitor's closet not too far, barged in and locked himself in.
"That was close. Don't wanna blow my cover...some more."
It smelled nice in the closet, like that floor polish/cleaner that your mom/grandma always used when the floors needed cleaning. Lemony, fresh, outdoors-y. The lightbulb clicked above the human's head. Chance looked for the floor cleaner among the many shelves of cleaning products, toiletry, and tools. And after a few minutes of searching, he found it, Pony-sol: Original. Chance chuckled at the name and poured the liquid all over himself.
"That should take care of the smell I picked up over the past few hours."
He shook himself dry and left the closet. But as luck would have it, this didn't go smoothly.
"Oh, dear aunt Celestia," a voice from behind said. "Who let the filthy animal in?"
Slightly insulted by that statement, Chance faced the owner of the voice. There stood a nearly white-gray, amber-maned suited unicorn stallion. The look on his face was that of annoyance and disgust.
"I'm sorry who's the animal?" Chance asked, feeling isulted by this pompous ass. He looked over the stallion and saw that he wore the peak lapel of a suit that didnt seem to exist, a light blue dickey with an indigo bow tie.
"Ugh, the vermin talks," the stallion sneered.
"Vermin?" Chance approached the stallion as his neon eyes glowed brighter. "Listen here, I am in no way considered vermin. I am here on officially unofficial buisness, and... and..."
Suddenly the human's sinuses burned like hell. His muscles tensed, his face twisted into an odd expression as he felt the sneeze come. And with out any other warning, he sneezed. ALL over the pompous stallion.
The stallion let loose a shrill, girlish shriek as the feeling of getting sneezed on set in and fainted. Fear shot through Chance as he looked at the stallion's uncoscious body.
"Oh shit, I think I just killed him with foreign bacteria." The stallion then groaned but didnt regain consciousness. "Oh, that's a relief. Well better hide him before someone finds him like this."
The human dragged the pony into the closet. He propped the body against a wall and playfully placed a hoof between his hind legs. Chance laughed at the position he left the pony in and left.
Running down the hall, Chance functioned on gut instinct. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he progressed to the end of the hall, where a lone set of doors stood. Bursting through the doors, a set of spiral stairs lied in the path of the human. He growled and jumped up the stairs, removing the bandages he competely forgot about from his arm and dumping them on the stairs.
"We are gathered here today in celebration of a momentous occasion," a voice permeated from the walls.
'The hell?' Chance thought, reaching the top of the stairs.
"My most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, has done many extraordinary things since she's lived in Ponyville," the voice said again. Chance opened the door a bit, just enough to see through. "She even helped reunite me with my sister, Princess Luna."
"Princess?" he muttered. Chance scanned the room on the other side. Hundreds of colorful ponies gathered around an altar. Standing on said altar were 3 allicorns, in intricate looking crowns, and the ponies from the train station. The first alicorn was a dark saphire one with a long flowing mane like the night sky. The second was the tallest in attendance, and was the one who was speaking, was a VERY pale pink. If one were to see her from afar they would mistake it for a white coat. Her mane was flowing and longer than the first, only this one was an array of colors. Though not exactly a rainbow, it was close to being one. The third was an unknown shade of pink/magenta with an unreal tricolor mane. "The hell? My eyes are gunna go blind from all the colors in this place"
"But today, Twilight Sparkle did something extraordinary. She created new magic, proving without a doubt that she is ready to be crowned Equestria's newest princess."
"Twilight? The librarian the children told me about? Wait. Magic?"
"Fillies and gentlecolts, may I present for the very first time, Princess Twilight Sparkle!" The large doors at the end opened up upon the sentence's completion, letting in the purple pony from this morning along with several identical mares and guards.
'This is flippin' confusing,' he thought.
The mares and guards started singing on cue with the main doors to the altar opening, "Thou Princess Twilight cometh Behold, behold." The mares and guards stopped and turned face before the steps of the altar while Twilight approached the alicorns. "A Princess here before us Behold, behold, behold Behold, behold (behold, behold.)" The little purple dragon was there as well. He held a golden crown on a pillow and presented it to the alicorns. A golden aura encased it as it rose and rested on Twilight's head. Her horn flashed as she faced the crowd of ponies. They all turned and stepped onto the balcony that opened behind them. "The Princess Twilight cometh Behold, behold (behold, behold) The Princess is The Princess is here!" And the crowd went wild as they left.
"Great, I lost visual," Chance muttered. "And maybe hearing as well. Damn, they're loud."
[On the balcony]
Luna, Celestia, and Twilight walked out onto the balcony overseeing a sea of multicolored ponies. Cheering deafened the princesses as confetti and streamers rained down from seemingly nowhere. Twilight sheepishly waved down to the crowd below "Say something, Princess," Celestia wispered to Twilight, nudging her slightly.
"Oh. Um..." Twilight said clearing her throat as she stepped up. "A little while ago, my teacher and mentor Princess Celestia sent me to live in Ponyville. She sent me to study friendship," she turned to her friends, "which is something I didn't really care much about." She waved them to come. And come they did. "But now, on a day like today, I can honestly say I wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for the friendships I've made with all of you. Each one of you taught me something about friendship, and for that, I will always be grateful." The ponyville gang teared up in pure joy as Twilight bowed her head to them and faced the crowed again. "Today, I consider myself the luckiest pony in Equestria. Thank you, friends. Thank you, everypony!" Upon completion of her speech, the crowd went crazy and the princesses and the Ponyville gang re-entered the altar.
"Aaand they're back," Chance muttered. "Who's this guy?"
A pale blue, nearly white stallion in a red military jacket stepped up to Twilight and hugged her with tears in his blue eyes.
"Twilight! I'm so proud of you!" he said hugging her.
"Are you crying?" the new princess asked.
"Of course not. It's... it's liquid pride. Totally different thing," he answered covering his tracks by wiping his tears away.
"Pfff," the human said behind the door, rolling his eyes.
They laughed together as they hugged again, backing off as the rest of the Ponyville gang approached
"Way to go, Princess!" Applejack said.
'This is a shot in the dark but, I think that's Squee's sister,' Chance thought.
"Best coronation day ever!" Pinkie said appearing from nowhere.
'Oh great, it's her. What the hell? Bruce?'
"We love you, Twilight," Fluttershy whispered, barely audible by the human behind the door in the corner.
"I love you too, girls!" Twilight said as they gathered for a group hug.
The doors opened as guards lined up the walls and between the princesses and the other 5. Realizing that he could be discovered, Chance closed the door and stayed behind the door for a while, somehow going unnoticed by the passing guards that exited through that same door.
Nearly an hour later, The human entered the altar. It was empty. He roamed the large room, admiring its beauty.
"'Tis a beautiful design," Chance wistled, standing in the middle of the room. "I would love to meet the architect. And by the looks of this cieling, not a chance."
A fanfare rang out from outside, grabbing the attention of the castle's intruder. He tilted his head and walked down the aisle, up the steps, and out onto the balcony.
"Life in Equestria shimmers," sang Twilight. "Life in Equestria shines, And I know for absolute certain"
"'Equestria?'" Chance muttered, peering over the rails of the balcony.
The crowd below was parted like the Red Sea, lined with guards as a carriage trailed by the librarian princess and her friends. Several pegasi were flying above their heads as they made their way through the streets of Canterlot. Chance looked below the balcony he was on and immediately retracted his head. The princesses were directly under him.
"That everything (everything) Yes, everything Yes, everything is certainly fine It's fine." The ponies finnished their song as the newly crowned princess Twilight spread her wings and soared through the air.
"Yes! Everything's going to be just fine!" The purple alicorn said.
The Ponyville gang looked on with smiles on their faces as their friend flew into the distance.
"Wait, Twilight just got wings," Applejack pointed out. "How does she know how to fly?"
A collective silence grew on the ponies as they realize what is about to happen to their friend. Rainbow Dash took flight, rolling her eyes.
"I got her. Hopefully she hasn't gotten herself seriously hurt," she said dashing off.
The courtyard was almost devoid of ponies as the remaining ponyville gang returned to the castle.
Meanwhile, Chance had left the altar and was roaming the halls of the castle. He muttered to himself in a language that didn't exist in any universe. He checked the wound on his fore arm, looking for any signs of infection. So far there was none that he could see but there was more than likely to be a scar, nothing too bad.
"This would be alot easier if there wasn't a risk of mass panic," Chance muttered. "Although by now, that Ponyville place is probably up to their necks in shit because of me."
'Note to self: make sure that in the next universe is able to handle my presence.'
Looking ahead, there was another 4-way corridor. The human heard clopping of hooves, and they were... running? Chance stuck close to the wall in an effort to not get caught. He knows it's not a good idea but there was no other option at the moment.
Flush. "Whoo," Applejack said washing her hooves. "Ah've been holdin' that in for hours."
The orange pony turned off the water valve and left the bathroom. However, when she opened the door, in a nutshell, she opened Pandora's box. Just as Applejack left the bathroom, a guard, similar to the one Chance saw, rounded the corner adjacent to the hall she was in. He froze as they locked eyes. As soon as the mare opened her mouth to greet the guard, he turned and bailed, but not before accidentally clipping a corner, breaking off a piece of his armor.
Applejack saw this and called out to him. "Hey, wait!"
She started to persue him after picking up the armor piece. Her persuit winded all over the castle. The guard gained more distance from the athletic Applejack and he eventually led her to a dead end. She rounded a corner and he was gone. Nothing but another intersection and a door at the end. She trotted up to the door, completely missing Chance's presence in the hall she just passed.
'Shit,' thought Chance as Applejack passed him.
While Those two were busy, Chance took the opportunity to slip past them. However, when Chance made it half-way through the corridor, the device in his pocket went off. The loud beeping went on and on as the human fumbled in his pocket for the device. He finally got to the device and shut it off.
It dawned upon him that there was someone in the same place as him. The human straightened up and slowly turned to Applejack, who was staring at him wide-eyed. He laid eyes on the orange mare in the dress.
"Umm," Chance warily said. "Hi?"
