Vanquish

"What? What do you mean it got away?"

Celestia had arrived at the Everfree Forest with Lieutenant Steel Blade a few seconds ago and had expected to see the creature here with the guards surrounding it. What she found instead was a couple of guards sitting down talking, looking as if they'd seen a ghost and the creature was nowhere to be seen. A guard was currently telling her what had transpired there.

"Well, your highness, we surrounded the creature quite fast. I decided to get close to it. I asked it if it could understand me and it nodded. I figured that if it could understand me, it could talk. I asked it if it could talk and it nodded again. I then asked it why it wasn't speaking if it could. Then, it said that it didn't feel like talking to a bunch of "colourful animals". I took offense to this and said in a stern fashion that we weren't animals and that we were the royal guard who protect the princesses. I think it got angered by this as a weird object came out of its body and it pointed it at me. It was what I presumed to be a weapon. It pointed it in the air and it made a very loud sound. We flinched back out of surprise and the creature seemed to take it as an opportunity to get away. It ended up running further into the woods and some pegasi guards followed it. One unicorn guard tried to stop the creature with his magic, but it wouldn't work."

Celestia now had a confused expression on her face.

"What do you mean his magic didn't work?"

"I mean, your highness, that when he tried to use his magic on the creature, nothing happened. His horn glowed, but that was it. The creature didn't even notice it, I don't think."

Before Celestia could say her reply to that, Steel Blade butted in.

"That can't be true. No animal in the Everfree can withstand magic to the point where it doesn't even work on it at all."

The guard looked at Steel Blade with a determined expression.

"I'm not lying sir, I swear. I saw it with my own eyes."

Steel Blade pondered on that for a moment. After a few seconds, he sighed and nodded. "Okay, I believe you. I guess. What's your name and rank?"

The guard soluted. "Sir, I am private Mystic Bane, sir!"

Steel Blade nodded. "Alright private. Thank you for the information. You're dismissed."

"Yes sir. No problem sir!" The private galloped off back to his fellow guards. Celestia walked up to Steel Blade with a smirk.

"I was going to say something before you spoke, Steel Blade."

Steel Blade blushed and bowed. "Oh! I'm sorry, your highness. Is there anything I can do to..." He didn't get to finish his sentence as it was Celestia's turn to butt in.

"Hush, my royal guard. I did not take offense. I am just teasing."

The guard chuckled a bit at that. "Oh. Heh. Sorry, your highness."

Celestia smiled and thought about what the private had said. She looked to Steel Blade with a serious expression. "Lieutenant Steel Blade, if that private was telling the truth, then this could be serious. A creature that isn't affected by magic at all is not exactly common. It's impossible, if you think about it, as magic is everywhere. Inside of every creature on this planet. He also said it had what appeared to be a weapon, which also isn't good. We have to find this creature and soon, before it hurts anypony. I don't know if that's its intention, but we can't be too sure."

Steel Blade nodded. The princess was right. If this thing wasn't affected by magic and had a weapon of some sort, it could be dangerous. Very dangerous.

"You're right as always, your highness. I shall round up these guards as they have seen it before. They might come in handy when we look for it."

Celestia nodded and smiled. "A very good decision, my guard. Take care of everypony, including yourself. I will fly in the air and see if I can see anything in the far reaches of the Everfree."

Steel Blade looked nervous, all of a sudden. "Princess, are you sure you want to do that? I can always have some pegasai guards fly to the far reaches of the.."

Celestia suddenly had a stern, but grateful look on her face. "I am grateful that you worry about me, Steel Blade. But I will be fine. There is no need to send pegasai guards. I will do it myself. Stay safe, my guard."

Steel Blade saluted and bowed as Celestia took off into the air. "You too, your highness."

"I bet this place wasn''t too shabby when it wasn't falling apart."

Sam had been in the building for an hour or two now. He didn't know. He didn't care. All he cared about was finding out where he was and how he could get back to providence. If he even could get back.

When he had first gotten to the building from the woods, he guessed that it was some sort of old castle from the appearance. He also couldn't find a way in. The front door (or rather, big wooden wall as he called it) was locked, the back entrance was locked and there was nowhere else to get in. That's until he found a small entrance what used to be a wall. It had crumbled and fell down so much that it had made an opening. He knew that the horses would eventually find that entrance and get in, but he wasn't worried about that too much. He wasn't planning on staying in here long anyway.

He took a look around the place for a while and was astounded by what he found. He saw paintings and robes on the walls. Most of them showed creatures. All of them looked like the weird horses he had encountered earlier, except these looked like royality. They had some sort of crown and regalia on. There were two different horses in the paintings and the robes. One was pure white, apart from the golden regalia it had on and it didn't have just wings or a horn. It had both. The other one was the same except it was a sort of dark blue colour, the regalia matched the colour of its coat and it was a bit shorter than the white one. It also had a horn and wings.

"Interesting."

They also had some horseshoes on. The white one had golden ones and the blue one had...dark blue ones on.

"I can see that the shorter one had a thing for the colour blue. Hell, even its fur is blue."

He chuckled to himself and then a thought popped into his head. "If I'm right and these two are some sort of royality, then these horses must have a government, a hierarchy or something along those lines."

Sam eventually found, what he presumed to be, an old bed room. The bed was somehow still intact, even if it was dusty as hell. He decided that seen as no one was here yet, he'd have a quick nap. He deserved one after todays events.

He lied down and slowly closed his eyes behind his helmet.

"Let's hope that them horses don't find me while I'm taking a nap."