Information and Offers

The food arrived fairly quickly considering that one order had already been brought up to young twilight's room already. The cart was brought up to the room and delivered without any fuss, although the maids did notice that the room did seem to be a lot more tense then the last time they brought food to the room. The maids did briefly wonder who the third pony was and why he was in the room with the princess and student, but decided that it wasn't really any of their business, not that this would stop the rumors of the young student having a coltfriend from spreading around the castle like wildfire.

Meanwhile three different sets of thoughts were going around and around, each trying to figure out were things stood and how everything would play out.

'If she wanted me dead then she probably would have attacked me already, that or she doesn't want Twilight caught in the crossfire that might happen. Then why did she offer to have more food brought up if she was just going to attack me? Also, she's the princess of this castle so she would probably be justified in any attack she does make. One thing is certain is that Twilight wasn't captured against her will or anything like that, it might be better if i just hightail it out of here. For now I guess I'll just have to play it by ear and see what happens.'

These were the thoughts of one white and blue pony as he sat on a chair that the princess was nice enough to conjure into the room for him while he munched on the daisy sandwich that the maids had brought in on the second cart. While he wasn't anywhere close to starving, it would be a lie to say he wasn't the littlest bit hungry. Trying to get all his thoughts and plans together while he ate, he kept his eyes on the white princess in front of him, occasionally turning his head in Twilight's direction and gauging her reaction to what was happening.

'This pony certainly is a strange one, that's for sure. The good news is that I don't detect any of Sombra's magic on him or anything evil about him at all. The only thing that I can detect is curiosity and a slight amount of caution when ever he looks at me, and considering he most likely knows that I'm the one who attacked him in the forest it understandable that he would be cautious. I do find it strange though how not only does it look like he never took a hit from me at all, but also the fact that his mind is so well shielded from me. I believe that even if I were to use all my power I would not be able to get past the barriers and they might act more... violent, instead of simply pushing me out. Either way it seems that a new and strange piece has been put on the board, the only question being how it will effect the game.'

While Celestia truly did care for her subjects and did her best to steer them in the right direction, instead of outright lording over them, she did have one or two plans that she had been sitting on that she would be upset if they were completely derailed due to a random pony appearing out of nowhere. On the other hand this same pony had saved all those plan by saving young Twilight's life from that hydra. In fact, it seemed Twilight was quite enraptured by the new guest. The proverbial light bulb went off in Celestia's head as she began to think up a plan to not only keep Twilight safe from harm until she could well and truly protect herself, but to possible make an ally out of the strange shadow wielding pony. With her idea slowly taking form in her head Celestia looked over at her favorite student to see what her reaction to this situation was. She smirked to herself when she saw that her student was still staring at the white pony, Celestia could almost hear the gears in her students head turning as she tried to figure out the strange new pony.

'I still can't believe that Shadow Buck can do all those things that he does, and he does it all without using any type of magic that I know of. This could be a great opportunity for me to study an entirely new type of magic! This could be the greatest magical discovery since the time of Starswirl the Bearded. Maybe he could teach me whatever type of magic he's using, after all, the best way to study a new type of magic would be to learn it.'

"Shadow Buck, I just wanted to properly thank you for saving my life back in the forest. If it wasn't for you I probably wouldn't be here right now."

Twilight's sudden apology brought both of the other ponies attention away from their silent musings and back to the real world. One of the ponies feeling nothing but pride in her student, the other feeling slight embarrassment at the attention now put on him.

"It really wasn't anything Twilight. I just happened to be close by and did what anyone with the power to help would have done."

Celestia was watching all this play out, having a good idea of were it was going, and couldn't help but cheer that Twilight was making it easier and easier for her to broach the subject that she so wanted to talk to this strange pony about. If it all worked out the way she thought it was going to then she could not only have a possible new friend for Twilight but also something else as well.

"That's not true at all though! Anyone else would have run away from a hydra, and no one would blame them. You ran right at it though with no other thoughts then helping me out. Also other's might not have been able to help as much as you did as hydras have a very high level of resistance to magic."

Twilight nervously swallowed as she was getting closer to the question that she really wanted to ask him, but was afraid that he would turn her down or worse not be able to at all.

"Which bring me to what I really wanted to ask you since you saved me from that hydra. Would you please teach me whatever type of magic it is that you use?"

Shock was the most prevalent emotion going through the other two ponies at the end of Twilight's question. One brought on by the fact that her student might learn anything close to dark magic, the other by the fact that anyone would actually want to be taught by him.

Shadow Buck took a moment to gather his thoughts as he pondered how to answer the young mares question. While it was true he felt some kind of connection to this mare and the thought of teaching other felt right to him, he had to consider all the fact. The truth of the matter was that he didn't know his power well enough to even begin to teach others in its use, heck he himself still barely understood it. Another point to consider was that he didn't know anything about himself either, namely whether he was a good or bad pony and if he had people after him who would then target others that he taught. Looking at Twilight's face though and how hopeful she was that he would say yes he thought long and hard about what he would say.

"While I'm flattered that you would want to be taught by me Twilight, I think that at this time at would be... unwise for me to teach you..." at this the young mares happy expression turned to sadness as she was upset that she not only wouldn't get to learn a new magic but also that she wouldn't be able to thank her savior by learning his ability. "but, when I regain my memories or have a much better understanding of how my powers work myself, I promise you that the choice to learn from me will still be open to you."

While it wasn't exactly what she wanted Twilight was happy it wasn't an outright no and could happily wait for the chance to learn a new magic.

Feeling that now was the best time to act, Celestia decided that now would be a great time to make her offer to the Shadow Buck and see what happened.

"Seeing as how you don't remember anything about yourself and don't have anywhere to really go at the moment, might I make a suggestion and an offer to you Shadow Buck?"

At this declaration the Princess had the undivided attention of both other occupants of the room. While Shadow had the idea to try and regain his memories he truly had no idea of how to go about doing that. Add in the fact that he was getting an offer from the princess of this land and he thought it would be a good idea to at least hear her out.

"Since you don't remember anything at all to give you a point in the right direction how would it sound if you were to be employed by the castle to guard young Twilight here from harm while also having access to out records and archives in the hopes that you might find some information about yourself? This would not only give you access to information that yo couldn't get anywhere else, but it would also allow you to spend time with Twilight and perhaps either regain your memory on your own or be close by in the case you feel up to the task of teaching her your power."

Both other occupants of the room were surprised at the offer that was being put out on the table.

Twilight was surprised that her mentor would assign her a guard like this, but considering what had happened with the hydra she shouldn't be to surprised by this fact. Plus it would be better to have someone who had saved her life and she felt somewhat comfortable around, rather then some stranger she had never met before. It would also let her do more research on how the white pony was able to use his powers.

Shadow Buck was shocked and confused at the offer being presented to him. While it was true that he really had nothing to his name, save for his sword, and that working for the castle would indeed give him access to things that he normally wouldn't be able to get his hooves on he was curios as to why the princess would allow almost a complete stranger to watch over her student rather then some of the guards that she had around. Before answering her he needed to ask some questions first and figure out exactly what it was he would be doing and for how long.

"Assuming that I did take this job I have a couple of question about it and the duties that I would be to preform before I make any decision at all."

"Of course, please ask away and I will answer to the best of my ability."

"Alright then my first couple of question are easy enough, namely what exactly would my job be and how long would you like me to guard her for?"

"Your job would simply entail keeping a close eye of Twilight and making sure that she stays safe. As for how long, either until you think that she can completely protect herself, or if you ever feel like you don't want to guard her anymore. The decision is completely up to you."

"Alright then that seems easy enough and it sounds fair to me. Another question is how would you want me to guard her? Would you like me to always be around and in view, or would you like me to preform it in more of a shadow role?"

"I'm not quite sure what you mean by that."

"It's simple really. Due to my powers I could simply hide in either the shadows around Twilight or in her actual shadow. Would you want me to guard her this way or would you rather I be in plain sight for all to see and know that she is protected?"

"I believe that will be left up to your discretion and what you feel the situation will best call for."

"Then my final question is simple really, and it's not for you." At this he turned to face Twilight who had been quite all this time. "Twilight do you even want me to guard you?"

Twilight quickly thought on whether or not she truly wanted to be guarded. While weighing all the pros and cons of having a guard in her head she also thought on if she wanted Shadow Buck specifically to guard her. She came to her conclusion rather quickly.

"I think it would be fine Shadow Buck. The princess is right, with me being her student someone could try to get to her be coming after me, and while I'm confident in my magic abilities, if they take that away I would be in a lot of trouble. I would love to have you as my guard. Plus if your guarding me then I can get the chance to see your powers i action and maybe help you figure out how they work."

With her piece said all eyes in the room turned towards Shadow Buck to see if he would accept or not.

"Well if that's the case then Princess Celestia, you have yourself a guard. My only stipulations are that I can leave whenever I want, and that I have a month before I official begin to guard Twilight."

"Of course you can leave at anytime you want, I just ask that you give me notice so that I can assign another guard to Twilight. As for your other stipulation, why exactly do you need a month before you start to guard her?"

"Their are two reason as to why I need to have a month before I can start to properly guard her, not saying I won't keep my eye on her in the mean time, but for the majority of the month I need to read up on a bunch of things that don't quiet come to mind. Things such as the geography and creatures that are around us, not to mention history and other stuff that I don't remember."

"If that's the case then how did you know what a hydra was, or what a unicorn or alicorn is?"

"That's because I get these little brief flashes of information when I see new things like that. The information just sort of pops into my head. I would rather not have to really on something like that though and just want to know more about things that I would have to protect Twilight from or should already know about."

"That makes sense I guess but what was your second reason, you said that you had two of them."

At this Shadow Buck put on the biggest smilethat either of the other pony had ever seen and replied with one simply word.

"Training."

Author's Note

As always I would love to get some feedback on how I did, you know let me know what you liked and didn't like. Let me know if I missed anything or stuff like that. Until next week guys and gals. Also next chapter will have a bunch more action then this chapter. just needed to explain a bunch of stuff this chapter.