I spent a great lot of time with the Princess and mister Discord, and I learned lots of thing about what we were allowed to do in Equestria. Mainly that we were 'Royal Guests' for the time being. Without Verso to focus on important things, I guess I missed a lot of important infos, but that's his fault for being grumpy.

Still, it meant that we were now living in a castle full of magical ponies and had direct contact with royalty. It sure changes from living alone with Verso in our room for years. Oh, and that we had guards protecting us. And guess what? The three ponies that Verso hurt more or less by accident were part of them! I'm not sure why I'm so about about it, though. Probably has to do with the fact that Verso still had to apologize to them.

They're fine, by the way. Apparently, the overloaded spell just kinda fried their nerves, making them feel just like my mindmate did for a moment. And that's pretty impressive, 'cause Verso stayed awake and could even fight a magical princess. Sometimes, I get the feeling that he is a bit OP, but that's just me.

Sadly, Princess Celestia had to leave us after lunch (daisiy sandwiches taste horrible, by the way. Who would have thought?), royal duties calling for her attention. I can't help but imagine her walking inside a war room to review the denfenses of the land, but I think that her sitting on a throne and waiting to hear a herd of whining ponies telling her to do their job is a better guess. Wow, that's pretty depressive. At least I hoped she doesn't have an even whinier nephew that was just insufferable and took every commoner from so far above he could very well be walking on the ceiling. But that's just me.

That left me alone with Discord and a few guards. Well, nothing could go wrong.

"I get the feeling they didn't like your joke all that much, mister Discord!" I informed the flying chimera as we were running away from the flocks of guards that were currently shouting at us with voices so high it looked like the very air they were breathing was filled with helium. Wich was the case, thanks to mister Discord. It still sounds so funny.
"Come back here!" an earth pony ordered with the funniest chipmunk voice.
"Oh, it's all in good fun, Recto," mister Discord told me. "We're having fun, they're doing something for once and nobody is getting hurt."
I considered his words while side-stepping to dodge a magic beam. "I dunno, they seem pretty convinced that they should at least pile-drive us if they get their hand, err... hoof on us."
"Where would be the fun without a bit of danger?" He asked before snapping his claw and covering the floor behind us with soap, a maneuver that earned him a collective frustration and surprised filled scream from our pursuers.

I heard a clatter of armor and saw one of the earth pony guards zip ahead of me, trying to stop his glide with all his might, and ultimately failing. I giggled and followed mister Discord through a hole filled with rainbows. I could comment on that, but it turns out there's just to much strange things happening around him to try and be logical. All that I know is that it closed behind us and that I heard several 'thumps' coming from inside the corridor.

We arrived in a garden filled with statues. What a strange place to find in the castle of a supposedly kind ruler; statues are creepy, everyone knows that. In the stories I've read, only evil witches that do evil spells during their evil night and always laugh with an evil laughter have those. They usually create them themselves, like some sort of Medusa and her petrifying stare. It dawned upon me that I still haddn't seen Celestia's right eye. Maybe she had a Medusa-like stare and turned people that displeased her into stone? I shook my head to get rid of this ridiculous idea.

"Oh, I spent so much time here, you know," mister Discord told me. "I had been too much of a jerk and got turned into a statue for a thousand years. Ah, good times."

Or maybe she does. Who knows?

"You were a statue?" I thought for a second, and remembered description of stone creatures with strange powers. "Are you a gargoyle?"
He glanced at me, surprised. "A gargoyle? You should listen to your Verso-buddy more often, he is closer to the reality with me being a 'chimera'. But I'm a draconequus."
I blinked. "'Draconequus'? What are those?"
"Draconequi at plural, youngin'. And there's only me, so don't bother searching for a lost civilisation of incredibly attractive demigods."
I blinked again. "Why is there a plural if there's only you? In fact, if you're the only one of your species, why did you even bother searching for a species name?"

He shuddered and glanced at me, dread in his eyes.

"I think it's good for you that you haven't encountered one of these crazy pony biologists that make sure that every living being has a place in the animal kingdom. Yet." He shivered again. How could he get cold on a sunny afternoon with all his fur? "And to think I chose this exact form just to mess with them..."

I would have inspected the issue further, but I was soon distracted by someone waking up loud enough to raise the deads.

Verso! You're back! You slept for hours!
I wasn't sleeping, he replied grouchly.
Yeah, you were pouting. His half of our mind went rather stormy on my remark, but I continued anyway. I have lots of things to tell you! I...
Wait a sec, I'll just...

Have you ever been tickled from the inside of your skull? If you haven't, you can't exactly understand how it felt when Verso skipped the briefing part and immediately went reading my memories instead. If you have... Well, you have strange pastimes. I giggled and waited for him to finish.

You do know there is no way in HELL that i'm ever apologizing to that blue witch, don't you?
Yes you will! I retorted. And you won't act all angry again because we will get in prison if you do.
Prison? Ah!He laughed darkly. I doubt the 'Princess' even begin to know a thing about imprisonment.
You'll still behave, right?

He hesitated a lot longer than he should have before answering.

... If it makes you happy, I will. I'll even accept Moon Butt's apology if you want, but I certainly won't even think about being sorry for what I did if she doesn't excuse herself first.
See? You can't be nearly nice to others when you try to!
"Am I interrupting something?" mister Discord interrupted.

I looked at him, suddenly reminded that he was there to begin with. Now that I think about it, the mere idea of forgeting that a levitating mismatch of animals with space and time warping powers was meters away from us would have been rather silly earlier this morning.

"Nah, I was just welcoming Verso back," I answered. "Say hello, Verso!"
Hello... Discord. Nice of you to entertain him all this time.
"Bah, it was fun. Now, tell me, do you like practical jokes?"

I think Verso grinned a bit. Wich was nice, because he rarely smiles at all, so even creepy grins are okay.

That I do. He stopped smiling and continued. But we have more pressing matters to attend, 'draconequus'. First...
"Here they are!" a chipmunk shouted.

We turned to see a group of guards running in our direction, their eyes furious and their nuzzles reddened, as if they had ran head first into a wall. Who does that?

"Well, I guess we should continue this conversation while running for our sake." A golden beam impacted the earth at his feet.
"Seems like a good idea," I nodded, before waving at the guards. "Heya! You know you have to catch us and not shoot us, don't you?"
"Immobilize them this instant!" a chipmunk-sounding fairly large earth pony ordered.

Every unicorn's horn in their group shined a bright golden light and a circular force-field appeared around us, encasing us in what would be an impass.

"Wow, magic is awesome!" I squeaked. "You think I can do something like that?" I wondered aloud and lit our hands with a blue aura.

I waved them around and waited for a shiny blue wall to appear and block the ponies before they reached us. And waited. And waited. And waited.

"Uh, how do you magic walls around?" I asked when I narrowly dodged a earth pony lunging for us.
You really thought you could create a spell so quickly? Two steps back and three left.

I followed his instructions and evaded a golden beam that his the guard that jumped for us, knocking him out.

"Well, you did!" I replied. "I never saw you sooting magical beams out of our hands before your fight with Luna!"
Channeling energy outward ins't that hard to figure out. She showed me we could do it, I did it, that's all.
"Well then, show me how to make a wall!" I asked ecstatic.
Well, I... Okay. Step forward and run left. And activate your sensory field.
I moved, but was still worried. "Are you sure I won't hurt them with it like yours did?"
Restrain your reach and get close to their shield.

I nodded and used my field. A blue pulse escaped us and fadded away about three meters away from us. I heard mister Discord cackling near-hysterically behind us and some guards yelled something about cotton candy clouds. I got to the base of the shield and felt our right arm go numb for seemingly no reason. Probably the effect of these beams one of the last unicorns not currently encased in a pink cloud was shooting at us.

They got us! Wait just a second...

I got a tickling sensation in our left eye, Verso's current one, while he was analyzing the magic that hit us.

I have an idea to get our arm back in control. And I think I also know how magical shields work now now. I could maybe create one...
"Great! Teach me!" I beamed.

Another brain-tickle and I had instructions printed into my mind. Now that I think about it, it seemed rather easy... I dispelled the paralysis spell that hit us just in time to use this arm to try and use our new shield spell. I waved it before us and poured energy into just like Verso theorized. I nearly exploded in glee when a blue shield came into existence about two meters away from us. In fact, I would probably have if it haddn't disappeared about a second after I created it.

"What happened?" I gasped. "I did it right, didn't I?"
You did great for a first one, but I think my idea of the conjuration may be faulty. Or it may have to constantly feed of your energy, I don't know. Well, at least you can create these for a second. Correctly used, it's more than enough.
"But I wanted to build a shiny house!" I pouted.
Well, I'm sorry, but we can't even create bubble here, so the house is a no go. We waited for a few seconds while the last unicorn was chased down by a red boar that got out of nowhere, before mister Discord snapped his claw and sent it somewhere. I'm growing tired of this, and I'd like to see if they have a library around here. Let me out so I can dispell their shield.

I nodded and waited for him to get the commands. He did so in a surprising way : the very instant he took control of our body, a flash of energy radiated outside of us and slightly burned the ground. Verso cracked our neck and glanced at the golden shield that was still standing.

Hey, what was that? I asked. You burned the grass!
Well, I'm sorry, but it was either releasing a lot of magic the very moment our energy pools switched or getting burned from the inside by it. I made my choice.

He emitted a pulse to create his own sense field and tapped on the magical shield, as if he feared it could zap us or something. When nothing happened, he rested our hand against it.

"I wonder if..." he thought aloud.

Tendrils of yellow magic appeared on the surface of the shield, quickly diffusing on a ever larger surface. The tendrils then... well, for a lack of a better word, 'vibrated' and the magical glowing bubble started crack like glass until it finally shattered. Verso contemplated his deeds for a few moments and shrugged.

"I sure hope this isn't their best protection spell, because if a novice like me can undo it so easily, I bet an army of cockroaches could destroy it simply by hitting their head against it."
"How... How did you do that?" a chipmunk yelled. Wait, that's probably a guard. Ow...

Verso turned to discover that, while he was busy destroying the shiny wall, mister Discord had encased every soldier in these pink fluffy cloud and a few of them were staring at us, aghast. Verso raised an eyebrow.

"How did I do what?" he asked. "And Discord, please, could you free them and change their voice back? I'm already in enough trouble as it is."
"Pff, you're no fun for somepony that says to like pranks," mister Discord groaned before freeing the ponies.
"How did you dispell the shield?" a unicorn inquired when they got back to their senses, a bit of... concern in his voice.
"I didn't. I don't know how it is created, how could I dispell it? I simply destroyed it."
"But, you're alone!" another guard remarked. "It usually takes several hours to a group of unicorns to destroy such shields!"
Verso tilted our head. "It does? Wow, you guys are either really, really weak in comparison with me, or you just don't have a practical mind. It's an orb made out of something pretty hard, but every structure has problems handling vibrations. Just had to create a mechanical resonance and here we are discussing basic architecture." The ponies seemed to be about to reply, but he interrupted them. "I have no time to waste giving all of you a lesson of mechanics. I know the three ponies that were with us earlier are here. Mind to come out of the crowd, please?"

Indeed, the three ponies glanced at each other for a second and carefully stepped forward. Verso stared at them for a few moments, gritting our teeth, and kneeld before them, getting to their height.

"I am deeply sorry for the... mishap that got you hurt earlier. I want to... apologize. The spell I used isn't meant to hurt anything, but my magical overload changed it a bit."

The three ponies glanced at each other, confused by Verso's sudden apology. The unicorn gritted his teeth.

"You knocked us out and attacked Princess Luna. I don't think apologies will be enough, sir."
"Well, I tried," Verso said, getting up again. "It's not like you would ever get anything else out of me anyway. Could you please indicate lead us to the nearest library?"
Hey! That's not how apologies work! I huffed while the three guards stared at us, perplex.
They refused it, their loss. Besides, I don't want to stay out much longer, care to take back the lead, please?

He left the commands and I got back on front. I sighed and smiled. Well, he apologized, that's a start. The royal pony guards were glancing at each other, unsure of what to do with Verso's total lack of social skills. I opened our mouth to repeat Verso's will a little bit more nicely when a ball of light exploded in front of us and revealed Princess Celestia, a midly annoyed glare that clashed with a badly hidden grin on her face. She glanced around and fixed her eyes on mister Discord, who started whistling innocently.

"Discord, as amusing as you think it may be, I have to ask you to change back the voice of the guards inside the palace. The Huffington Countess' announcement was... a bit too hig pitched for my tastes."
"Wait, you changed the other's voices too?" I snickered. "That must have sound great."
"Princess!" a guard called out as he kneeled before her. "We have a problem to report. The human's powers are..."
"I'm sorry to have to stop you, my little pony," Heh, that sounds like a funny toy line, "but your report will have to wait. I've come to escort our new guest to meet Princess Twilight Sparkle, who just arrived with her friends."

I tried. I tried really, really hard. I knew I shouldn't have, that it was offensive in every way and that it's not like she chose it herself. But I utterly failed from not bursting out with laughter when she pronounced the new Princess' name. I know I should probably be ashamed... but I was just laughing too hard to even care.

"'P... Princess Twilight Sparkle'? Buhahah! That's the funniest name I've ever heard!" I giggled. "'Princess Twilight Sparkle'. It sounds so... magnificent."
"I don't think I understand why you find it so funny, Verso," she said, raising an eye-brow with a perplex expression.
"Wait, you're serious? That's really her name?"

I resumed my laughing fit, tears starting to stream out of our eyes. It was stupid. It's not even that funny. But the incomprehension in Celestia's stare just threw me back again and again. When he decided that I was a lost cause, Verso replaced me on the front, at least until I cooled down. It must have looked strange for the others though: our body was stuck in a uncontrollable laughing fit and it suddenly stoped. The laughter didn't faze out, it just stopped existing. He stood upright and stared back at Celestia.

"I'm sorry for this. I'll just hold him off until he can speak again."

Celestia's stare changed from curious to hard. Anyone could see she wasn't particulary pleased with Verso.

"You're able to come out now?"
"Just vent off the overload and I'm fine. I'm kinda ashamed I didn't think of it before your sister and I came to blows with magical beams."
"Did Recto..."
"Yes. I've read his memories from the moment I... left him alone for a bit. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have acted like I did. I won't do it again. And I may even apologize to your sister, after she did it first."
"One would wonder why you show such disrespect for royalty, Verso," she nearly sighed.
"Where we come from, we usually behead nobility." He let that sink into the princess for a second, as if he enjoyed the mix of fear and disgust he could see in her eyes for an instant. "You could say that, for someone with my background, I'm rather respectuous."
"I don't like your tone, Verso," Celestia practically growled.
"And your mane gives me headaches," he grinned, failing to cheer up the mood. "Bear with it until you get accustomed to it. No matter how nice you are, you won't change me from 'afraid', as you put it, to being your best friend ever in a couple hours, Princess."
Okay, I'm fine to go out again! I informed him.
"... Princess Twilight and her friends await us," Celestia said. And there I was laughing again. "Let's not keep them waiting."
"Of course. Can't wait to meet your student. Oh, and I have something to tell you about your guards'shields."

A few minutes later, we were back inside the palace and Celestia was looking at Verso dumbfounded while mister Discord was lazily floating behind us. Somehow, the fact that he single-handedly crushed the shield in such a short amount of time all by himself without deploying cosmical levels of power disturbed her greatly. At first, she thought it had to do with him being unable to gauge just how much magic it represented, but as always, Verso had already adapted to our new power-level and could use it rather finely. Sometimes, I'm a bit jealous of his talent. Just a bit. But then, he shows me how to do the same and the problem is gone.

"Verso, do you have any idea of the implications of your, well, discovery?" the white winged unicorn asked, still a bit shocked.
"That I sure hope for you that those shields aren't your main defense system. Or that I am mistaken and used considerably more power than I thought, wich wouldn't resolve the problem in the slightest. But seriously, you are a magic school principal's, I'm worried that you didn't know about it."
"Nopony ever thought to try that," she replied, still aghast, while she opened the doors on our way. "If your idea spread, it may have terrible consequences for Equestria's safety!"
"What are you talking about, Princess?" a feminine voice asked.

Verso stopped walking and gazed inside the room, wich appeared to be the throne room we were walking to, filled with half a dozen ponies. The one that asked the question was a pony sized purple alicorn with strangely normal-looking dark blue mane with a deep violet line down the middle. She was carrying a pair of saddle bags and a strange purple lizard with green spikes. Both of them were looking at us, seemingly quite disturbed as they realized they had never seen anything like us before. But a most important question was floating in my mind and I took the front place, searching for answers.

"Why are you covered in chicken feathers?" I blurted out.

Author's Note

And another chapter out! I thought I would have finished it last week, but I simply continued to write it until I decided there was simply too much, so I divided it into two different chapters. So that mean that you can expect the next one soon! Yay!