The Sword in the Stone: Courage to be King

Chapters

Prologue- 1 -Where We Begin, One Once Ended
2 -A Picnic Interupted
3 -A Touch of Hazel
4 -A Miraculous Sword?
5 -A Squirrel to Feed
6 -A Letter and Apples
7 -A Certain Skunk Scent
8 -A Concert Cycle
9 -A Maestro Revealed
10 -An Errant Bit of Nuttery
11 -An End To Free Travels
12- A prelude to Combat

Prologue- 1 -Where We Begin, One Once Ended

So at last, that miracle had come to pass in that far off time upon new years day, and the glorious reign of King Arthur had begun!

He sat upon the throne, his legs dangling off, too far from the ground to touch, the great hall empty save for himself and a small owl roosted upon the thrones arm.
He was King Arthur, bearer of the Sword in the Stone, and he rested the sword between his legs, leaning against the seat, its length nearly that of the boy himself.

One would not think this boy was king simply by looking at him, from his sandy, towhead of hair to his thin and scrawny legs, he was by all appearances small, and quite ordinary. Even with the regal cape befitting a king, he appeared small and insignificant.

Such appearances not helped any by said cape, its length enveloping the boy, almost causing him to disappear within it. No better was the crown upon his brow, but inset with jewels and quite regal, still was too big, and as such kept slipping down over his head, forcing him to readjust it constantly….

He sighed, the crown once more falling over his eyes, “I can’t be a king, Archimedes,” he claimed, referring to the Owl next to him as he set the crown once more back upon his head, “I don’t know anything about ruling a country!” he ended this statement wearily, the thought of Kingship and kingdom leaning over his head, a dreadful anvil which at any moment might fall and crush him.

”I told you to leave the thing in the stone, boy!” Archimedes, a short, fat owl of high intelligence (and as he would have you believe, impeccable taste and stature) had been present when Arthur had pulled the sword from said stone. He had little patience for other people’s problems, but the youngster had grown on him over the past months, and until Merlin returned from whence he had went, Archimedes felt it his responsibility to look after the boy, regardless of the troubles he got himself into.

Arthur started, an idea half formed in his mind. “I…I’ll run away, that’s what I’ll do!” he set the sword to the side, and hoisted himself down off the throne, the cape billowing about him, and the crown once more falling over his eyes. Raising it from his head, he carefully set it upon the throne, “They’ll just have to get somebody else!” With this he turned, looking wistfully about himself, not really having a plan of how to get out of the castle, save, “out”.

”Better take the side door, Wart,” Archimedes said, referring to Arthur by his more commonly known moniker, cruelly bestowed upon him by his older brother( He was truthfully adopted, and therefore not Kay’s brother, but Arthur had grown up with him always looming above him, so his feelings of said relationship stuck)
“Out the side door!” pointing to a door inlaid across the hall to the right of the throne, Arthur quickly made his way to it, pulling it open, only to be greeted by loud cries of “HAIL, KING ARTHUR, LONG LIVE THE KING!”

“Over there, over there, come on, come on!” Archimedes gestured wildly to the other side of the hall, where stood another door, opening out into the other side of the courtyard. Yet again, their efforts were foiled, for upon opening the door, the cries of “LONG LIVE KING ARTHUR, LONG LIVE-“ the words cut out suddenly, as Arthur flung the door closed once more.

”Oh, ohh, looks like we’re surrounded boy!” Archimedes stated, having had no more luck than the boy in finding a way out.
“Nooo,” moaned Arthur, despair slowly working its way inside of his gut,” Archimedes, I wish Merlin was here…”

Merlin always knew what to do, he was kooky and out of touch with reality, but he had always found whatever situation he was in to be no more than a couple words to be in his favor. Say what you will about the crazy old man, but he knew that if anyone could get him out of this, it would be him.

He strode slowly back towards the throne, silently resolving to once more sit upon it and wait for something to happen, when he stopped in the very middle of the hall, head turning from side to side, trying to capture the source of a mysterious sound.
It was like twinkling glass, or mayhaps a babbling brook, first one sound and then another.
CRSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
With a great crunching of broken glass, a window high up in the hall burst inward with a bright ball of a yellow tinged comet. It swept and juked its way around the pillars that lined the hall, and then dived down towards Arthur.
Before he could even give out a frightened gasp, it collided with the floor, and skidded to a stop before him.

Standing before Arthur stood the greatest Wizard in the world(self proclaimed, and seeing as he was one of the ONLY wizards Arthur knew of, he couldn't really confirm or deny this claim, but he was likely to believe it after having seen his wizards duel between himself and a foul Sorceress calling herself Madam Mim).
His usual spectacles were replaced with blackened glass(how could he see? Arthur wondered) yet his trademark flowing white hair remained unchanged, with his mustache and beard flowing nearly to the ground.
Alighted upon his head was not the traditional blue wizards cowl Arthur had never seen him gone without, but an odd cowl of red material, the brim stretched out far more than purposeful intent.
Surprisingly enough he appeared to be wearing a most curious garb, a tunic of many garish hues, and shortened pantaloons of brightly dyed yellow, each leg with the green imprint of some sort of plant. Upon his feet were the most mysterious of his attire, red and white boots, of some weird looking material(upon closer inspection, the bottoms of the shoes were the most strange of all, no animal hide made this strange footwear.)

“Oh Merlin, you’re back from Ber…ber…ber…”How embarrassing, he couldn’t remember where the old coot had said he was going!

“Bermuda?!!?” Merlin nearly shouted, almost having collided with the boy and the throne shortly thereafter. “Yeeees!” He drawled, a smile on his face and happiness clearly in his words. “Back from Bermuda and the 20th century!” at this, he gave a short jig, ending with his cane, a short wooden stick, rapping upon the stone floor.
”And believe me,” he said, drawing the blackened glass spectacles low upon his nose, “You can have it!” he stated forcefully, waving his cane and his other arm thematically around his head, “One big modern MESS!....ALAKAZAM!” With this word uttered, he thwacked himself over the head with his cane ( a gesture Arthur had long since learned wasn’t NEEDED, but was proffered by the enigmatic wizard)and seemingly collapsed inward upon himself, expanding outward once more to his regular proportions with a blinding flash of light, and magical sparkles(again, Arthur was pretty sure the sparkles weren’t NEEDED, just a preference the wizard produced)was the great Wizard Merlin, resplendent in his traditional blue robe, and his toweringly tall wizards cowl.

“I’m in an awful pickle,” Arthur started, waving his hands about frantically, “I’m KING!”

“He pulled the sword from the stone,” Archimedes added, gesturing with his wings as if they too were arms and hands.

“Ha haaaaaaaaaAA!”Merlin yelled, a smile deep on his face as he stepped forward, clapping Arthur on the shoulder, drawing him back towards the throne Arthur so recently vacated.
”Of course! King Arthur, and his knights of the r-r-r-r-round table!” he trilled his r’s on the word round, sounding the word with glorious acclaim. Arthur had no idea what this table was, or why it would be so important it be round, but Merlin DID “know everything”, or so he claimed.

”Round table?” Arthur asked, knowing that although Merlin had knowledge of the future, he seldom spoke with clarity.

”Oh, uhm….”Merlin stuttered, looking deep into the boys eyes, “would you rather have a square one?”

”Oh, no,” Arthur said, shaking his head forcefully, “Round will be fine”
Merlin laughed, the innocence of the boy always refreshing.

”Boy, boy, boy……..you’ll become a GREAT legend, they’ll be writing books about you for centuries to come!” during this, Merlin grabbed hold of the crown sitting on the throne, and placed it once more carefully upon Arthur’s head.
“Why, they might even make a motion picture about you!” with this, Merlin straightened the crown, which Arthur had just moments before placed back far on his head, causing the crown to once more slip over the hapless kings brow, plunging him once more into darkness.

Arthur pulled it back over his eyes, once more placing it back, and asked “Motion picture?”
The closest he could assume this meant was that pictures moved, although how such a wizards frivolity could become commonplace he hadn’t the foggiest.

”Oh,” deadpanned Merlin, his knowledge of future technology getting the better of him once more, “that’s something like…television...” He stopped, realizing the boy would not understand this reference any more than the last, and silently scolded himself, adding cheekily “without commercials!” Well, if the boy was to remain in confusion, he might as well cap off his own thought with a bit of personal humor.
Arthur looked deep in thought for a time, and Merlin began to wonder if something were the matter. In fact he was slightly startled when Arthur yelled his next sentence, so long the silence that he had gotten rather used to it.

"I can't do this. I can't be king!" The last word yelled, with this he pulled the crown from his head, and forcefully threw it down upon the floor, the sword falling from its position and clattering upon the stones.
Merlin stared at the youth, seeing the fear and lack of confidence stamped clearly on the young kings face.
This wouldn't do. But what could he do to give the lad a good dose of confidence? He had to have some trick up his sleeve, if only he had a minute to think-

"By Jove I've got it!" he yelled, startling Arthur and Archimedes, as he started up another jig across the floor.
Arthur looked hopefully at Merlin, this wise mentor sure to have some way out of this mess.
"I do believe its time for a trip, my good lad, yes, I do believe so!" With this, he pulled a large suitcase from nowhere, and upon opening it up dipped his arms down to the elbows in various shrunken items that Arthur vaguely recalled seeing in Merlin's house deep within the forest.
Fishing around, several times going over the same spot with reaching hands, he finally drew from the depths of the suitcase a-

"A doorknob?"Arthur asked, seeing the rather unremarkable brass handle.

"Er, yes......Its a remnant from one of my, er, ahem, previous adventures, yes, I dare say so..." The Wizard looked rather sheepish, his gaze clouded from memories past.
"as I recall.........ah, yes, listen close Wart, this part is important"

He leaned close, and as Archimedes flew over and landed on Merlin's cowl, he got a closer look at the offending items in question and intoned, quite forcefully, "Oh, no. Not that pastel colored horseland again?" with this, he alighted from Merlin's cowl, and landed somewhere out of view among the rafters. "I think I'll sit this one out, keep my wings in the clouds, don'tcha know?"

"Er, ahem." Merlin coughed once, drawing Arthur's attention back. "As I was saying, this type of transportation has...er, yes, it has a rather brilliant Transmogrification spell built right in, where we're going, the normal citizens aren't humans, you see!"
Arthur gazed up at Merlin in rapt attention. Not only was he going to see an apparently magic place, but he was going to get transformed again! The first three times had all been brief, but the feeling of swimming freely in the moat as a fish, darting through the mountainously tall branches of the forest as a squirrel, and the rushing wind through his feathers as a bird had been some of the most free and -dare he even say magical?- times of his life! Even with all the bad things that had come from them.

"Now.....er...eh....hmm.........how does this blasted thing work again?" Merlin turned the doorknob over in his hands, his vast memory having failed him momentarily. Archimedes peered over one of the rafters, taking slight pleasure at the fall of his masters veil of superiority. "Hey!" Merlin called, feeling the owls large eyes upon him. "Do you remember? I got it from that witch in Dorset, right?" Archimedes fluffed his chest feathers, pleased to displace Merlins claim of "knowing everything"

"You put it on a bed, you daft old coot!" with this, he retreated once more among the wooden beams, not wanting anything to do with the topic further.

"Ah, yes, yes yes YES! Bedknob, how could I forget?" with this he stalked down the hall, making for the royal bedchambers.
"Come along Wart, we haven't a moment to waste!"
Arthur needed no more encouragement, stripping the heavy cloak from his shoulders, and hurrying after the old wizard.
"Ah ah ah!" Merlin tutted at him, as he slid to a stop in front of him. "Go get your sword, the blade is your responsibility now, I dare say so, indeed. Go on, quickly!" With this he waved him back towards the throne, and Arthur quickly dashed back, and picked up the sword.

"urgh.......its almost as big as me, Merlin! Do I have to bring it?" He cried, looking wistfully at the venerable old wizard.
And indeed, as stated the sword was nearly his peer in height, just coming to under his nose when they were both stood up straight.

"er....well, I guess we'll have to do something about this, now wont we?" with this the wizard rolled up the sleeves on his robe, his beard swishing dangerously around his feet as he incanted...
"Bellificus, bandurfucious, Frogicus, HOLD!" He swung his arms towards Arthur, and the boy suffered a small amount of fear as he wondered 'what spell could this possibly be?'
As the traces of lights and sparkles faded, Arthur couldn't place any difference. Except the sword was gone. Looking around, he became aware of a weight slung over his back, and looked over his shoulder to see that the sword was now harnessed in a diagonally lying band across his back. No longer dragging along the ground, it wouldn't prove as much a hurdle to carry. And it didn't seem to weigh as much the longer it was there! Like it belonged with him, or something....

"Well then, now that we've got all that settled, let us be off, shall we?" with this, Merlin once more strode down the hall, and flinging open a door saw a large bed, its corners easily reaching the width of his previous house.
"No accounting for taste, I suppose," the old wizard spat, overlooking the wasted opulence of such a thing.
"Okay, come, what are you doing over there still? Come on, we're wasting time." with this he jumped up on the bed, making for one of the four corners. Arthur climbed up on the massive bed, and made his way to where the wizard sat, trying to pry one of the corner knobs off.

"What are you doing that for, Merlin?" he asked, having a vague idea what needed to be done to commence travel, but knowing the wizards zeal for explanation, he hardly saw it fair to cheat him out of one.

"The ........knob has to be....NEARGH, there, got it, here, just throw this to the side, will you?" Merlin handed the golden knob to Arthur, who, barely able to lift it, simply rolled it off the side.
"Now, as I was saying, I have to place the the knob on the post as so........." He placed it down, and stared at it for a few seconds.
"AH!" he yelled, remembering a crucial step.
Standing up, he waved his hands and cane above his head, the prime presentation of a proper wizard.
"ALAKAZAM!"
And with a blinding flash of light, they were gone.

Author's Note

Yes, I know the first part of this is basically a word for word script take of the last 2 minutes of the movie, but I needed somewhere to begin and work off of.
From here on in , its strictly in Equestria.
This is a side project, and as such, may have a long period of time between each update.
The title picture is not fitting in my opinion, but until I can find a mlp version of any pics relating to Sword in the Stone, I guess it'll just stay as such.

2 -A Picnic Interupted

And the day had started off so well.
Twilight had woken up at the break of dawn, refreshed and raring to face the day.
It was an eternal detriment to Spike, who would have rathered spend the extra hour or so with his scales swaddled in his blanket.
Twilight giggled, the silliness of her “little dragon” causing her mirth.
”I don’t really see the point of getting up so early, Twilight…” Spike was packing various foods from the larder into a wicker basket, “We’re meeting the others around NOON, right?” His question was punctuated by a long yawn, causing Twilight to let out another laugh.

“It never hurts to be ready BEFORE you have to go do something, you know. Better safe than sorry!” Twilight trilled, sifting between several books she intended to bring to the picnic, one even titled 101 Rules For Your Picnic Of Prolific Partying And Perfection!
Spike glared at her over a hay sandwich he was stuffing into the basket.

“You aren’t going to actually bring those, are you?” Twilight glared right back at Spike, a look of incredulousness at even suggesting leaving her precious reference material behind.

“A proper picnic requires proper reference material!” Twilight said with a hoof over her heart, "says so right here on page nineteen!"

“Bah...only you could take the fun out of a picnic,” Spike mumbled.

“A dull blade can make an excellent hammer,” Pinkie Pie intoned, causing Spike to jerk away from the basket, out of which Pinkie Pies head was now poking.

“Seriously Pinkie? As if I wasn’t scared enough you were going to pop out of random shrubbery?” Spike was usually amused by her antics, but he had just got finished packing, and now he found all the supplies lying on the ground, needing to be packed once more.“What was with the creepy quote, anyway? Is this creepy quote day or something?” Spike pulled on her head, causing her to burst from the basket with a loud pop.

“No silly, Creepy Quote Day isn’t for another week or so!” With this Pinkie picked one of the sandwiches off of the floor, popping it into her mouth, eliciting a snort of dismissiveness from Spike, “The Author just got bored and heard it from a show he was watching!” Spike looked at Pinkie with renewed confusion, He had heard her say some weird things, but every so often there was something new.

“Author...riiiiiiight, can you excuse me?” he gestured to the side, and Pinkie -realizing she was still standing with one hoof inside the wicker basket- stepped to the side.

“Want any help there Spike?”

Spike looked from her back to the mess she had left on the floor, and with a simple shake of his head said “Nah, I got it, so why are you here so early, exactly?” With this he started stuffing various goods back in the basket

“Oh, I just wanted to come and see if the new ponies were over here! I feel new ponies. I just can’t FIND THEM!” With this she bugged her eyes out a few inches, causing Spike to shudder slightly. If there was a new pony in town, that meant Pinkie Pie was going to throw them a “welcome to Ponyville” party, and nothing in Equestria would stop her.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-
Arthur found himself slightly hanging face-down, with his upper half stuck in some sort of bush. A branch was sticking into his nose painfully, and as he brushed it aside, he noticed something quite odd.
“My...arm?” The offending appendage stuck out in front of him, thick and devoid of any familiar digits. His hand had turned into a hoof!

“Wart? Wart where are you?” from beyond the foliage, Arthur heard the familiar voice of the wizard Merlin.

“I’m over here, I’m stuck in a bush!” Walking over to Arthur, Merlin chuckled at the youngsters antics as he struggled to get himself free, his newly formed back legs flailing freely.
“Er, aheh, gimmie a minute lad, just have to remember how to...AHA!” Arthur found himself yanked upwards, suspended in midair and surrounded by a field of yellow tinged sparkles.

Standing before him, Arthur beheld a most odd sight indeed. An old, weathered pony with an ash grey coat, and a spiraled horn sticking from its brow! Arthur started, momentarily confused. He had been privy to a front row seat when the mad mad mad Madam Mim had challenged Merlin to a wizard duel, and the plethora of animal forms Merlin had taken to defeat her. And he had only seen one other transformation of his hold any kind of beard, that of a goat. But even that was subdued, the tuft of hair not even halfway down his chest. But this...His beard was a match to that of its true form, long and silken, its length carrying it down and pooling upon the ground.

“Merlin?” Arthur was pretty sure it was the venerable old wizard, but it never hurt to be completely sure. Especially how, now that he looked closer, Merlin appeared to be standing upside down on the ceiling...of the forest...Oh. Arthur was upside down, his forelegs dangling out “above” his head. “Er...can you put me down?” As he was lowered to the ground, Arthur took stock of his new form. He was a horse...or as close to a horse as a childs drawing could get. His coat was a sharp color of brown, and his hair was far more like his own than any horses mane he had ever seen. The swords sling had changed once more, now draping almost completely horizontal across his left side, but still accessible and out of the way. His tail was akin to his normal hair, but long and flowing, almost the length of one of his new legs.

A noise sounded from out of the brush, and as Merlin and Arthur turned to meet this new surprise...
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

"A gigantic explosion! Boom boom BOOM! Everypony fleeing in terror, the mighty Dragon...er...uh..." Pinkie Pie stammered for a couple seconds trying to find a way to tie the tale she had been weaving together. "He was blown back by the brave and powerful unicorn, and with a last parting word , Bet you don't think THATS too hot!, the dragon flew away, cursing the day he had ever thought to steal the villages water! The end!" She ended by biting into another cupcake, of which she had already eaten 5.

"Oh, but that doesn't sound like something a dragon would do," This was uttered meekly by a yellow pegasus, her pink mane drooping over her eye, shading it from the sun.

"Its a STORY, Fluttershy, 'aint meant to be true, just meant to be entertainin', an I dare say it was, if my vote is anything for it!" This was drawled by an orange coated earth pony mare, a stetson perched upon her sandy colored mane. With this said. she joined Pinkie Pie in chowing down on assorted "eats".

"A shame SOMEPONY missed the start, isn't it?" This was directed from a pure white unicorn with a stylized purple mane, towards a brusque cyan shaded pegasus, with a technicolor rainbow of a mane.

"I wouldn't have missed the start if SOMPONY," With this, she glared at the unicorn, anger on the tips of her words, "hadn't made me MISS it to fly all the way back to Ponyville just to get a PILLOW." She gestured towards the object in question, a rather large pillow with a case of silk.

"It is a lounge pillow, thank you very much, and if you think I'm going to get a crick in my neck when such a thing could be easily avoided, well,"she harrumphed, "you have got another thing coming missy!" This said, she recline back into said pillow, and whipping out the mirrored board that had lain beside her on the grass, commenced sunning herself.

"Well," Twilight started, having just finished a small glass of juice,"This has been really great-"

"AWWWWW" cried out Spike, knowing where this line of topic was heading. An evening of re-shelving books. And he had been having such a relaxing time so far.

"I'm sorry Spike, but you know as well as I do, the way we currently have our system organized is simply inefficient, plus you knew this was coming, We've been saying we'll do it for over a week now!"

"YOU'VE been saying that for the last week, as I recall, I've been saying its fine as is for the last week."
He had of course been AVOIDING it, but he knew as well as any of their friends that it was inevitable for Twilight, and that the sooner he got it done, the sooner he could collapse into his little bed and sleep the disappointing end of the day away.

GWAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

They all turned towards the forest, the echoing cries of a Hydra still heavy in the air.
"Oh my.......does that sound.......close, to you?" Rarity asked, peering over her manifold. If she had to move after getting properly situated....... well that would be THE ..... WORST ..... POSSIBLE .....THI-

"GANGWAAAAAAAY!" Out of the forest practically flew three ponies, an old codger followed closely by a filly and a colt.

That's when the giant Hydra, one of its heads bleeding from a long gash in its cheek, came rumbling close behind them out of the forest, throwing broken tree trunks in its wake.

Author's Note

Yeah, suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper short chapter, I'm hoping to make the next one quite a bit longer, I just wanted to get this out while I could.

3 -A Touch of Hazel

The thrashing in the brush grew louder, as if something was stuck just beyond sight.
"Merlin, whats tha-" Arthur cut off, seeing a most gruesome creature step out from the bush, followed by two more close on its heels.
Arthur had seen wolves before, skulking about in the forest near his home. The castles walls had proven a prime protection against such beasts, and as such Arthur had never found himself within any close distance to inspect them. But he was fairly sure they looked nothing like this, their flesh shod in wood, and extremities made of sticks and twigs! Each eye glowed like the full moon, but green, at the sight of this Arthur gulped, fear suddenly striking his stomach.

"Merlin?" Arthur slowly backtracked, unconsciously putting Merlin between himself and the wooden wolves.

"How...peculiar...tell me Arthur, what kind of creature would you say this is?"

"I...uh...some sort of...wood, wolf?" Arthur couldn't decide whether to be afraid or not, Merlin's air of indifference to these creatures wasn't giving him anything to go by. If Merlin wasn't afraid of these things, then was everything all right?

"Yes...quiiiiiiiite peculiar...wood...bound together, I would wager, with a sort of magic. Yes, the more I look it, the more its clear...HEEEEEEEEEEY!!!" the old wizard suddenly roared out, causing the wood wolves to jerk backwards, and Arthur's ears to splay back against his skull."It isn't nice to scare folk with these silly wooden puppets, you know! Why, an old timer like myself is liable to fall over dead from fright!!" Merlin yelled out into the forest, garnering a dubious look from Arthur as the wolves appeared to regroup, and were looking more and more restless by the second. Merlin noticed this as well, and for but a second looked a mite uncertain. "Wart my lad, I don't think our new friend, whomever he may be, wishes us well..." the wolves by this point had circled around, surrounding the two.

"Well I for one, find that quite rude. I think I shall take his little toys away, see how that fits him, hmph." With this, Merlin's horn began glowing, and a field of faint golden sparkles started circling and shifting around it. "Simply a certain application of force, my boy...cut the strings, Snippity snappity, Lickity Quick, Prendantana- " a sudden burst of activity in the brush caught Arthurs attention, as something jumped out, moving in an arc to pounce on the the nearest wooden wolf, "-COLIAC!!!!"

With a brilliant burst of yellow light, the green dimmed from the wood wolves eyes, and the various foliage making up their bodies collapsed inwards up themselves, forming three piles of forest rubbish. With a clatter the newcomer crashed ineffectually into one of the piles, and Arthur struggled to keep himself from laughing, so great was the look of confusion upon this new pony's face.
Turning to look at Arthur, she let out a low chittering sound.
"N..no...It cant be..." Arthur took a half step back,
With a squeal of delight, the newcomer pounced on Arthur...

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

He hadn't eaten all day. All he had eaten the last day was a few fish he had managed to scoop out of the river, before having been chased off by the giant serpent that called the wide river its home.
His stomach growled, and his irritation grew further. If only he could find a bird, or a rabbit, or-
Three pony creatures. All three, standing in the middle of an open grove. Jabbering to themselves! They hadn't noticed him yet.

He stalked closer, carefully padding along as to not cause any noise. Carefully bringing his wings to a close against his body, he got into a position where he could see the three morsels through the trees without alerting them. With this closer vantage, he took note of his soon to be meal, slightly disappointed. Two young pony creatures, and a third old one. The first two wouldn't fill him up very much, and the old one's meat would be tough and stringy.They were making so much commotion, one of the pony creatures trying to pry the other off, and the old one laughing uproariously. It was a wonder and a blessing that nothing else had come upon them, hoping for an easy meal.

He felt a trill of fear. If he didn't hurry, something else would be drawn by the activity, and he would lose out on an easy meal.
Drawing his tail back with a large crack, setting it into a striking position prime for the shell of poison that hung fat on the end, he darted forward, roaring loudly to confuse and intimidate his prey.

He ran forward, closing the distance with mighty strides, and enjoyed the look of abject terror on their faces. A mere striking distance away, he raised his right fore-paw, popping his claws out for a killing strike.
Suddenly, confusion. He was flying through the air, the wind whistling through his crown. Trying to open his wings, he was immediately assailed by pain. Twisting around, it was immediately apparent that his lower torso was damaged, trapped. His body was caught in a giant maw, and craning his head, he could now see what caused his death.

One of the many headed snakethings that frequented the swamp . More than likely drawn by the same prey as he had been, and proper surprised by a bigger meal. With a immense press, the snakethings jaw crushed many of his bones, and he knew his days had run out.His head lolling uncontrollably, he beheld a most unusual sight. One of ponythings had been caught by one of the other heads, and one of the remaining two ponythings was holding its ground with its horn glowing brightly. The other was clinging to the head, biting and scratching wildly. With a violent thrust, the ponything managed to gouge a long line into the head, and both ponythings fell out of his sight.

A passing thought went through his head as he breathed his last. Disappointment. His meal was getting away.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Arthur didn't dare stop running. He had caught a lucky break, when the monster had grabbed him in its terrifying maw. A freak bout of coincidence had placed his body loosely against a gap in the teeth, his sword having wedged itself to halt the teeth from crushing him, saving him from anything greater than bruises or scrapes. When the girl had jumped up, scratching and biting anything she could reach, Arthur couldn't have been happier. And then they were falling. The snake head had apparently taken them both up to an incredible height, and Arthur once again thought his life was over.

They miraculously slowed, covered in a soft golden glow, and were placed none too lightly upon the ground.
"We cant stay here, quickly Wart, run!" Merlin had caught them with his magic, but now pointed to a break in the trees, seemingly deeper into the forest. They wasted no time in arguing, each setting off at a dead run. Arthur initially had a bout of panic as he thought he might trip and fall, but his stride grew more confidant, likening the running with rigid back legs to crawling about on his hands and knees. The analogy wasn't perfect, but Arthur reasoned he would have a better chance thinking up something better once he wasn't running for his life.

"Where are we going?!!?" Arthur yelled to Merlin, who due to his longer legs, had taken a slight lead on him and the girl.

"Away from that thing! Good as a direction as any, but last time I was here, there was a giant flatlands in this direction! Big ol beasty like that wont leave the forest, I'll wager!" Branches stung and scratched across their muzzles as they made their way desperately through the brush and foliage. The sounds of the "beasty" behind them grew ever more frenzied, seemingly abject to letting its meal go, no matter if it had already eaten or not. The trees cracked and broke, and the ground boomed with each step, getting closer with passing moment.

The treeline started to thin, and Arthur could see a large open field beyond. Bursting out onto the field, Merlin called out, "That should give him the old slip!" They all came to a stop, huffing and puffing with exertion at the enforced run.
The girl nuzzled up against Arthur, eliciting a slight shudder of irritation, immediately quelled by the continuing booms of the monster's colossal tread.

"Merlin?..." Arthur took a few steps back from the tree line, "I don't think its stopping..."
Merlin's eyes grew wider and wider, the truth of Arthurs words easy to see, and hear.

"Quick Wart, run!"
A load roar sounded out from the monster, nearly deafening Arthur and company. The very trees around them shook with the vibrations, and it was clear that the monster was frighteningly close.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaangwaaaaaay!" Merlin shouted, his once pristine beard littered with twigs and leaves, now trailing behind him in a fluttering line as he ran. Desperately trying to think up a spell that would help them escape unharmed.
They ran once more, out onto the large expanse of grassy field beyond the trees.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

"C'mon Girls, we have to help them!" Twilight leapt into action. Not only was there ponies directly in trouble, but there was a hydra rampaging almost right on top of Ponyville!

"Fluttershy, with me!" Rainbow Dash called, dragging Fluttershy into the air, seeking to meet the three newcomers halfway.
Twilight and the rest charged down the hill, with only slight complaint coming from Rarity as she accidentally tripped over her mirrored manifold, bending a crooked crease into its length.

Twilight didn't know what she was going to do. The last time they had come across a hydra, they had only just managed to escape. At a later date, she had read up on the species, uncovering a wealth of knowledge. First and foremost, that an adult hydra exudes an aoe (area of effect) magical aura, slowing the cognitive process of prey in the area. She had kicked herself over this fact after her run in with the hydra in the swamp, having felt the effect firsthand. She had even forgotten to use her magic to teleport away, when she had had to jump over several treacherous ledges to cross a chasm out of the Hydras reach.

She decided to focus on a technical illusion spell. Charging it to her horn, layering the magic over itself repeatedly to increase the effect, she watched as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy reached the trio, and with Rainbow Dash grabbing the old Pony and the colt. Fluttershy similarly grabbed the remaining filly, and they quickly rose out of the reach of the advancing hydra settling on a pair of clouds.

"Wait!" Twilight skidded to a stop, forcing Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Spike to skid to a halt alongside her.
Turning to Rarity, Twilight started, "Rarity. Do you think you can make a mirrored array around one of the heads with your magic?"
Rarity looked confused but for a moment, then smiled widely.

"I do believe so dear, but with this range..." with this, she peered at the Hydra, silently gauging the calculations needed to thread the needed magic across the gap.
"Yes. Yes, I should be able to do so with little difficulty, but Twilight," she looked tersely at her friend. "whatever it is you plan on doing, I would do so as quickly as pertinently possible, I highly doubt I'll be able to keep something like that up for very long..."

Rarity squared herself off, arcs of glowing white sparkles circling her her horn.
"Ya wanna clue us in to this plan o' yours, Twi?" Applejack looked back and forth between Twilight and the hydra, who having lost its intended prey was now making its way towards the small group, two of the heads snapping their jaws in rampant anticipation, one lazily looking at a butterfly that had happened to cross its view, and the last looking forlornly back at the escaped meal.

"Just...a second..." Twilight in truth was far past being able to focus on polite conversation, so intent on the makings of the spell to be able to pay attention to her friend.
"Aaaaaand there!~" Rarity trilled, the air around the head on their far left suddenly refracting light in great glorious shimmers.

The hydra stopped in its tracks, momentarily confused at the sensations one of its heads was getting.

"All...right..."Twilight had prepared the spell, working the matrices into a funneling burst. All she had to do was release it.
"Please...work?" She mentally crossed her hooves, and activated the spell.

A tremendous lance of bright light shot from her horn, striking the cloud of reflective air around the hydra head. Lighting the area up, brilliant flashes of light bounced back and forth in the cloud, driving light deep within the hydras eyes.

It was suddenly in pain, the sensations from one head jumping across to the main body. Deciding that its previous meal had been enough, and that this meager increase in meat was not worth the pain that it brought, it quickly backtracked, making for the woods.

The group cheered as the Hydra retreated, and then Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew down, joining in with the revelry.

"Er...uh..." The old pony, with a tremendously long silver beard that had countless bits of twigs and leaves littered through it, seemed to be having a hard time figuring out what to say.

"HI!" Pinkie Pie darted up, getting uncomfortably close to the old timer, looking him over at an extremely close proximity.

"I...well...you..." He stammered, Pinkies antics rendering his normal routes of conversation well and truly out of reach.

"Knew it!~" with a leaping bound, Pinkie Pie bounced several paces away, back towards town before turning and saying

"Everything'll be ready by sundown, mind if I use the barn Applejack?"

"Make sure Big Mac or Applebloom aint using it!" Applejack had been wanting to get some peaceful reading on horticulture done that night, but she knew a lost cause when it stared her in the face.

"K!" With this the pink party pony dashed off up the hill, making for town.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Author's Note

I was intending to make this a 4k word chapter at the smallest, but then it just dragged on and on with me not knowing how to word certain paragraphs. in the end, we have a decent sized one, but not as large as I would have hoped for.
And yes. I might have to add a "dark" descriptor to this, I dont know for sure.

4 -A Miraculous Sword?

"I...well...you..."Merlin was fully confused. It had been a wash of action for the past few frantic minutes, and the new addition of this exuberant pink pony was not helping matters any. Also, his head hurt. And his leg. His leg REALLY hurt for some reason.

"-be ready by sundown, mind if-"

It really didn't make any sense to him, there wasn't supposed to be a settlement this close to the Everfree, especially ever since it had gone rampant due to the rise of Nightmare Moon. Or Nightmare Moon happened because of the forest going ...bad. Bad...bad? Bad! Such an odd word indeed.

"K!"

Well, that was a relief, the pink one was bouncing away...bounce...bounce...bouncing...Odd.
Merlin had assumed she had been traveling up the hill...now...she was still going up...but she was sideways...
"Merlin!" a shout of alarm sounded near him, and he was suddenly aware that his mouth was full of dirt. Apparently he had laid down. In an instant. Sideways.

For a brief moment before unconsciousness held him, Merlin felt a sharp pang of fear as he realized something was very, very wrong.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Twilight's head jerked, as the old pony had suddenly fallen over sideways onto the hard ground.

"Merlin!" The colt dashed forwards, worry evident on his face. Kneeling on the ground beside him, she took a long look over the old stallion, to see if there was anything immediately apparent as wrong. Grimacing, she saw the cause of this "Merlin's" collapse. Affixed to the stallions left hind leg was a thick, almost skeletal bulb. Dripping from it was a white, viscous fluid.

"Poison." Twilight stated, standing up.

"What?" The colt looked at her with a face filled with worry, quite evidently stamped upon his features.

"We need to get him to the hospital, now." Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash, a plan to safely deliver the old timer churning away in her head.

"Rainbow, I need you to fly ahead, find Nurse Redheart. Inform her we are bringing a patient, afflicted with manticore poison." Turning to Rarity, she started, "Rarity, I'm going to need your-"

She was interrupted by Rainbow Dash swooping close to her face, "Now hold on just a minute there, I could get him there and back like that-" she clopped her front two hooves together dramatically, "-so why are you-"

"RAINBOW." Now it was Rainbow Dash that was startled into silence, as Twilight glared at her angrily. "We don't have time to waste on theatrics here. Yes, you could get him there in under a minute. We know you could. For his condition though, we need to be careful. Any errant twitch and his body could be overwhelmed by the poison." With this she put a hoof on Rainbows shoulder, turning her in the direction of the town, "This is important, and every second we waste is another second Nurse Redheart could use properly preparing the antidote to the manticore poison. Now go!" With this she grabbed her with her magic, and half threw her into the air.

Rainbow Dash looked uncertain for but a second, then flapped to a higher altitude, and within seconds she was out of sight.
"Rarity." Rarity looked at Twilight, the display of force stunning her momentarily.

"Yes, Twilight? Whatever you need me to do, just tell me."

"We need to pick him up, but without letting his body flop around limply. I know you have that level of control Rarity, its minute fluctuations that you have practice with. All we have to do is-" Rarity briefly cut in, a soft set of words breaking Twilights speech,

"I cant do that darling, while the minor manipulations would be a breeze, there's no way I have the energy to lift a fully grown stallion and carry him in that state for the entire distance to the hospital." Rarity flourished at the end of her words, her left forehoof tracing through the air.

Twilight closed her eyes, silently calculating.
With a slight nod, she continued, "That's true, you don't have the necessary power." Rarity nodded in agreement.
"I do though." Twilight closed the distance between herself and her friend, and before Rarity could utter even a short cry of surprise she touched her horn with her own.

Light flashed and arced, and finally solidified into a continuous stream of energy between the two unicorns.
Rarity was flushed, a constant pressure pressing onto her horn, yet somehow quite comfortable. "Yes...if you can keep this up for the foreseeable future, I do believe I can handle the...finer details."

Rarity turned to the fallen stallion, and enveloped him in a magical aura. Twilight let out a slight gasp, the energy drain sharper than she had imagined. "You okay there sugarcube?" Applejack had approached upon seeing Twilight buckle, and even the filly, who up to this point had been steadily ignoring all except the colt, looked slightly worried at the strange sight.

"I'm fine...I can't keep this up forever though...we need to go..." Twilight looked steady on her hooves for a second, then turned to Fluttershy as she approached.

"Ummm, is there anything we can do? I simply can't stand idly by..." She asked as she timidly rubbed one foreleg against the other.

"Ah agree Twi, must be something we can do..." Applejack had drawn up alongside Fluttershy, and had a look of brazen determination upon her face.

"I need..." she looked down at the filly and colt, then pointedly back at Applejack and Fluttershy. "I need you to watch them, keep them calm." With a slight smile at the two young worried faces, she continued, "everything will be okay, okay?"
With a slight nod from the colt, they started slowly up the hill.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Arthur was assailed by strange strange sounds and sights. The group of technicolor ponies had grabbed Merlin, and taken him nearly half an hours leisurely walk through a town, and then to a large mansion of a house. From the outside, Arthur had seen that it had three floors, with two large stone chimneys poking from the peaked roof. Originally thinking it a guardhouse due to the large plaque with a coat of arms outside(he had initially thought it slightly off that such a signet was that of a cross surrounded on all four crux's by hearts, but in this world of frivolous colors, it might have just been normal), he had been taken off guard once they stepped inside.

The scent was...wrong. Gone was was all traces of anything earthy. In their place, was a pervading scent of...Arthur couldn't place it, knowing it only to somehow simultaneously stick to the back of his tongue, and inducing a taste and smell of coppery sickness. There were rooms upon rooms, each connected with seemingly endless hallways. There were torches that flooded the ceilings of the halls and each room with light, yet there was no fire, or even a whiff of comforting smoke.

The girl(Arthur had recognized her as the squirrel from months past almost immediately based on her rather invasive personality, but as she was no longer a squirrel he was loathe to show his ignorance by calling her as such. Even if it was only in his head.)had clung to him the entire way from the forest, and even now was nestled up against him on the bench they had ended up on. The bench in question lay against the wall of the room they had finally delivered Merlin to, with him nestled safely and sleeping soundly in a small bed, with pristine white sheets that smelled like soap.

"Do you need anything, would you like anything to eat? I have it on pretty good recommendation that the jello is simply the best!"
The yellow bird pony and the normal orange one(as normal as an orange pony wearing an odd brown hat can be) had been chattering to them the entire time, trying to get him and the girl to respond. Arthur didn't like ignoring them, but this was a new land with new rules and dangers. Only a few seconds here and he'd been attacked by some kind of giant cat with wings, and a giant lizard thing with 4 heads. Sure they seemed like they wanted to help, and they had been nothing but nice to this point. Arthur wasn't about to take the chance that there was something he was missing though.

"Fluttershy..." The yellow one turned away from Arthur and the girl, focusing on the one he had come to know as "Applejack".
"Can ah talk to ya for a second?" With this, she gave a slight nod toward the two on the bench, and then lightly shook her head towards the door, indicating her want to talk outside in the hall.

"Yes, what is it?" Fluttershy didn't move, not quite getting the "subtle" hint Applejack had woven for her.

"Eh, not...here?" Applejack pushed further, not wanting to insult the two foals, yet finding it harder than it should be to enact the seemingly simple task of getting Fluttershy out into the hall. Even Arthur got the hint, but he wasn't going to say anything.

"Oh!" looking once at Arthur and the girl, giving a friendly smile before following Applejack out into the hall.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

"Well, what did you need to talk about?" Fluttershy asked as Applejack closed the door to the small room behind them..

"SHHHHH, keep quiet, just a tick!" With this Applejack grabbed Fluttershy and forced her into a squat,concealing their position from the inside the room.
Applejack put a hoof up to her mouth, giving a "keep silent" motion. Fluttershy bobbed her head in confirmation, not quite understanding the reason for it though.
Applejack was trying to lull the two foals into a false sense of security. In her mind, this seemed like the perfect way to get them to start talking and such. Once they started talking to themselves, thinking themselves safe from anypony, she and Fluttershy would leap into the room, catch them in the act, and they could converse like civilized folk.
They knelt like this for several minutes, hearing no activity from the other side of the wall, all the while garnering looks of suspicion from passing doctors, nurses and visitors. Fluttershy had noticed these growing stares, and had curled herself into a miserable ball of pink hair.

"Girls, what on earth do you think you are you doing?" Rarity had stalked the hallways, separating from the group once Twilight and Rainbow had struck up conversation with the lead doctor on manticore venom. Twilight because of the scientific implications of having a semi intact manticore stinger to experiment with was "simply staggering", and Rainbow Dash because apparently the effect the venom could have had on flesh was "totally awesome sounding". And now that she had finally found the room the three newcomers were in (she had had trouble remembering if the room number was 317, or 713. It had turned out to be the latter, much to the embarrassment of herself and an elderly individual getting a checkup in room 317.), she found her friends Applejack and Fluttershy skulking outside the room like a couple of common thieves!

"Don't tell me you simply left them in there alone?" Rarity gushed, hardly able to believe it.

"Well...you see, we were just..."

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Arthur listened to them bicker through the wall, and mentally patted himself on the back. No way some silly pastel colored horse would get one over on him. With a slight grin, he shifted (gaining a shift from the girl as well, as she repositioned herself into his side, now asleep, and eliciting an embarrassingly unfeminine snore) to get a better look at Merlin. He was sleeping peacefully now, his breathing deep and even. Arthur had been worried initially, but it looked to him at least as if Merlin was in better straights.

"Ah, come on you stupid thing..."Arthur whispered to himself, finding his sword scabbard digging painfully into his side due to the pressure from the the girl on his other side. Gently moving it into a more agreeable position, Arthur settled in. Merlin might not wake for a considerable amount of time, and he didn't see any reason to be awake until then.

"W.W.W.Wart, where are we, whats going on?" Arthur woke up to Merlin calling out, and let out a colossal yawn with a stretch to match.

"Merlin, are you alright?" Arthur sat upright, somehow managing to extricate himself from the sleeping girl without waking her.
Arthur got up, and walked over to one side of Merlin's bed. "You gave me an awful scare..."

"Well, I...my apologies Wart. I never imagined we'd run into such trouble right from the get go. We never should have come across- AGH." Merlin twitched violently, having moved his leg in such a way that sent waves of irritation down its length.
"Blast it all, pins and needles!" his right hindleg had fallen asleep, pinned under the cast that embraced his wounded hindleg.
"I...well, whats this?" he exclaimed, poking at the cast with one of his forelegs. The girl moved briefly, rolling onto her opposite side, causing Arthur to hiss at Merlin, desperate to remain "free" and unburdened for as long as he could.

"Shhhh, keep it down, we...uh...we wouldn't want her to wake up, would we? Beauty sleep and whatnot, right?" Arthur gave a hopeful look to Merlin, desperate for him to keep quiet.

"Ah, yes, beauty sleep indeed." Merlin quietly tittered to himself, knowing the boys discomfort. "But, ah, we appear to be in a hospital, and I appear to have a full leg cast. Last I recall, we were running for our lives from that blasted Hydra. Mind filling an old geezer in?" he asked hopefully, grabbing his glasses from the nightstand with his magic and placing them upon his face.

"Well, Its like this..."
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Merlin sat, silently digesting this influx of information. Most interesting of all was this purple unicorn Arthur had described. As he had told it, she had supplied a constant stream of energy to another unicorn. Very unstable practice. Very difficult. Transferring ones magic over to another, and with them drawing upon it to manipulate it as their own?

"Hmph." Merlin garumphed to himself. It was nearly impossible to manipulate someones magical energy as their own. Even when it was freely given. And they had apparently done it over several miles! Without direct skin or focus contact! Just a strand of magical energy, strung out in the air between the two of them! Moving, without a stable connection to any leylines!

Merlin took a deep breath, noticing the beginning states of a full blown fit. Better not to fuss on the subject, he silently intoned to himself, rubbing the crease of his brow with a hoof. Repositioning his spectacles, he let out his captured breath in a low sigh.
"Well then." With this, he swept the sheet off to the side, and hopped down to the floor. Wincing slightly at the chafing from the cast, he hobbled to the door.

"We aren't going to get anything from moping around a hospital, grab your girlfriend Wart, and lets us be off!" Without waiting for a response from Arthur-and judging by his shocked(Merlin dare even think, horrified?) expression, it would have been quite a wait- he grabbed the doorhandle with a burst of magic, and flung it open.
picture related

"Well, well, well. Its certainly wonderful that you're up and about, but-" Their way was blocked by a white mare with a silky pink mane, tucked tightly into a bun behind her head. She wore a white cap with a red cross embossed upon it. She also wore a very annoyed look on her face. " -I'm going to have to insist that you get back, " she nodded slightly towards the bed, its sheets strewn on the floor, "In your bed. Now, now," she hissed lightly, a slight frown curling at her lip. "I don't want to hear any more on this. In bed. NOW." She grabbed Merlin by one of his front legs, and forcibly dragged him back to the bed.

"Now just a second madame, I'm fine I tell you, perfectly BWOH-" Merlin found himself lifted up into the air, as she had hooked a leg under his chest and expertly flipped him onto the bed. Following him in short order was the sheet he had flung to the floor in his haste to vacate the room.

"I don't want to hear a word of it, mister...." she looked at a clipboard holding a chart she had taken out of her saddlebelt, "Doe. Well mister Doe," Merlin at this point had started sputtering ineffectually, garnering a look of amusement from Arthur, "It says here you suffered from a severe overdose of......manticore venom." Giving Merlin a look that could stop said manticore dead in its tracks, she placed the clipboard back into her saddlebelt.

"I'm hereby putting you on strict bedrest. AH AH AH!" She tutted, stopping Merlin's cry of indignation in its tracks. "I don't wanna hear it. And I'm not GOING to hear it. Am I?~" She ended with a wild smile, sending a shudder down Merlin's spine. His most manipulative of responses died in his throat as he simply nodded along. THIS was a lady he didn't want to cross. Or to be cross. Especially not at him. He may have been the worlds greatest wizard, but even he wasn't that stupid.

"All right then, I'm going to leave you for now, you appear to be in good enough spirits. Just get some rest, and you'll be out of here before you know it." With a flick of her tail, she left through the open door. "Ah, miss Sparkle! ...and miss Pie." The sudden drop of enthusiasm in her voice made Merlin crane his neck, desperate to see who was out in the hall.

"Are you ready to Par-tay!?" Remembering of a bouncing pink pony going up a hill, Merlin wondered if this might be the same random pony he had seen before.

Leaping into the room was indeed the bright pink pony towing...what appeared to be a scaled up version of a 1800's circa cannon, its mouth and body far wider than they necessarily should have been.

"Sur-prise!~~" She yelled, pulling on an ignition cord connected to the base of the cannon. Merlin barely had time to erect a shimmering half shield around himself(throwing one out to surround Arthur and the girl as well) before a loud boom echoed throughout the room.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

There was streamers everywhere. Arthur's ears were ringing, and his neck felt like like he was being strangled. He practically was, the explosion having woken up the girl and causing her to throw her front legs around his neck in terror. She had calmed down from the initial burst, it being predominantly harmless. Messy, but seemingly harmless. What was spooking her now was the roaring Nurse almost screaming at the pink pony. She had been berating her back and forth, shouting things like "Hospital grounds" and "gosh darned nuisance". Arthur guessed she had done this before, and to disastrous ends.

"If I ever see you with that thing in my halls again, I'll chuck it through a window, so help me I will!" Arthur could see the red on her face, even through the white hair that covered it. "Are we clear?" This elicited a smile laden nod from this 'Pinkie Pie'. "Fine, just...just...gah, dangit Pinkie..." with an exasperated sigh she turned and left the room, muttering something about 'janitors'.

"So..." all heads in the room turned towards Twilight, "You three all right?" with an expectant look to both Arthur and Merlin, it was clear she wanted a response. Turning towards Arthur, it looked as if she were about to address him when Merlin spoke.

"Yes, yes we are. Slightly banged up, me moreso than them, but I have to say," Merlin winked at Arthur, a sense of a cocky air about him."We made it through like champions, didn't we lad?"
"Er, yes sir. " At this the pink one moved closer, possibly looking happier than ever. And then she started talking. And she wouldn't stop. It started with "I knew you could talk! I mean, I suspected as much, but I didn't want to end up saying something rude, you might have been mute! I hoped you weren't, but I couldn't be sure, Applejack and Fluttershy said you didn't say ANYTHING! And well I thought that couldn't possible be true, and after you had missed the totally awesome party I-" this went on for several breathless seconds, leading to "and then gummy said 'I think it needs more streamers! so I put more up, but they didn't match! So I-" At this point Arthur turned to Twilight, giving her a silent "help me" look.

"Pinkie!" Twilight almost yelled this, but managed to keep it at an appropriate decibel range.

"And then I yelled 'Surprise!' and shot the party cannon, and you put up that yellow shield thingy and then Nurse Redheart yelled at me and now here we are and thats been my day so far!" Pinkie pie took a long gasp of air, causing the curtains around the window to suck inwards into the room.

"Well..." Twilight deadpanned, not quite knowing how to follow this sudden silence.

"If I may?" Twilight turned, half surprised at the questioning lilt from the old pony.

"Yes? Was there something you needed?" Twilight raised a hoof, looking expectantly at Merlin.

"More of a question. Its a simple one, I assure you. I see a horn, and wings." At this, Twilight absently flared her wings, opening them slightly before closing them tight around her midsection. "Are you an alicorn?"

Arthur stared. How had he missed wings? Sure everything of the past day was a jumpy blur, but he would have thought he'd notice something like that. They weren't like the others, either. He had seen Fluttershys and Rainbow Dash's up close, but these seemed larger, somehow longer.

"Very astute eye there, yes, I am an alicorn. Magically induced, not born, although I wonder how one would really classify-" Merlin coughed once, dragging Twilight out of her introspective thoughts.

"Ahem, well, yes, I do believe introductions are in order, the least we can do for our 'valiant rescuers', wouldn't you say so?" He waggled his eyebrows at Arthur, getting a low giggle out of Pinkie Pie.

"Well, my name is Merlin Maelstrom. This here is my nephew, Pen Dragon, and his friend- " Merlin paused for a second, and Arthur could tell he was wracking his memory for an appropriate moniker for the girl. "Guinevere Hazel." Arthur thought this was a bit strange, Merlin had gone and given Arthur such a strange title, and then just up and given the girl a proper English name!

"You mean his name isn't War?"Pinkie asked, drawing looks from everyone in the room. "I heard you through the wall, I was pretty sure you called him War!" Twilight gave her an odd stare, then turned back to Merlin "Afraid I was complaining about a WART," Merlin started,"Being old and so forth, you know how it is." Pinkie pie decided to sit down next to Arthur, eliciting a low hiss from the girl- from Guinevere Hazel, Arthur had to remember.

"Is she..." Merlin interrupted Twilight, leaping into his own sentence "Yes, quite protective of the lad, might not want to get too close..."

"Whats England?" Pinkie Pie had leaned closer to Arthur , and had craned her head sideways to get a better look at his sword.

"What?" Twilight responded wanting to snip her foolishness in the bud as quickly as possible.

""Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of england." she intoned, reading the inscription engraved upon the swords hilt.

"I...wait, what?"

Author's Note

blaaaaaaaaaah. am sick. stuffed nose. achey back and arms. everything sucks.

5 -A Squirrel to Feed

"Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of england." Pinkie Pie intoned, reading the inscription engraved upon the swords hilt.

"I...wait, what?" Twilight was bewildered, Pinkies statement having seemingly managed to make a sword appear out of nowhere. "You...how long has that sword been there?" The sword reached almost twice the colts body length, and Twilight could not for the life of her rationalize how she had managed to overlook it.

"I've...had it this entire time ma'am." Arthur absently adjusted the scabbard with a hoof. He looked from her to Merlin, hoping for some intervention. He didn't like how she intoned it, as if carrying a sword was out of the ordinary or something. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen anyone else with any weapons. Any visible weapons anyway. And with everyone he had seen walking through town being completely naked (with the occasional hat or scarf), he would felt he would have known almost immediately.

"That's impossible. I may have been distracted, what with the hydra rampaging and all, but...but I..." Twilight sputtered, unable to finish her thought process. She leaned closer, getting a better view. "Is it a...situational awareness dampening spell?"

"More of a...don't notice whats there type of...how-how-how in blazes did she see it?" Merlin scowled at Pinkie Pie, eliciting a giggle from the pony in question. "I constructed that charm myself, the material of the scabbard is magically tuned, I based it off of a -" Arthur's eyes glazed over. Merlin's descriptions while informative, were slightly above what he could understand.

With a loud grumble located deep within his gut, Arthur managed to interrupt the flow of conversation. He also managed to direct four very embarrassing stares from those assembled in the room. "I...haven't had anything to eat since yesterday...we all haven't..." They had been directed directly from the castle, to the forest, to this "hospital". It was only slightly overstating it to say that the previous day hadn't been conducive to "relaxing" in any way shape or size.

Merlin laughed, deep and hearty. It resounded around the room, causing the rest to join in momentarily. "I suppose we could all do with a bit of a bite. Wouldn't you say so, miss Sparkle?"

"I...yes. We can all get some food in the cafeteria, but I don't think the nurse will approve of you moving with that leg." Twilight gestured to the cast, which Merlin had by this point propped up on top of a wad of blanket. "How about Pinkie and I go to the cafeteria, and we'll be back with a couple of trays. Does that sound good to you?" With this she gave a tenuous look towards Arthur and Guinevere, a slight smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

"That...sounds lovely?" Arthur didn't really know how to respond. Most of the time, it had been him waiting on others. From time to time the cook made something special for him, but he had never received any special treatment. Especially from his step brother, Kay.

"So we'll just go get the food, and be back before you know it." With a broad smile from Twilight, and a promise from Pinkie Pie involving something called "cupcakes" they left through the door.

"We need to leave." Merlin stated, swinging his back legs off the bed once more. "I appreciate this Twilights hospitality, but having the attention of an alicorn could be-" he opened the door, peering left and right down the hall. "Rather distracting. Nothing bad persay, just...bad memories. Come along Wart-PEN, I really have to remember that. Listen-"Arthur and Guinevere had followed him down the hall, and pulled to a stop once he whirled around to face them. "Remember your new name, Pen. For the both of us. Guinevere." With a slight smile, Merlin turned back the hall at an increased pace.

"Merlin, I don't-" Arthur dodged around a stallion, who had pressed himself against the wall to make way for the strange old pony with the cast. "I don't get it, why cant we wait until after eating? What harm could she do?"

Merlin stopped once more. "For starters, she was getting too familiar with information relating to your sword-" Merlin poked a hoof towards the sword, "and if it gets back to a certain somepony that I carted another worlds cornerstone across the veil, I would...well..." Merlin had stopped once more, and was sheepishly scuffing at the floor. "I'm pretty sure she wouldn't be very happy with that...not happy at all..."

"She?" Arthur asked, pushing Guinevere off of him. She had apparently seen something interesting near the ceiling, and had propped herself up with her two forelegs on his back.

"She? What? Never mind Pen, lets go." Merlin set off once more. Peering through a duo of flapping doors, Merlin pushed through them and continued. "Wheres the blasted exit? They're supposed to have all exits clearly marked, yet here we are running in circ- OH GOD SHHHHHHH" Merlin doubled back through a door, and pinned Arthur back against the wall. "Well Wart, we seem to have found the cafeteria. As long as we wait a couple minutes for those two to leave..." Looking through the cracked door, Arthur saw Pinkie Pie shoveling food up high on multiple trays. She then proceeded to balance them upon each other, and exited with Twilight in fast pursuit. "Well, It looks as if you'll be getting a meal anyway. Lets try to be quick, shall we?"

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

" -That's why its nearly impossible to see through such a spell, but whatever. Lets chalk it up to Pinkie Sense. I don't think we could reasonably work out the equations for-" Twilight stopped in the middle of the hallway, the furious muzzle of nurse Redheart pushing directly into hers.

"Where. Are. They." Nurse Redhearts voiced dripped with venom more deadly than any manticore.

"I...I don't...what?" Twilight backed up as carefully as she could, hoisting the two trays of food she had gotten above her so she could more easily escape.

"I leave a patient with you, I expect that patient to still BE THERE when I come back to check on them. I don't want to come back to an EMPTY ROOM, now do I?"

"I...we were just... food?" Twilight's mind was racing. Why would Merlin and the two foals have left the room? It didn't make any sense! Couple that with the furious onslaught of Nurse Redheart, and Twilight thoughts were scrambling.

"Look, you see them, you get them back to their room, that stallion is NOT in any shape to be wandering around! And you-" Redheart turned to Pinkie, a scowl on her face quickly frozen by the fact that she didn't really have anything to rail on her with. "You just keep the streamers to a minimum. Mr Clean may like you-" she referred to the bald janitor with the magic erasers, "but even he gets tired having to clean up your messes." She pushed past Twilight, and steamed off down the hall. She stopped twice to peer over anothers shoulder to see their clipboards, but quickly moved out of Twilight's and Pinkie's sight.

"Pinkie. We have to find them. We need to...to..."Twilight wracked her brain, trying to think up a plan. "We'll do a sweep, room by room, we'll see if anypony's seen them...well at the very least,"Twilight turned to Pinkie Pie with a smile, "We know they aren't in the cafeteria!"

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

"Is it really all right? Won't this be the first place they check?" Arthur asked, as Merlin scarfed down another sheaf of "hay fries". They tasted good, but Arthur still wasn't quite used to the "herbivore" role. No meat? Arthur couldn't fathom it. Guinevere had managed to find a "peanut butter pecan nut ball" tray and had made Arthur load her up half of what was available. They were tasty enough.

"This will be the last place they check, trust me Wart. I figure... we can wait a good fifteen minutes before they check here. Just keep you head down and, oh for goodness sakes will you calm her down?" Merlin gestured to Guinevere, who at this point was letting loose with squeals of delight. Presumably in relation to the food she had secured.

Arthur took one of the balls she had been violently offering to him, and this seemed to calm her to some extent. She chittered at him in a low tone, tucking into another with gusto. "So what next Merlin?"

"What next? Well I assume that our purple alicorn friend is only visiting, we shouldn't have to skip town if we keep quiet for a bit. A rural little burg like this, not exactly the locale of one of her status. Probably not more than a couple days. Heck, she'll probably be doing us a service, unless alicorns have become common stock. Soak up a fair amount of attention. Very popular." He had finished everything on his tray, and looked back to the serving counter. Maybe a second course? He hadn't had jello in a while... "We'll probably find a farm or something of the like on the outskirts of town. I suggest we start there. We go and see if we can't get a room. I should still have applicable currency, if we overpay," Merlin winked at Arthur, " we should be able to keep our activitys on the- hehe," Merlin stopped, finding perhaps the choice of words rather funny. "-down low."

Arthur didn't get it.

Author's Note

another short chapter. But with sickness and work grinding my face into the curb, I think I did pretty good all things considering.

6 -A Letter and Apples

Dear Princess Celestia.

I am writing to inform you of a monster encounter near Ponyville. Yesterday, at 3:12 pm approx a mile south west from Fluttershys home, a Hydra measuring approx 127 meters in height was sighted coming from the Everfree Forest. The Hydra appeared to be frenzied, and was attempting to eat three ponies that were fleeing from it. We managed to drive it back into the forest without any loss of life, but one of the three -an old stallion one of the other two identified as "Merlin"- was injured. Surprisingly, the injury was unrelated to the hydra, and instead it seems they were attacked by a manticore while traveling through the Everfree. We as of yet haven't ascertained the reason of such a dangerous route of travel. The two others -a colt and a filly- have at this point refused to talk. I believe they may be in shock, and will try to talk to them again today. Once we turned back the hydra, we discovered Merlin was afflicted with manticore venom. We transported Merlin to Ponyville General Hospital, and left him in the capable hooves of our own Nurse Redheart. She claims that Merlin should have made a full recovery by now, and as stated, I plan on ~~going to the hospitl___________~~ Apologies for the minor error, Pinkie Pie is here and now apparently "we" are going to go check up on Ponyvilles newest guests. She has her party canon, but don't worry, I'll keep an eye on her. Plus, she should know better after last time. Once again, apologies. It was my intention to have this sent to you immediately, but it appears that Spike isn't here at the moment. I'll leave a note for Spike to send this as soon as he gets home.

Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle And Pinkie Pie!~

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Twilight looked at the letter, and sighed. "You made your name too big."

"What?"

"Look, its bigger than, well ALL of my lines. it doesn't even fit on the line!" Twilight pointed, and it was quite clear. Twilight's writing was clear and concise, all neat and tidy. Pinkies by comparison had lopsided itself over three different lines, and was at least twice as big as Twilight had made her own.

"So?" Pinkie stared down Twilight with a wide smile, and Twilight found it hard to form a response. Not finding one, she turned to the table. Placing it alongside a note which she quickly wrote out "Spike, send this as SOON as you get back," she turned back to Pinkie Pie.

"Alright, lets get going, those three are probably scared out of their wits, a friendly face will likely go a long way..." Turning to Pinkie Pie, she asked, "Am I forgetting anything?"

"Nope!`" Pinkie Pie cheerily bounced out of the now open doorway, leaving Twilight to give the library another once over, before she herself followed out the door.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Princess Celestia, one who raises the sun, Monarch and Ruler of all Equestria, was having a terrible morning.
It had started when she woke up. She normally kept herself in a magically bound slumber, to ensure she woke up in time to raise the sun. Her sleep had been disturbed almost two hours before she had wanted it to. She couldn't figure out how it had been disrupted, and she didn't trust herself to wake up by the time that was needed if she went back to sleep.
So she stayed awake.

By the time she raised the sun, she was wide awake. But she had spent a fair while with body wracking yawns, and her eyes had an itchy feeling behind them.

She set up her workstation outside, on a balcony overlooking a partition.
She had filled out several forms that had been filed in her backlog (Oh the glorious life of monarchy), and the tedium was slowly eating into her.

"Willow Wisp?" she called, trying to get the attention of one of her attendants. "Think you could get me another pitcher of coffee? Mine has unfortunately run dry!" It had actually emptied itself more than an hour previously, but with the mountain of paperwork before her she had seen her time better spent with her muzzle to the paper.

"Just a tic ma-am!" With the muffled sound of movement from the other side of the door, Willow Wisp promptly revealed herself upon entry. Levitating a pot of coffee above her, she went in through the large gilded doors. A unicorn mare with a deep blue coat, and light aquamarine flowing mane and tail. Willow was an on off attendant, and had found the princess to be rather crabby this morning. As such, she was now taking care to console her in any way she could.

"Thank you Willow," taking hold of the coffee pot, she poured a small amount into a cup she had been using. Taking a long sip, she smiled at Willow Wisp. "Apologies for my...rather abrasive personality this morning, just got up on the wrong side of the bed I suppose." Giving her another wide smile, she started as a familiar puff of smoke wove itself through the air. Whirling in front of her face, it quickly coalesced into a signature paper scroll denoting a message from her precious student.

She took hold of the scroll with her magic, and unraveled it. Her eyes went line by line, then stopped. A surprised look flitted across her face, and she quickly re read from the start. Dropping the scroll, she opened her wings to their full extent. With a mighty downstroke, she took off.

Willow Wisp was was left amidst a sudden storm of papers. They slowly made their way back to the ground, those that hadn't simply flown off the balcony.

"...I'm not cleaning this up." With a flick of her tail, she went back inside to call for a maid.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

"ooooooohhhhhh..."
Arthur had eaten too much. His stomach felt like it was about to explode, but It had been enjoyable though. He hadn't been able to find any of the "cupcakes" that Pinkie Pie had been talking about, but he had secured a copious amount of lime flavored jello.

"Chin up lad, walk it off." Merlin had overindulged as well, yet not to the extent as Arthur. Indeed, only Guinevere had managed to keep herself in decent straights. They meandered along, drawing a stray glance or two as they made their way for the front door. Throwing it open, they strode out into the mid day sun. They proceeded through town, and Arthur was assailed with strange sounds and sights. Round, colorful balls that floated at the end of strings. A strange house with the windows shuttered, through which muted flashing light and deep throbbing music seeped. A pony selling flowers, apparently to consume.

"Are they...moving the clouds?" Arthur had finally looked up towards the sky, seeing a darting movement in his periphery vision.

"They...ah! Yes, yes they are. Now," Merlin stopped, gesturing to a light green coated pegasus, with a cropped blonde main and tail. Arthur couldn't be sure, but the mark on its side appeared to be a sunflower. "This one is moving the clouds to...the outskirts, see? I wager they're going to create a localized downpour, to provide water for the crops in the farms.Quite an efficient system, wouldn't you say, eh?"

"I guess..." Arthur couldn't really fathom the point of moving the clouds. They would just move again, according to the whim of the wind.

Merlin asked a random passerby if there was any work to be had on a nearby farm, and soon enough they were off for a "Sweet Apple Acres", a farm which traded mostly in apples. A curious event, how could a farm consist of nothing but apples? They passed the time commenting on shapes of random clouds overhead, and on the various shades of pegasi guiding them. Before long, the road had shifted to nothing more than an uneven dirt path, with the sides lined with lines upon lines of apple trees. Ahead, they could see a large stallion pulling three carts heaping with apples. They quickly overtook him, and Arthur was able to get a better look at the farmhand. Boasting a coat of deep crimson, he had a clashing mark of a bright green apple half on his side. He was a massive beast, easily a neck and a head above Merlin. Arthur was struck by a memory of his stepfather Hector towering over Merlin.

"Hello there!" Merlin called out to the red stallion, garnering a quick look and a gruff "Hi" from him before continuing on his way.
Arthur was pretty sure this response wasn't born of rudeness but of a single mindedness towards finishing the job at hand. Arthur had been in the same situation himself many a time, where focusing at the task at hand was the only thing that was truly important.

"Hello...sir?" Arthur had sidled up alongside the red stallion, intent on garnering a response above "Hi".
"Is this the way to Sweet Apple Acres?" He took a long look at the foal that had started walking beside him, and uttered,

"Eeeyup."

Arthur looked on expectantly, but it seemed that the slight confirmation was all the red stallion was willing to give. "So....we were wondering, if there might be some work or something we could do on the farm? Maybe for room and board?" Merlin seemed content to let Arthur continue with his questions, and to his credit it looked as if he was about to gain an insightful answer from their new friend.

"...Nope."

Arthur's expression wavered, but he quickly recovered, "Sir, may I ask further on the subject?"

The stallion, slowed, checking his thoughts. He responded glibly "No spare rooms." He then returned to his normal pace.

"So... there is work, just not something we could do for room and board?"

"...Eeeyup."

They continued on in silence for a bit, hoping for another word or two. They found themselves disappointed.Merlin turned to Arthur, and nudged his side. "Man of few words, eh? Best we not irritate him with needless chatter, just-" he leaned close to large stallion, "Just oooone more question for you there, might we pressure you for a name?"

"...Big Macintosh." He muttered, before raising a massive foreleg and wiping his brow of sweat.

"Well, thank you, Big Macintosh." turning back to Arthur, Merlin gave him a wink. "Ah, looks like we're nearing our destination, see the archway?"

Indeed, it appeared they had reached their destination, with a large sign saying "Sweet Apple Acres". There was a small bit of activity surrounding the gate, as three fillies were milling about the entryway. As they grew closer, Arthur could see that they were covered in grime, and something that smelled horrible.

"Applebloom?" Big Macintosh spoke, startling Arthur with its suddenness.

"Oh! Hi...bro..." this was spoken by the normal filly, with coat of muted yellow and hair of bright red. The most striking feature Arthur found however, was a pink bow which held her mane in a ponytail. Her speech trailed down sheepishly, and it was obvious she found the situation more than a little embarrassing. "We...uh...tried our hooves at gaining our cutie marks in...animal handling...but...well..."

"Skunk." Simply stated by Big Macintosh, caused a collective downtrodden look to carry across the three fillys faces.

"Twasnt our fault! We did everythin' all nice, but it just turned and sprayed!" She stomped a little hoof down, dislodging a wad of dirt.

"Tomato bath, I'll get the tub." Big Macintosh trudged off towards a large red walled structure, leaving them alone with this "Applebloom" and her two friends.

"Well, I know this aint the best welcome, but-" With this said, she reared up on her back legs, throwing her two forelegs over her head.

"Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres!"

Author's Note

baaaaaaaaah. over most of the sickness, but still feel a bit meeeeeeeeeeh.
I'm still looking for a more applicable title card, but as of yet all I've turned up is a reply reading as pretty much as "I dont really want to."
So, sadness in that respect. If anyone knows anyone that would be willing to put up a temporary, feel free to message me.

7 -A Certain Skunk Scent

Foolish filly.
Big Macintosh scrubbed at his sisters hide, working the tomato bath between every hair. She reeked of skunk, and this was the same treatment Granny Smith had given him in the past. He had prepared the wash in two large wooden tubs, and secured a few old brushes he had been meaning to throw away. While he scrubbed away at his protesting sister, the travelers helped wash the stench from Scootaloo and Sweetiebelle. He thought it good interaction, this "Cutie Mark Crusader" club, but it had some downsides. Some very distasteful downsides.

"Agh, no, ah can wash myself!" Applebloom yelled, pushing futilely at the probing brush clamped in Bic Mac's mouth. "Yeh got it in mah eyes, stop, stop!" Holding both her forelegs defensively over her head, Big Mac found himself forced to stop.

"If you don't scrub it out while you can, the smell will linger, you know." This was uttered by the young earth pony, as he carefully brushed at Sweetiebelles coat. He hadn't looked very hardy to Bic Macintosh, but he had a head of knowledge about him that Big Macintosh agreed fully with. His fillyfriend wasn't looking very happy with him though, pouting as she was and sulking in the shade of the barn.

"Eeyup." He wanted to get the point across to his sister, but at the moment he couldn't come up with anything more eloquent than what the colt had said. So a simple 'what he said is right, eeyup' would have to do.

The old unicorn had started whisking the watery pulp around the tubs, covering more area much to the protests of the fillies contained within. Magic always seemed to make things worse, no matter its convenience. Big Macintosh remembered of several instants of magic on the farm. Most of them involved Twilight Sparkle. Trying to cheat during the Winter Wrap up. Bruising almost half an orchard when his sister had worked herself almost into a coma. The whole "want it need it" fiasco. Magic certainly had its advantages, but at times it could prove disastrous.

"Old timer, if you don't get that brush out of my face, I'm gonna break it!" Scootaloo had gotten worked up at the unicorn, and was facing off against a persistent levitating brush. It moved seemingly of its own will, and dodged around her attempts to avoid it. Curbing another of her cry's of protest, it scrubbed furiously at her mane, while pushing her head under the surface of the tomato wash multiple times. Finally escaping by upturning the tub, she raced away while the brush followed in close pursuit.

Drawing the laughs of his sister and Sweetiebelle, Big Macintosh watched as the unicorn blanched, and tried to stop his enchanted brush. Finally stopping it (by YELLING at it to stop, what eccentricities next?), the unicorn righted the tub and trotted towards him.

"I wouldn't suppose you would have any more tomato paste? I seem to have spilled my portion."

Big Macintosh knew they didn't have any more. He had already used 8 cans, and diluted them as is with water. He decided to tell the old unicorn as such.

"Nope."

Seeing the old unicorns face fall with incomprehension, Big Macintosh knew he had to elaborate, and detail the fact that they had no more. Maybe even enunciate that it would mean a lot to him if he went back into town to "borrow" a can or two from somepony he knew had some. Like that Mare Twilight Sparkle. He'd been there with his sister the other day, and remembered her complaining to the young lizard colt about how they had too many. What a coincidence. Big Mac opened his mouth, and-

"Might be able to borrow a couple from the library. Go check for me?" Oh well, good enough.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Great. One of her critical care patients had just gotten up and walked out of the hospital. She had ordered strict bed rest, but did anypony ever listen to her? Nooooooo. She had left him under the care of a gosh darned alicorn princess, what more could she do to keep her patients satiated?!!?

"Nurse Gauze!" she snapped at the nurse unfortunate enough to cross her path.

"Y...yes nurse Redheart?" Poor mare, if she kept scaring her like this, she might never grow a proper spine. Redheart started walking again, and motioned for her unlucky co-worker to follow.

"I...look, I need to go out and retrieve a patient. Find Doctor Tourniquet and inform him that I'll possibly be gone for the afternoon, hopefully not that long though. Got that?" She drilled a gaze into Nurse Gauze, unfortunately forcing her to avert her gaze. She really needed to work on that. Bad enough everypony in her care were scared stiff by her, she couldn't have her coworkers falling to the same fate.

"Yes ma'am." Gauze replied glibly, noticeably avoiding her eyes. By now, they had reached the main entrance, and Nurse Redheart stopped and turned to properly address her further

"Good, I want the bed in room 713 replaced with a model that has leg restraints. If that daft old stallion wont stay put willingly-" She threw open the front doors thematically, "Then he'll just have to suffer the consequences."

"Who? Hopefully not an elderly unicorn being treated for manticore poison?"

Nurse Redheart started, turning towards the voice. Standing on the steps right outside the front door was no other than princess Celestia!

"I....er....well...." Great. Just great. The one patient that goes and runs off, and he turns out to be somepony of importance to the princess of the sun. Fantastic. How the heck was she supposed to deal with this? "...Yes. That would be the very pony in question, your majesty." It wasn't every day one talked to one of the princesses, and Redheart was determined to not have this conversation end badly.

"The patient decided to wander off, your majesty. I sent miss Sparkle and miss Pie out to look for him about an hour ago, but decided recently that it was my duty to safely see him back personally. Especially since they haven't come back yet." Redheart huffed. It wasn't in her nature to lay the blame on others, but she hadn't done anything wrong!

Celestia laughed, and gave nurse Redheart a warm smile. "I think there's something a bit...more going on, am I right?"

Nurse Redheart blushed, her stance so easily broken. "I.....I've never had a patient simply...walk out on me, your majesty." She looked back at Gauze, whose gaze had been flicking between the two. She let out a low sigh, and continued. "I...my apologies your majesty, I almost forsake my duties based on but a simply matter of pride. If you will excuse me?"

Celestia nodded, a warm smile drawn across her face. With a flick of her tail, nurse Redheart turned, and clopped back to the main desk. With a few scant words to the stallion behind the desk, she returned shortly with a thin manila folder clasped in her teeth.
"Milady..." She uttered, from around the folder. She found the folder magically lifted from her mouth, and it flipped open in front of her.

"This is... the patients file?" Celestia asked, giving her a questioning look from over the top of the folder.

"Yes. As you'll see in the notes section-" Celestia flipped past a few pages, finding the page in question."I noted that the patient showed signs of unusual recuperation. In my personal opinion, he should have been catatonic for at least a week. The poison alone should have kept him in bed for almost a month. In fact, for a pony of his advanced age, by all accounts he should have died." Gauze cringed, while death wasn't something that was unknown, it wasn't a common enough occurrence for her to be desensitized to it.

Celestia continued on, seeming not to notice Gauze's discomfort. "And this here-" she turned the folder, showing a page with several photos paperclipped to it, "You are certain this is the one you, ahem, 'lost'?" Redheart took a closer look, and certain enough, it was the stallion that had gone "missing". "And these three?" She pointed to three other pictures, upon which a colt and filly were shown with looks of apprehension stamped upon their faces.

"Oh, those are the two foals that were found traveling with him. They were unharmed, aside from a couple scrapes each. They seem to have...gone missing along with him." Celestia nodded, then smiled as she tucked the folder under a wing.

"And the...colt...nothing...out of the ordinary? Anything at all?" She looked expectantly at Nurseheart, probing for an answer.

"No...he seemed to be perfectly healthy for an earth pony colt of his age. Aside from not talking, but in my opinion that was simply nerves, seeing a loved one in bad health is always stressful."

"Well then, I think I'll hold onto this, if you don't mind. I'll also make sure this gentelmane and his charges return safely. Thank you for your help, miss Redheart." With this, she turned and left down the path. Nurse Gauze turned to nurse Redheart and excitedly started to yammer on about royal visitors and such.

"Get your head out of the clouds nurse Gauze, we have work to do." With a flip of her tail she went back to her rounds, the nonsense of gallivanting across Ponyville in search of her wayward patient behind her.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Big Macintosh had gotten the stink out of Appleblooms coat as well as he could. They both went to work on Scootaloo, with Arthur still working on Sweetiebelle. Big Macintosh had given Merlin as good directions as he could, and it didn't sound like that hard of a place to find. Only building growing out of a tree in the whole town.

"So, you guys are visiting? Are you from far away? Do you have flying competitions where you're fro-AAGH- don't pull so dang hard!" Scootaloo was interrupted by a sharp tug on her mane, where a tangle decided to grab onto the brush and not let go. Big Macintosh gave a slight disapproving look to Applebloom, who was now trying to untangle it as best she could.

Arthur slid a glance at Guinevere, who by now had dozed off in the shade of the barn atop a bale of hay. Her chest rose and dipped with each breath, and Arthur was glad to see her at peace. He was startled by a sudden jerk from underneath his hoof, and the brush he had been holding(How he was able to "grip" anything with a shear surface -such as his hoof- he couldn't fathom, but grabbing was still instinctual and worked perfectly fine.) as Sweetiebelle turned to look at him. Arthur realized they all were looking at him, and he struggled to form a reply.

"I'm just on a trip with my uncle, Merlin. And my friend Guinevere. We're from..." Arthur stopped, suddenly worried. if they had to have altered names, should they also hide where they came from? Oh, if only Merlin was here, he would know what to say. "I don't exactly know where we are in relation to home. Merlin used a magical item to transport us here..."Arthur trailed off, suddenly struck with an acute sense of homesickness. It quickly passed, and Arthur continued. "And...well, we don't have any flyers-"Arthur was careful to not elaborate on the subject, but this still drew a questioning glance from Scootaloo. "-we're...kinda rural. Nothing but normal ponies." All ponies present let out an audible gasp, and Arthur knew he had chosen a poor selection words.

"Normal? What the hay is that supposed to mean?" Scootaloo stated, standing up with two hoofs set on the rim of the tub.

"Yeah, whats wrong with unicorns?"Sweetiebelle had turned in the tub, giving Arthur a pitying look. Arthur looked and saw Scootaloo giving a look of indignation. Arthur didn't know for what purpose they were giving him these looks. It was all very confusing, and he didn't have the foggiest on how to resolve it. A sharp contrast, Big Macintosh and Applebloom were only looking slightly confused at the turn of events.

"That sucks, being a pegasus must totally blow there!" Scootaloo threw her forelegs up, letting them fall back into the tomato wash with loud and messy plop. This caused Big Macintosh and Applebloom to get splashed with pulpy water, much to their squawking protests.

"Besides the obvious bigot-ism of teaching that an earth pony is "normal" and that the others aren't normal, there has to be some good to this place. Right?" Sweetiebelle said, bobbing her head in a fashion that proved difficult to follow with the brush. "I mean, you have your uncle, right? I bet he teaches you all kind of magic!"

"That would be perfect if he was a unicorn, wouldn't it?" Scootaloo snidely said to Sweetiebelle, causing her face to fall with confusion before her rebuttal.

"He is a unicorn. Duh!" She waved a hoof at Arthurs forehead, drawing puzzled glances from all present.

"Sweetebelle, he's a pegasus. look at his wings!"

"He don't have neither o' those, what you both think yer talkin about?"

"Eeyup."

This went back and forth for several sentences, before they all fell silent, looking off behind Arthur.

"Hello there. You wouldn't happen to know where I can find your guardian, would you?"

Arthur noticed a glow coming from behind him. Even in the mid-afternoon sun, it was strong enough to cast light far beyond where the voice had come from. He turned from the tub and saw a most magnificent sight. Standing-no, floating!- on the road was a pony larger than even Big Macintosh, a full head taller! Her mane and tail billowed out behind her, and were laced with many hues. Her wings swept up and down, keeping her golden gilded hoof coverings from the ground for several seconds before she landed. She clasped the wings to her sides, and Arthur was struck by a sudden sense of wonder. Her coat was a bright pearl white, and he saw a horn protruding from her brow as well.

"Another...alicorn?"

She smiled, and the look on her face told Arthur that his situation was about to become much, much more interesting.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Author's Note

You would not believe how many times I left "unicorn" as "unicron" until my spell checking.
New title card, yay~ Go check the description for a link to his page, his art reminds me of the visual style for Secret of Kells, of which he has a copious amount of art of.And yes. I know that sentence was horrible in its grammar and structure. I stand by it. Go check it out!

And...yeah, it doesn't fit this story "perfectly", but that's my own fault for neglecting to provide story privy details, like the fact that Arthur doesn't have a cutie mark, or that squirrel girl is a pony. I feel really bad about that. Completely my fault for dropping the ball on that one.

8 -A Concert Cycle

He stood before the massive tree, its branches towering above him. It certainly was quite a feat of magic, the tree itself appeared to be hollow with a living space existing inside. The great tree was even still growing!

"Quite...extraordinary..." Merlin muttered, before continuing on inwards through the double doors in the trunk. The inside was as equally amazing to the venerable Wizard, the walls piled with books. The interior was filled with the the musky scent of pages and ink, of memories and tales transcribed. The air hummed with the power of those that had poured hours, days and even years into these pages. Merlin oft found that this was the power of books and the like, the ability to be remembered and enjoyed, to spread the love that had gone into their make.

"Hey, you can't-WAH!" A small ball of purple leathery skin and green spikes tumbled off of a propped up ladder, landing with a thump in a mixed up pile of books and flailing limbs. "You can't just walk in like you own the place-" the obscured creature stated with a groan, pointing a claw towards the ceiling to further its point.

"Why ever not? This is a public library, is it not?" Merlin asked, with a knowing grin directed at the young dragon as it attempted to 'drag ' (Merlin let himself indulge in an internal giggle at his little pun) itself out of the pile of books.

"Well...it...yes? I guess? Sort of? I...er..." the young dragon looked a bit flustered at the question, unable to form an appropriate rebuttal. "This is-"

"-Where you live, yes yes yes! A wonderful abode to be had indeed, so much knowledge, and in such a neat little package!" Merlin had by this point started rifling through the shelves, a frantic bolt of activity, scanning for whatever he might find. He came across a spine declaring The Wonderfully Wacky Walruses That Went West to Wake the Wishing Whale. "Ha...these ponies...so delightfully quirky, wouldn't you say so?" he directed to the small dragon, his mouth gaping and closing, imitating a fish.

"Well...I...yes?" He seemed to find himself with a distraught dragon. He didn't want to frighten the young one, after all.

"Well then," he grasped the dragon with his magic, placing him on the ground while piling up the books he had fallen into in a series of three neat stacks. "I was sent here by an amiable fellow by the name of Big Macintosh, to ask for a couple cans of tomato paste to help get rid of a persistent stench. He stated that he overheard from his sister that you might have an excess?" Merlin smiled deeply at the young dragon,

~--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~

"HE WAS HERE?!!?!?" Twilight Sparkle shouted at the top of her lungs, causing a certain nocturnal avian to flutter out from the rafters, hooing disdain at the offending source. Spike himself found his claws clamped tightly down upon the spines lining his earholes. He glared at his equine sister for a couple seconds, finally sighing before confirming her query.

"You know, it doesn't make you look very smart when you ask a question I JUST told you the answer to." Spike huffed, having had just explained to Twilight how she and Pinkie had missed the elderly unicorn from the hydra attack the other day by mere minutes.

"Urrrrghh, Spike, this is no time to have an attitude! That gentlemane cant be wandering be wandering about in his condition! He could really end up hurting himself" She punctuated this statement with her hoof, slamming it into the floor in a dull thud.

"Condition? Pffft. He had a cast on his leg, but he seemed perfectly fine to me." Spike did a half turn, gesturing to the library walls. Twilight noticed that the room was completely clean, she couldn't see a single book out of place or even a single spec of dust. "He helped me clean up, he even organized all the books based on a...a...a dewy...decer...system thingy?" Spike voice trailed off, as he tried in vain to remember the name of the organizational system the old stallion had described. "Besides, if was really in such a bad state, would he really be out doing farmwork?"

"Farmwork? He's...I...wait, what?" Twilight asked, confusion clearly stamped across her features.

"Yeah, apparently Big Mac sent him up here, you told Applejack we had a bunch of cans of tomato paste, more than we could use?"

"I..yes, I was talking with Applejack about that the other day...but what possible purpose would Big Mac have with that?"

"Cutie Mark Crusaders." Spike stated blithely, eliciting a knowing shrug and sigh from Twilight.

"Maybe they were trying to get their marks in pasta making!" Pinkie yelled, poking her head out from a pile of books.

"What?!!? I, I just cleaned in here Pinkie!" Spike yelled irritatedly at the offending party pony currently buried neck deep in a pile of books pulled from the nearest self. For what reason he couldn't fathom, and Pinkie dove back into the pile before he could properly ask her. Digging into the pile just added new questions, seeing as she had disappeared without a trace.

Staring dumbfounded at the pile, Twilight sighed once again, knowing that to follow this along the line of the known laws of physics would only develop into a blistering migraine. "Well then Spike, do you at least know if he said where he was going?"

~-----------------------------------------------------------------------------~

Merlin whistled a jaunty tune as he walked down the road, three large jars of tomato paste concealed within the large spacious purple saddlebag the young dragon had lent him. Merlin didn't mind the color, but the uneven weight caused a slight swagger to his walk. It put strain on his leg, unable to bend at the joint from the cast entrapping it.

"Blasted thing, I dare say if there was a single pebble in the entire road, this stupid thing would find someway to trip me on it." Merlin hissed at the inanimate hunk of plaster covering his leg. He paused at a line of benches lining the road, resolving to sit down and think of someway to lose his hobble. Ponies walked and cajoled along the road, and even a few of them sat on the provided benches. One such couple sat a bench close to Merlin, laughing and talking amongst themselves. What had drawn Merlins eye was the green ones unusual sitting position, where she had chosen to sit straight up with her legs dangling off the front. Surely not a very comfortable way to sit, but it would suit his needs just fine.

He leaned his back against the rigid boards behind him, eliciting an amused glance from the green one and her friend. It didn't matter. Merlin closed his eyes, and peered inwards,sending his energy coursing and churning inside. He took stock of the state of his body, noting each crick and miner ache. His soulfire had cleansed his body of the toxins that had plagued his body during his stay at the hospital. It hadn't taken his body more than a few hours to fix most of the internal damage, but there was still the matter of the inch wide hole that was trying to heal. Merlin took a deep breath, and found the edges of the wound in his leg with his mind. Letting out the breath in a controlled release, he forced his magical energy into a tight wad, gushing out and around his wound. He felt it as his skin and flesh grew and stretched, filling the small hollow that had formed under the scab. With a sharp pop and a crack that raced down the length of both sides of the cast, it fell off his leg neatly in two halves.

"Hey, are you alright mister?" Asked the mare sitting beside the green one, her voice tinged with concern.

"Why yes my dear," Merlin said, flexing his leg experimentally before leaping off the bench and clicking his back hooves together. "I daresay I feel fit as a fiddle!"

~-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~

"Who left this fiddle in the middle of the bucking floor?" stated a unicorn mare with a frizzy and spiky two toned electric blue mane. She had tripped over it in her haste to greet her friend, a grey earth mare with a long black mane and tail.

"Maybe if you simply watched where you're walking, instead of stumbling about with your head in the clouds. I'm simply amazed you can see anything with glasses as dark as yours, honestly."

"Hey, these are...umm...tray...magnifier? What the lady who KNOWS about fashion said." She stated, nodding with satisfaction.

"Tre magnifique, my dear Vinyl. And," she paused, clicking closed several latches on a medium sized case. "I will of course have to bring this up in the next musicians guild meeting," she stated disgustedly, looking around at the disarray coating the floor and seats of the hall. Instruments lay strew about, either rested on the floor or lying against or on the numerous chairs and musical stands. "It matters not if we CAN leave our stuff lying about, it doesn't mean we should. " She poked at a piccolo, scrutinizing the initials on the side. "Pennywhistle. eauughk, she didn't even clean out the spit-trap, where is that mares mind?"

"Yeaaaaah, you don't exactly need to prance-kiss a record table to make it play music, so I think I'll stick with my area of music." Vinyl stated snickering at the grey mares disgust as she tried in vain to find somewhere to wipe off the saliva that had affixed itself to her hoof.

"We need to get going if we want to make the start of the play, Vinyl." She had made her way over to the great swinging doors leading outside. "C'mon, we don't want to be late, do we?"

"Coming Octy!" the doors banged loudly behind them as they departed, and silence overtook the hall in their absence.

The doors opened once more, and Merlin poked his head in, looking back and forth to see if anyone was still within the hall of music. Seeing no one at present, he entered fully. Peering around before he closed the door behind himself, he indulged in a quiet laugh. "Ah...its been too long, too long indeed since I had a concert hall of instruments at my fingertips. Heh, figuratively speaking of course."He walked to the centerpiece of the hall, a stand with a conductors baton. Propping himself up on his hind hooves, he grabbed the baton in a cloak of yellow tinged aura, holding it near his front right hoof. With a flair of the tip, he tapped it twice upon the stand in front of him, and looked out among the empty seats, his gaze focused on the myriad of instruments left there. Merlin smiled, happiness deep in his breast.
"And a one, and a two and a-"

~---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~

Author's Note

Autors notes? Whats that?
All kidding aside, sorry for such a long delay inbetween chapters...life, you know?

9 -A Maestro Revealed

Arthur stood in silence for a time, simply staring at the pure white...alicorn, that stood before him.

"I...think he's at a library? Isn't that where you sent him?" Arthur asked Big Macintosh, who seemed just as bewildered the appearance of the giant pony as he had been.

"Eeeeyup."

"Well then, I need to speak with him. Would you do the honor of escorting me?" She stepped to the side, gesturing to the road back to Ponyville.

"I...do you need any more help here?" Arthur asked, turning his head towards Big Macintosh.

"Nnnope. Got everything handled here."

Much to the protests of the three young fillies, Big Mac herded them away, leaving Arthur alone with the alicorn.

Well, as alone as they could be with a certain squirrel turned pony wrapped against Arthurs side, hissing as threateningly as it could at the bemused solar monarch.

"A...friend of yours, young one?"

Arthur did his best to calm Guinevere, before responding."Yes. This is...Guinevere. She's...my friend."

"I see~" She stated, turning and walking down the path several steps before returning her gaze to Arthurs dazed own. "Well then? Come along young one.."

"Excuse me...ma'am?" Arthur interjected, causing the large pegasus unicorn to stop once more.

"Yes? Feel free to speak candidly young one, I am as is the expression, 'all ears'. I wish you to be as comfortable with me as possible."

"Well...I was just wondering...you have... both wings and a horn," Arthur stated, pointing out her appendages with an extended hoof, "What do you see when you look at me? All three of them saw me as something different... but I don't see a horn, or wings when I look myself..." Arthur trailed off, unsure as to what else to say.

The solar Diarch let out a short laugh, beginning to walk once more. "You always were reckless, weren't you Merlin?" she asked to the clouds above, her words without target. She turned to Arthur and Guinevere once more and gave them a slight smile. "So you're from Merlins...home, right?"

"I...I guess so?" Arthur replied.

"He always was one for rather foolish whims, regardless of the consequences. I assume you are a king, back in your home land?"

Arthur gave a start at the sudden confrontation, but seeing no confrontation in her gaze, he quickly calmed down. "...Yes ma'am. I...never would have guessed of such a thing, not even a week ago I would have called you crazy if you were to tell me I was to be king..."Arthur trailed off, trying to find the words to say, "I was a little bit overwhelmed to be honest... I threw a bit of a fit, eventually. It's my fault we're here, so please don't be mad at Merlin, It wouldn't-"

"What ever made you think I would be angry?" Celestia interjected, a confused look on her face, "I mean, of course I'm slightly irritated that he was gone for so long, and he didn't even say he was going! Just one day, poof! Nopony knew where he had gone, or how to contact him...Less than a century after that my sister...I'm sorry, I'm neglecting to answer your question. I actually see you in several different ways...but in it's simplest form, I see you with transparent wings and a horn. You are a king, so it's in your nature to be an alicorn...but you simply haven't 'grown' into it as of yet."

Celestia inspected Arthur with a critical eye, before continuing once more. "You said you don't feel like a king, yes? Your own uncertainty shapes your current appearance. You don't have faith in yourself, so you can't yet see what you might become. But the potential is there, and others can see that within you."

The conversation died down, and the white alicorn allowed Arthur to contemplate her words. Guinevere simply kept close to Arthur, walking in sync to better lean on him.

As they came closer to the town, suddenly Arthur found himself floating alongside Guinevere about two feet off the ground. No ammount of protests or struggling alleviated this.

"Got you!" Twilight triumphantly crowed, her mane jutting up in random spots, sparks of madness dancing in her eyes. "Two down and one to go," She dragged Arthur closer and stared him in the face-Arthur was now floating upside down, muzzle to muzzle with the irate alicorn- "Now where is Merlin Maelstrom? I know he has to be nearby, there's no way he would just abandon two foals, Where is he?!!?"

"Ahem~" tutted Princess Celestia.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight yelped, her ears splaying against her head.

"Hello, dear student, how are you today?" Celestia calmly stated, as if everything was normal in the world, and Twilight wasn't causing two foals to hover against their will above the ground.

"I... I... I..." Twilight was unable to form a coherent response.

"Twilight, I would personally encourage interaction between yourself and those of a young age, but I do believe you are going about it the wrong way. If you would put them down, please?" The venerable white alicorn said with a smile.

She quickly plopped both Arthur and Guinevere on the ground, a nervous smile upon her face. Guinevere hissed at twilight, circling around her to place herself between Arthur and Twilight.

"I was just... I just wanted to-"

"Find the old unicorn who was accompanying these two?" Celestia asked pleasantly, giving her student a slight smile.

"Yes!" Twilight shouted out triumphantly, shrinking once again at Celestias unblinking gaze. "I mean, I was going to request of them peacefully. Offer them treats to cooperate-"

"Did you ever think about simply following them?" Celestia asked in an amused tone. "They would have reconvened eventually, if you had simply been a little bit patient."

Twilight looked abashed at her teachers criticism.

"As it stands however, the damage is done. How about we go and meet with our elderly friend, since you were so keen on finding him?"

Twilights ears raised in surprise, "You know where he is?" she asked, her forehooves having found their way to rest on her teachers chest, propping herself up to better look in her eyes.

"Quite," Celestia replied, lowering Twilight with a smile on her face. Celestia's ear twitched, swiveling to and fro before settling on a single direction. "I do believe I hear him now, indulging in one of his greater hobbies. Come along, if you would."

She turned and walked off, waiting briefly for Twilight, Arthur and Guinevere to catch up.

"Wait, Princess," Twilight started, "Are you saying you know this Merlin Maelstrom?"

"Know him?" Celestia replied, throwing a conspiratory glance Arthurs way. "I guess you could say that. I guess you could even say that he is one of my oldest friends."

Twilight let out a gasp, and made ready to ask her next question, Celestia cut her off before she was able to respond to this newest development.

"He was even my and Luna's teacher when we were young."

"What? But that, Princess, he's a unicorn though! There's no way he could live that long!" Twilight argued. "Are you saying that he's an alicorn?"

"He isn't an alicorn," Celestia started, stopping in front of a large building. They all could hear music coming from beyond the doors, an entire orchestra at play. "But he isn't completely what he seems, either. He claimed to be ages old when we first met him, and I wager he's even more than what he's admitted to."

"Princess, is he in there? Right now?"

Celestia had been listening to the music, her eyes closed and slowly bobbing to the tune. She opened one eye, directing it at Twilight with a smile.

"Yes, I just wanted to give him the chance to get to the peak of the song before we interrupted him."

She turned to Arthur and Guinevere, "Do you understand how gifted you are to know somepony like that stallion?" She turned back to Twilight, "Twilight, I'd like you to meet one of my oldest friends, a stallion I at one time viewed as a father figure," she blushed, a titter in her voice as she continued. "And even briefly as a lover."

"I'd like to introduce to you, my trusted student. Merlin Sars Salus Von Starswirl."

"Star...Starswirl?" Twilight let out with a choked gasp.

Celestia flung open the doors, allowing the music from within to bathe over them.

"Merlin Sars Salus Von Starswirl the first. Starswirl the Maestro!"

10 -An Errant Bit of Nuttery

Hazel looked on as loud noises continuously came from the opening. Purple mean horse that tried to hurt her mate-to-be had started breathing heavily, one of her eyes twitching erratically. Hazel decided it would be best if put some distance between her mate-to-be and the purple mean horse, so she subtly pushed at his side. Managed to get him a full two tails farther from the purple mean horse than he had been.

It would have to be enough.

Purple mean horse and white bird horse were jabbering away at each other, more purple mean horse than white bird horse. Purple mean horse brayed too much.

Why couldn't she be nice and quiet, like her mate-to-be?

Her sweet little mate-to-be was mostly quiet, only braying back in short bursts. It was almost like they were communicating or something. Ha, as if. Like the purple mean horse was actually capable of rational thought.

White bird horse and purple mean horse started walking inside the two legged tree-home-that-wasn't-a-tree.

She hadn't seen any two leggeds since they had gotten here, after they had all turned into small horses. Hazel had thought that odd initially, but the added size was a nice bonus.

The dull claws on the ends of her new paws -were they even paws anymore? It sort of just looked like they ended in leg- were a bit of a disappointment. It had been really hard to climb trees with them, but she had managed.

She'd have to thank the weird old not-squirrel. She just knew he was somehow responsible for all of this. Her mate-to-be had been like her before he had shown up, but he had turned into a two legged like the old weird not-squirrel had been.

It was also the old weird not-squirrel that had made a loud yell before they were all turned into small horses and brought into the scary forest. So he had to have done it.

Hazel would never admit it, but she had been stalking her mate-to-be for a while before that point, ever since she had tearfully watched him walk away as a two legged. Mustering her courage, she had finally just leapt down on him from above. She knew he was a two legged at that point, but she didn't care. Old weird not-squirrel turned her mate-to-be into a two legged, so why couldn't he turn him back? If she couldn't get her point across... she'd just scratch not-squirrel's eyes out.

If her mate-to-be saw that, he'd be sure to stay with her, seeing that she was so strong.

Oh well. Her mate-to-be seemed to like the not-squirrel, so it might actually make him sad if she were to do that now.

Speaking of the not-squirrel, it seems the white bird horse had led them straight to him. He was making all sorts of noises that came together in a admittedly nice sound.

White bird horse and purple mean horse started braying at not-squirrel, making the nice sounds stop. Why couldn't they have just let it continue?

Stupid purple mean horse. Not-squirrel let loose a smell of slight fear, followed by short laughter like huffs. The white bird horse mimicked not-squirrels huffs, making purple mean horse bray rather annoyingly again. She wished purple mean horse would just go away, but it didn't look like that was going to happen any time soon. If only she didn't have the stupid purple sun light stuff. She was certain that if it came down to a fight she could take her, but with her stupid purple sun light that came out of her antler she could very well string her up and take her own shots. Maybe if she bit purple mean horse on her antler? Might work. Might not. Should try throwing a nut at the antler, see if it made the purple sun light go away. Next time.

So involved in her own thoughts, she hadn't noticed them focusing on her. All of them were looking at her. Old not-squirrel, white bird horse, mate-to-be and even the purple mean horse. Old not-squirrel was chittering something back and forth between the white bird horse and the purple mean horse. And then they kept looking back. At her. It was rather worrying, especially seeing as the white bird horse started looking kinda... mad. And pointing at her with its not-paws.

It all culminated with the purple mean horse making her purple sun light, and making it grow brighter. She fidgeted underneath its light, wondering if she should try the whole 'nut+antler' attempt or if she should simply just sit still. Mate-to-be didn't look or feel at all worried, so really, should she? Also she sadly had no nuts with which to try. She knw she shouldn't have eaten them all, but there had been so many... she had wrongly assumed she would simply be able to just get more when she was hungry.

With a loud crack and a flash of purple sun light, she felt a wave of pain arc through her. She shuddered in place, shivering with rage as she prepared to lash out at her aggressor. Her mate-to-be lightly pressed against her side, apparently trying to quell her anger.

"Are you-"

"STUPID PURPLE MEAN HORSE!!!" she screamed in the purple mean horses face, settling for verbal fury. She couldn't risk her mate-to-be's safety if a fight broke out between her and the purple mean horse. In the worser of cases, the purple mean horse might try to hurt her mate-to-be to trip her up, make her mess up and cause the death of them both.

"Well, I dare say we can be sure your... er.. 'translation' spell worked, even if you did skip over twenty steps to make it so you wouldn't hurt the target," not-squirrel admonished the stupid purple mean horse.

...

Wait, what?

Author's Note

Okay... Hey guys!
*looks around nervously*
Gosh... it sure has been a while since I last updated, huh? Well, heres a short snippet of a chapter to tide you over till the next chapter, which I plan on working on for the next few days. Hopefully I'll finally be able to hand you guys a 5k chapter...

Also, my releasing this chapter as is has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the chapter is exactly 1k. Its not like I've never been able to do that before and wanted to save it for prosperity...
*whistles guiltily*

Okay, so a thing I've been doing with my other stories is I've beseeched the readers (you guys) to leave questions for the main characters to answer. So go ahead, ask Arthur, Merlin or Hazel something!

11 -An End To Free Travels

"Wha... but he... that can't," Twilight sputtered, one of her eyes twitching erratically.

Arthur flinched as Guinevere pushed at his side, putting him a few steps farther away from Twilight than he had been. It was sweet that she was still trying to protect him, but he was the one with the sword, he was supposed to protect others... The warmth of her at his side was pleasant, anyway.

"Is something the matter, Twilight?" the alabaster white alicorn asked from Arthurs other side.

"He can't be Starswirl," Twilight reasserted, thrusting a hoof out to point at Merlin. "Starswirl the bearded died over a thousand years ago-"

"Starswirl the Maestro, Twilight," Celestia rebuked her, "Starswirl the bearded was his son. The Starswirl you know of was the second in his line-"

"Starswirl was a unicorn!!!" Twilight belted out. "So his parents had to be ponies, which on average only live about one hundred and twenty years before death, which he," She shook a hoof at Merlin, who upon noticing them all standing in the doorway had stopped whatever music he had been making in shock. It was quite a shift, the sudden silence aside from Twilights ranting sending a wave of goosebumps across his skin. " -although being a prime specimen of an elderly unicorn, is not over a thousand years old, no matter how you look at him!"

"Why thank you my dear," Merlin stated, light sparking to his horn as he adjusted the fallen instruments into a semblance of order. "I dare say I don't feel a day over nine hundred!~"

"Nor do you look it,~" Celestia playfully teased, causing Twilight to let out a grunt of frustration.

"Oh stop Tia, you're likely to make my poor heart stop again."

"T-tia?!!?" Twilight ground out in an almost animistic snarl.

"Yes, Tia," Merlin explained, "Celestia, Celes...'Tia'. It's a nickname. Used between close friends-"

"The closer the better, hmm?" Celestia hummed, watching as Twilight turned a deeper purple.

"Well, uh... yes. Which is rather odd seeing as most nicknames don't really have the name 'Nick' in them. Odd. Anyway, what are you... doing here?" he asked sheepishly as Twilight continued to glare at him. "Weren't you... eh... getting food?"

"YES! I WAS!" She yelped at Merlin, splaying her ears back. "And then we came back and you weren't there! Why did you leave? You can't be up and about with your leg like it-" she stopped, staring at said leg. "Where's your cast?"

"Oh, that old thing?" Merlin muttered. "I didn't need it anymore. Don't really know what happened to it..."

"Hyah! Hah! Hoo!" he grunted, swinging his trusty sword to and fro. The white blade wobbled in the sun, warding off errant dragons and evil bandits.

"Worry not, I shall take care of this fiend!" he called out as he swung his sword.

"Whatcha doin, Pipthqueak?"

Pipsqueak stopped, his trusty blade lowering to his side. "Oh, hi Twist. I found this in the road and nopony wanted it. So I just been pretending it was a sword..." Pipsqueak trailed off, scratching at his leg.

"...Wanna come over and help me tetht my latetht batch of peppermint?" Twist asked, smiling widely at the young colt.

"Would I?!!?" he replied, casting the plaster mold aside...

"Yes, we might never know what happened to that blasted leg prison," Merlin mused as Twilight was looking around the room in surprise.

"What was that? What was with the wavy air, and the 'biddly biddly biddly' sounds?" she questioned in a frenzy.

"Oh, that was just a cut-away my dear. Perfectly normal, nothing to worry about... Usually it was Surprise making those happen though... quite odd..."

"What... you can't... that doesn't... Pinkie Pie isn't even here, how can stuff like this happen??!?" she screeched.

"Twilight," Celestia cationed, as Guinevere hummed to herself -miming the act of throwing something towards Twilights horn-. "Calm down. This temperament doesn't become you, and you will only make things worse for yourself if you continue in this fashion."

"But, but he-" she stopped, " You! Leg cast. Where is. Now. Leg. How... How is better. Tell me!!!"

"Twilight!" Celestia snapped, drawing the lavender tinged alicorns attention, "Calm. Down. Starswirl was always a quick healer-"

"He is not Starswirl," Twilight snapped at her mentor, instantly realizing what she had done and shrinking in on herself. "I... I'm so sorry Princess, I don't know what came over me-"

"It's quite alright Twilight," she replied, leveling a smile at her as Merlin and Arthur watched on in amusement. Guinevere seemed to be off in her own little world, so little attention she was paying to the current conversation. "For one so... 'new' to being an alicorn, you will come to know quite a bit about magical and dimensional fluctuations. Especially pertaining to how they affect those of our kind."

Twilights head snapped over to stare openly at Celestia. "Di...mensional? As in pertaining to the multiverse theory? That theoretical nonsense the tabloids have been pushing for years?" she scoffed, "I mean, of course there's some merit to the subject, theoretically, but there's been no documented evidence for it actually existing. If it was real, you would know, right? And if you knew about something that could very well impact our entire society, of course you'd tell us about something like that, right?"

Celestia met Twilights rant with silence, as the look on Twilights face fell ever more towards one of comprehension.

"You mean... he-" she pointed at Merlin, " -and them-" a hoof flung towards Arthur and Guinevere, "They're..."

Twilight suddenly sat down, drawing in a long breath of air as she settled a hoof on her chest. This was slowly followed by a deep breath out, her outstretched hoof tracing it as it went.

"Okay. I think I'm better now. What were you saying regarding how certain magical forces would affect alicorns?"

Celestia let out a small laugh at Twilights rapid turnaround, "As you will no doubt learn for yourself in due time, we as ascended find certain currents of magic affecting us more deeply than others of the three races. Case in point, you appear to have a reaction wherein you find yourself more stressed, due to your exposure of another worlds cornerstone."

She fixed Merlin with a glare, "And don't think you'll get off scot-free either, you KNOW how I feel about this subject," she half snarled, causing Merlin to take a half step back. "You know what could happen-"

"Given a five year time span, yes," Merlin quickly cut her off. "I highly doubt it will take young War-Arth-PEN," he choked out, stumbling over the multitude of Arthurs names, "-young Pen here five whole years to gain a little courage. I was figuring more of a weekend, maybe a month. Just a little vacation, little time away from all the compulsion for him to change everything he was, give him some breathing room..."

"And for what possible reason did you decide to bring a cornerstone across anyway? I know you don't need an outside source to cross between the now and then," she continued, prompting him to reply.

She didn't need to know about his reliance on a certain bedknob.

"Well, as it so happens it's actually... attached to the lad..." Merlin explained, quailing before her suddenly furious gaze.

"You brought over a conjoined cornerstone?" she hissed, suddenly throwing a hoof over to point at Guinevere, "And what, is she from an entirely different world, with three elemental crystals she's safeguarding for a hero to come and retrieve so they can save the world from an ambiguous shadowy evil that has no more motivation than 'graaahhh I'm eval'?" she stopped, letting out a huff of air.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure she's a squirrel with the intelligence of a pony," he replied, before a wide grin cracked across his face, "Good job with the reference though, I'd forgotten how good it feels to have somepony to bounce those off of."

"A... A squirrel," Celestia stopped, half glaring at Hazel. "You turned... you know what? Whatever. I'm not gonna fix your mistakes. I'm not going to stress about all of the stupid stuff you've done. Can she at least speak, or did you just leave her as is in the vain hopes that she'd figure it out on her own?" she asked with a knowing smirk.

Merlin let out a sheepish cough, "I'll admit I hadn't given it much thought as of yet. The lass has quite firmly latched onto young Arth-PEN, I figured I'd teach him how to perform the rites to turn her into a familiar in time. If she stuck around, which it does indeed seem she might just be doing that for the foreseeable future."

"I know a translation spell!" Twilight belted out enthusiastically, putting herself right in front of Hazel before either Merlin or Celestia could voice their concerns. She quickly charged magic to her horn for the spell, ignoring Merlin's sputtered protests. What did the Starswirl fake know anyway? She was the alicorn of magic, she'd read over all of the real Starswirls notes and spells, and most every other book she could get her hooves on. She knew what she was doing.

Right?

Merlin didn't seem to think so, the way he frantically tried to cut off her spell before she hurt either of his two charges. He was unsuccessful in his efforts, unable to even make it a single step before Twilight let her spell loose. Right at Hazel. The magenta tinged bolt of mana collided with her chest, sending her a full half step backwards. The spell continued to arc over her body, acting like electricity as it fizzled and popped between the individual hairs covering her body.

She stood silently in place, shaking from the ordeal. Arthur slowly approached, leaning up against her side to hopefully lessen the anger the was undoubtedly brewing just beneath her furry surface.

"Are you-" he started, before he was cut off by a horrifying roar from the diminutive squirrel turned pony.

"STUPID PURPLE MEAN HORSE!!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, causing the ears of all present to splay backwards in surprise (maybe even a little fear, as well.).

A moment of silence followed her outburst, before Merlin spoke up in a chastising tone.

"Well, I dare say we can be sure your... er.. 'translation' spell worked, even if you did skip over twenty steps to make it so you wouldn't hurt the target," Merlin stated flippantly.

"You!??!" Hazel choked out, a wide look of utter surprise stamped across her face, "You talk-ed? Weird-old-not-squirrel talks? Why talk not before?"

They all stood silently and stared at her for a few seconds before Celestia let out a peal of laughter. She fell upon the ground, continuing to release streams of trickling guffaws as she vented her levity. It took her almost an entire minute to calm down, her laughter dying down as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Apologies, young one. My mirth is not at your expense, simply at the name you have bestown upon my friend," she explained at Hazels questioning, incredulous glance.

"White bird horse and not-squirrel are friends?" she asked, a contemplative look flashing across her face as she looked back and forth between the two. "...Mates?"

Arthur blushed as Twilight tried to stammer out a strangled refusal. Celestia fixed her with a tired glance, before letting out a low sigh.

"No, not mates."

Hazel looked towards Twilight for a couple seconds questioningly, then shook her head with a laugh.

"Whats so funny?" Twilight snapped haughtily.

Hazel froze, staring at Twilight disbelievingly for another few seconds before she simply turned back towards Arthur, snubbing her.

"Can... you talk too, yes?" she asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I can," Arthur assured her, "Are you... okay? The magic looked like it hurt..."

"Not hurt!" she crowed, puffing out her chest, "Nothing hurt me! Me strong! Make good mate~" she crooned as she leaned further into Arthurs side. Twilight instantly tore them apart with her magic, hovering them off the ground a good distance from each other. Celestia shot her a disapproving glare at her frenzied action, but she didn't say anything. Hazel flailed in place, hissing violently at Twilight as she tried to break free.

"Now just... none of that!" Twilight let out desperately, "What would your parents say if they saw you acting like this?"

Hazel stopped her struggles, glaring at Twilight through her pink tinged magical aura. "Say me strong. Scare many big others than me. Fight well, live well. Be good mate, make strong offspring. Live well. They dead though, so more likely not say anything. Dead things don't say nothing. If did, could scare anything. Now let go," she hissed out, resuming her flailing, "you hurt mate-to-be, I kill you!"

Twilight paused, running the young mares words through her head. "Mate-to-be?" she asked hesitantly as Arthur cringed in his own bubble.

"Yes. Mate-to-be will be my mate. That is why he is mate-to-be."

Twilight looked back and forth from the smug fillies nodding, to Arthur who it looked like was trying to hide behind himself. Behind his tail, anyway. "Did you ask him if he... wanted to be your mate?" Twilight ground out, attempting to put an end to her foolishness. This was a topic that only adults should even be considering, even if she used to be a squirrel she should know better, she thought.

Hazel stared at her as if she had grown another head, then shot a glance at Arthur, before returning her gaze to Twilight.

"Why wouldn't he?"

Author's Note

I rather like the idea of Celestia's voice actress drawling out the line 'graaaah I'm evil'.

Okay, so I've been hit by SEVERE writers block. As you can see how I basically just stopped this chapter kinda short. I've kept you guys waiting for too dang long anyway, so I might as well give you what I HAVE managed to write up. Tried to unlodge my writers block by writing up a chapter for my other story Megamane, but I think my update thing is still broken. I got like 5 people viewing it, and only one comment.

...GO READ MY OTHER STUFF

My apologies, turns out I'm just a sub-par writer.

Moongaze14 asks; Question, why did Merlin decided to sire Starswirl with Celestia? He seems to be the type of guy who wouldn't be involved with his students, especially those he taught from childhood. Also, is there any reason why Merlin decided to leave Equestria?

My dear boy, there are just some instances where mead should not be introduced. Suffice to say, I was quite mortified over my actions, even if my student took them in stride. Didn't even know she had those kinds of feelings for me, fancy that. As to why I left... my boy, have you ever been sitting in one place for far too long, and felt a desperate need to move, to continue on, as only you must? Well that lad, is what being a wizard is like. All the time. One has to keep moving, can never stop. After all, the opposite of magic is stagnancy.

Sora2455 says; So, Merlin.... where you born a pony or a human?

I am a wizard, my lad.

12- A prelude to Combat

Twilights' horn hurt.

Now, this affliction wasn't from an excess of magic passing through the delicate organ. Nor was it from a profusion of blood rushing through it due to an elevated excitement.

It hurt due to direct force trauma.

Or, more accurately, because the little brat of a filly had thrown an acorn at it.

Where had she gotten the acorn from? Who knows, Twilight hadn't seen her carrying it anywhere. She would have almost assumed she just picked the nut off the ground, but they were inside! And the arm that little filly threw behind the accelerated nut, some foals were simply too rambunctious.

Suffice to say, Hazel it seems hadn't taken too kindly to Twilights' attempted explanation as to why the young colt might not want to be viewed as a sexual object. Well, she didn't quite put it into those words, but she was sure she was doing a remarkable job getting her point across!

Sadly not, apparently.

While it had gained a giggle from the Princess and the old goat, it had done little to provide Twilight with any source of merriment. In the end, the point she had been trying to get across was ignored, her mentor seemed to find little to no reason to assist her in her endeavors, and HE was still talking to her.

Him, Starswirl? It... Well, it was certainly a possibility, magic worked in strange ways at times. But... he was so... normal looking! Old, grey unicorn. Long, wizard looking beard, but certainly nothing as long as was touted to the moniker 'Starswirl the Bearded'.

The Maestro. That was what Celestia had called him. Not the bearded. But that was preposterous, in all her texts it was always 'the bearded this', 'the bearded that', and 'the bearded thusly.' Not a single one spared even a paragraph on Starswirl the Beardeds progenitors. It was almost like he had sprung up from the aethos fully bearded, ready to change the world of ponies for the better.

To have a new piece of information spring forth from her own mentors mouth that didn't match anything Twilight had ever read in her books? It was almost unthinkable. It also didn't help that Princess Celestia seemed to almost be...fawning over the old goat. It was with a pang of displeasure that Twilight full well realized that she was feeling jealous of this stranger, this old stallion that had seemingly come from nowhere to steal her teachers affections.

Twilight drew her hoof to her barrel, ignoring the dull throb that persisted in her horn as she carefully breathed in, then out. Thrice more and her irritations seeped away, leaving her feeling miffed. It wasn't mature of her to act like a spoiled foal, and yet the Princess had seen fit to ignore such transgressions so far.

'"Can you... please not do that again?" Twilight asked, trying to keep her tone cordial.

Her only response from the squirrel turned filly was a tongue outstretched, accompanied by a wet raspberry carving its way from the shapeshifting fillys lips. Twilight didn't know why she had expected otherwise.

"She won't!" the foal insisted, pulling the filly back a step.

"Hmph," came from the filly, seemingly willing to abide by the colts demands, and by proxy Twilights' own.

It just didn't feel fair. The chance to socialize with her teacher seemed tainted, stolen by somepony she hadn't even heard of before. Inspecting the current situation closer bore troubling fruit for Twilights' preconceptions. The stallion appeared for all intents and purposes to be nothing more than a normal unicorn. Subpar physical appearance -which was one point towards his claim, if he really had been alive for the period of time he said he had been-, he didn't have the right kind of hat!

Instead of the proper wizards hat, with a wide brim and a crooked peak -Twilight wasn't even going to get started on the fact that there should be bells, if he wasn't going to pay attention to tradition then who was she to?-, the hat he wore upon his head was a weathered cone of towering fabric, almost like a sock in its construction.

It wasn't even the right shade of blue.

'Wrong Starswirl', Twilight chided herself, shaking her head slightly. Princess Celestia said this was Starswirls father. Wait... that would mean... Regardless of his long life, he still probably couldn't compare to the real Starswirls power and abilities! So why was she getting so bent out of shape? It wasn't like the elderly stallion was trying to replace the real deal, as it were...

Was he even in the same weight class as the one she knew of? It would be quite a feat, seeing as not a single mention of this pony had been passed down over the years, whereas his son was known and lauded. Books that had nothing to do with magic liked to put in references to Starswirl the Bearded! It was actually surprising seeing as most of Ponyville hadn't been able to suss out the pony behind the costume she had made for her first nightmare night in Ponyville... Well, a precious few of them actually indulged in pleasure reading, as it were. A grievous shame.

"Excuse me?" Twilight mustered up her courage, stepping forward once a lull dipped into the conversation between her teacher and the old stallion.

"Yes, Twilight?" the Princess prompted, gesturing with a hoof. The filly gave her a short glower, looking as if she were about to hiss. She eventually decided to finish off with a simple act of disrespect, sticking out her tongue instead.

"Well... I was just wondering," she stuttered, uncomfortable under the sudden attention of the entire group. "You say you knew... this Starswirl back before even the one we all know of," Twilight eventually fell into her stride, refusing to note that most ponies wouldn't know a reference of Starswirl the Bearded from an ad regarding hi-quality toilet paper. "So... he has to have picked up a few tricks from his... 'prodigious' extent of age, yes?"

"Why yes indeed, my dear," the stallion blustered, sticking his chest out as he adopted an embarrassed expression. "One does tend to pick up a trick or two on the journey of life..."

"Wonderful!" Twilight exclaimed, pointedly ignoring the Princesses disapproving look. She was always going on about acting in independence apart from her, so if there was a time for it this was better than most.

"Well then... Maestro," she focused a predatory grin towards the bespectacled stallion, "would you mind to terribly if we did a little... 'friendship' building exercise! Yes! Just a friendly little match between us, displaying our knowledge of magic?"

He looked momentarily confused, before a disturbingly wide grin creased its way across his muzzle.

"Oh, of course! By Jove, a wizards duel sounds absolutely spledniferous at the moment, nothing better for loosening ones joints, don't you know."

A... wizards duel?

Author's Note

Happy Birthday to me, here's a present for all of you!
Hope you all enjoy the short chapter, I'd like to take the time to shamelessly plug my other stories, which also have a new chapter today!~

These are URL links
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The Mechromancer; To Build The Best
To Echo A Mimic
Cout De Jumanji
Applegate
Ready Player One
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Those were URL links

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