Always look before you leap through a portal.

Having gone over the events from the past three months, I was pretty much ready to just snooze in the soft pillow.

Unfortunately, fate had other plans as Celestia and Sol finally returned.

As they entered, Sol instantly shot me a deathly glare.

Not that I blamed him. He was staring straight at the ancient god of chaos' new pawn.

"Dee, could you please wait outside the room? I think there's something Grand Master Sol and I need to talk about..." I said to Dusty Doves, my eye never leaving Sol's crimson red gaze.

'Dee' started looking around the room before it finally hit her.

"Oh right! Me. I'll get right on it Sir. Munck." She said as she left the room.

The moment she closed the door, Sol burst towards me swinging around to buck my head in.

Luckily I had seen it coming and jumped up on the bed next to me, using it to set off and plant two feet on the top of his head, setting off yet again from his head and landing next to Celestia who was still standing by the door, observing us and ready to intervene if things got out of hoof.

I got into a fighting stance, ready to tango as he gave a grunt of anger, ready to charge again.

This time however, Celestia decided to stop our little match.

"That's enough Sol," she said with a stern voice, "I think he passed your little test just fine by not caving in under your bloodlust and even being ready for you."

Sol gave another grunt, before the death glare lifted as wisdom and kindness returned to his gaze.

"You're right Princess." Sol said, his calm voice having returned

I just looked between the two of them, probably looking quite confused to anypony who saw me.

"What? Ya haven't figured it out yet? I can't train a little wuss to handle the influence from a chaotic god."

"So I decided to test you, see how far along you were, and her majesty gave me the ok." He finished.

I just facepalmed, hard and was about to open my mouth to give him a piece of my mind.

But before I could say anything, Cellestia decided to cover my head with her left wing.

"Easy now Munck. It's just Sol's way of seeing if you're ready. You are, after all, only nine years old and the rules says that you need to be sixteen to enlist as a squire in the knights."

I instantly calmed down, Celly's voice just has that effect on me.

"*Sigh...* It's ok, I knew it was something like that, it's just that I don't take kindly to others attacking me, be it for a test or not."

"Oh! By the way Celly. I'm only nine for another month." I told her with a big grin on my face.

Her eyes lit up at this.

"Really? Then we'll have to hold a birthday party. I haven't held one for decades, unless you count those boring fancy parties that the nobles and bigwigs invite me to. But it's been a long time since I last attended a real birthday party." She mused before her eyes lit up further.

"And not just any birthday party! You're turning ten. It's a big thing when a pony hits their first double digits," she continued before stopping as if remembering something, "when exactly is it?" She asked with a smile.

"Well, I don't know what you call months here, since I never really thought about it.. But it's on the 14th of August in my world." I told her

She seemed to think for a bit.

"Huh... That's what we call next month as well. What about this month?"

"July and before that, we had June, May and April, which is the month in which I arrived here." I answered.

"Well, it seems like we have the same months here." She said.

I then turned to Sol.

"Which reminds me, your name is the name of my worlds sun."

His gaze seemed to drift off to someplace only he knows of.

"Well, young one. The name Sol is one that comes with the title of Grand Master. Since that's the pinnacle of the Knight Order, you also gain the name of the sun, so that you may be a guiding light for the order."

He then turned his gaze back to me.

"But I find it intriguing that our worlds share so many things." He mused.

"Well, as intriguing as it may be, I think we'd better head back to the banquet. I'm sure that everypony must be wondering where Munck is. He is one of the guests of honor, after all." Celestia said as she magicked the door open to find a shocked Dee eavesdropping on us.

"And I expect everything said in this room to be kept a secret, understood 'Dee'?" she then said as she cantered back to the main door.

Dee's cheeks flushed bright red, causing me to snicker a little which in turn earned me a hoof to the backside of my head from Sol who then trotted past me while shooting me a smirk.

All four of us then proceeded to head back to the banquet hall where all my friends were waiting.

__________

The walk back to the banquet hall was a peaceful one. Everything that needed saying having been said, we all enjoyed the little respite before we had to enter a room filled with, probably, quite noisy ponies who are busy chatting with each other.

As we turned around the last corner, we could easily hear the music and merriments from the open double doors around one hundred meters further down this hallway.

These all ceased the moment we all entered the banquet hall, and I was greeted with a huge open room, roman style pillars with banners in between forming a circle around the room, ending with a golden statue of an alicorn at the furthest wall.

Several tables with foods and drinks taking up the center of the room, ponies crowding around them, both friends and castle workers.

My admiring of the room didn't last long though, as two colorful blurs decided to tacklehug me and pin me to the floor, effectively knocking the air out of me in the process, much to the amusement of the other ponies.

"Hello Twi and Lyra, for what do I owe the honor of being pinned to the floor?" I asked when I could finally breathe again.

They were both giggling like madmares, as they looked at me with those big eyes of theirs.

"We just wondered where you were, the banquet has been going on for a while, after all." Lyra said.

"Oh, that's easy. I was just shown to my new home during my knight training, I was also introduced to the one in charge of my training, as well as my new room mate." I said, sitting up a little.

"A room mate? Who is he?" Twi then asked.

"'He's' a 'she' and she's standing right there." I said and pointed towards Dee.

"WHAT!?" they both boomed in unison as their heads came to a halt a few inches from my face, their eyes wide with small pinpricks for irises.

The entire ensemble of ponies had now turned to look at the source of the noise, only to see two fillies pinning the human child to the floor with a hoof on each of his shoulders.

"So he really is into mares who are older than him..." Lyra mumbled, getting a sad nod from Twi.

I see what the problem here is... Might as well just get this over with.

"Girls... Go get your parents, and Shining Armor too, I'm sure he would want to hear this as well." I told them and they both got off of me and went off to get them.

I got up and went to the table that was farthest from the rest of the ponies and got me something to eat and drink and while I did so, the Light's and Lyra's family came on over.

"Now then, I'm sure most of you are curious as to why I asked you to join me here, though I'm sure Mr. Light knows the reason." I said, getting nods from all of them.

"alright then, girls? Have you told them WHY you decided to sneak aboard that cart on what turned out to be quite the dangerous mission?" everypony was looking at them now as they shook their heads and looked down in shame.

"Now, I don't blame you for doing it, after all, love does make blind." at this, almost all eyes snapped back to me.

"You knew!?" Twi and Lyra yelled in unison.

"You two sure are in tune with each other... But yeah, of course I knew... I'd have to be both blind, deaf and stupid to NOT notice it."

"Then... Then you really are into older mares?" Lyra asked.

"What!? No! I mean, maybe! I mean... Stop laughing, Rusty!" Shining Armor tried stifle his laughter, but wasn't too successful at it.

"*Sigh...* It's not like that. How do I explain this... You all know how I told you that in my world, the only sapient species is us Humans, right? Well, everypony but you, mister and misses..." I asked, looking to Lyra's parents.

"Oh, right. I'm Claves Philharmonic, sorry about the late introductions, but this past week has all been a bit... Confusing." Said a pegasus pony with a mint green coat like Lyra's, she had a long straight silver mane and grayish purple eyes.

"And I am Clef Heartstrings, let me again thank you for protecting our youngest," said a navy blue unicorn with a spiky light cyan mane and amber eyes, "now, what was this you were about to tell us?" he asked.

"Right, as I said, the only sapient species in my world, is us humans, and as such, we have an age old taboo that prevents us from being with other species like... 'that', since it's considered wrong and in most cases punishable by law. So it's not that I don't want to take one of you as my... Was it a special somepony? Anyway, it's just that I have yet to entirely overcome that taboo, if you get what I'm saying here."

Looking around I could see that the adults caught on quick enough.

"Besides, for all I know, I might discover the way back home tomorrow, so if I have a special somepony, I might not be able to make myself go through with it... And yes, that would be a problem, I don't belong here, after all. I'm a human, and to my knowledge, the only one of my kind here, so I don't belong in this world. My original plan was to use my device to just move randomly in my own world and search for my own place in it, not to somehow punch a hole through time, space and dimensions and end up here. Not that I regret it! Don't ever think that. I love this world and I love you all, my friends, co-workers and those that I consider family," I looked to Mr. Light and Mrs. Velvet as I said this and they both smiled back, "because of that, I'm already torn enough, but I also have family at home. Sure, it's not that big, since there's only my grand parents, my brother and his wife and child, and myself left, but I never planned on leaving my world behind in the first place." I finished my long spiel.

"So, there's still a chance that you might never find a way home, right?" Mrs. Claves asked.

"Well, yeah... For all I know, it could be tomorrow, or in six months, maybe forty years or I might never find it." I replied.

"You heard him dear," she said and ruffled Lyra's mane, "just keep at it, he's bound to crack at some point! You are my daughter after all and we get what we set our sights on." she said, giving a light chuckle.

"Wha-"

"You heard him, Twi," Mrs. Velvet chimed in, "don't give up and keep pushing forward, he's bound to fall for you!" she said while putting a hoof on Twi's shoulder.

"Bu-"

"Or, he could just start a herd with them, problem solved!" Shining Armor added.

"Shining!" I yelled and the others looked a bit shocked at his suggestion.

I could now feel the heat radiating from my cheeks, and I guess they could see it too, since it caused them all to start laughing, Shining's bad joke mostly forgotten.

"By everything holy! You lot are impossible! I'm just gonna go mingle now and let you scheme in peace." I chuckled and went on my way to see the other guests and enjoy the banquet.

__________

Shining came over and joined me while I wandered around, greeting some of the ponies there. I got to meet Steel Wing's lovely wife and young son who was probably around my age. We also met Snowflake's parents, a very small pegasus stallion and a really huge earth pony mare, and learned that they had pretty much raised him and Sunny together as brothers, since Sunny's parents weren't around for him when he needed them. During all this, I couldn't help but notice Shining's gaze drift off towards a light pink colored alicorn with a violet, rose and gold colored mane, who was standing near Celestia and a young white unicorn stallion with a blond mane who looked to be around Shining's age.

"So, who's the lucky mare?" I asked him as I jabbed him lightly in the side with my elbow.

"I... I have no idea what you're talking about!" he said, his eyes darting around in their sockets as a slight blush crept up under his white coat.

"Fair enough... Hey, why don't we go chat with that pink alicorn over there?" I didn't wait for his answer and strolled on over to them.

"Howdy there Celestia!" I waved at them as I walked over, Shining following close behind me.

"Hello there Munck and Shining Armor," she beamed us her warm smile and turned to the two young ponies besides her, "let me introduce you. This is my nephew Prince Blueblood," a loud 'Hmph!' could be heard from the white unicorn stallion, which Celly chose to ignore, "and my niece Princess Mi Amore Cadenza." she gestured towards the light pink alicorn.

"Please, just call me Cadance." she held out a hoof which I shook.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Kim Munck von der Lieth Haagensen Pedersen, a nobleman from the kingdom of Denmark on the planet Earth in the Sol system of the Milkyway Galaxy, but please, just call me Munck." I chuckled a bit at her stunned expression and gave her a little wink which snapped her out of it and she started to giggle a bit as well.

"I shall remember that, Munck. It's a real pleasure to meet you," she then turned to Shining, "And you must be Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle's big brother. I was just talking with my aunt about foalsitting her when she's too busy with royal affairs to be here in Canterlot."

"You're gonna foalsit Twily? If... Uhm... She can be a bit of a hoof-ful, so, if it's ok with you, I... Uhm... Could help you?" I could see his eyes light up with hope and held back a chuckle, which just ended with me giving a little snort. Celestia heard this of course and saw my amused expression from how Shining was acting a bit more goofy now and she quickly caught on.

"Now then, nephew, why don't we go mingle a bit with our subjects?" she asked the white unicorn who had been giving me the stink eyes since we got there.

"Gladly. The sooner we get away from that sad excuse of a bald diamond dog, the better." he shot me a look of disgust.

"Nice meeting you too, Prince Blackblood." I shot back, earning me a glare from him before he huffed and cantered away, leaving the four of us behind.

"What? He asked for it." I said, earning me a bemused look from the other three.

"I'd better go after him and make sure that he doesn't cause any grief for the servants." Celly said as she cantered off in the direction that Blackie went.

"Right-o... I'm gonna camp out at the snack table over yonder, why don't you two chat on and I'll be back once I've emptied the table of it's tasty morsels." I chuckled and went on my way, leaving a blushing Shining Armor behind with the lovely Cadance.

__________

I soon found myself by the refreshment table next to a stage where some ponies were playing some nice classical music. Letting the music carry me away, I just stood there, eyes closed and enjoyed the tune so much that I didn't even notice them stop playing.

"Excuse me? Hello...? Anypony home...? This is getting quite annoying."

*THWACK!*

A sudden jolt of pain in my shin brought me back to the real world.

"OUCH! What the hay! Wait... Who are you?"

In front of me stood a young earth pony mare, probably somewhere between Shining and my age. She had a light gray coat and a long dark gray mane and tail. And a pink snap-on bow tie around her neck.

"My name is Octavia Philharmonic. I just wanted to say thank you, for saving my sister. But you didn't react to anything I said, so I decided to get a bit... Rough." she said looking to the side, a little ashamed, as she waved a cello bow around with her hoof.

"Sorry about that, I just enjoyed the music so much that I kinda drifted off in a trance." her light purple eyes lit up.

"You enjoyed the music? Truly?" She excitedly said and started twirling the bow around in her hoof.

"Of course I did. I grew up in a house full of music, so I have a broad range in music taste. But I really enjoy classic music, it makes me feel calm and helps me think, make sense of the chaos that is my mind." she let out a deep breath that she must have held for a while now.

"In that case, I am truly happy that I chose to play the cello for you here today."

"Now that you mention it, I did see you on the scene before the music took over my mind. Sorry about not recognizing you sooner." I scratched my neck and gave her an apologetic smile.

"It's fine, I'm just happy that my first time playing at a public event, was for one who enjoyed the music and didn't just want it there because it's fancy..." a sad smile formed on her lips.

"Hey. Just because some," she shot me a sad look, "Ok... Most ponies only order classical music for the sake of being fancy, doesn't mean that you can't impress them with your beautiful music. After all, music speaks to the soul, so if your music is good, you don't need to worry about any of that, because they will love it." her sad smile turned into one of joy.

"Thank you, Munck. I'm starting to see why my sister is so into you." she winked at me and giggled a bit, causing my face to heat up again.

Confound these ponies... They drive me to feel things that I shouldn't be feeling, yet.

"Well, it was a pleasure meeting you, but our break is over so I should get back on stage."

"Ok, break a leg." her face changed to a look of confusion.

"Why would you wish for me to get hurt?"

"What? No! It's how we wish musicians, actors and actresses good luck before a performance, since it's said that saying 'good luck' will bring them bad luck, so we say 'break a leg' instead."

"I see... In that case, thank you, I shall go break a leg then and play you some more music." she smiled and trotted back up on stage and soon after they started playing again.

Looking back to the table with refreshments, I remembered my original mission. Getting something to eat and drink! Taking a glass of fruit punch and a piece of delicious strawberry and chocolate cake, I began munching away while enjoying Octavia & Co's performance.

I then noticed a violin case on the stage, even though there was nopony playing it, "Ouch... Why does it feel like someone is pinching my brain whenever I look at that violin..."

They finally finished the piece they had started, so I waved Octavia over, "Hey Tavi, if I may call you that. Why isn't anypony playing the violin?"

"Tavi is fine. One of my best friends calls me that as well. As for the violin, the pony who was to play it had an accident involving a large tub of... Jelly," she cringed a bit at the last part, and I tried to imagine what kind of accident one could have with a large tub of jelly.

After playing a few scenarios through my head, I shook it a bit and focused back on Octavia, "Anyway. I was wondering if I could see it for a bit?"

"Sure," she picked it up and hoofed it over to me, "I didn't think you could play the violin."

"I can't," her expression deadpanned, "Or rather, 'I' can't, but whenever I see that case, something inside my head feels like it's trying to burst out, so I thought that taking a gander at the actual violin might help me figure out why."

I opened the case and took out the violin. The chin rest was a bit bigger than what one would expect, but then again, it was made for ponies. I placed my chin on it so that it rested between that and left shoulder, and grabbed the fingerboard with my left hand. I then proceeded to fish out the bow from the case with my right hand and placed it on the strings. Somehow, I knew how to play it, so I did just that.

Slowly but surely, clean tones emanated from the violin as I began playing Pachelbel's Canon in D major. If I wasn't so concentrated on playing, I would have seen everypony turn around to look at me, and Octavia picking up her jaw before hurrying back to her cello it didn't take long for her and the piano stallion to slowly join in, trying to match what I was playing as my fingers and bow moved in perfect harmony to create the beautiful music that had even prince Blueblood mesmerized.

But all good things must come to an end, and so the piece ended to the roaring applause from everypony in the hall. We all took a bow and I couldn't help but wonder... "Who the heck puts knowledge of how to play the violin right next to the blueprints for a bloody neutron bomb?" I asked out loud to no one in particular.

A long time ago, in someplace far far away... perhaps.

A mad scientist sat by his work table in his hidden lab of doom and was putting the finishing touches on his newest invention, a bullet that could be shot into it's host's brain without killing him or her and grant them great knowledge. And with the right DNA code grafted into the bullet, they could also be controlled from his trusty lab, "*ACHOO!!!* Someone... *Sniffle!* Must be talking behind my back, again... Ah well. Back to the matter at hand! Hmm... In the case that my clever plan fails, I could add all my knowledge of the violin and have him become a famous violinist! I'm a bloody genius!" he cackled to himself as he began adding it to the bullet.

Back to our present day main character.

Everypony was still applauding when Octavia suddenly flung her front legs around my neck and gave me a hug and a quick peck on the cheek, much to the shock of the two fillies that had joined the crowd at the front to watch me play, "That was amazing! Simply astonishing! You have just got to play with us again!" she excitedly exclaimed while either not noticing or outright ignoring the daggers that Twi and Lyra was glaring at her.

"Errm, of course. I would love to play with you again, but would you please get off of me? I don't like the glares that Twi and Lyra are giving us," I glanced backwards again, the daggers almost visible now. Octavia just smirked before grabbing my head, "What are yo-" my mouth was suddenly sealed by a pair of furry lips.

It didn't last more than a couple of seconds, but it felt like hours before she finally moved back and looked me in the eyes, "A lady of my house ALWAYS gets what she wants... And I want you," she finished with a seductive smile.

My face felt like it was on fire, the soft and tender feel of her lips still lingering on mine. I tried to speak, but only a messed up bunch of babbling came out.

It was then that I felt two pairs of hooves pulling me away from Octavia, "What the hay are you doing, Tavi? You knew how I felt about him!" Lyra was busy scolding her big sister who just rolled her eyes. All the while, Twi stood between Octavia and I.

This was getting a bit too heated for my taste and I just wanted to sink into the ground and disappear. That was when I felt something poking my neck and I instinctively reached back to swat it away, only to feel something long and hard. I grabbed it and saw that it was a stick of earth lacrima. Looking around, I spotted Celestia by the exit and knew now that she had just saved me.

It seemed that they had finally stopped arguing with each other and had come to a sort of agreement. They all turned to me with fierce looks in their eyes, "Who do you choose!?" they half-yelled in unison.

Letting out an audible gulp, I gave them my best apologetic smile, "I choose a way out," I held my hand up and concentrated on the lacrima. The seal under my skin lit up like a Christmas tree as the lacrima seemed to melt and form a glove around my hand, "I'll make this up to ya all later!" and with that, I sunk into the floor. Leaving the flabbergasted ponies behind and swam for dear life towards the exit, diving under the door and continuing out to the front gardens before emerging from the ground just as the last of my lacrima glove crumbled into dust.

I didn't have time to rest though, as I could already hear them giving chase. Looking for the fastest way out, I ran for dear life through the gardens, vaulting over the nearby gate guard, leaving him quite stunned. Finally out on the street, I looked back and saw the three girls I'd rather avoid right now, bursting out of the main entrance.

"There he is!" Lyra shouted. The guard gave me a sympathetic glance before I whipped around and ran towards my home.

"This is going to be a long night..."

-To Be Continued!-