A bright, full moon hung over the starry night sky. The side of a feminine face with a horn going though the forehead was printed on the moon in dark patches. A dark forest only illuminated by the beauty of the lunar light, full of dangerous creatures either deep in slumber or scurrying about trying to be a predator and not a prey. Unbeknownst to any of them, a new being has enter the land, one that is far mightier than anything native could ever hope to become. The gorgeous shine of the moon is all that hides the darkness of the young night yet to come.
A young man laid in the grass of a dark forest. He wore black shorts, black boots, a red button up shirt with short sleeves, and with a straw hat with a thin, red strand of cloth tied around it laying on his face. The shirt was open, exposing his bare chest which, along with his arms, had muscles that weren't very big, but were hard and tough. An arm came up and picked up the hat, revealing black hair and black eyes. He sat up and looked at the hat with a puzzled look. He then shrugged his shoulders and placed it on his head. Then got up and looked around, scratching his head, or hat. He looked up to see the moon and smiled, but it quickly faded at what he saw next. Four lights that looked like stars circled the moon then faded into it and the face vanished.
Suddenly, something ticked in the young man's mind. He didn't know why, but he just picked a direction and started walking. Soon he started to hear evil laughter, following the laughter he found a person with their back turned to him. They were wearing light blue armor with helmet and a black cape.
"Hey" the man shouted to the person, who turned around. The person was a woman, definitely a woman, a bit taller than him who wore light blue armor plates on her forearms, forelegs, hips and shoulders with boots and a breastplate. Black cloth hugged skintight all over her body only revealing her hands and the space between her shoulder plates and breastplate showing the top of her chest. Her black cape was hold together around her neck with a crescent moon emblem right above her breastplate. She had light purple lipstick and eyeshadow with eyeliner, and her helmet had a black spiraled horn on the forehead. A thick blue aura with star like sparkles which resembled the night sky itself flowed like hair around her helmet. Finally, her eyes were a deep blue zircon with slit pupils that could stare through your very soul.
"Who dares sneak up behind us?" the woman spoke with a strong, elegant voice that demanded respect.
"Hi there" the man said completely unfazed by the power of her voice. "My name is Monkey D. Ace."
"How dare thy speak without bowing?" The woman question with frustration. "We art non other then her majesty, the rightful sole ruler of Equestria, the queen of the night, Nightmare Moon."
Ace however didn't hear a single thing she said as he was to busy looking up at the night sky. "Wow, so pretty" he said in awe, only load enough for himself to hear.
Nightmare Moon clenched her fist and grinded her teeth in frustration over the lack of respect. The hair like aura then suddenly lashed out at Ace. With a swift strike to the chest Ace went flying back through the bushes.
"How can only a thousand years create such ignorant fools?" she questioned to herself. She turned around to start to leave but quickly stopped once to bushes that Ace flew through started rustling restless.
"Ow, that hurt" Ace's voice complained. Nightmare Moon looked back at the voice and her eye suddenly widened in surprise, Ace had walked out of the bushes without a scratch on him. "What in the name of Tartarus? The spot where we hit him is completely clear, we were about to think that we may have hit him to hard but, it's like it never even happened." Nightmare Moon thought to herself, then turned around to face the man. "Alright Monkey, thou caught our interest."
"What the hell was that for?" Ace yelled to anger.
"How dare thee raise thy voice at us? We are a god." She yelled back in anger as well.
"We?" Ace questioned, "who are you talking about?"
"Us you fool, it is tradition to speak with the 'we's and 'us's when referring to one's self"
"That's weird."
"How dare thee mock the traditional speech. We will teach thee some manners."
"If you want a fight then come on!"
Nightmare Moon's aura hair lashed out again only with multiple strands at once. Ace quickly dodged and charged at her while dodging the multiple attacks.
"He's fast..." she thought. Ace quickly reached Nightmare Moon and launched his fist at her only to be blocked by the armor plate on her forearm. Ace continued to put his strength into his strike and pushed his fist against her arm which caused her to slowly skid across the ground "...and strong."
Ace raised his other fist to strike but it was quickly stopped by a transparent blue aura surrounding it, keeping it still. "What the..." Ace said confused as he looked at his paralyzed fist. The aura appeared all over the rest of his body and he was quickly flung into the air, he struggled to get free but couldn't move while in the aura.
"What's going on?" Ace roared. When he looked at Nightmare Moon he saw that the horn on her helmet was cloaked with the same strange aura around it and a smirk on her face.
"Thou must really be stupid" She said with a smug smirk. "It doesn't matter how strong thee are if thou art helpless to simple levitation. Really, thou may be somewhat stronger than the average earth-type. But, compared to us, thee are nothing more than a simpleminded ape."
"Shut up" Ace said in return, Nightmare Moon grow angrier with every word. "Let me go dammit, you're being a huge jerk. Stop whatever this weird stuff is or I'm gonna kick your ass."
Nightmare Moon's smirk was quickly replaced with a look of incredible anger, the very sight could cause many ferocious and terrifying monster to faint from pure fear. Yet her actions once again failed to have any effect at all on Ace and he continued to struggle. Nightmare Moon held out her hand and in it formed a similar aura to her hair that quickly took to a form and materialized into an object. This object was in fact a thin longsword, the hilt was black with the same crescent moon symbol on her cape imprinted on the center.
"We have grown quite tired of thy nonsense. Thee shall be executed for disrespect and trying to strike the queen." She pointed the sword at Ace's chest while he was still immobilized, again he could only continue to struggle against the magical grip of the blue aura. Ace's eyes opened wider as he saw the blade pointed right at him and struggled with all of his strength.
"Let me go" he cried out.
"Die!" Nightmare Moon cried as she thrust the blade into Ace's exposed chest.
"AHHHHH!" Ace cried out as the blade pierced straight into him.
Suddenly, the area around the blade that was in Ace's chest burst into flames. Shocked by the sudden flames, she quickly jumped away with the sword being pull out with no resistance and the aura keeping Ace trapped vanished. Ace fell to the ground and started rolling around while the fire on his chest and back where the sword had gone clean through didn't go out at all.
"AHHHHH! I'M ON FIRE. AHHHHHH!" He called out while continuing to roll around.
Nightmare Moon just stood there, dumbfounded while staring at the sight before her. She then looked down at the sword still in her grasp to see that there wasn't any blood or any indication that it just went through a body. Looking closer she found that the metal of the blade was warm, she was completely confused.
While Nightmare Moon was distracted, the fire on Ace had gone out. He looked and felt around his chest and back to see that he was completely uninjured, he set up and let out a breath in relief.
Ace jumped up back on his feet and pointed at Nightmare Moon accusingly, "What the hell was that?" This outburst earned him Nightmare Moon's attention again. "Your tricks won't work on me, lucky I put the fire out. I won't let myself get hit by that weird fire sword of yours again."
"What are thee talking about, worm?" She responded. "Our sword has no such ability, a true blade doesn't need such magic to be useful. Besides, we shan't need one in order to kill thee."
"Whatever, I'm still gonna kick your ass." Ace charged at her again.
"Fool, thou are stupider than we thought, charging unarmed." She said while preparing her sword.
Ace jumped at Nightmare Moon, ready to strike her across the face. Nightmare Moon quickly stepped out of the way and slashed with her sword across his abdomen once he was close enough. Seeing that she moved, Ace positioned himself to land on his feet. A straight line of fire had appeared where he was sliced right before he landed.
"AHHHHHH!" Ace cried, running around while the fire danced on his body while holding his hat so it wouldn't fall off.
"What is going on?" Nightmare Moon questioned no one while watch the flaming man.
"Wait a minute" Ace said as he suddenly calmed down and stopped running around. He watched the fire slowly disappeared. "Hey, the fire doesn't hurt."
Once the fire was out, Ace started patting the area where it was to make sure he could still feel everything there. With him distracted, Nightmare Moon quickly charge towards Ace and sliced him once again across the torso. Again, a line of flames appeared where the blade had passed straight through Ace's body.
"Cool." Ace said excitedly. "I don't know what's going on, but I think that sword and fire don't hurt me."
"A man who is immune to our blade? What is the meaning of this? Are thee even an earth-type?"
"Huh" Ace noticed her. "An earth what? What are you talking about?"
Nightmare Moon stood there frozen with trying to process what is going on.
"Hey, don't think I've forgotten about you." Ace shouted at her, then charged again.
Nightmare Moon snapped out of her ponder and saw Ace quickly approaching. Before he could reach her, Nightmare Moon used her magic again to hold Ace in place, and he once again struggled against it.
"Whatever thou art, it's not an earth-type." Nightmare Moon concluded. "How very interesting, so blades can't hurt thee and, judging from how hot our sword is now, that fire is real. So we would say it's a safe bet that thou are also immune to fire, impressive. Though, thou are also still helpless to such simple magic."
"I'm getting real sick of this, let me go!" Ace demanded through his struggles, this only cause Nightmare Moon to smirk.
"And just what can thee do if we don't? Thou are hardly able to demand anything like this."
Ace became angrier with the constant magic restraint and tightened the fist he wanted to punch her with. A light suddenly appeared in between the gaps of his fingers in his fist. The light continued to get brighter until, it sparked his hand into a blaze. This cause Nightmare Moon to loosen her magical grip on Ace in the confusion of the fire his fist had created.
With the weakened restraint, Ace quickly threw his fire fist back then launched it forward which sent the fire from his hand strait at the distracted of Nightmare Moon. She quickly reacted and used her aura hair to create a barrier with it to stop the fireball. The magic holding Ace vanished and he took advantage of that by running up to Nightmare Moon while the hair aura barrier was still protecting her. Right when the barrier had returned to her hair and Ace sent a fist at her. Nightmare Moon was hit strait in the face and was launched back from the force which knocked her sword to the ground. Ace smirked at his successful blow.
"Whatever he is, he's very strong" Nightmare Moon thought.
"How dare thee?" Nightmare Moon stated, not really questioning, while she quickly jumped back to her feet. "HOW DARE THEE!?!" She roared with anger. Ace was grabbed once again with Nightmare Moon's magic while a ball of midnight blue light started to form in her hand. As she focused her power into the ball, it grow until it reached the maximum size that her hand could hold it. Ace's struggles proved fruitless as he was completely unable to free himself. With the ball of compressed magic complete, Nightmare Moon grabbed it with both hands and pointed it at Ace.
"Say goodbye, fool." With that, the orb of magic sparked into a light blue ball that launched a ray of power strait at Ace. It only took a second, but in that second, the ray hit Ace and completely destroyed his entire body in a flash of light leaving nothing left but embers in the wind.
The forest went deathly silent after that, Nightmare Moon smirking at the sparks dancing in the wind. She turned to leave but stopped right as a light started to appear where Ace was. Looking back, she saw that the sparks were forming into great flames, then combined into a raging inferno. The fire on the ground right where Ace was standing started to move into the air. The base of the fire extinguished revealing black boots and moved upwards revealing legs while the top of the fire continued to move up.
"Impossible" Nightmare Moon said in shock as the fire continued up past the legs, black shorts, a bare chest with a open red shirt, arms, and a neck. The fire ultimately extinguished into Ace's head and hat, Ace's was back completely unharmed.
"Whoa," Ace said slowly while grabbing his head, "that was weird."
Nightmare Moon stood in utter shock at that she just saw. "What are thee?"
Ace looked at his open hand and tried to make the same sparks from before appear, which they did. He grinned at the new fire in his hand.
"Our sword didn't work, the magic blast didn't work," Nightmare Moon thought as her sword vanished into star like particles "the only thing that did was..."
Nightmare Moon's aura hair lashed out again at Ace in multiple strands. Ace barely dodged them, the fire vanishing from his hand, and charged back at Nightmare Moon. The aura continued its barrage of attacks but proved pointless as not a single one made a mark thanks to Ace's quick speed. Ace closed the distance between the two and throw a punch only to be blocked like last with the armor plate on Nightmare Moon's forearm, but he continued to push her back with his strength. Before Ace could try for another strike, one of Nightmare Moon's aura hair strands took advantage of how close they were and struck Ace square in the stomach. The hit caused him to lose the force he was pushing into her and started to step back, only for another of Nightmare Moon's aura hair strands to grab his leg mid step. The strand quickly jerked Ace up by his leg and throw him back.
"We knew it" Nightmare Moon smirked. "The magic in our hair is able to penetrate that fire defense of his. This gives us an idea."
Quick to recover, Ace charged again, only to be grabbed by Nightmare Moon's strange aura hair again. Having had enough of this constant obstacle, Ace's entire body burst into flames which instantly cancelled the aura grip.
"What?!?" Nightmare Moon said in shock. Ace's body reformed but the flames stayed on his forearms that were up in front of his face only for them to be thrown down, launching the fire at Nightmare Moon. He landed on his feet and charged after the fireball. The aura hair morphed into a barrier around Nightmare Moon which stood impenetrable to the fire. Remembering what happened last time, she brought up her arms to protector her face while the barrier returned to hair. Her attempt to stop an attack failed as Ace struck Nightmare Moon in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Then once her guard dropped from the impact, Ace used his other hand to uppercut her straight in the chin.
The impact sent her to the ground but caused her helmet to go flying off. The black spiral horn on her helmet was actually part of her forehead with a hole in the helmet for it. The hair like aura really was blue hair that faded into the aura with star like sparkles on it. Nightmare Moon got up into a sitting position with her hand holding her jaw from the pain, then looked over at her helmet on the ground. She looked back at Ace with a face of pure rage and eyes glowing pure white.
Nightmare Moon quickly launched into the air and float there thanks to two large, black wings that kept her up even though they weren't flapping, which were hidden behind her cape until now. Thunder appeared as her horn started to create an incredibly strong, midnight blue aura around it.
"THOU SKULL SHOULD BE OUR NEW WINE GLASS!" She shouted with enough force to make Ace hold his arms up to block the wind.
Nightmare Moon's aura hair turned into a midnight blue which lashed out again only much faster and with the strands being razor sharp. Ace dodged them but with the increased speed, he was barely able to stay ahead of them. While dodging, he ran at Nightmare Moon then jumped as high as he could while readying a fist, which was pretty high for a jump. This however failed as her wings just did a few flaps and brought her higher, which caused Ace to miss completely. Landing caused him to do a roll to get on his feet. A quick glance back showed him that the aura tendrils were right after him, so he started running to avoid them.
Ace stretched his arms out and concentrated on his hands, and sure enough, fire formed in his palms. Mindful of the barrage of attacks, Ace throw the fireballs at Nightmare Moon in the air. The aura hair tendrils quickly retreated much faster than the fire to form a barrier around Nightmare Moon to protect her from the attack. Ace continued to assault her defenses with more fireballs but had no effect. The orb of aura with Nightmare Moon in it suddenly vanished in a quick flash of blue light, Ace couldn't see her anywhere when looking around. The same blue flash appeared right behind him and he quickly spun around in time to see one of the razor sharp aura hair tendrils about to stab into his left eye.
Ace was barely able to avoid the assault on his eye by raising his hands to grab the tendril. He was able to hold it in place, but not before the razor sharp point stabbed into his cheek right below his left eye. Ace grunted at the pain on his face as flames started to come out of his wound where the tendril was still piercing. Looking back at the source of the aura hair tendril, Ace saw more quickly charging straight for him.
Using his strength, he pulled out the tendril from his face and repeatedly jumped back as fast as he could to avoid the others that were quickly catching up. Ace throw fire at the tendrils as he continued to retreat but wasn't having much effect with the aura hair's overwhelming amount of tendrils over Ace's small fireballs. One of them was about to reach him and struck, only barely miss and instead managed to put a slice into the rim of his straw hat and cut off a few strands of hair. The tendrils just suddenly stop and returned to Nightmare Moon just like that, which caused Ace to stop.
Ace breathed heavy as he could feel pain on his cheek and touched it with his hand only to felt warm liquid. Looking back at his fingers, he saw blood. He wiped the blood from his cheek only for more to slowly take its place.
"So, thou really aren't invincible" Nightmare Moon said in a cocky tone while she walked towards Ace. She brushed off the dirt on her helmet that was in her hands. Once finished, she placed her helmet on her head which caused it to go straight through her aura hair. Ace looked at her, then froze, he saw something that he couldn't stop staring at. He just noticed the cut in the rim of his straw hat. Everything around him seem to freeze as he continued to stare at the damage. Then, something in Ace snapped.
"YOU RUINED MY HAT!" Ace roared at Nightmare Moon in pure rage.
"Upset about thou hat?" She responded back with her cocky tone still present. "Please, tis nothing but a hideous piece of useless straw. Thou really are stupid to be upset over something as simple as that."
These words only manage to make Ace angrier, his teeth clenching tight. Suddenly, something inside Ace's head clicked, and he got an idea. He pulled his left hand back into a fist behind his head like he was about to punch. The fist ignited in flames.
"Thee just doesn't know when to quit" Nightmare Moon stated as she took to the skies and her aura hair charged once again.
"Mera Mera No..." Ace said instinctually, the flames becoming hotter and more fierce. Nightmare Moon's aura hair tendrils reached Ace and were about to tear into him, but...
"HIKEN" Ace's voice echoed as his fist was launched forward.
The fire on Ace's fist shot out only this time becoming a massive inferno that completely blasted through the aura hair tendrils causing them to vanish in the flames. The end of the fire formed into a giant left fist and was speeding towards Nightmare Moon. She created another barrier around herself right before she was engulfed. The magic shielded her the best it could but gave way, the blast launching her back. Ace watched as Nightmare Moon's figure sored through the air from the fire leaving a trail of smoke. The flames dispersed and Ace chased after the smoke trail into the forest until the source landed.
Once he found the end of the trail he saw a tree that had fallen over from the impact. Nightmare Moon was sitting at the base and was clutching her right wing, signs of pain were very visible on her face. Upon a better look, Ace saw that the barrier stopped what it could, but a lot of her clothes and armor had burns along with a large majority of the wing she was clutching. Nightmare Moon gasped when she noticed Ace's approach and got to her feet only for her left leg to give, returning her into the previous position while giving a grunt of pain. Ace just stood there, giving a serious stare as she struggled.
"Curse thee" she said, "How are thou able to use such massive amounts of power so suddenly?"
Nightmare Moon's horn flared to life with aura appearing around it, Ace got ready for another attack. She stopped however with a look of sudden realization which quickly turned to anger. Nightmare Moon thought to herself "while we've been here, the spell we caused earlier has failed in ridding us of these six fools and they're nearly at the castle. Something must be done soon to stop them from reaching the elements," she then looked back at Ace.
"Why?" She asked him. "Why are thou interfering with our plans? Art thou really so loyal to that betrayer, Celestia?"
"Who's Celestia?" Ace questioned. This only made Nightmare Moon confused.
"If thou aren't doing all this for Celestia, then who?"
"I'm not doing any of this because of someone else. You attacked me."
Nightmare Moon closed her eyes, "of course. Of course something like this would happen. It always does. Why?" Her anger grow with each sentence. "Why does everything good always go for Celestia?" Her tone then got much quieter, "why does everything always seem to hate me?"
"What are you talking about" Ace asked.
"Thou really don't know anything, do thee?"
"No, not really."
"Fine" Nightmare Moon signed. "Thee have done well to best us. So, we will explain, seeing how thou don't have the intelligence to already know this on thy own. Tis was-"
"Don't bother" Ace interrupted. "I don't need to hear any story. I just want to know why you attacked me."
"Fine" she answered in anger. "If thou really want a reason, it's because we couldn't find our accursed sister."
"How does not finding your sister make you want to attack me?"
"Because if we couldn't destroy her then we needed something else."
"Why would you want to destroy your sister?"
"Because she tried to get rid of us. But we escaped our imprisonment and now wish to seek revenge"
"And why did she try to do that?"
"Because we tried to take the throne that is rightfully ours."
"You fought your sister for a throne?"
"The throne, fool."
"Oh. That's stupid."
Nightmare Moon gave Ace a menacing look. "What?"
"Why not just share it?"
Nightmare Moon didn't speak for a second. "What are thee talking about?"
"Why not just have both of you share the throne?"
"How stupid art thou? A throne can only be used by one person, not two."
"Why not?"
Nightmare Moon just stared at him.
"But I see your problem with only having one person on a throne. Just take turns."
Nightmare Moon was shocked by this suggestion, both at its simplicity and that it could actually work.
"But really, it's just stupid to fight over a stupid chair. Who cares how nice it looks."
Now, she was just dumbfounded.
"No" she finally concluded. "The throne is ours and ours alone. Tis our right."
"You keep calling me stupid, but what you said was completely stupid."
She continued her threatening stare.
"Why are you even fighting with your sister in the first place? You guys may not have gotten along. So what? Get over it! You guys are family, and your fighting over something completely stupid. Family is special and it should never be given up on. Yeah everyone has fights and makes mistakes. But that's just how it goes. You apologize to each other and get over it."
Nightmare Moon just stared at him, still processing what he said. Suddenly, she rose to her feet and look to the forest with a look a realization.
"They've reach the castle" she said to herself. "We can't fly with our wing injured, we'll just have to teleport."
"Hey wait, we're not done yet." Ace called out trying to get her attention but was unsuccessful as she vanished in a flash of blue light like before, only this time, not returning.
"Damnit."
The sound of a drop hitting the ground told Ace that the cut on his cheek was still bleeding. He was about to touch it but quickly brought his arms up to cover his eyes from the bright, yellow light that appeared in front of him. When he looked again, he saw that there was another woman, completely different from Nightmare Moon, in front of him.
This woman was the same height as Nightmare Moon with her being a bit taller than Ace. She wore a long, white dress that started just below her shoulders, exposing the top of her chest and ended at her feet, just barely touching the ground. The bodice of her dress hugged her chest and waist tightly but the skirt became loose and floating at the hips to allow mobility for the legs. The lower half of each side on the skirt were open, revealing solid gold pumps. White gloves went up her arms to stop at the upper arms with golden bracelets on the wrists. A solid gold necklace with a sun shaped locket was around her neck.
She wore pink lipstick, light eye shadow with eyeliner, and small gold earrings. Her hair was light blue, light green, purple, and pink and was long enough to reach past her waist, but instead flowed like wind even though there wasn't any with small sparkles in it. A large, golden tiara sat proudly on her head with a purple gem in the center as a crown jewel. A very thin and long pure white, spiraled horn sat on her forehead with large pure white, feather wings on her back that gave her the illusion of being an angel. Finally, her eyes were a glowing pink with a stern but kind and gentle look. The kind of look that showed power and demanded respect but were, at the same time, calming and reassuring. Like you could trust anything and everything to her, and you could rest easy knowing that she'd be able to keep you safe, like that of a goddess.
"Hello, young man." She spoke with a beautiful voice that was serious but still calming. "Have you seen a woman in light blue armor? I can sense that much of her magic was used here."
"Yeah. She just left."
"I see."
"Who are you?"
"I am Princess Celestia."
"Celestia?"
The woman became a little confused. "Yes?"
"Wait a minute!" Ace said while landing his fist into his open palm, then pointed to the princess. "You're the one that that Night-Moon person was talking about."
Princess Celestia then noticed the cut on Ace's cheek and the blood run from it. "You're injured. Was that the work of Nightmare Moon? Are you alright?"
"Huh?" Ace stopped pointing. "Don't worry about it, it's nothing. But aren't you the sister of Night-Moon?"
"You mean Nightmare Moon? Yes, I am. And I need to find her in order to stop her before she does something terrible."
"Why are you fighting her?"
"What do you mean?"
"It's stupid to fight over something like a throne. You guys are sisters, why not just share it?"
"Because..." Celestia didn't finish her sentence and just thought about what Ace had said. "Huh, that's so simple and yet it could solve the whole problem."
"Of course. Why fight your own family?"
"I need to put more thought into this idea. But, right now I need to know where Nightmare Moon is."
"She said something able a castle or something then left. I don't know where Night-Moon is."
"THE CASTLE?!? OH NO!" Celestia shouted in horror. "I need to hurry!" Celestia was about to do something else but stop to ask one last thing. "Where are my manners? Thank you for your help, what's your name?"
Ace gave a big, goofy smile, "Monkey D. Ace."
Princess Celestia gave a smile of thanks before vanishing in the same bright, yellow light that she appeared in. Silence drowned Ace as he looked around the empty forest. He brought his hand up to feel the cut on his cheek and felt the warm blood on his fingers. Just then, pain erupted in Ace's head along with lightheadedness. His legs gave out, sending him into the ground face first with his hat falling off and landing on his back. The last thing Ace saw before blacking out was the rising sun bring the new day.
And so, the young man lay on the dirt ground, not from the battle of which he fiercely fought, but the delayed fatigue what had been slowly working its way through him and finally had gotten the better. Unbeknownst to the young man while he slept, another fierce battle with the dark woman and had been won and the darkness plaguing her heart was expelled. The words given to the two sisters had ended the years of pain and sadness between them once they finally were reunited. A new age of understanding and joy was about to begin for the two sisters, all thanks to the simple words and advice given by the very man who lay unconscious in the dirt who didn't even know he was really doing anything but stating what he believed to be obvious.
Author's Note
Today's Lesson:
I suck at old English.
Chapter 1: A new man in a new land. Welcome to Equestria!
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Chapter 1: A new man in a new land. Welcome to Equestria!
After the fierce battle with the mysterious woman, Nightmare Moon. Monkey D. Ace was overwhelmed by unexpected fatigue. In the morning sunlight, Ace's unconscious body was found by someone who proceeded to move him to a new location.
A new man in a new land.
Welcome to Equestria!
Ace woke to the sight of a white ceiling and the sound of periodic beeping. After rubbing his eyes to wake himself up completely, he got a better view of his surroundings. Ace was in a white, rectangular room with two doors on one side and a large window on the other. He lay in a white bed with a wooden nightstand next to it. What looked like a heart monitor was on the other side and was the culprit for the continued beeping. A clock on the opposite side of the room from the bed said it was 10:37, looking at the window showed that it was morning, and a nice day. He was wearing a plain white shirt with white, simple pants. Ace scratched his head for a minute before something clicked.
"My hat, where'd it go?" Ace's head was moving like mad as he tried and failed to find what he seeked. Not waiting for an answer, he got out of bed and took off the piece from heart monitor that was encasing his finger. The heart monitor changed from consistent beeps to a single continued beep. He walked over to the doors and opened one of them revealing a bathroom.
Ace took this opportunity to use the toilet and check the mirror. He looked the same, same black eyes and black hair, the only difference being his bedhead and a small bandage on his left cheek right below his eye. He took the bandage off to find that there was a straight scar, Ace just shrugged his shoulders. The door was still closed from using the toilet so he had no view when he heard a bang like someone barging through a door in the other room.
"HE'S GONE!" cried a woman's voice. Ace entered the room to see what was going on and found a woman who turned around from the sound of the door opening. The woman was wearing black pumps, dark stockings, a white skirt, and a white blouse. Her eyes were light blue with her hair being light pink and tied up into a bun. On her head was the traditional nurse's cap with a red cross that had tiny red hearts in the gaps on it. She wore red lipstick with light eyeshadow and eyeliner.
"Oh" she breathed a sigh of relief, "you're still here. Thank the goddess."
"Who are you?" Ace asked.
"I'm Nurse Redheart."
"Where am I?"
"You're in the Ponyville Hospital, Mr. Ace. You should really get back to bed though."
"Ponyville?" Ace was confused. "Wait! How do you know my name?"
"Please, get back to bed and I can answer any questions you may have."
"Why do I need to be in bed?"
"Please, you need your rest."
"But I feel fine."
Nurse Redheart took up a much more strict tone, "Mr. Ace."
"Alright fine" he said while heading back to the bed he woke up in, "you don't have to yell." Ace sat on the bed with his legs crossed, the nurse signed.
"Fine, I guess that will have to do for now" she said. "Now, you had questions?"
"Oh right. How do you know my name?"
"I was told by the princess."
"The princess?"
"Yes. Princess Celestia, she's the one who brought you in here."
Ace closed his eyes and crossed his arms to think "Princess Celestia..." After a few seconds, "oh right, her."
"Uh... yes. Um, any other questions?" Nurse Redheart asked, confused as why anyone took so long to remember a princess.
"Where am I again?"
"The Ponyville Hospital."
"What's Ponyville?"
"That's the town we're in."
"The town's called, Ponyville?" Ace questioned in disbelief.
"Yes."
"Weird name." Ace then remembered what he was doing before running into the nurse. "Oh right, where's my hat?"
"Hat? Oh, the straw hat you had with you?" Ace nodded. "It's with the rest of your things."
"I want it back."
"Well, I'm sorry but yo-"
"NOW!" Ace interrupted with a very serious look that kinda scared Nurse Redheart a little.
"Alright" she said after taking a step back. "But I need to tell the doctor and Ms. Sparkle that you're awake. I'll bring your hat to you after I'm done." Ace stared at her for a moment which made Nurse Redheart more uneasy.
"Alright." He said slowly. "But I'll be waiting. And you better not mess up my hat, you got that?"
"Right. I'll back as soon as I can. And please put the heart monitor piece back on."
Ace took the dangling plastic casing that was connected to the heart monitor with a wire and slid it back on his finger which caused the machine to start beeping again. The nurse then left the room with Ace sitting on the bed, waiting.
It didn't take long for Ace to get bored. He watched the clock as he waited but that only seem to make time go slower as what felt like hours was only a minute. He then turned his attention to the window and could see the morning sun. The window itself had open blinds and was also open itself, revealing the outside world and refreshing the room's air. Birds could be heard chirping and there was the scent of grass as he saw that there wasn't a cloud in the sky, it was going to be a beautiful summer day.
Looking outside seemed to have done the trick because, before he knew it, the door to the room opened again, only it wasn't the nurse from before. A man walked into the room wearing fancy brown shows, light blue pants and dress shirt with a black tie, and a white doctor's coat. His brown hair was combed back with a camel colored horn on his forehead and had small glasses with oval shaped lenses over his blue eyes. Finally, to complete the doctor look, he had a stethoscope around his neck and was holding a clipboard with papers on it.
"So," he said "you're finally awake. I'm Dr. Horse, and you must be Monkey D. Ace, correct?"
"Yeah" Ace responded.
"Good, now I just need to run a few test to make sure everything is okay."
"Tests?" Ace tilted his head.
"Yes. Don't worry, they're just simple questions. We don't have any documents that match your name. Plus, we did a quick scan of your brain while we were examining you and found a few spots that didn't look so good. The questions will be a good way to see if you have any brain damage and, if so, if anything can be done about it."
"Okay."
"Okay. First off, your full name is Monkey D. Ace, correct?"
"Yes." The doctor wrote something on his board with a pen from his coat pocket.
"Okay. Second, what is the date of your birth?"
"It's umm.... Uh, um." Ace was thinking the best he could. He closed his eyes and crossed his arms while he hummed to himself.
"Something wrong?" Dr. Horse questioned. After a few more seconds, Ace answered.
"I, don't really know."
"Your date of birth?"
"Got nothing."
"Hmmm," the doctor wrote something else. "Well, can you tell me where you're from or the location of someone who might have any documents of yours?" Ace continued his thinking and tightened his closed eyelids.
"Still nothing."
"Can you think of any relatives?" Dr. Horse continued with concern in his voice. After another second, Ace just opened his eyes and shook his head.
"Can you tell me anything at all?" The doctor lowered his clipboard. After a little more thinking...
"I know my name, and, nothing. I got nothing."
"You can't remember anything besides your name?"
"Well, I remember waking up in a forest at night, fighting this weird Night-Moon lady, talking to another lady in a white dress, and waking up here. I can't remember anything else."
The doctor scratched his chin in thought for a moment. "It could be possible that the brain damage you suffered caused retrograde amnesia."
"What?"
"Retrograde amnesia, the loss of ability to retrieve memory from before it was caused." Ace just tilted his head, the doctor sighed. "Amnesia, you can't remember anything from before you got it."
"Oh, you can fix it right?"
"It's doesn't really work like that. Medical science and magic can heal your brain the best it can but it will take time. As for your memories, they need to come back to you on their own over time, if they will come back at all."
"Oh," Ace was a little disappointed. "Oh well."
"You sure got over that quickly."
"Nothing I can do about it."
"In any case, everything else seems to be normal as far as we can tell. I sugge-"
"Wait a minute!" Ace interrupted. "If I can't remember anything, how can I remember my name?"
"Hmmm...." Doctor Horse thought about that for a moment. "It might be because our names is the first thing we really remember and, with it being used so much throughout our lives, it's the most rooted memory in our minds. So you don't have total memory loss after all."
Ace thought about this for a minute, "I guess that makes sense." The door opened again with the nurse returning with a straw hat in her hands.
"Alright Doctor, Ms. Sparkle is on her way. Here you go" she said as she hand the straw hat to Ace.
"Thanks" Ace said with an appreciative smile. A quick look over of the hat showed a large cut in the rim of the hat. "What happened?" Ace asked in shock.
"The hat was already like that when you came in." Nurse Redheart told him.
"When did thi- wait!" The memory of last night played through Ace's head, especially the part where his hat was damaged. "Now I remember." Ace then just looked at his hat in depression.
"Are.. you okay?" Doctor Horse hesitantly asked. After a small sigh, Ace dusted the hat a little then put it on with a sad smile.
"Yeah, I'm fine. At least my hat's still in one piece."
"Is that hat important or something?"
"Yeah."
"Do you know why?"
"Umm... I, don't remember." The doctor thought about this for a moment.
"It seems, that hat of yours is so important to you that the fact of its importance stayed in your mind even though you don't know why."
"If you say, you're the doctor" Ace shrugged.
"Thank you Nurse Redheart, please inform me when Ms. Sparkle arrives." With a nod, the nurse left the room.
"Who's Ms. Sparkle?" Ace asked.
"She's the one that the princess assigned to come get you when you woke up."
"How long was I out anyway?"
The doctor took a look at his clipboard. "Well, you were brought into the hospital at 6:12am on June 21. And now it's..." he looked over at the clock "10:48am on June 22. So about 26 and a half hours."
"I'VE BEEN ASLEEP FOR A WHOLE DAY?!? That's five whole meals missed."
"Five?" Doctor Horse then just shrugged it off. "Anyways, I believe it to be the best choice of action to see what the princess would like with you, it may be your best bet to regain your memories. But, before you go there's another matter we need to discuss at the moment." Ace tilted his head. "Physically, you're completely healthy and are able to be released from the hospital at anytime. However, you should know that the scar on your cheek won't be able to heal."
"Why?"
"When we did a diagnostics on you, we found that there is a bit of magic stuck in it. The magic won't do anything to you and won't do anything else for the rest of your life. Though, as far as medical science and magic goes, it won't be able to be separated from the skin and the scar can't heal completely with it in there. In other words, you're gonna have that scar for the rest of your life." Ace felt the scar with his hand.
"Oh well, nothing can be done."
"So, how do you feel?"
"Great."
"Alright, let's get you ready to leave, Ms. Sparkle should be arriving soon. But do try and take it easy and make sure to contact us if anything else is wrong."
"Got it."
"Good. Now please wait here while I retrieve your clothes."
And with that, the Doctor left the room with Ace looking out the window again. It didn't take so long for him to return this time, and with the clothes Ace was wearing when he came in. A red, short sleeved, button up shirt, black shorts, and black boots. The clothes were a bit worn out and torn in some places, but were clean. Ace changed in the bathroom and came out with the shirt open revealing his chest.
"Ready to go?" Doctor Horse asked.
"Yup" Ace said while stretching.
"Follow me." And with that, the two made their way out of the room, through the hall, and down the stairs to the entrance. In the entrance was a reception desk with two women talking, each on at a different side. The one sitting at the desk was the same nurse from before, Nurse Redheart. The other being someone completely new.
The young woman wore a white dress shirt with a light purple business jacket over it and a darker purple tie. She also wore a deep blue skirt that went two thirds the length down her thighs and light stockings with black dress shoes. Her hair was a dark blue that ran down to the base of her spine and was cut straight at the end with small bangs that were parted by a purple horn above her amethyst eyes. Her hair also had two highlights that started at the middle and ended to the left with the one on the right being a purple the matched her tie while the other being hot pink.
"Ah, here they are." The nurse said after see the two men approach which caught the attention of the other woman.
"You must be Mr. Ace" the woman said as she walked over to him. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, protégé of Princess Celestia. I am here in her place to see that you are alright and to keep you company until she is available to meet with you."
"I'm Monkey D. Ace."
"It's very nice to meet you. Are you already to leave then?" Before another word could be said, Doctor Horse interrupted.
"Hold on a minute Ms. Sparkle! Before you two leave, you should know that Mr. Ace here is suffering from retrograde amnesia. He is unable to recall any memories except his name."
"Oh," Ms. Sparkle responded. "This is something. Do you know if they will return?"
"Unfortunately, no. We've healed all the brain damage and possible damage that we can. All that's left to do is wait and see."
"Well, I wasn't expecting this. But I'll be sure to inform the princess as soon as I get the chance."
"Yes, that would be good."
"Will that be all?"
"Yes. Just try to take it easy for a little while. Enjoy your day."
"Thank you, Doctor Horse."
"Thanks, Doc." Ace said as the doctor started to head back into the hospital.
"So, are you ready then?" she asked again.
"Yup."
The two then proceeded to make there way from the hospital, onto a dirt road surrounded by grass. Being outside gave Ace a much better look at the town he was in. The whole town had a rustic theme, the houses were a light yellow color with hay covering wooden roofs. A lot of the buildings seemed to surround a tall building with a pointed, red roof that could be seen over the others. It was a rather nice day to add to it without a cloud in the sky and off in the distance, a large amount of trees could be seen surrounding the town. The road soon turned to cobblestone as it surrounded the buildings of the town instead of the grass. Walking through the town, Ace noticed a considerable amount of the town's citizens were women with quite fewer men, Ace just shrugged it off.
"You can just call me Twilight by the way" Ms. Sparkle said, starting conversation. "The doctors must of referred to me by a formal title, you don't have too."
"Okay" Ace smiled.
"So, I feel we should head off to the library to update the princess and check when she'll be able to speak wit-" Twilight was then interrupted by the sound of Ace's stomach growling. "Oh, that's right. You weren't asleep for too long so they didn't need to give you any food. Hmm..." she thought until she saw where they were and stopped. "What luck. We're right in front of Sugarcube Corner." Looking at the building they were in front of, Ace saw quite a sight to behold.
The whole building looked like a giant gingerbread house. The base of the building looked like the others with the light yellow walls but the roof's tiles had the perfect gingerbread look with the edges being covered in white frosting. A purple chimney with three different leveled peeks that connected at the base was on the left side of the roof with frosting wrapping around it. The end of the roof had a roof ornament that was like a weathervane, only it was stationary and it looked like a small horse holding a candy cane. A spire that looked like a pink cupcake was in the center of the building giving extra floors and a balcony. The top two thirds of the front door opened like a window with having two panels that opened outwards and the bottom being like a normal door. Finally, the look was completed by decorations at the end of the stairs that lead up to the door which looked like the roof tiles with frosting on them and a sign on the side with a picture of a cupcake.
"WHOA!" Ace called out. "It looks so tasty."
"Well, don't try to eat it" Twilight giggled. "No matter how good it may look, it still is just a building. Unfortunately, Ponyville's restaurant doesn't open till noon and we just ran out of food at home. So you're gonna have to settle for here. I hope you like sweets."
"Sure, sounds great."
The two came into the delicious looking building to find two young women inside, one in front of the front counter and the other behind it. The two were talking but noticed Twilight when she walking in the building.
The one in front of the counter wore brown work boots, blue shorts with a leather belt, and an orange gingham button up shirt which was knotted on the bottom showing her midriff. A brown stetson sat on her golden hair that flowed down to her back with a red tie around the end. A small amount of her hair sat right above her emerald green eyes and freckles. The other wore all pink, pink knee high sneakers, pink stripped thigh high socks, pink skirt, and a pink t-shirt. Her hot pink hair was long and curly, this was a very pink girl. The only thing that wasn't pink that was possible were her baby blue eyes.
"Twilight!" Both the girls said, happy to see her.
"Hey Applejack, Pinkie Pie. What are you doing here?"
"Ah was jus' here ta see one of ma friends, since Ah got the day off." The cowgirl said with a heavy southern accent.
"So what are you doing here, Twilight?" Said the pink girl with a high voice, then saw Ace. "And who's your friend?" This caused the other girl to notice him.
"My name is Monkey D. Ace" he introduced himself with a smile.
"Howdy there partner, name's Applejack." The cowgirl said, holding out her hand for a handshake.
"WAIT!" Twilight called out but was too late as Ace put his hand is Applejack's to shake. And shake they did, they rapidly move up and down seemingly uncontrollably. What surprised Twilight was that not only wasn't Ace having a problem with Applejack ruff action, but seemed to be keeping up without a problem.
"Looks like Ah've made ma'self a new friend." Applejack said, ending the shake.
"OOOOOOOOO, I want to be friends too." The pink girl said being right next to Ace instead of being behind the counter. "Hi, my name's Pinkie Pie. Do you wanna be friends?"
"Sure. Do you work here?"
"Not only that, but I also get to live right upstairs. Sweets all day and living in an amazing place like this? Best, job, EVER!" Ace stomach then proceeded to remind him of why he came here.
"You got anything to eat?"
"Do we? Are you kidding? There were so many leftover sweets from the Summer Sun Celebration. I wanted to eat them but Mr. and Mrs. Cake said that it would be a smarter idea to sell what nobody touched so nothing else needs to be made for a few days."
"What's the Summer Sun Celebration?"
"WHAT!? Where have you been?"
"The hospital."
"The Summer Sun Celebration is only the biggest party of the year. It was all of yesterday."
"I was asleep in the hospital yesterday. It sounds so cool." Ace let out a sad sigh. "I missed a cool party."
"Hey, don't get down. Turn that frown upside down. I can throw you a welcome to Ponyville party. It's going to be great, I'll invite everybody, it'll have fun games, tasty food, and more."
"That sounds like fun, sure. So, can I get something to eat?"
"Sure. What do you want."
"Everything."
"Everything?"
"EVERYTHING."
"EVERYTHING!!!" And with that, Pinkie Pie ran into the backroom.
"Well, looks like ya'll have become real friends" Applejack chuckled. "Sorry if ah'm bein' a bit too personal, but ya'll were in the hospital?"
"Yes" Twilight answered. "You see, Princess Celestia fou-" Twilight's story was abruptly ended when Pinkie came back with a huge amount of sweets that were laid out on a few tables, way too many for a single person to carry in one trip. The tables were covered in just about every kind of sweet imaginable. A normal person could have made their sweet tooth sick with just a quarter of the many different colored pastries and frostings. Ace's eyes shined like stars as his mouth created a waterfall of drool.
"Wow, that's a lot. I'm gonna have to pay for all of that." Twilight sighed.
"Don't worry Twilight" Pinkie told her. "I'm the only person I've met that can eat this much, so whatever isn't touch you don't need to pay for. Plus, I'll give you the friends and family discount, I'll just bill you at the end."
"Thanks Pinkie."
"No problemo, what are friends for?"
"So, I can have all of this?" Ace asked, still drooling.
"As much as you can eat." That was all Ace needed to start digging into the pile of sweets.
"So what's the story Twilight?" Applejack asked.
"Well, Long story short, Princess Celestia met him in the forest during Nightmare Moon's attack and found him unconscious the next morning. I was assigned to meet him when he woke up from the hospital and bring him to the princess when she's able to. However, it turns out that Mr. Ace here has amnesia and can't remember anything except his name."
"Amnesia? You mean he really can't remember anything at all but his name?" Twilight nodded. "Wow. Ah can't even imagine what that must be like, to jus' forget ya whole life. Ya home, family, everything."
"Is it okay if I come back to pay the bill? I really need to contact the princess right now" Twilight asked Pinkie.
"Sure thing."
"Thanks. Sorry to cut this short, but I really do need to inform the princess and find out when she'll be able to meet with us."
"Say no more, Twi, I understand."
"Mr. Ace, I-"
"You can jus' call me Ace" Ace interrupt with his mouth full.
"Alright, Ace, I'm going to send the princess that message and see if I can find out when we can meet. I'll find you when I did."
"Okay."
"Thanks again" she said to her two friends."
"Bye Twi" Applejack said.
"See ya later" Pinkie said. With that, Twilight left the building, leaving Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Ace stuffing his face.
"So Ace, ah got a question for ya" Applejack said as she sat at the table Ace was eating at.
Ace swallowed the food in his mouth, "yeah?"
"Well, isn't Ace your last name?"
"Last name?"
"Yeah, ya're name is Monkey D. Ace. Wouldn't Ace then be ya last name? Like ya family name."
"Oh, no. My family name is Monkey."
"So ya're name is backwards?"
"I guess."
"That's kinda weird."
"Huh, you think so?" Ace went to grab another cupcake until-
"WAIT!!!" Pinkie screamed, grabbing Ace's hand and looking closely at the palm.
"Pinkie! What in tarnation is going on?"
"Look! Ace, you don't have a spirit mark!"
"What?" Ace was confused again.
"What are ya'll talkin' about?" Applejack said before Pinkie shoved the hand into her face. The door to the backroom of the store burst open with a tall, skinny man with a square jaw coming through it. The man wore black shoes, red pants, a yellow collared shirt, an apron, and a red and white striped bow tie that looked like candy cane. He had orange hair, freckles, green eyes, and a circular red and white hat.
"PINKIE PIE" he said frantically. "WHAT'S WRONG? I HEARD YOU SCREAM."
"Oh" Pinkie responded, "sorry Mr. Cake, it's nothing." The man called Mr. Cake breathed a sigh of relief after seeing that nothing was going on.
"Almost had a heart attack. Please try not to scream like that unless it's an emergency."
"Okay, sorry again." Mr. Cake then went back into the back, Ace was still confused.
"Right, getting back on what we were talkin' about," Applejack said, getting back on track. "Ace, why don't ya have a spirit mark?"
"Huh?" He responded intelligently. "What's a spirit mark?"
"Oh right, amnesia, ya'll must have lost that info with your memory. Well, a spirit mark is, well, this." She then showed Ace her palm. Ace was surprised to see that on Applejack's palm was a clear picture of three separated, small apples. It kinda looked like a tattoo. "A spirit mark is something almost everybody gets. It represents who you are and your special talent."
"Special talent?" Ace questioned.
"Yeah," Pinkie told him. "The talent that makes you special and different from everybody else." She then showed her spirit mark, it was three balloons, one blue and the others yellow with confetti. "Like mine, it represents my ability to throw parties and to make people smile. While Applejack's is her ability to work on her family's apple farm." Ace then looked at his palm and only saw his normal skin with no picture on it.
"Cool" he said, then continued eating.
"Well" Applejack then said "I should probably go by now. I've been meaning to do some other stuff for the day. I was nice meeting you Ace."
"Bye."
"Take care you two."
"Bye Applejack" Pinkie responded. And with that, she left with a final wave.
"You can go ahead and finish eating, I've got some cleaning that I was about to do until Applejack showed up. Just call when you're full." Pinkie told Ace as she left for the back room.
"Thanks."
Pinkie returned after about an hour, and what she saw, she couldn't believe. Ace was laying on one of the tables that had the food on it only all the tables were clear and he was patting his stomach.
"WOW! I've never seen anyone but me eat that any sweets before." She said getting his attention.
"Ahhh," he sighed satisfied, "that was great."
"Twilight isn't back yet?"
"Haven't seen her."
"She might be waiting for a response from the princess or something, it could be a while. You got any other things to do until she's back?"
"Nope." Pinkie thought about this for a moment.
"I know. Why not go see what Rainbow Dash is up to?"
"Who's Rainbow Dash?"
"She's another friend of mine. She can do some really cool tricks and has been practicing for a while. She should be at the field just outside of town, it's pretty easy to find."
"Hmm... Okay, I'll see if she has anything fun to do."
"Okay, I'll tell Twilight where you are when she's back. I should probably go tell Mr. Cake we need more sweets, at least there's not much to clean up."
"Thanks, Pinkie. I'll see ya later." Ace said as he got up and started heading to the door.
"Later, Ace." Ace then left the building and started looking around for a field outside town. It was pretty easy to find and navigator through the small town to reach it. The field had a small grassy hill in the middle and on the other side, Ace saw another young woman sitting in the grass, watching the clear sky.
The woman was wearing worn out brown shoes, a long green skirt that concealed her legs, and a plain white shirt under her cream yellow open summer sweater. Long, light pink hair flowed in the wind and a pink butterfly bobby pin kept a few strands in front of her face which partly covered her turquoise eyes. What looked like folded, yellow, feathered wings were on her back.
"Hey." Ace called out to her once he got close enough. This caused the girl to yelp out in surprise at the sudden call and to try to hide behind her hair when she saw Ace approach. "Are you Rainbow Dash?" She shook her head.
"Oh, do you know where she is?" Hesitantly, she pointed to the sky. Looking up, Ace didn't see anything, until a sudden object moved through the sky too fast to see, leaving a rainbow trail. "Whoa."
The object did a spin then started heading straight for the both of them fast. It looked like it was about to crash and Ace put his arms up to brass himself but the impact never came as the object stop just a few feet above the ground sending wind at Ace and the girl. Putting his arms down, Ace learned the object was another young woman.
This woman wore blue boots, skin tight, black shorts with a sky blue skirt and short sleeved hoodie. Her hair was a complete rainbow, the front was red and yellow on the sides with orange in the middle, and the back had green and purple on the sides and blue in the middle with it reaching past her shoulders. She had magenta eyes and two sky blue, feathered wings extended from her back. And she was floating.
"Who are you?" she asked in a somewhat raspy voice.
"I'm Ace. I'm looking for Rainbow Dash"
"Well, lucky you. I am the one and only Rainbow Dash, the greatest flier in all of Equestria. Are you here to ask for my autograph?"
"No, I heard from Pinkie that you know how to have fun."
"Oh. Well if you're looking for some fun you came to the right person. You're just in time for the greatest pastime in all of Ponyville."
"Yeah? What?"
"Why, watching my awesome flight show of course. I was in the middle of practicing and you're lucky enough to come at the right time for me to be warmed up and ready for the real show."
"Okay, I'll watch." Ace then sat down with his legs crossed.
"Cool, but first..." She then flapped her wings and floated over to the girl sitting in the grass. "So, Fluttershy, how was that?"
"Oh," the girl said almost to quiet for Ace to hear. "That was very good."
"Thanks Flutters. You don't have to hang here if you don't want to ya know, right?"
"Oh no, I enjoy watching you fly. Besides, you're my friend and I want to support you as you train to become better," the girl called Fluttershy spoke with a sincere smile.
"Thanks Fluttershy." Rainbow Dash then turned to Ace. "Alright Ace, prepare for the most awesome thing you'll ever see." Using her wings, she then rocketed into the air with a rainbow trail right behind her. She flew high into the air then back down, spinning into aileron rolls that expanded into a barrel rolls which created a corkscrew effect with her rainbow trail. She immediately changed direction right before crashing into the ground and instead flew just above it, parallel, as she started zigzagging through the trees that made up the border of the forest and the clear field. She then flew back into the air at breakneck speeds this time go much higher and stopped to pose in front of the sun.
She then used gravity to help accelerate back down to the ground. The rainbow trail was right behind her as Rainbow Dash fell to the earth at incredible speeds causing air to form around her creating a mach cone. The air stung her eyes and she slowed down a bit and stopped right before hitting the ground and dropped to her feet on the grass in front of Ace. Rainbow Dash's breathing could be hear as she looked over the audience of two and was satisfied with what she saw. Fluttershy was quietly clapping, but Ace's eyes turned into stars.
"THAT WAS SO COOL!!!" Ace praised as he started frantically clapping his hands above his head.
"Well, it was done by me. So Ace, I've never seen you in town before. Did you come here for the Summer Sun Celebration and are staying late or something?"
"No. I was in the hospital and just got out."
"You were in the hospital? Why?"
"Umm... I don't remember. Twilight said some princess wants to talk to me about something. I'm just waiting for her to come find me whenever that'll happen."
"You know Twilight huh? What, are you her boyfriend or something?" she chuckled.
"Boyfriend? Well, I'm a boy. And I'm her friend..."
"It's a joke. So you're one of her friends from Canterlot?"
"Canterlot? Where's that?" Rainbow Dash just looked at Ace like he was the biggest idiot she's ever met, but she's met bigger.
"How do you not know about Canterlot? Everybody does."
"I don't remember anything." He shrugged.
"What do you mean you don't remember anything?"
"When I was in the hospital, the doctor said I have amnesia."
"Amnesia?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Um," the girl sitting in the grass peeped up almost to quiet to hear.
"Yeah Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash asked her.
"Amnesia is a condition where someone can't remember anything from there past."
"I uh, knew that." She hesitantly said.
"Oh, uh, I'm sorry."
"That's okay." Rainbow Dash then returned to her earlier conversation. "So, you can't remember anything?"
"Nope" Ace returned a grin.
"And no one knows you?" Ace shrugged. "Wow. Well, Canterlot is right over there" she then pointed to a giant mountain. A huge city was built into the side of the mountain with high pointed towers and waterfalls at the edge. "It's the capital of Equestria and is where Canterlot Castle is, the home of the princess."
"Whoa."
"Yeah, it's something. So, you've got something to talk to Princess Celestia about?"
"I don't know. Twilight said she wanted to see me, don't know why."
"Rainbow Dash" Fluttershy said.
"Yeah?"
"Twilight's coming" She pointed at the town and sure enough, Twilight was making her way over to the three of them.
"TWILIGHT, HEY" Rainbow Dash shouted over to her. Soon enough she reached them.
"Hello Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy." Twilight greeted, Fluttershy waved. "There you are Ace, the princess returned my message. We'll be leaving for Canterlot soon."
"Alright, let's go" Ace got up.
"Nice to meet ya, Ace" Rainbow Dash said holding out her fist.
"You too, Rainbow Dash" Ace bumped his fist into hers.
"Later Twilight."
"Goodbye Twilight, enjoy your trip." Take a guess who said that.
"Thanks, bye you two." Twilight then started heading back to town with Ace behind her.
"Alright," Twilight started conversation while the both of them walked through town. "We have some time until the chariot will arrive to take us to Canterlot to meet with Princess Celestia. So, while we have the chance, there's a problem that needs aggressing."
"Okay, what's the problem?" Twilight then stop and pointed at Ace.
"Those clothes you're wearing are completely unacceptable, they look like they're about to fall apart. If we're going to see the princess, then we need appropriate attire." She then started walking again. "Luckily, I know somebody in town who is quite skilled with the art of thread."
It didn't take long to come to another stop, only this time it was in front of another building. The building in question was similar to Sugar Cube Corner in regards that it was completely unique and different the rest of town. The build was built more like a tower with two stories and a high pointed roof. The lower floor was bigger than the top and had roofing in the gap with all the roofing being in a dark and light purple checked patterned. The walls of the top floor were close enough to fit rails into the space between the roofs with wooden horses on some creating the appearance of a carousel.
Gold trim wrapped around the ends of the roofs and a stripped gold piece sat on the top with a small red flag. The top floor had white walls with light blue accent with the bottom's walls being vise versa and spiraled wood pillars connecting the ground and roof. Yellow striped curtains were behind large windows on the bottom floor with multiple designs of women's clothing on mannequins. A large, white sign with wood handle bars on the sides read 'Carousel Boutique' in magenta letters above the pink door frame. The door was a deep purple with a diamond shaped window and a cat door at the bottom.
"Here we are, the Carousel Boutique."
"Oooooo, cool, it looks like a merry-go-round." Once they enter, a bell alerted anyone in the building of customers.
"Just a minute~" an elegant, feminine voice sang from the back room. The room they were in took up about three fifths of the lower floor with a lavender floor and walls with a doorway on the opposite side of the room from the entrance. A circular, yellow stage was at the middle of the building with three mirrors at the back of it. Stands with the manikins that could be seen from the outside stood to the sides of the front door with tied yellow curtains on the sides of the windows.
Plain mannequins sat against the wall to the left side of the room with wall mirrors and makeup stations at the other end. The doorway to the rest of the building sat between the makeup stations and changing rooms that were behind the stage. A closed door was at the other side of the right front stand and magenta curtains and cloth decorated and covered most of the walls. Ace soon met yet another young woman who had her own style as the owner of the voice entered the room.
"Hello, welcome to the Carousel Boutique. Where every garment is chic, unique, and magnifique. What can I- Oh, Twilight, welcome." The woman wore black leather shoes, a small royal blue skirt with a black leather belt, and a white blouse. The clothes hugged her body allowing to show off her womanly form without being indecent in anyway. Her royal purple hair shined as it curled and danced around her head, shoulders, back and her pure white, spiraled horn. Sapphire eyes, the right amount of eyeliner and light blue eyeshadow with light purple lipstick helped give her a face of beauty.
"Hey Rarity, can you do us a favor?" Twilight responded.
"Of course, Darling. What is it I coul- WAAAHHHAAHHAA!!!!" She suddenly gave a surprised yelp as she saw Ace. "Oh dear, what is that wrapped around you?"
"Huh?" Ace was, once again, confused. "Clothes?"
"You call those rags clothes? This can not stand. Those... things... look like they're about to fall apart. For all that is fashion, I can't not let you go around like that."
"Well, that's what we're here for. I need him presentable for when we meet with Princess Celestia later." Twilight told her.
"YOU'RE GOING TO MEET WITH PRINCESS CELESTIA!?!"
"Yes, could you help us out."
"Of course, Twilight. When will you two be leaving?"
"In a few hours."
"More than enough time to make a proper suit. I just need to take some messagemen-"
"No." Ace's interruption earned him their attention. "I don't want any fancy clothes or anything. They're too uncomfortable."
"But Ace, you're meeting the princess." Twilight tried to convince him.
"I don't care."
"But, Ace."
"Don't bother, Twilight" Rarity told her. "I have experience in these types of situations. If he wants to make a fool of himself, we aren't going to convince him otherwise. But, at least let me fix what you have on now."
"Alright." Ace complied.
"You can use one of the changing rooms over there while you wait for your clothes, I'll be quick." She then brought your finger up to her chin in thought. "A rather simple shirt and shorts will be a piece of cake, as it were. Though, I could also fix the cut in the rim of that, ugh, hat."
"Wait! You can fix my hat?"
"Well, it's not really the best piece I've seen before." Ace then grabbed and hold her hand.
"Please, this hat is important."
"Um... very well, I can fix it." Ace then hold his hat out to her with a big grin. Once she took it, Ace bolted into one of the changings rooms with his shirt and shorts being thrown over the closed door a few seconds later.
"Just give me a minute and I'll be all done." Rarity then picked up the clothes and left through the doorway. Twilight decided to strike up conversation while they wait.
"Are you sure you don't want to wear something formal for the princess?"
"Yup."
"But, you should. It's Princess Celestia."
"So." She then signed then groaned.
"Fine. But Rarity's right, you're going to make a fool of yourself." Like she said, it didn't take long for Rarity to come back down with the clothes neatly folded with the hat on top and slid them under the door.
"There you are, Darling. I hope they are to your liking." Ace came out with his clothes looking brand new.
"Yeah, thanks." He answered while examining his hat.
"You're not going to button up your shirt?" Twilight asked him.
"Twilight, it's summer" Rarity interjected. "Besides, if a man has muscle to show off, why shouldn't he? Isn't that right Mr... Oh my Celestia, we haven't been introduced yet, how rude of me. My apologize, I am Rarity. Owner of the Carousel Boutique and Ponyville's greatest, and only, fashion desirer."
"I'm Monkey D. Ace."
"Well then, Mr. Ace, it's a pleasure to meet you." She then held out her hand and Ace grabbed it to shake.
"Thanks, you too."
"So, Rarity. How much do I owe you?" Twilight asked.
"That's fine, Darling. No need to pay for such simple work."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. It was no trouble at all, my pleasure."
"Well, okay, thank you."
"So, will you two be leaving soon?"
"We still have sometime, but we should probably start to get ready as soon as we can."
"Very well. If you're ever in town again, don't be afraid to stop by." She told Ace.
"See you later, Rarity."
"Thanks again." Ace said before the two left.
"Ta-ta~" she sang back.
The two continued through town until they reached there final destination. The building they stopped at was carved into a living tree. The trees was very big, the size of a three story house with windows in multiple places around it. From the windows, it seemed there were three floors and a balcony with a telescope. A sign next to the door said 'Golden Oak Library.'
"Wow" Ace admired.
"Yeah, it's quite a sight." Twilight opened to door for them to enter. The entrance was a circular room with another door at the other side and a stair case going up next to it. A small table sat in the center of the room with a bronze statue of an open book and the walls were carved into bookcases.
"You live in a library?" Ace questioned.
"Well, I am the new librarian of Ponyville." She then called out "Spike! We're back." Footsteps could be heard from the second floor moving towards the stairs. A boy then came running down wearing purple sneakers, jeans, and a neon green t-shirt with a purple jacket. He had green, spiky hair, pointed ears, and green eyes with slit pupils.
"Welcome back, Twilight." The boy said as he ran up to them.
"Hello, Spike. This is Ace."
"Hi, I'm Spike. Twilight's personal assistant." The boy introduced himself to Ace.
"Hi, I'm Monkey D. Ace." I'm sure you know who said that.
"Well then, Mr. Ace-"
"Ace is fine."
"Okay. Ace, let me welcome you to Ponyville's Golden Oak Library."
"Alright you two," Twilight interrupted. "If you will excuse me, I need to get ready for the trip to Canterlot." Twilight then made her way up stairs.
"So, Ace," Spike continued the conversation. "The princess wants to see you, huh?"
"I guess so."
"Twilight told me that you have amnesia, though. Do you have any idea of why she would want to speak to you? Do you know if you know her or something?"
"I don't know. By the way, what's up with your eyes anyway?"
"Oh, you probably haven't see my type before. I'm a demon-type."
"Demon-type?"
"You know the stories of the demons right?"
"Nope."
"Well, the demon-types are a different type than the others."
"Others?"
"You know, other types." Ace was confused, again.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Huh. Maybe that amnesia hit you harder than you thought. I'll just go over the whole thing just to make sure and it's not very long. Basically, everyone is the world is born as a certain type. Equestria is mostly populated with three different types, earth-types, heaven-types, and spirit-types. Which type someone is affects their appearance, so you can tell right away which somebody is. Heaven-types like Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy have wings and can fly, spirit-types like Twilight and Rarity have horns and can use magic, and earth-types like Applejack and Pinkie Pie don't have anything like that and are pretty tough, like you.
"There's also the goddess-type," Spike continued. "The princess is the only goddess-type the exists though. She has better wings than heaven-types, is stronger than earth-types, and can use far more powerful magic then spirit-types. There are other types all around the world, but these are the most common in Equestria, however, I am a demon-type. Demon-types are from a different land, they can breath fire and are fireproof and can grow wings when they're old enough. You can tell a demon-type by the eyes and ears."
Ace sat down with his legs and arms crossed in thought. After a few minutes of processing what he learned, he asked "what about spirit marks?"
"Spirit marks? Well, they're basically a symbol that appears on the palm of somebody's hands when they discover their special talent. But, only earth, spirit, heaven, and goddess-types can get them. They usually appear around twelve years old or so."
"So, everyone old enough who's one of those types has a spirit mark?"
"Yeah."
"Then, why don't I have one?" Ace then showed his palms.
"Wow. I've never seen an adult who didn't have a spirit mark before. You completely match what makes an earth-type, but, maybe you aren't one? Huh, weird."
"Oh well. If it's important, then I'm sure it will come up later."
"So, you really can't remember anything except your name?"
"Hmm... nope."
"Well, I hope your memory comes back soon."
"Thanks. How long until we leave for this Canterlot place?" Spike looked over at a clock, which said 3:45.
"Forty-five minutes. You wanna read a book or something while we wait?"
"Ugh, reading's so boring."
"Tell me about it, but it's all Twilight can think about."
"Someone mention me?" Twilight asked as she came walking down the stairs.
"Hey Twilight," Spike turned his attention to her. "You ready to go?"
"Yes, the only thing left to do is to wait for the chariot. Luckily, a good book will help to pass the time."
"You got anything better to do?" Ace asked, Twilight just gave him an unamused look.
"Hey," Spike got his attention. "If you want, I've got some comics that are pretty cool that could pass the time."
"Okay." Ace shrugged then followed Spike up the stairs. The room they were in was two stories tall with the top floor acting like a balcony around half of the room with stairs to it on the side next to a fireplace. The area under the floor was a small kitchen with a table on the other side of the room next to a desk and a wall of more bookcases. A door leading to the building's balcony sat between the top of the stairs and another bookcase with two beds on the rest of the floor.
"Over here," Spike said walking over to a bookcase under the stairs. "You ever read any comics before?"
"I don't know."
"Well, they've got some really awesome superheroes in them," Spike then handed Ace one, "Be careful, this one's really rare, it wasn't easy to get." The title said 'The Power Girls' and it said to be the 17th volume.
"Doesn't it make sense to start from the first book?" Ace voiced his current confusion.
"I wish. It's so hard to even just find someone who has the first addition, let alone be about to get it. Besides, you don't need it for the first time reading one. Just give it a try, trust me." Ace didn't want to be bored the whole wait and couldn't see what he had to lose.
"Spike! Ace! Are you two ready? The chariot's going to be here any minute now." Twilight called from the first floor.
Time flew by as Ace and Spike read through different comics. Ace quickly found that the comics were actually, pretty good and enjoyed them. Looking at the clock showed that Twilight was right and it was just about 4:30.
"Coming!" Spike replied. They both left the room how they found it and met up with Twilight down stairs.
"Alright," she then looked at her watch. "Let's go outside to meet the chariot."
"I don't see anything" Ace commented once they were outside.
"It'll be here, just give it a minute." Sure enough, Spike pointed to the sky.
"There it is." Looking up, Ace saw something flying towards them. The object soon came within close enough distance to be made out, and it was quite the site. Two men in matching gold armor with white wings flagging from their backs were pulling through the air a golden chariot with wing shaped sides and no roof. Once they landed it could be seen that there were three cushioned seats.
"Twilight Sparkle" one of the men said in a deep voice, their faces looking serious.
"Hello, gentlemen." One of the chariot's side wings lifted like a door granting access to the seats.
"Ladies first" Spike said gesturing to the seats. Twilight got in the seat farthest from the entrance, Spike was in the middle, and Ace sat at the other end.
"Alright, we're all ready to go" Twilight said after the door closed.
"Very well," the same man replied. "The trip will take about an hour." The chariot then started moving with the guards and soon took flight, heading straight for the city on the mountain.
"An hour!? What am I supposed to do till then from up here?" Ace complained.
"I don't know" Twilight answered while taking out a book to read and Spike closed his eyes. "Look at the view or take a nap?" It was an impressive view, though it quickly bored Ace. The wind blow against Ace soon cause his hat to fall off his head. Ace was about to panic until he learned that his straw hat had a string that kept it attached to his neck. Ace doesn't remember the string being there before, then again, he doesn't remember much so he just shrugged it off.
With nothing better to do, Ace put his elbow on the chariot side to rest his head in his hand and slowly drifted off to sleep.
The chariot hitting the ground shook Ace awake.
"We're here" the armored man said in a heavy breath.
"Thank you, sirs" Twilight said to them. The door opened for the three of them to get off with Ace and Spike yawning. "Alright, just need to make sure we're in presentable order, then we can go see the princess."
They had arrived at Canterlot, the city on the side of the mountain. Almost every building was marble white with spiraled, pointed roofs of mostly purple and gold. Many people were walking around wearing fancy clothes, accessories and colored horns with most of them having a smug look to them and there noises up. A couple large magenta blimps wore floating above the city. Turning around gave Ace a good look of the castle.
The marble castle stood tall and proud over the city with tall towers and high pointed, spiral roofs. The craftsman ship was truly awe-inspiring with perfect shaping and beautiful designs all around the structure. Windows of many shapes and sizes were scattered all over the castle with balconies, stairs, and archways. A giant garden was in the middle of the castle extending to the back with many different colorful plants and unique statues. Finally, guards in the same golden armor as those who pulled the chariot were stationed all over, some with wings or horns, and some without either.
"Wow"
"C'mon boys," Twilight called as she started making her way to the entrance. The three made it to the large, open castle door with more guards all around it.
"Twily," a woman called from inside the castle. The woman was wearing armor of the same design as the others only it was a royal purple with gold trim and had a shield badge with a pink six pointed star on it at the center of her breastplate. She was holding her helmet so her blue eyes, blue hair with light stands and large, spiraled, white horn were all completely visible.
"Fairy" Twilight called, running to her for the two of them to hug each other.
"Hey, Fair" Spike greeted to the woman once Twilight was done hugging.
"Hey, Spike?" The woman responded with a fist bump.
"Ace, this is my older sister, Fair Maiden, captain of the royal guards." Twilight introduced. "Fairy, this is Monkey D. Ace."
"Nice to meet you," Fair Maiden held out her hand.
"You too," Ace shook her hand.
"So, you're the one the princess wants to see, huh? Well hopefully she doesn't banish you." She giggled.
"Fairy!" Twilight seemed worried.
"Oh, calm down, Twily, it's just a joke."
"Let's hope not, that'd be bad." Ace played along.
"Yeah. Well, I'll notify the princess that you've all arrived. If you want, while you wait you can use the bathrooms."
"Yes, that would be most helpful." Twilight thanked.
The castle's floors were made of marble tiles that were polished to the point that you could clearly see one's own reflection with velvet red carpets for people to walk on. The walls had a purple hue to them and gold edges with decorative banners with different patterns on them. The ceiling and doorways where tall, able to give people the effect of being small. The entrance to the castle had the carpet crossed with a yellow eight pointed star at the center, leading to doorways to the sides of the room and the stairs directly in front of the door. The platform at the top of the stairs split into two more stairs going in opposite directions with two tall, colored glass windows. The window at the right was yellow with the sun on it representing the day and the left being blue with the moon showing the night.
Twilight gestured for Ace and Spike to follow her to one of the paths at the side while Fair Maiden started climbing the stairs. The halls were very spacious with large pillars lining the walls and tall windows letting in plenty of sunlight. After a quick trip to the bathroom, Fair Maiden returns.
"The princess is ready to see you, just head in when you're ready."
"Thanks, B.S.B.F.F." Twilight thanks.
"B.S.B.F.F?" Ace questions.
"It's what she calls her big sister" Spike says.
"Big sister best friend forever." Twilight answers.
"I wouldn't keep her waiting for too long." Fair comments while she left.
"Right. Okay, before we go in, we need to make sure we do this right."
"Do this right?" Ace questioned.
"Yes. When we walk in you need to bow to show respect. Make sure to be polite as possible and only call her either 'Princess Celestia' or 'Your Highness.' And, most immortally, whatever you do, don't do anything stupid or embarrassing. I don't really know why she wants to see you, but whatever it is, you acting disrespectful in anyway will reflect back on me. So please, use manners."
"Don't worry, Twilight. I can handle this." Ace gave a big, reassuring smile.
"Alright," Twilight says with a sigh. "Sorry, I'm just a little worried."
"Like he said, don't worry" Spike added in. "You two will do great, you can tell me all about how impressed the princess was when you get back."
"You're not coming, Spike?" Ace asked.
"No, I'm not needed so I'm going to spend the time with the comics I haven't brought to Ponyville yet."
"Alright," Twilight gets Ace's attention. "Let's go."
After walking for a few minutes through multiple hallways with Twilight leading, they finally reached their destination. Two giant golden doors acted as the entrance into the throne room with guards at either side of them. Once the two were in front of the doors, golden glows appeared around the horns of the guards only for the same glow to appear on the doors and slowly opened. Once open all the way, Ace and Twilight enter the room with the doors closing behind them.
The throne room was large with a high ceiling and tall windows on the sides looking out at both the city below and the rest of the countryside. The sunlight flowing through the windows shined on the marble floor, walls, and pillars. A red velvet carpet connected the entrance to a large, golden throne on the other side of the room. Tiny waterfalls decorated the sides of the throne's base while dark blue banners being hung at the sides of the throne. Atop the throne, sitting in a golden seat with velvet cushioning sat a familiar woman.
She wore a long, white dress that started just below her shoulders, exposing the top of her chest and ended at her feet, just barely touching the ground. The bodice of her dress hugged her chest and waist tightly but the skirt became loose and floating at the hips to allow mobility for her crossed legs. The lower half of each side on the skirt were open, revealing solid gold pumps. White gloves went up her arms to stop at the upper arms with golden bracelets on the wrists. A solid gold necklace with a sun shaped locket was around her neck. She wore pink lipstick, light eye shadow with eyeliner, and small gold earrings.
Her hair was light blue, light green, purple, and pink and was long enough to reach past her waist, but instead flowed like wind even though there wasn't any in the room with small sparkles in it. A large, golden tiara sat proudly on her head with a purple gem in the center as a crown jewel. A very thin and long pure white, spiraled horn sat on her forehead with large pure white, feather wings on her back that gave her the illusion of being an angel. Finally, her eyes were a glowing pink with a kind and gentle look. The kind of look that gave off an aura of calm and reassurance. Like you could trust anything and everything to her, and you could rest easy knowing that she'd be able to keep you safe, like that of a goddess. Upon seeing Ace and Twilight enter the room, she have them a gentle smile.
"Princess Celestia!" Twilight called with enthusiasm as she hurried to get closer to the throne before bowing as a sign of respect.
"Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student." The princess spoke in an elegant and soothing voice. "I see you've brought our guest as per my request, well done."
"Yes, Princess" Twilight was still bowing. "I made sure tha-"
"Hi, I'm Monkey D. Ace. Who are you?" Ace interrupted with a smile that didn't show a care in the world. This action caused the princess to frown which caused Twilight to look at Ace with both shock and horror.
"Ace!" Twilight harshly whispered to him. "What are you doing?!? That's the PRINCESS! You need to bow and speak with respect."
"You don't know who I am?" The princess asked Ace with a look of disappointment, Twilight turned pale.
"Hmm..." Ace started thinking, "not reall- Ahh!" A magenta aura quickly surrounded him and pushed him to the ground.
"I am so sorry, Princess Celestia. I don't know what happened. I promise that we'll have a long talk about proper respect. I am so very, very sorry if the way he acted upset you at all, please forgive him." Twilight spoke frantically, like she was about to freak out.
"Twilight, there's no need to apologize for anything," Princess Celestia spoke with a warm smile. "Though it is costume, I'm fine that not everybody shows complete respect all the time, especially if he doesn't even know who he is speaking to." The frown returned. "Though I am a little disappointed that Mr. Ace doesn't remember me, even after we met not to long ago."
The aura around Ace faded and he sat up with a groan. "We did? When?"
"Yes, it was the night before yesterday, in the forest."
"Hmm... the forest." Ace closed his eyes, crossed his arms, and thought, hard. Then he remembered, after the fight with Nightmare Moon, he met someone else. "Wait, now I remember. You're, uh, Celina?"
"CELESTIA" Twilight corrected, still uneasy.
"Right!"
Princess Celestia smiled again. "You do remember, good. Now that that is settled, I'm glad we are able to properly speak, unlike last time."
"Speak about what?" Ace questioned, unaware of Twilight's glare at him.
"A few things. First off, I must thank you."
"Thank me?"
"Yes. It may not have seemed like it at the time, but, your fight with Nightmare Moon was the perfect distraction needed for her defeat. Originally, my plan involved myself distracting her while Twilight fulfilled her part. However, what I didn't see coming was a trick she used to create an illusion of herself for her to distract me instead. When I finally learned the truth of her trick I feared I was too late, then found that your interference had just saved not only my plan, but Twilight and her friends as well."
"Princess, I don't understand" Twilight spoke up. "Are you saying Ace here help in the defeat of Nightmare Moon?"
"Yes, he did, A very big part at that. For if it weren't for Mr. Ace, Nightmare Moon would interfere with your goal of finding the elements much sooner. Thankfully, she was only able to focus very little of her power on your party at the time."
"I, never thought about that until just now."
"I must also thank you for the advice you gave when we met."
"Advice?" Ace questioned.
"Yes, you gave the same advice to both myself and Nightmare Moon, about sharing the throne, remember?"
"Hmm..." Ace tried to remember. "Oh yeah, about sharing your chair."
"Uh, throne."
"A throne's just a fancy chair, right?"
"Well, yes... but the throne itself represents the ruler of the country." Ace tilted his head. "When you were talking about sharing the throne... you were talking about sharing the kingdom... right?" Ace head tilted even further. After a moment a silence "you were talking about sharing an actual chair?"
"Weren't you?" Silence filled the room.
...
"..well... this isn't the first time wisdom's come from an unlikely source" Celestia said. "In any case, I still must thank you. Though not intentional, your advice has helped me and my sister immensely. Luna and I have started to develop a new form of ruling the kingdom with both of us having equal power."
"Who's Luna?"
"Oh, yes of course. Nightmare Moon's real name is Princess Luna, my younger sister. Don't worry though, she's given up her identity of Nightmare Moon and we've been working through our differences ever since her return. Unfortunately, she's asked not to be disturbed at the moment, so I don't believe you two will meet under more pleasant terms. At least not now. Though there are still more matters for us to discuss" Celestia continued. "I've received word that you're currently suffering from retrograde amnesia. Is it true that the only thing you can recall of yourself is your name?"
Ace closed his eyes to think again. "Hmm... yup."
"Such a shame. That would also mean that you don't have any place to call home as it stands, correct?"
"Huh, I guess so."
"Well then. As a proper token of graduated, you may stay at Canterlot Castle as long as you wish. While here, simply ask the chefs to prepare whatever you wish whenever you are hungry. Oh, and feel free to ask the staff for anything you may need assistance with."
"Hey, thanks." Ace gave a big, goofy smile.
"It is the least I can do. Now, on to our final piece of business. Luna told me about your battle, and there is something about it that leaves some questions. Specifically, those strangle abilities you demonstrated."
"Huh?"
"From what I've heard: you have some sort of fire magic."
"Oh yeah, that."
"Yes... um... could you explain these abilities of yours? I don't believe I've ever heard of the type of magic Luna described."
"Nope."
"You, can't?"
"Nope."
"...Why not?"
"I don't know anything about these powers."
"I see."
"Perhaps, his amnesia affected his knowledge of this magic?" Twilight suggested.
"I was thinking the same thing. Well, that matter can be dealt with later. For now, I believe it's almost time for dinner." Ace's stomach growled. "Care to join us, Twilight?"
"Yes, Princess, thank you. Though, I'm sure Spike will already be there waiting" Twilight giggled.
"YAY, FOOD" Ace cheered.
"Shall we?" Princess Celestia lead Ace and Twilight through more hallways. The dining hall was huge to say the least. A long oak wood table stretched across the room with around a dozen or so pairs of fancy chairs on each side and the ends, each was set with an empty plate, glass, and fancy silverware. The walls wore like the rest of the castle in the fact of them being lined with marble pillars and windows between them. A pair of doors on the other side of the room from the entrance lead to the kitchen. Several golden candle holders sat across the table with a large, crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling above. In a chair second to one of the ends of the table sat Spike as he looked through a comic.
"Hey, Spike." Twilight called out as she took the seat next to him, right next to end of the table with Ace took the one across from her.
"Hey" Spike relied, putting away the comic. A man walked through the doors to the kitchen, with black hair, a tuxedo, and a curly handlebar mustache.
"Good evening, your highness." The man spoke in an accent that was trying too hard to be fancy. "What would you care for?"
"I'm fine with whatever," the princess replied. "Just ask our guests." The man then turned his attention to the others.
"MEAT!" Ace wasted no time to answer. "Bring me lots and lots of meat!"
"Some vegetables with that too, please." Twilight added with a sweat drop.
"Would anyone care for beverages with your meal?"
"Anything's fine as long as it doesn't taste bad." Ace responded.
"Water's fine." Said Twilight.
"As you wish. I'll bring out some appetizers for you until your meals are finished." The man then left through the kitchen doors.
"Excuse me for a moment." Celestia then walked over to one of the windows and looked at the sun as it was quickly approaching the horizon. Her horn started to glow a golden aura around it. At the same time, the sun started to slowly set causing the sky to fade into reds, oranges, yellows, and purples. The glow fade from the princess and she took the sat at the end of the table, next to Twilight and Ace. The man came back out with a shiny serving cart containing multiple dishes of various foods in small portions and used a glass pitch to fill everyone's glass with ice cold water after setting the table then left.
Ace quickly started to stuff his face with all the plates he could grab, while Twilight and Spike grab a plate of bread and butter and Princess Celestia started on a plate of salad. Almost everyone's attention soon turned to Ace and his attempt to eat every single dish as fast as possible, which started to amused Spike and the princess but slightly horrified Twilight.
"Ace," Twilight said in a harsh whisper. "Table manners."
"Do not worry, Twilight" the princess assured. "I find his antics quite amusing. Though, I must ask." She turned to Ace, "you do know that there is more food coming, right?"
"Yeah," he said with his mouth full before swallowing. "No reason not to eat what's here already."
"Very well, Mr. Ace."
"You can call me Ace."
"Alright. You can call me Celestia then, Ace." Celestia giggled as Ace went back to stuffing his face. It didn't take long for all of the food to be eaten. Luckily, the server returned with new dishes of cooked meats and assorted vegetables to replace them. Once again, Ace stuffed his face with multiple dish, though ignored most of the vegetables.
"Oh, I almost forgot." Celestia suddenly said. "Ace, I'm sorry for bring this up during dinner. But there is one more question I had that I just remembered."
"Yeah? What?" Ace said with his mouth full before swallowing.
"It's very unlikely, with your amnesia. However, I might as well ask. Do you know anything about a blue phoenix?"
"A blue phoenix?" Twilight questioned. "I never knew phoenixes could be blue."
"As far as I know, they can't. Luna said she saw a blue phoenix flying away from the Everfree Forest of the night of Nightmare Moon. The reason I bring this up is because, right after seeing it, she ran into you, Ace."
"What's a phoenix?" Ace asked.
"A phoenix is a magic bird made of fire. Normally, they are only red and orange, though, this blue phoenix raises some questions. I suppose with you not knowing what a phoenix is means that you don't know anything about this. It's probably nothing but, phoenixes don't even live anywhere near the Everfree Forest. This could probably be one of the many strange creatures that call the forest home, but the creatures of the forest never leave it. Oh well."
"MORE MEAT!" Ace called at the kitchen, he had already finished all of the food on the table. It didn't take long for dinner to reach the point of Ace eating through dish after dish of meat while the others were already full. Soon, Celestia's horn flared briefly with the gold aura of hers, at the same time the moon could be seen rising from the windows.
"I don't believe I've ever seen anybody eat so much before" Princess Celestia commented.
"From what Pinkie told me," Twilight added. "This might be like every meal."
"Well, on the bright side, it seems the chefs have gained the challenge they've been seeking lately." The princess raise a hand to her mouth while she giggled. "You are certainly one of the more interesting guest I've had in a long time, Ace. Well, I still have work to do. Simply ask one of the staff where your room is when you are done. Goodnight Ace, Twilight, Spike."
"Thank you, Princess. Goodnight" Spike and Twilight said in unison.
"Thanks" Ace called with his mouth full as Celestia left the dining room.
"That went well," Spike commented.
"How did that go well?" Twilight questioned.
"The princess is a lot cooler than you give her credit for."
Twilight sighed, "I guess. Ace, are you done yet?"
"Nope. I'm still hungry" Ace said as more plates of meat were laid out on the table.
"How do you eat so much, it shouldn't be possible!?! Alright, just head to your room once you're done, okay?"
"Okay."
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight." Spike said as he and Twilight left the room with Ace still eating.
By the time Ace finished eating, almost the entire dining room table was covered in dirty dishes, the server gotten tired of bring them back. Ace walked through the darkened hallways with a maid leading the way to his room. Outside the windows, the moon was shining high in the star filled night sky.
"Here we are" the maid said, stopping in front of double doors. "Simply walk up the stairs and you will reach your room. Ask for anything you need, goodnight."
"Thanks" Ace said as the maid walked away. The other side of the doors lead to a staircase that spiraled on the walls of a well lit, tall, circular room. At the top was another door that lead to a room with a fancy bed, desk with chair, bookshelf, and another door leading to a bathroom and a glass door leading to a balcony. The room was lightly decorated and completely clean. Ace kicked his boots off and plopped down on the bed above the covers.
"Goodnight world" he said with a yawn. Tilting his hat over his eyes, he soon fell asleep with a smile.
Author's Note
Today's Lesson:
Spoiler Alert:
The royal chefs are really going to have their work cut out for them.
