Arcane Mystery's of Viriana. Journey to Equestriaby Silentblade005ChaptersPrologueChapter 1: Where the hell am I?Chapter 3: The Princesses' RequestChapter 3: Memories of the Past, Attack On the PalaceChapter 4: Dream WalkingPrologueThe branches of the trees whipped harshly at my cloak as I dashed through the dark woods, the rain falling hard while thunder shook the trees and lightning cracked the sky as the flash of a blade and the sound of steel striking armor cuts through the roar of the downpour. I deftly drag my moon steel dagger across the battle mages' light plate mail and thrust it through the weakest point of the armor, straight through the heart of my assailant before ripping the blade back out with a sickening squelch. "You damned fool..." I spit at the corpse while wiping the gore off my weapon, "You only managed to hasten your own demise and make my job easier." I say with a grin. After cleaning my blade and picking the dead mage clean of his valuables, i continue on my way through the dark of the woods, eventually finding myself back on the main path. The North Viriana forest was the apparent location of my current job, the foolish mage i'd just killed for attempting to ambush me being one of the members of the chaos cult I was tasked with eradicating. I continue walking and hold out my palm facing upward, channeling magic through it and creating a small map of my immediate surroundings before setting off the path again opposite the direction in which I killed the mage. After a short walk through the brush, i finally find what I'd been looking for, a small stone trap door with a large red pearl inlaid in the center, "There you are," I say quietly to myself, "This is the door that the kings court wizard described to me, it should open if i can break the jewel." I remove my dagger from its sheath and kneel down over the jewel, placing the tip of my dagger at its center. I begin to channel pure arcane power through my dagger and press it into the evil gem, only for the entire slab to disintegrate and drop me into darkness... I feel myself regain consciousness but my vision is blurry, i blink a few times and attempt to figure out my surroundings remembering that i fell through the door after i destroyed the jewel. Suddenly the pain in the back of my head hits me and I wince, touching the back of my head with my hand coming away covered in my blood. "Damn that hurt!" I wince as i try to stand up "I feel like i fell 3 stories..." I exclaim in pain whilst i begin to channel a healing spell. "I'll need to be more careful if i ever hope to get out of this mess and get paid." I look around for a bit trying to see if i can find my dagger which must have slipped from my grip after i hit the ground, the only thing that saved me was my magical abilities and my moon steel plate armor, crafted from the finest steel and enchanted on the night of the fullest moon. Eventually i find my dagger embedded in a nearby stone and manage to pull it out, after returning it to it's sheath silently, I hear voices coming from down the tunnel to my right and quickly hide myself in the shadows of the cavern. "Quickly! we must find whatever created that sound!" Says the first voice as I see a pair of chaos mages in full battle gear step into the cavern, "Somebody must have destroyed the gate, but who could have survived such a fall?" The other mage asks the first, not noticing the shadow creeping up behind them. "We must find whoever it is with haste, if they survived and find out what we have down here, the elder will surely have us fed to the void." He pauses for a moment to look around the cavern with his torch held out in front of him, trying to discern any movement in the darkness. "we shall begin to lo-" The mage is suddenly cut off by a dagger punching through his throat, his eyes widen and his mouth opens to a silent scream as I quietly lay the man down to die. He begins to cough as I lay him down and his friend turns to see me, suddenly turning angry. "WE FOUND HIM! QUICKLY BROTHERS! THE INTRUDER MUST DIE!" He yells past me into the tunnel they emerged from. Thinking quickly I point two fingers at him and fire a shard if ice directly into his chest, destroying his armor and silencing him instantly, but the others are already alerted. "Damnit! Things can never just be easy, can they?" I ask myself as attempt to cast a shadow spell, only to be blind sided by a bolt of black light. I stumble from the attack and twist my body just in time to dodge a second one. "But how? Only those two came into the main cavern, how could I have missed a third one?" i think to myself as I try to identify my attacker. To my surprise, the elder of the cult steps from the shadows, his gnarled, corrupt staff pointed directly at me. "So you think you could just burst in here, disrupt my work, and kill my followers did you?" He asks me in a spiteful and angery tone. "Answer me! or i shall kill you where you stand assassin." Thinking quickly i reply, "I have no idea what you're on about you old badger, I'm nothing but an adventurer who attempted to enter here out of curiosity." I quickly explain while attempting to silently cast a teleport spell under my cloak. The Elder seems angered by this and replys in turn "You think me a fool? A mere adventurer slays two of my mages in cold blood and then attempts to hide the fact that he is casting a teleport spell under his robe? you shall die for your insolence!" He begins to charge anther chaos spell at the tip of his staff, the jewel on the end glowing menacingly as it fill with magic power. I cast my spell and end up right in front of the elder with my dagger already rushing toward his neck, but he blocks with the tip of is staff at the last moment. The spell is cast as the jewel breaks and the entire world goes black. I suddenly bolt awake and find myself in the middle of the woods. Shaking off the feeling of vertigo slowly stand up and take inventory of all my belongings, finding that i still have my dagger, my medicines, and a small amount of food in my pack. I attempt to cast a small light spell and succeed but immediately stop channeling my magic, as i feel as though my arcane power has not replenished itself while i slept. This was not normal, I should be at full strength right now and be casting magic with no problems but I feel as though I should conserve what little power I have left. I begin to walk slowly through the woods, attempting to move silently to find my bearings without the use of magic, i eventually come to the edge of the woods and see a small cottage surrounded by all sorts of small animals a short distance away. As I start towards the cottage I suddenly feel sick and feel a sharp pain on my chest under my armor. I open my cloak and look down under my moon steel plate to see a sickening burn with traces of dark a dark crystal strewn throughout the wound, but i continue towards the dwelling. I reach the main path leading up to the door and my vision once again starts to dim and fade as I collapse on the path, just before I fall into unconsciousness, I hear a gentle voice, "Oh my! What are you!? What happened to you!" My vision fades to black as a set of yellow hooves steps into view... Author's Note So what do you all think so far? Are there any grammar or sentence structure improvements i could make? Has the story caught your attention and most importantly, do you want more? Chapter 1: Where the hell am I?As I feel myself begin to wake up I try to move my arms, only to find that i'm being held down by straps. "I need to stop passing out..." I moan to myself as the ache on the right side of my torso begins to throb, "every time I do the situation just gets worse." I begin to case my surroundings seeing that I am in a strange room reminiscent of the medical quarters of a castle, but odd looking. It doesn't take me long to realize that somebody is watching me and my attention turns to the corner of the room, where a small yellow equine is sitting and staring at me with fear in her eyes. Ignoring her for now I continue to take note of my situation, my armor has been removed and i'm left in nothing but my tunic and trousers, my grieves are missing as well as all of my weapons and my bag. I test the straps holding my wrists to find that I could break them quite easily, as if they were never meant to hold a grown man. "Is anybody here?" I question out loud attempting to see if any healers where around, and soon after my question another white equine with a red cross on her flank enters the room and walks up to my bed. "You are awake I see..." it says suddenly, "your wounds were quite deep, you are lucky that whatever magic was cast at you didn't kill you." It continues on while looking at some writing on a small pad of paper next to the bed. "Wonderful, now i'm hallucinating that horses can talk..." I mumble to myself in disbelief, "Destroying the gem on the staff of that blasted mage must have wounded me more than I had anticipated." "Excuse me, but I am not a horse, I am a pony..." the young mare says with an offended tone, "we are quite real and can speak just fine, the head of the royal guard would like to have a word with you to find out what you are and what you are doing in Equestria." The head of the royal guard? What kinda of place have found myself in...I wonder. Only moments after the white pony who I assume is a doctor, leaves the room, another white pony with a dark blue mane and tail with a horn on his head enters the room. He walks over to the side of the bed and looks me over a bit, before finally looking me in the eye. "What manner of creature are you?" he asks in a demanding, yet inquisitive tone, "and why have you come to our land of Equestria? Do you mean to cause us harm?" Thinking for a moment before answering, I decide that it'd be best if I told the entire truth here, wouldn't want to get on the bad side of the ponies while i'm in this position but i should try to loosen these straps just in case this turns ugly. "My name is Mikail Draconfilius and I am a human mercenary from the continent of Viriana, I have no idea how I ended up In your kingdom and I mean you no harm." I explain calmly. "If my presence is unwanted here I shall gather my gear and armor and I shall return home." I finish saying as i feel the strap on my left arm break. "I have never heard of this nation of Viriana you speak of, we ponies have traveled the entire world of Equis and have never encountered such a place nor have we ever encountered one of your kind," He looks angered, "If you meant us no harm, why where you found carrying so much weaponry if not to kill others with? He says as he four other armored pony guards enter in behind him, their spears all pointed in my direction. "What is this world of Equis you speak of? Is this your title for the Earth?" I question him before giving answering. "I was armed because I am a mercenary where I hail from, I do not kill the innocent, only the evil or corrupt." I hope that is enough to make them not want to kill me, it'd appear badly if I had to slay any of the ponies here... "I'm going to untie your staps, should you make any sudden move I will order my guards to kill you where you lie, do you understand?" He says this as he goes to undo my left strap, only to find I have already broken it. "The human has broken the straps already! Seize him!" The head guard says upon finding the strap. I immediately break the other strap and bring my fist up, catching the pony under the jaw and sending him reeling. I quickly jump from the bed and dodge and incoming spear, kicking the pony holding it in the side of the head. I turn to attack the remaining guards when I hear the same gentle voice from earlier. "Stop! Please! No more fighting!" I completely forgot about the yellow pony sitting in the corner of the room, tears had filled her eyes and she was giving me a pleading look. "Please don't hurt them anymore, they are just scared because they don't know what you are..." She says while choking back sobs. I look at the ponies on the floor that I have knocked out, and drop the spear before returning to sit on the bed. "I shall not hurt anybody else, but I will not be taken into custody." I say to the guards before turning to the yellow pony. "I'm sorry I have caused you to cry miss, I was in fear for my own life as well." I say gently nodding to her, "But I shall be taking my leave now." With that I vault off the bed and jump through the nearby window, flying through the open threshhold to the ground below and startling many other ponies as I go. I begin running through the town, pushing past many ponies as I go, some scared, others simply confused. I cast a weak location spell with some of the last of my arcane power and find that my gear is located in a building near what I assume is the center of town, doubling my speed I begin to sprint towards the building my gear is in and soon come into a large plaza in front of what I now identify as the town hall. It is a large structure made almost entirely of marble and a few guards standing next to the pillars spot me. "Seize that creature!" Yells one of the ponies to the others, "It must have escaped from the hospital!" I rush the nearest pony, jumping as he swings his spear at me and vaulting directly over him, only to encounter three more pony guards with swords drawn. These ones seem to be levitating their swords using the horns on their head and are all circling me, waiting for me to make a move. Wonderful, I think to myself, more mages to deal with...I channel a shadow spell in my right hand and cast it towards the ground. A large cloud of thick white smoke fills the plaza and I sneak around the guards that where blocking me, quietly making my way into the town hall. I silently creep my way through the building, climbing up into the rafters and begin to make my way towards a door in the back of the main room, only to see that it is heavily guarded by four spear carrying ponies. "Nothing I shouldnt be able to handle," I whisper under my breath. I creep to the rafters above the ponies and manage to find a lose nail on top of one of the rafters, I toss the nail so that it lands near the doorway on the other side of the room and the guards do exactly as I thought they'd do and follow the sound. After the guards are out of the way of the door and halfway across the room, I silently swoop down in front of the door make my way inside, quietly closing the door behind me so as not to arouse suspicion. I quickly find all of my possessions, including my dagger and bag. I put my armor back on and slip my cloak over my head, strapping my dagger back to its place on my thigh and picking up my bag, I get the feeling i'm being watched again and turn around only to see the largest pony I had seen since my arrival in this place of Equestria. She had large white wings and a long horn, her mane was a flowing rainbow of blue, green, and pink and the mark on her flank was that of a bright, fiery sun. She took a step towards me before finally speaking... "My have you caused quite the trouble here Mikail, you could have simply asked for your equipment back you know." Her voice sounded like that of an angel, it was soft and gentle and she seemed sincere. "The guards where not nearly as considerate as yourself, may I ask who you are then?" I say while making note of a window to my right in case i needed to escape. "My name is Princess Celestia, and I am the ruler of this nation of Equestria." Author's Note I felt as though I need some more substance to go on while writing this chapter. please feel free to say in the comments where you think it should go from here, but keep in mind that Mikail does not kill innocent beings and is not a criminal. As usual I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Chapter 3: The Princesses' RequestShe looked powerful, quite magnificent standing there. "So you are the ruler of this place?" I inquired, "I must apologize for my poor behavior towards your guards, I simply have no idea where I currently am and acted on my survival instincts." I chose my words carefully for fear of what this Celestia pony may be capable of if angered. "Surely you can understand the logic of my actions though." I put my dagger away as I take a knee to the princess. It would be wise of me to remain on the good side of the ruling powers here whilst I discern a means of returning to Viriana, perhaps I should press the princess for information at a later date as I fear making any request now may work against me. "Though I have already retrieved my belongings I feel it only right that I request your permission to hold onto them at this time, I assure you I will be no more trouble and my weapon shall not be drawn except in dire circumstances such as my life or the life of an innocent be threatened." I say whilst bowing my head to the princess as well, "Would this be an acceptable proposal for thine majesty?" I confidently ask hoping that I have made it clear that I am no threat to her kingdom. The princess simple smiled and walked to where I was still at a kneel and bow. "Please be on your feet Sir Mikail, everypony in my kingdom is equal, even if they happen to not be a pony." She said this to me with such kindness and sincerity, she was like no monarch I had ever met before. "If you'd like to keep your belongings I shall grant your request just so long as you are true to your word and none of my ponies are harmed by you." She continued, "I shall tell the head of my guards Shining Armor to stand down and have the rest of his guards do the same." She assured me. I stood up and realized now that the princess was near to me that she stood as tall as I and her horn was as long as my dagger. Judging by what I've gathered about the horned ponies around here they can use a type of magic, this would mean that the princess here could probably have killed me with a single spell had she desired to. As I am lost in thought about this while walking back towards the front of the town hall, Celestia steps in front of me and stops me before we open the door, the guards who where in the building earlier must have long since gone outside. "You shall have a place to stay at the Canterlot palace, but before I allow you to freely roam the country you will be made to learn our laws and customs. Am I clear on this Sir Mikail?" She says firmly but still with her usual kind tone. "I shall agree to your terms, your majesty. I may as well learn of the land I will be residing in for the time being." I affirm with a shallow bow to the princess as the doors suddenly burst open and purple unicorn with a star on her flank comes through. "Princess I came as soon as i heard there was a-" she suddenly cuts off her sentence upon seeing me and immediately puts herself between the princess and myself. "That creature princess! Has he tried to harm you? Are you alright!?" she says frantically to the princess behind her, while never breaking eye contact with me. "This creatures name is Mikail and he has made no attempt to harm me, my faithful student." She says while keeping her voice calm, this seems to make the unicorn relax. "He was simply acting out of instinct to survive as he was in fear due to not knowing at all where he is and has no intent to harm anypony." She affirms to her student. "I'm relieved to hear that princess." As the young unicorn turns back to me she looks up and meets my gaze again, "My name is Twilight Sparkle, I am the librarian of Ponyville and student to Princess Celestia." She exclaims proudly, "If you are not here to harm anypony than I'd like to ask you some questions so that I may learn more about you." She says rather excitedly and begins to circle me, looking my up and down carefully, as if trying to read a book. "It is my pleasure to meet you Miss Sparkle, your princess has been rather understanding of my situation and I'd be happy to answer near any questions about myself that you may have after I have had some rest, as my day has been quite hectic so far as you can see." Celestia nods to me and the three of us walk through the door where it seems that every pony in town has gathered, being held back by the guards as the all try to get a look at the creature who caused such a ruckus in their quiet little town. We are escorted through the crowd of whispering ponies where we eventually come to a golden carriage that is lead by who winged guards in golden armor. We file into the carriage and Twilight begins to rain questions down on me, about everything from my armor to where I am from, I almost don't notice the carriage take off into the air and begin flying towards a glimmering palace in the mountain side. Author's Note The inspiration has begun flowing again and I know where I want to take this story now. I apologize that the chapter seems to be a bit short again but I shall attempt to make the next one more than 1200 words. Thank you to all who have Favorited my story and wish to see more from me, I assure you all that you will not be dissapointed. Chapter 3: Memories of the Past, Attack On the PalaceThe carriage ride was long, longer than I expected it to be but maybe that's just because time flows differently here. Twilight asked a multitude of questions during our ride but I'm still not sure how much I trust these ponies, so I only answered some basic questions about myself such as my full name and occupation. As I lie in the bed that was provided for me in one of the many rooms of this spacious palace I begin to think of home and the few people that might even be wondering where I am, my thoughts also wonder to my contract to destroy those chaos mages. What where they keeping down there, and why where they so intent on keeping me from seeing it? Whatever it was I will be going back there as soon as I get back to Viriana. As I continue to lie there with my thoughts I hear a now familiar sound of hoof beats on the marble floor in the hallway outside my room and not soon after, a maid comes in with a cart full of books and papers which I assume are the materials I will be required to study as my condition of staying here. Twilight offered to help me with understanding some of the more advanced books with terms I may not be familiar with but I'd rather be focusing on finding a way back home. "The princess has requested that you begin learning our basic customs first thing in the morning sir, I bid you goodnight." The maid says with an unenthusiastic tone and takes her leave of my room. I wait for a bit to make sure I am truly alone and fetch a book from my bag, detailing all of the laws of magic from Viriana. I took it out and began to thumb through the many pages, trying to discover first why my arcane power was running so low and not replenishing as well as trying to see if there was any indications of spells that may allow me to return home. After what seems like hours of reading page after page without finding anything I decide to refresh my memory as to how magic works in Viriana. Firstly, nearly all humans and elven races on Terra have an internal magical substance called Arcane Power, It goes by many other titles such as Qi or Chakra, sometimes it is even called Mana. Arcane Power is used to fuel nearly all spells in existence, such as healing or basic attack spells. This is done simply by focusing on drawing your Arcane Power to either a Focus such as a staff or a dagger, or simply channeling it directly into ones hand. Once one has channeled the sufficient amount of Arcane Power to their foci, they must the concentrate on the type of magic they'd like the Arcane Power to turn into. It can often take years for a man to learn to do this in a timely and efficient manner but some have a natural talent for it, the elves are a particular race who have said talent. I myself had some degree of natural talent and learned how to focus and control my magical abilities from my village elder, a retired royal mage. I practiced day and night to learn the illusion, elemental, and shadow magics that I use today in my job as a mercenary, which I quickly took to doing as soon as I learned to wield both spell and blade at the same time. I took all sorts of jobs, mostly just small time odd jobs such as killing pest creatures or roughing up bandits who had gotten too bold, but eventually my talents where noticed by a nobleman who contracted me to kill a group of wyvern trainers who where attacking his caravans in the mountains. I completed the job easily enough but at a great cost of several innocents who I was unable to save during the attack on the caravan I was protecting. From that point onward I vowed both to never work for anybody with ill intent and to always make sure I protected the innocent, even if it meant a lack of pay or comforts...even my own life. I was suddenly startled out of my reminiscing by screams coming from the courtyard below, where I saw a group of guards fighting off what appeared to be a small pod of insect-like ponies. Quickly retrieving my cloak and my dagger I decided that'd it'd take me too long to go through the entire palace to reach the lower floor, so I jumped though my window and grabbed the vines clinging to the wall. I used them like a rope and quickly rappelled towards the courtyard five stories below. When I had reached the level of the second floor I kicked off the wall, pulling out my dagger as I flew through the air before landing on the nearest insect pony to me, thrusting my dagger deep into its chest eliciting a scream from the creature. As I removed my blade a thick green blood followed and flowed from the fatal wound, while two more of the monsters noticed me and began to charge a green energy in their crooked horns. With blinding speed I dashed to the first of the two and plunged my dagger through its neck, slashing as I do so, nearly decapitating the disgusting abomination. The other had fully charged it's attack and fired it at me, I was too slow to react to the fast beam and it hit me square in the breast plate, scorching my cloak as it did but thankfully did not penetrate it due to it having a fine inner layer of moon steel chain mail.. I quickly regained my footing and pulled a small throwing knife from the belt inside my cloak, throwing it with deadly accuracy, nailing my opponent between the eyes. I turned to look for more targets only to see the other creatures had been slain by the guards, who where all staring at me with shocked looks. I ignored them, bending over to clean my moon steel dagger on the grass before walking over to retrieve my knife from the corpse of the slain insect pony. Shortly after I sheathed my dagger and began questioning the guards, the pony who had originally seen to me in the hospital room who I now knew as Shining Armor, the head of the royal guard burst into the courtyard floating a blade in front of him that was soiled with the thick green blood of those creatures. "You have quite some skill Sir Mikail, I am quite glad that you were able to assist us in routeing this attack. I'm also quite thankful that our altercation in the hospital did not turn ugly as I now realize you could easily have slain us all." He said with a slightly cautious tone, "If you'd like to know what the creatures you just killed where, they are called Changlings." Slightly shifting one of the corpses as he begins to describe them. "They are evil creatures who live off of pure love, they absorb it mostly from foalnapped ponies and those who they deceive." He orders the guards to pile up the corpses in a field near the palace and burn them before continuing to speak to me. "They have the ability to change their appearance to resemble other ponies so that they may trick that ponies close friends or family and drain the love from them. My wife was replaced by their queen at one time and she nearly killed me." looking slightly sad and bothered as he added in this detail. "They usually make raids on border towns and small settlements but they are not usually this bold to attack the palace directly, this is something we need to report to the princesses right away." He concludes with a dutiful expression and tone. "I have already been made aware Shining." says Celestia as she glides down next to us, a dark blue pony with a similar colored flowing mane gliding down next to her. "My sister Luna and I have already got the royal guard on full alert, and are ready to fight as well if need be." confidently walking towards Shining and I. "Princess if I may be so bold as to ask who accompanies you tonight?" I ask curiously, as I have never seen this other princess before, though I spent the entire day touring the palace with Celestia. "We are Princess Luna human, and we are responsible for raising the moon as well as assisting our sister with the running of Equestria." oddly enough speaking in third person. I kindly greet the other princess and ask them what they would like me to do with helping to defend the palace. They simply smile and Celestia shakes her head, "Please do not worry yourself about this Mikail, we do not need your help in this but we appreciate your offer to assist us." I make a shallow bow to the princesses and reply in turn. "I understand, I am a mercenary where I come from but I shall offer my services to thee in repayment for your hospitality." I continue respectfully, "I would like to ask that I have permission to offer my services to your subjects though, I believe I could help them quite a bit as well as make myself a bit of coin so as not to appear a burden to your highnesses." The princesses look at each other with slight concern on their faces and eventually nod to one another. "You may offer your services to anypony who may need or request them as long as you are to continue to respect our agreement." She becomes slightly more firm with her request, "If you are to hurt anypony you will no longer be allowed to leave the palace and we will be forced to confiscate your weapons." I nod and affirm the princesses that nobody shall be hurt and I shall do my best to respect and follow the laws of Equestria while performing my job. With this permission now clear, I should be able to pay a blacksmith to polish my now scorched breast plate, repair my cloak and to sharpen my dagger...luckily i brought along some moon powder to make moon steel. The princesses and Shining Armor bid me goodnight and we all return to our quarters to get some rest. I eventually manage to fall asleep but something feels wrong, like somebody is attempting to invade my mind... Author's Note I manged to get my laptop to run a little longer and managed to write a decently long paragraph. I feel as though things are starting to shape up and things will pan out how I'd like them to. Next chapter Luna will be attempting to enter Mikail's dreams but he has wards put up around his mind, we'll see how Luna reacts to this in the new chapter next week! Chapter 4: Dream WalkingI'd fallen asleep peacefully that night even after the attack on the palace. I had gotten rather good at controlling my own dreams and putting magical wards up to protect my mind from my enemies, but I never expected one of the ponies may be able to attempt to enter my dreams. I sat quietly in my usual favorite dream, on top of a small hill under a large oak tree, the sun high in the sky and a small creek running through the field in front of me as far as the eye could see. Just as I decided to start some of my training, I felt somebody attempting to enter my dream, not forcefully, more like they were expecting to be able to walk right in with no resistance. Closing my eyes I focus on this presence in an attempt to figure out who the intruder is only to discover that Princess Luna is standing in what seems like a void, looking quizzically at the invisible barrier that bars her way. Seeing that it is the princess I feel it would be safe to let her in for now, if she planned to do me harm she likely would have tried to enter by force. I open a small rift in the barrier and Luna walks through, after which I change my dream so that she is standing next to me. "Good evening princess, I had no idea that you had the power to enter anothers dream." "Yes Sir Mikail, We have the power to enter another ponies dreams and alter or observe them." She explains while looking around at my dream. "We saw that thou were dreaming as well and thought we would see what a humans dream was like, though we did not expect to be halted by a barrier." I smirked slightly at her observation, if Luna couldn't enter my dreams then that should mean that no other pony will have the power to break the barrier. "There are those from my world who would attempt to attack the minds of their enemies while they slept, most of us who feel we'd be such danger learn to place a ward around our consciousness to protect both our dreams and our waking thoughts." I explain as I conjure a group of human bandits around myself and begin to fight them off, easily dropping them all with only the use of my hands. Luna looks on at the show, completely stunned and seemingly trying to comprehend what she is seeing. "As you can see I have also trained myself to be able to control my own dreams so that I may train here while I sleep," I continue as the bandits all fade back into nothing, "back on Terra I don't have much other time to myself whilst I am fulfilling contracts and jobs so I had to find another way to hone my skills." finishing my explanation I walk back over to Luna who has been intently listening to every word, and conjure a table and benches for us to sit at. "Though princess I must ask that you refrain from attempting to enter my dreams in the future as this is a very personal place for me and I enjoy my privacy here." I conclude my request and a pair of goblets full of fine wine appear on the table. I pick up the one closest to me and sip from it, sitting back to relax against the back of the bench. Luna levitates the goblet up to her mouth and sips from it, seeming to enjoy the wine before replacing on the table. "We will respect your request Sir Mikail, we understand why thou would want to maintain the sanctity of your dreams in an unfamiliar place such as Equestria." She says, removing herself from the bench. "Though we would eventually like to question thou as to how you are capable of such control and your methods of training for it." I simply nod at her request and open a door out of my dream for her, "I may eventually decide to disclose that information to you, but until I feel I can trust you and your sister, there are many things I shall be keeping a secret. I hope you can understand your majesty." I reply confidently as I walk her to the door. She walks through it and leaves, only giving me a questioning glance as she left as if she was trying to understand why I'd keep my methods secret from her. I close the door behind her and continue with my training, moving on to practicing my more intense magic now that I am in private. I once again summon a group of bandits around me, all of them wearing ragtag clothing and small shoulder plates and half plates of armor here and there. Some of the carrying daggers, while other wielded all different types of sword and hatchets. They all gave a battle cry and come running toward me, I quickly unsheathe my dagger and deftly cut the throat of the nearest bandit, while letting his comrade next to him slip by as he swung his long curved sword at me. I spin around and jump into the air doing a backflip as I pull out several daggers, channeling arcane power into them and willing it to become fire. The blades burst into flames and I throw them at three bandits as they turn to see me in the air only for the blades to hit them each square between the eyes, killing them and engulfing their bodies in flames. Landing softly I quickly channel more arcane power into my free hand, willing it to become air and knocking away the last 10 bandits with a massive gust of wind. Then without hesitating I channel the air around me, becoming as swift and as agile as the wind itself, effortlessly cutting down the remaining bandits with my dagger. The bandits dissolve once again into nothing, but are quickly resummoned for my battle to resume, I continue training, aware that Luna was still attempting to watch me through the veil of my barrier... Author's Note Sorry for the temporary lack of updates everybody. My laptop took longer than expected to come back from the repair center but I will now be planning to release at least one chapter per night, this once is a bit short but I promise that the action will start picking up and the chapters will become longer soon. Thanks again to all who favorite and enjoy my story!
PrologueThe branches of the trees whipped harshly at my cloak as I dashed through the dark woods, the rain falling hard while thunder shook the trees and lightning cracked the sky as the flash of a blade and the sound of steel striking armor cuts through the roar of the downpour. I deftly drag my moon steel dagger across the battle mages' light plate mail and thrust it through the weakest point of the armor, straight through the heart of my assailant before ripping the blade back out with a sickening squelch. "You damned fool..." I spit at the corpse while wiping the gore off my weapon, "You only managed to hasten your own demise and make my job easier." I say with a grin. After cleaning my blade and picking the dead mage clean of his valuables, i continue on my way through the dark of the woods, eventually finding myself back on the main path. The North Viriana forest was the apparent location of my current job, the foolish mage i'd just killed for attempting to ambush me being one of the members of the chaos cult I was tasked with eradicating. I continue walking and hold out my palm facing upward, channeling magic through it and creating a small map of my immediate surroundings before setting off the path again opposite the direction in which I killed the mage. After a short walk through the brush, i finally find what I'd been looking for, a small stone trap door with a large red pearl inlaid in the center, "There you are," I say quietly to myself, "This is the door that the kings court wizard described to me, it should open if i can break the jewel." I remove my dagger from its sheath and kneel down over the jewel, placing the tip of my dagger at its center. I begin to channel pure arcane power through my dagger and press it into the evil gem, only for the entire slab to disintegrate and drop me into darkness... I feel myself regain consciousness but my vision is blurry, i blink a few times and attempt to figure out my surroundings remembering that i fell through the door after i destroyed the jewel. Suddenly the pain in the back of my head hits me and I wince, touching the back of my head with my hand coming away covered in my blood. "Damn that hurt!" I wince as i try to stand up "I feel like i fell 3 stories..." I exclaim in pain whilst i begin to channel a healing spell. "I'll need to be more careful if i ever hope to get out of this mess and get paid." I look around for a bit trying to see if i can find my dagger which must have slipped from my grip after i hit the ground, the only thing that saved me was my magical abilities and my moon steel plate armor, crafted from the finest steel and enchanted on the night of the fullest moon. Eventually i find my dagger embedded in a nearby stone and manage to pull it out, after returning it to it's sheath silently, I hear voices coming from down the tunnel to my right and quickly hide myself in the shadows of the cavern. "Quickly! we must find whatever created that sound!" Says the first voice as I see a pair of chaos mages in full battle gear step into the cavern, "Somebody must have destroyed the gate, but who could have survived such a fall?" The other mage asks the first, not noticing the shadow creeping up behind them. "We must find whoever it is with haste, if they survived and find out what we have down here, the elder will surely have us fed to the void." He pauses for a moment to look around the cavern with his torch held out in front of him, trying to discern any movement in the darkness. "we shall begin to lo-" The mage is suddenly cut off by a dagger punching through his throat, his eyes widen and his mouth opens to a silent scream as I quietly lay the man down to die. He begins to cough as I lay him down and his friend turns to see me, suddenly turning angry. "WE FOUND HIM! QUICKLY BROTHERS! THE INTRUDER MUST DIE!" He yells past me into the tunnel they emerged from. Thinking quickly I point two fingers at him and fire a shard if ice directly into his chest, destroying his armor and silencing him instantly, but the others are already alerted. "Damnit! Things can never just be easy, can they?" I ask myself as attempt to cast a shadow spell, only to be blind sided by a bolt of black light. I stumble from the attack and twist my body just in time to dodge a second one. "But how? Only those two came into the main cavern, how could I have missed a third one?" i think to myself as I try to identify my attacker. To my surprise, the elder of the cult steps from the shadows, his gnarled, corrupt staff pointed directly at me. "So you think you could just burst in here, disrupt my work, and kill my followers did you?" He asks me in a spiteful and angery tone. "Answer me! or i shall kill you where you stand assassin." Thinking quickly i reply, "I have no idea what you're on about you old badger, I'm nothing but an adventurer who attempted to enter here out of curiosity." I quickly explain while attempting to silently cast a teleport spell under my cloak. The Elder seems angered by this and replys in turn "You think me a fool? A mere adventurer slays two of my mages in cold blood and then attempts to hide the fact that he is casting a teleport spell under his robe? you shall die for your insolence!" He begins to charge anther chaos spell at the tip of his staff, the jewel on the end glowing menacingly as it fill with magic power. I cast my spell and end up right in front of the elder with my dagger already rushing toward his neck, but he blocks with the tip of is staff at the last moment. The spell is cast as the jewel breaks and the entire world goes black. I suddenly bolt awake and find myself in the middle of the woods. Shaking off the feeling of vertigo slowly stand up and take inventory of all my belongings, finding that i still have my dagger, my medicines, and a small amount of food in my pack. I attempt to cast a small light spell and succeed but immediately stop channeling my magic, as i feel as though my arcane power has not replenished itself while i slept. This was not normal, I should be at full strength right now and be casting magic with no problems but I feel as though I should conserve what little power I have left. I begin to walk slowly through the woods, attempting to move silently to find my bearings without the use of magic, i eventually come to the edge of the woods and see a small cottage surrounded by all sorts of small animals a short distance away. As I start towards the cottage I suddenly feel sick and feel a sharp pain on my chest under my armor. I open my cloak and look down under my moon steel plate to see a sickening burn with traces of dark a dark crystal strewn throughout the wound, but i continue towards the dwelling. I reach the main path leading up to the door and my vision once again starts to dim and fade as I collapse on the path, just before I fall into unconsciousness, I hear a gentle voice, "Oh my! What are you!? What happened to you!" My vision fades to black as a set of yellow hooves steps into view... Author's Note So what do you all think so far? Are there any grammar or sentence structure improvements i could make? Has the story caught your attention and most importantly, do you want more?
Chapter 1: Where the hell am I?As I feel myself begin to wake up I try to move my arms, only to find that i'm being held down by straps. "I need to stop passing out..." I moan to myself as the ache on the right side of my torso begins to throb, "every time I do the situation just gets worse." I begin to case my surroundings seeing that I am in a strange room reminiscent of the medical quarters of a castle, but odd looking. It doesn't take me long to realize that somebody is watching me and my attention turns to the corner of the room, where a small yellow equine is sitting and staring at me with fear in her eyes. Ignoring her for now I continue to take note of my situation, my armor has been removed and i'm left in nothing but my tunic and trousers, my grieves are missing as well as all of my weapons and my bag. I test the straps holding my wrists to find that I could break them quite easily, as if they were never meant to hold a grown man. "Is anybody here?" I question out loud attempting to see if any healers where around, and soon after my question another white equine with a red cross on her flank enters the room and walks up to my bed. "You are awake I see..." it says suddenly, "your wounds were quite deep, you are lucky that whatever magic was cast at you didn't kill you." It continues on while looking at some writing on a small pad of paper next to the bed. "Wonderful, now i'm hallucinating that horses can talk..." I mumble to myself in disbelief, "Destroying the gem on the staff of that blasted mage must have wounded me more than I had anticipated." "Excuse me, but I am not a horse, I am a pony..." the young mare says with an offended tone, "we are quite real and can speak just fine, the head of the royal guard would like to have a word with you to find out what you are and what you are doing in Equestria." The head of the royal guard? What kinda of place have found myself in...I wonder. Only moments after the white pony who I assume is a doctor, leaves the room, another white pony with a dark blue mane and tail with a horn on his head enters the room. He walks over to the side of the bed and looks me over a bit, before finally looking me in the eye. "What manner of creature are you?" he asks in a demanding, yet inquisitive tone, "and why have you come to our land of Equestria? Do you mean to cause us harm?" Thinking for a moment before answering, I decide that it'd be best if I told the entire truth here, wouldn't want to get on the bad side of the ponies while i'm in this position but i should try to loosen these straps just in case this turns ugly. "My name is Mikail Draconfilius and I am a human mercenary from the continent of Viriana, I have no idea how I ended up In your kingdom and I mean you no harm." I explain calmly. "If my presence is unwanted here I shall gather my gear and armor and I shall return home." I finish saying as i feel the strap on my left arm break. "I have never heard of this nation of Viriana you speak of, we ponies have traveled the entire world of Equis and have never encountered such a place nor have we ever encountered one of your kind," He looks angered, "If you meant us no harm, why where you found carrying so much weaponry if not to kill others with? He says as he four other armored pony guards enter in behind him, their spears all pointed in my direction. "What is this world of Equis you speak of? Is this your title for the Earth?" I question him before giving answering. "I was armed because I am a mercenary where I hail from, I do not kill the innocent, only the evil or corrupt." I hope that is enough to make them not want to kill me, it'd appear badly if I had to slay any of the ponies here... "I'm going to untie your staps, should you make any sudden move I will order my guards to kill you where you lie, do you understand?" He says this as he goes to undo my left strap, only to find I have already broken it. "The human has broken the straps already! Seize him!" The head guard says upon finding the strap. I immediately break the other strap and bring my fist up, catching the pony under the jaw and sending him reeling. I quickly jump from the bed and dodge and incoming spear, kicking the pony holding it in the side of the head. I turn to attack the remaining guards when I hear the same gentle voice from earlier. "Stop! Please! No more fighting!" I completely forgot about the yellow pony sitting in the corner of the room, tears had filled her eyes and she was giving me a pleading look. "Please don't hurt them anymore, they are just scared because they don't know what you are..." She says while choking back sobs. I look at the ponies on the floor that I have knocked out, and drop the spear before returning to sit on the bed. "I shall not hurt anybody else, but I will not be taken into custody." I say to the guards before turning to the yellow pony. "I'm sorry I have caused you to cry miss, I was in fear for my own life as well." I say gently nodding to her, "But I shall be taking my leave now." With that I vault off the bed and jump through the nearby window, flying through the open threshhold to the ground below and startling many other ponies as I go. I begin running through the town, pushing past many ponies as I go, some scared, others simply confused. I cast a weak location spell with some of the last of my arcane power and find that my gear is located in a building near what I assume is the center of town, doubling my speed I begin to sprint towards the building my gear is in and soon come into a large plaza in front of what I now identify as the town hall. It is a large structure made almost entirely of marble and a few guards standing next to the pillars spot me. "Seize that creature!" Yells one of the ponies to the others, "It must have escaped from the hospital!" I rush the nearest pony, jumping as he swings his spear at me and vaulting directly over him, only to encounter three more pony guards with swords drawn. These ones seem to be levitating their swords using the horns on their head and are all circling me, waiting for me to make a move. Wonderful, I think to myself, more mages to deal with...I channel a shadow spell in my right hand and cast it towards the ground. A large cloud of thick white smoke fills the plaza and I sneak around the guards that where blocking me, quietly making my way into the town hall. I silently creep my way through the building, climbing up into the rafters and begin to make my way towards a door in the back of the main room, only to see that it is heavily guarded by four spear carrying ponies. "Nothing I shouldnt be able to handle," I whisper under my breath. I creep to the rafters above the ponies and manage to find a lose nail on top of one of the rafters, I toss the nail so that it lands near the doorway on the other side of the room and the guards do exactly as I thought they'd do and follow the sound. After the guards are out of the way of the door and halfway across the room, I silently swoop down in front of the door make my way inside, quietly closing the door behind me so as not to arouse suspicion. I quickly find all of my possessions, including my dagger and bag. I put my armor back on and slip my cloak over my head, strapping my dagger back to its place on my thigh and picking up my bag, I get the feeling i'm being watched again and turn around only to see the largest pony I had seen since my arrival in this place of Equestria. She had large white wings and a long horn, her mane was a flowing rainbow of blue, green, and pink and the mark on her flank was that of a bright, fiery sun. She took a step towards me before finally speaking... "My have you caused quite the trouble here Mikail, you could have simply asked for your equipment back you know." Her voice sounded like that of an angel, it was soft and gentle and she seemed sincere. "The guards where not nearly as considerate as yourself, may I ask who you are then?" I say while making note of a window to my right in case i needed to escape. "My name is Princess Celestia, and I am the ruler of this nation of Equestria." Author's Note I felt as though I need some more substance to go on while writing this chapter. please feel free to say in the comments where you think it should go from here, but keep in mind that Mikail does not kill innocent beings and is not a criminal. As usual I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Chapter 3: The Princesses' RequestShe looked powerful, quite magnificent standing there. "So you are the ruler of this place?" I inquired, "I must apologize for my poor behavior towards your guards, I simply have no idea where I currently am and acted on my survival instincts." I chose my words carefully for fear of what this Celestia pony may be capable of if angered. "Surely you can understand the logic of my actions though." I put my dagger away as I take a knee to the princess. It would be wise of me to remain on the good side of the ruling powers here whilst I discern a means of returning to Viriana, perhaps I should press the princess for information at a later date as I fear making any request now may work against me. "Though I have already retrieved my belongings I feel it only right that I request your permission to hold onto them at this time, I assure you I will be no more trouble and my weapon shall not be drawn except in dire circumstances such as my life or the life of an innocent be threatened." I say whilst bowing my head to the princess as well, "Would this be an acceptable proposal for thine majesty?" I confidently ask hoping that I have made it clear that I am no threat to her kingdom. The princess simple smiled and walked to where I was still at a kneel and bow. "Please be on your feet Sir Mikail, everypony in my kingdom is equal, even if they happen to not be a pony." She said this to me with such kindness and sincerity, she was like no monarch I had ever met before. "If you'd like to keep your belongings I shall grant your request just so long as you are true to your word and none of my ponies are harmed by you." She continued, "I shall tell the head of my guards Shining Armor to stand down and have the rest of his guards do the same." She assured me. I stood up and realized now that the princess was near to me that she stood as tall as I and her horn was as long as my dagger. Judging by what I've gathered about the horned ponies around here they can use a type of magic, this would mean that the princess here could probably have killed me with a single spell had she desired to. As I am lost in thought about this while walking back towards the front of the town hall, Celestia steps in front of me and stops me before we open the door, the guards who where in the building earlier must have long since gone outside. "You shall have a place to stay at the Canterlot palace, but before I allow you to freely roam the country you will be made to learn our laws and customs. Am I clear on this Sir Mikail?" She says firmly but still with her usual kind tone. "I shall agree to your terms, your majesty. I may as well learn of the land I will be residing in for the time being." I affirm with a shallow bow to the princess as the doors suddenly burst open and purple unicorn with a star on her flank comes through. "Princess I came as soon as i heard there was a-" she suddenly cuts off her sentence upon seeing me and immediately puts herself between the princess and myself. "That creature princess! Has he tried to harm you? Are you alright!?" she says frantically to the princess behind her, while never breaking eye contact with me. "This creatures name is Mikail and he has made no attempt to harm me, my faithful student." She says while keeping her voice calm, this seems to make the unicorn relax. "He was simply acting out of instinct to survive as he was in fear due to not knowing at all where he is and has no intent to harm anypony." She affirms to her student. "I'm relieved to hear that princess." As the young unicorn turns back to me she looks up and meets my gaze again, "My name is Twilight Sparkle, I am the librarian of Ponyville and student to Princess Celestia." She exclaims proudly, "If you are not here to harm anypony than I'd like to ask you some questions so that I may learn more about you." She says rather excitedly and begins to circle me, looking my up and down carefully, as if trying to read a book. "It is my pleasure to meet you Miss Sparkle, your princess has been rather understanding of my situation and I'd be happy to answer near any questions about myself that you may have after I have had some rest, as my day has been quite hectic so far as you can see." Celestia nods to me and the three of us walk through the door where it seems that every pony in town has gathered, being held back by the guards as the all try to get a look at the creature who caused such a ruckus in their quiet little town. We are escorted through the crowd of whispering ponies where we eventually come to a golden carriage that is lead by who winged guards in golden armor. We file into the carriage and Twilight begins to rain questions down on me, about everything from my armor to where I am from, I almost don't notice the carriage take off into the air and begin flying towards a glimmering palace in the mountain side. Author's Note The inspiration has begun flowing again and I know where I want to take this story now. I apologize that the chapter seems to be a bit short again but I shall attempt to make the next one more than 1200 words. Thank you to all who have Favorited my story and wish to see more from me, I assure you all that you will not be dissapointed.
Chapter 3: Memories of the Past, Attack On the PalaceThe carriage ride was long, longer than I expected it to be but maybe that's just because time flows differently here. Twilight asked a multitude of questions during our ride but I'm still not sure how much I trust these ponies, so I only answered some basic questions about myself such as my full name and occupation. As I lie in the bed that was provided for me in one of the many rooms of this spacious palace I begin to think of home and the few people that might even be wondering where I am, my thoughts also wonder to my contract to destroy those chaos mages. What where they keeping down there, and why where they so intent on keeping me from seeing it? Whatever it was I will be going back there as soon as I get back to Viriana. As I continue to lie there with my thoughts I hear a now familiar sound of hoof beats on the marble floor in the hallway outside my room and not soon after, a maid comes in with a cart full of books and papers which I assume are the materials I will be required to study as my condition of staying here. Twilight offered to help me with understanding some of the more advanced books with terms I may not be familiar with but I'd rather be focusing on finding a way back home. "The princess has requested that you begin learning our basic customs first thing in the morning sir, I bid you goodnight." The maid says with an unenthusiastic tone and takes her leave of my room. I wait for a bit to make sure I am truly alone and fetch a book from my bag, detailing all of the laws of magic from Viriana. I took it out and began to thumb through the many pages, trying to discover first why my arcane power was running so low and not replenishing as well as trying to see if there was any indications of spells that may allow me to return home. After what seems like hours of reading page after page without finding anything I decide to refresh my memory as to how magic works in Viriana. Firstly, nearly all humans and elven races on Terra have an internal magical substance called Arcane Power, It goes by many other titles such as Qi or Chakra, sometimes it is even called Mana. Arcane Power is used to fuel nearly all spells in existence, such as healing or basic attack spells. This is done simply by focusing on drawing your Arcane Power to either a Focus such as a staff or a dagger, or simply channeling it directly into ones hand. Once one has channeled the sufficient amount of Arcane Power to their foci, they must the concentrate on the type of magic they'd like the Arcane Power to turn into. It can often take years for a man to learn to do this in a timely and efficient manner but some have a natural talent for it, the elves are a particular race who have said talent. I myself had some degree of natural talent and learned how to focus and control my magical abilities from my village elder, a retired royal mage. I practiced day and night to learn the illusion, elemental, and shadow magics that I use today in my job as a mercenary, which I quickly took to doing as soon as I learned to wield both spell and blade at the same time. I took all sorts of jobs, mostly just small time odd jobs such as killing pest creatures or roughing up bandits who had gotten too bold, but eventually my talents where noticed by a nobleman who contracted me to kill a group of wyvern trainers who where attacking his caravans in the mountains. I completed the job easily enough but at a great cost of several innocents who I was unable to save during the attack on the caravan I was protecting. From that point onward I vowed both to never work for anybody with ill intent and to always make sure I protected the innocent, even if it meant a lack of pay or comforts...even my own life. I was suddenly startled out of my reminiscing by screams coming from the courtyard below, where I saw a group of guards fighting off what appeared to be a small pod of insect-like ponies. Quickly retrieving my cloak and my dagger I decided that'd it'd take me too long to go through the entire palace to reach the lower floor, so I jumped though my window and grabbed the vines clinging to the wall. I used them like a rope and quickly rappelled towards the courtyard five stories below. When I had reached the level of the second floor I kicked off the wall, pulling out my dagger as I flew through the air before landing on the nearest insect pony to me, thrusting my dagger deep into its chest eliciting a scream from the creature. As I removed my blade a thick green blood followed and flowed from the fatal wound, while two more of the monsters noticed me and began to charge a green energy in their crooked horns. With blinding speed I dashed to the first of the two and plunged my dagger through its neck, slashing as I do so, nearly decapitating the disgusting abomination. The other had fully charged it's attack and fired it at me, I was too slow to react to the fast beam and it hit me square in the breast plate, scorching my cloak as it did but thankfully did not penetrate it due to it having a fine inner layer of moon steel chain mail.. I quickly regained my footing and pulled a small throwing knife from the belt inside my cloak, throwing it with deadly accuracy, nailing my opponent between the eyes. I turned to look for more targets only to see the other creatures had been slain by the guards, who where all staring at me with shocked looks. I ignored them, bending over to clean my moon steel dagger on the grass before walking over to retrieve my knife from the corpse of the slain insect pony. Shortly after I sheathed my dagger and began questioning the guards, the pony who had originally seen to me in the hospital room who I now knew as Shining Armor, the head of the royal guard burst into the courtyard floating a blade in front of him that was soiled with the thick green blood of those creatures. "You have quite some skill Sir Mikail, I am quite glad that you were able to assist us in routeing this attack. I'm also quite thankful that our altercation in the hospital did not turn ugly as I now realize you could easily have slain us all." He said with a slightly cautious tone, "If you'd like to know what the creatures you just killed where, they are called Changlings." Slightly shifting one of the corpses as he begins to describe them. "They are evil creatures who live off of pure love, they absorb it mostly from foalnapped ponies and those who they deceive." He orders the guards to pile up the corpses in a field near the palace and burn them before continuing to speak to me. "They have the ability to change their appearance to resemble other ponies so that they may trick that ponies close friends or family and drain the love from them. My wife was replaced by their queen at one time and she nearly killed me." looking slightly sad and bothered as he added in this detail. "They usually make raids on border towns and small settlements but they are not usually this bold to attack the palace directly, this is something we need to report to the princesses right away." He concludes with a dutiful expression and tone. "I have already been made aware Shining." says Celestia as she glides down next to us, a dark blue pony with a similar colored flowing mane gliding down next to her. "My sister Luna and I have already got the royal guard on full alert, and are ready to fight as well if need be." confidently walking towards Shining and I. "Princess if I may be so bold as to ask who accompanies you tonight?" I ask curiously, as I have never seen this other princess before, though I spent the entire day touring the palace with Celestia. "We are Princess Luna human, and we are responsible for raising the moon as well as assisting our sister with the running of Equestria." oddly enough speaking in third person. I kindly greet the other princess and ask them what they would like me to do with helping to defend the palace. They simply smile and Celestia shakes her head, "Please do not worry yourself about this Mikail, we do not need your help in this but we appreciate your offer to assist us." I make a shallow bow to the princesses and reply in turn. "I understand, I am a mercenary where I come from but I shall offer my services to thee in repayment for your hospitality." I continue respectfully, "I would like to ask that I have permission to offer my services to your subjects though, I believe I could help them quite a bit as well as make myself a bit of coin so as not to appear a burden to your highnesses." The princesses look at each other with slight concern on their faces and eventually nod to one another. "You may offer your services to anypony who may need or request them as long as you are to continue to respect our agreement." She becomes slightly more firm with her request, "If you are to hurt anypony you will no longer be allowed to leave the palace and we will be forced to confiscate your weapons." I nod and affirm the princesses that nobody shall be hurt and I shall do my best to respect and follow the laws of Equestria while performing my job. With this permission now clear, I should be able to pay a blacksmith to polish my now scorched breast plate, repair my cloak and to sharpen my dagger...luckily i brought along some moon powder to make moon steel. The princesses and Shining Armor bid me goodnight and we all return to our quarters to get some rest. I eventually manage to fall asleep but something feels wrong, like somebody is attempting to invade my mind... Author's Note I manged to get my laptop to run a little longer and managed to write a decently long paragraph. I feel as though things are starting to shape up and things will pan out how I'd like them to. Next chapter Luna will be attempting to enter Mikail's dreams but he has wards put up around his mind, we'll see how Luna reacts to this in the new chapter next week!
Chapter 4: Dream WalkingI'd fallen asleep peacefully that night even after the attack on the palace. I had gotten rather good at controlling my own dreams and putting magical wards up to protect my mind from my enemies, but I never expected one of the ponies may be able to attempt to enter my dreams. I sat quietly in my usual favorite dream, on top of a small hill under a large oak tree, the sun high in the sky and a small creek running through the field in front of me as far as the eye could see. Just as I decided to start some of my training, I felt somebody attempting to enter my dream, not forcefully, more like they were expecting to be able to walk right in with no resistance. Closing my eyes I focus on this presence in an attempt to figure out who the intruder is only to discover that Princess Luna is standing in what seems like a void, looking quizzically at the invisible barrier that bars her way. Seeing that it is the princess I feel it would be safe to let her in for now, if she planned to do me harm she likely would have tried to enter by force. I open a small rift in the barrier and Luna walks through, after which I change my dream so that she is standing next to me. "Good evening princess, I had no idea that you had the power to enter anothers dream." "Yes Sir Mikail, We have the power to enter another ponies dreams and alter or observe them." She explains while looking around at my dream. "We saw that thou were dreaming as well and thought we would see what a humans dream was like, though we did not expect to be halted by a barrier." I smirked slightly at her observation, if Luna couldn't enter my dreams then that should mean that no other pony will have the power to break the barrier. "There are those from my world who would attempt to attack the minds of their enemies while they slept, most of us who feel we'd be such danger learn to place a ward around our consciousness to protect both our dreams and our waking thoughts." I explain as I conjure a group of human bandits around myself and begin to fight them off, easily dropping them all with only the use of my hands. Luna looks on at the show, completely stunned and seemingly trying to comprehend what she is seeing. "As you can see I have also trained myself to be able to control my own dreams so that I may train here while I sleep," I continue as the bandits all fade back into nothing, "back on Terra I don't have much other time to myself whilst I am fulfilling contracts and jobs so I had to find another way to hone my skills." finishing my explanation I walk back over to Luna who has been intently listening to every word, and conjure a table and benches for us to sit at. "Though princess I must ask that you refrain from attempting to enter my dreams in the future as this is a very personal place for me and I enjoy my privacy here." I conclude my request and a pair of goblets full of fine wine appear on the table. I pick up the one closest to me and sip from it, sitting back to relax against the back of the bench. Luna levitates the goblet up to her mouth and sips from it, seeming to enjoy the wine before replacing on the table. "We will respect your request Sir Mikail, we understand why thou would want to maintain the sanctity of your dreams in an unfamiliar place such as Equestria." She says, removing herself from the bench. "Though we would eventually like to question thou as to how you are capable of such control and your methods of training for it." I simply nod at her request and open a door out of my dream for her, "I may eventually decide to disclose that information to you, but until I feel I can trust you and your sister, there are many things I shall be keeping a secret. I hope you can understand your majesty." I reply confidently as I walk her to the door. She walks through it and leaves, only giving me a questioning glance as she left as if she was trying to understand why I'd keep my methods secret from her. I close the door behind her and continue with my training, moving on to practicing my more intense magic now that I am in private. I once again summon a group of bandits around me, all of them wearing ragtag clothing and small shoulder plates and half plates of armor here and there. Some of the carrying daggers, while other wielded all different types of sword and hatchets. They all gave a battle cry and come running toward me, I quickly unsheathe my dagger and deftly cut the throat of the nearest bandit, while letting his comrade next to him slip by as he swung his long curved sword at me. I spin around and jump into the air doing a backflip as I pull out several daggers, channeling arcane power into them and willing it to become fire. The blades burst into flames and I throw them at three bandits as they turn to see me in the air only for the blades to hit them each square between the eyes, killing them and engulfing their bodies in flames. Landing softly I quickly channel more arcane power into my free hand, willing it to become air and knocking away the last 10 bandits with a massive gust of wind. Then without hesitating I channel the air around me, becoming as swift and as agile as the wind itself, effortlessly cutting down the remaining bandits with my dagger. The bandits dissolve once again into nothing, but are quickly resummoned for my battle to resume, I continue training, aware that Luna was still attempting to watch me through the veil of my barrier... Author's Note Sorry for the temporary lack of updates everybody. My laptop took longer than expected to come back from the repair center but I will now be planning to release at least one chapter per night, this once is a bit short but I promise that the action will start picking up and the chapters will become longer soon. Thanks again to all who favorite and enjoy my story!
