Prodigy

Chapters

New Priorities
Covering Our Steps
End of Times...?
Square One
Sparks
Visions
Mind Diving
Complications
Lens in the Sun
Reunited
A Day Out
First Steps
Oracle
Potentiality
Reassurance
The Study Continues
Polarity
A Cut Above
Setting Out
Eighteenth
A Refreshing Day
The Qualifiers: I
The Qualifiers: II
Dissipation
Questions
Dismith Life
A Change of Pace
Light as Air

New Priorities

The cool air nipped at my skin as we stepped into the spring night. I quickly gathered Luna, and informed her of the situation. We quickly left the castle, to fly to Dismith. Flying there by ourselves would be quicker than waiting for one of our carriages, so we took to the skies as fast as we could. Dismith was 173 kilometres away from Canterlot, towards the west. If we flew at a consistent rate, we would arrive in just over two and a half hours. The flight was uneventful, and we arrived on time, as I had predicted. We landed on the outskirts of town, and made our way towards the location we had felt the emanation originate from. The terrain quickly changed from flat rock to hills and valleys with a dense foliage covering the sky. We made our way through the forest, clearing trees as needed.

"What do you think we will find? Did you sense anything when you felt the emanation?" Luna asked solemnly.

"No, I received no indication of what lies ahead. Whatever it is, it's powerful. Only something quite proficient with magic could trigger the elements so fiercely," I told her.

Truth be told, I had no idea what we were walking into. The elements had long been forgotten, abandoned when Discord had been defeated. The power was unparalleled in magnitude. We saw it for the best to hide them, buried in a tomb of rock and sand, hidden for all eternity.
Or so we thought. Obviously, something had found them, and now, we could have a serious issue on our hooves. If something with nefarious intentions had gotten hold or control of the elements, then Equestria could be plunged into another dark period.

And I will NOT allow that to happen again!

We descended into a small valley with trees coating the entire plane. It didn't take us long to find a small cavern, where the feeling of the elements had gotten stronger. Much stronger.

"Be wary sister, we do not know what could lie ahead," Luna warned me.

We cautiously stepped into the cave, igniting my horn for illumination. As we travelled deeper into the cave, something felt… off, about the elements. They felt, almost like… like they were… one? It felt like one… no… two, energy sources. One felt quite faint, but the other, the other felt immensely more powerful than the other.

I could practically feel heat coming off one of the emanations, as we rounded one last corner. Ahead was a long "hall," and at the end, our anomalies.

"Careful sister," I ushered to Luna, to which she nodded, preparing her magic. We slowly crept forward, hoping for our findings to be peaceable.

The glow of my magic engulfed the room, and I saw the pedestal for the elements...

…and no elements.

Gazing past the pedestal, I saw… a boy? Yes, a boy, lying on the ground, completely still.

"Luna, help him," I told her, and she quickly moved to help the boy.

Gazing over to my left, I saw another boy, sitting against the wall, also unmoving. I quickly went to check on him, finding him to be unconscious.

"Luna, what have you found?" I called out to my sister.

"This boy, he is unconscious," she told me. I looked around the room carefully.

"Where are the elements?" Luna asked me.

"I wish I knew Luna,"

I looked back to the unconscious boy.

"I wish I knew…"

Getting back to Canterlot proved more than a small challenge. Without a carriage, we were limited to flying back, while carrying the boys on our backs. We couldn't leave them in Dismith, even if we suspected them as coming from there. These boys, whatever they did, had information on the elements. I could feel their presence in the boys.

Several times, we had to stop so one of us could rest our wings and magic. Once, Luna had dropped the smaller boy, barely saving him from falling to death. We flew low and quiet, avoiding any towns on the way back to the castle.

When we arrived back, it was around four in the morning. The night staff were not expecting visitors, obviously, so when we approached the gate, we were stopped.

"Stop, identify yourself," the guard on duty said, around one hundred meters away.

"Draw the bridge, we need medical attention, now!" I yelled.

The guard immediately recognized my voice in the darkness, and signaled for the bridge to be lowered. Once it was, we quickly entered the castle. We met a medical team halfway to the medical wing, who were equipped with two stretchers. We placed the two boys on each stretcher, and they were quickly taken away to be helped. A doctor that I knew stayed behind to talk to us.

"Princesses, are you two alright?" Doctor Windy asked us.

"Yes, I- I think we will be alright," I told him, catching my breath. Drained of my magic, I dismissed Doctor Windy, telling her that the boys were his first priority. Having gained my composure back, Luna turned to me.

"Shall we go get a bite to eat sister? I feel that sleep will not come very easily for us tonight,"

"…that sounds nice, yes," I told her.

The next morning...

With what little sleep I had gotten last night, I moved swiftly down the hallway towards the medical wing. Arriving, I entered the first wing, the admission hall. This is where all individuals who came here were filed and made note of. I approached the counter to talk to the mare who was working today. She turned to meet my gaze, and quickly straightened her posture. I smiled at that, and went on.

"Good morning princess! Um, are you here about the two boys from last night?" she asked me in her high pitched voice.

"Yes, can you tell me where I can find them?" I asked her.

"Sure thing, room seven, just down the hall behind you,"

"Thank you," I told her, and I turned to leave. Quickly entering room seven, I found both boys, on either sides of the room, lying in hospital beds. A new doctor was standing over the smaller boy, a doctor I was not familiar with. He noticed me, and finished writing something down.
"I uh, was hoping you could provide a little more insight to me on who these boys are," he told me with a laugh.

I smiled back. "Unfortunately, I also am at a loss, but I do need to speak to them. When will that be possible?"

"That… we don't know. See, these boys aren't unconscious. They're in a comatose state, but not like one we have ever seen before. This one is… deeper, somehow. The only things we are getting out of them are their heart rates. Their brain wave signatures are almost non-existent. The decision to remove life support falls to you, princess," he told me.

"Doctor, I want the opposite. If you need to use all of your funding for the year to keep these boys alive, you do it. I don't care what happens, you WILL look after these two, am I clear?" I enforced.

"Crystal,"

"Good, now, in that case, please keep me informed to any changes that occur. If they wake up, I want to know," I told him.

"Yes princess," he nodded. I returned the gesture, and left the room. I made my way back, heading towards Luna's room. The trot there was rather uneventful, however. Arriving at my sister's chamber, I knocked on the door, and waited.

"Luna? Open up," I yelled after a few moments of silence.

"Oh my god…" I heard faintly. The door opened, and a frizzy maned Luna appeared before me.

"What do you want, dear sister," she said, her words dripping with sarcasm.

"Haha, funny. Let me in," I told her. She stepped to the side, and I entered her absolute pitch black room. The door closed behind me, and I felt out to the curtains with my magic. Flinging them open, I heard Luna yell behind me.

"Ah, Tia, why must you destroy something so precious to me!" she yelled.

"And what would that be?"

"Sleep. Darkness,"

I rolled my eyes, and turned to face Luna.

"The two boys, we need to talk about them," I told her.

"So talk," she said.

"Right. The two we brought in… they are in a magically based comatose state. The doctor didn't know it, but I did,"

"Did you tell him then?"

I mentally face-palmed, and continued.

"Regardless, I have informed the doctor to let me know if anything changes," I told her.

"Okay,"

"But we need to do some covering up. The boys were more than likely from Dismith, so we should go and inform the parents of what has happened,"

"Alright,"

"And I want you to do that," I told her.

"What!? Why me? Why not you?"

"I need to be here if anything happens to them. Look, the faster this gets done, the better, ok? That's why I need you in Dismith today, Luna" I told her. She groaned, and half-heatedly agreed, likely because of her lack of sleep. She quickly ushered me out of her room, insisting that she needed to get ready. Her doors slammed behind me, and I turned.

"Don't forget to set your alarm Luna!"

Covering Our Steps

Celestia had instructed me to keep this mission to Dismith relatively quiet and had recommended that I fly back to the small town personally to avoid any unnecessary attention.

“Yeah, sure thing Tia, whatever you say,” I said to myself, smirking while I did. The air was relatively cool way up here in the sky, as we flew though the air in my personal carriage. The flight there last night had been stressful enough, but add having to keep someone on your back the whole way back and it became a little bit more than exhausting. By the time I had gotten back to the castle I was almost ready to pass out at the gates, so this time, I was taking it a little bit easier.

I really should get out more, it’s no good for my image to spend all my days in the castle...

We touched down on the outskirts of Dismith at around three in the afternoon, and after instructing my guards to wait with the carriage, I made my way into the town.

Before I had left Canterlot, Celestia had done a little looking into the old Dismith public records, and identified these two boys as living at the Dismith orphanage. I had winced at this, but at the same time, as morbid as it was, it made our job a lot easier. Not to say I am glad they have no parents, but reality is reality, and it does make my job easier.

While a few heads did turn my way while I made my way to the orphanage, most ponies merely glanced at me, and bowed their heads as a sign of respect. Celestia made a lot more public outings than I did, but to Dismith? That was almost unheard of.

I had forgotten how small of a town Dismith was, as there were relatively few people outside today. It made me wonder where everyone else was, possibly inside? It was possible that a few people would be out of town today, but in such a remote part of Equestria, it was rather unlikely. But, I digress.

I arrived at the orphanage, and promptly entered. I was greeted with a modest sight, a living room on my right, past that a kitchen, on the left was...

“Um, can I help you your highness?” I heard a mare called out to me.

In front of me stood the orphanage’s owner and caretaker, I assume.

“Yes, I am here to discuss with you the disappearance of two boys at this residence as of yesterday,” I told her.

“Oh my goodness, do you know what happened to Daniel and Austin? There are a few ponies out in the forest looking for them, but-”

I held up a hoof to silence her.

“The disappearance of the two boys was no accident,” I explained to her. “Yesterday evening, Daniel and Austin appeared to be exploring a cave, and as such, accidentally discovered the elements of harmony, are you familiar with them?” I asked her. She nodded, to my genuine surprise.

“Yes, now, while observing these elements, they somehow found a way to trigger them, in a most volatile way,”

“Are... are they... alive?” she asked me.

I gave a warm smile, “Yes, the two are alive, and are currently under our personal care in Canterlot castle,”

“When will they be returning?”

“That is what we are here to discuss, you see, the elements somehow appeared to transfer themselves to the boys, and they are now in a magically induced comatose state, to which we cannot predict the end of as of right now. So as for now, under the living circumstances, the boys will remain under our care in Canterlot, until we can determine what ails them,”

“Oh, alright then. Is there more to discuss?” she asked me.

“Yes, we have quite a bit to talk about,”

“Would you like some tea in that case,”

I gave her a warm smile, “Yes, please,”

Five hours later...

Luna and I stood over the older boy, Daniel, with Doctor Windy on the opposite side of the bed.

“I am getting no signs that anything you could do would negatively impact the boys immediate health, so you should be okay to try purging” Windy told me. “His mental signature is still way down, which is good in your case,”

“Aright doctor, if you say so,” Luna said.

Purging was a method of dream walking that involved being a little more... aggressive. In normal dream walking sessions, my sister had the ability to enter someone’s dream, and help them, more so than she could in the physical world. Purging, as she liked to call it, involved actually clearing out of someone’s immediate thoughts, and erasing them. Luna had the ability to determine how long she wanted the spell to go back, and could theoretically erase all of an individuals memory starting from the minute they were born. This would allow... a new start, kind of. It would also leave the person a babbling, incoherent husk of what they used to be, with no cognitive mental function at all. It was rather scary, once you thought about it.

Luna was trying to go back to the very second that Daniel had entered a coma, trying to see what caused it, and eliminate it, if she could. Purging was a dangerous tactic, and my sister vary rarely had the opportunity to use it. But as an alicorn princess, and an adept dark magic user, I trusted her. If this was successful than we could do the same procedure on Austin, hopefully waking them up.

Luna, by this point, was far into Daniel’s mind. Calling her back to the real world was now impossible, only she could come back to us. This, of course, was the dangerous part. If anything in the target’s mind had nefarious intentions, they could potentially drag Luna down if she couldn’t resist them. This of course, had never happened before, but there was a first time for everything, and we wanted to be cautious.

We waited...

Around ten minutes later, doctor Windy had to leave, but I remained with my sister.

And waited...

After around an hour, I noticed that Luna would twitch every minute or so. Physical signs of attack were rare, but not unheard of. I closely watched her to make sure nothing went wrong. Granted, there was not much I could do, but I was vigilante, nonetheless. Twenty more minutes passed, with no signs of the twitching stopping. I cast my magic, and called out to my sister, trying my hardest to bring her back, but I could feel nothing. Her and Daniel’s minds were completely intertwined, there was no helping her. It was all up to her.

Ten more minutes passed, and I thought I could hear Luna mumbling something. I leaned in closer, trying to hear her.

“...no... no... please...”

“Luna? Luna?! Come back!” I yelled. This feeling of helplessness, it was overwhelming. My sister was hurting, and there was nothing I could do to help her. I sat back, and gritted my teeth in defeat. Finally accepting the loss, I fully sat back, and waited.

Luna let out a large gasp, and collapsed to the floor. I shot up, and went to her side.

“Luna! Luna! Talk to me, what happened! Are you okay?! Luna!” I yelled.

Luna looked... absolutely stunned. She sat on the floor, wide eyed and breathing heavy, trying to catch her breath.

“Luna, please, tell me if you are okay!?”

Luna slowly looked up to me with wide eyes.

“Tia... I saw... so many bad things. There was fire, so much fire. The ponies we loved... they were gone, all gone...” she sobbed into my mane.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I- I think I am” she said, wiping away her tears. She turned her gaze to Daniel.

“We can’t... we can’t let him stay here. He’s a danger Tia... He’ll destroy us. He’ll destroy us all. All of us!” she yelled.

I flinched at her outburst.

“Luna, we don’t know that. Premonitions have been wrong before, you know that,” I told her.

She remained quiet, and turned to look at me.

“We shall see...”

End of Times...?

Three months later…

7:00 AM

I awoke at my usual time of seven o'clock sharp. I guess when you get up at the same time every morning for over seventy years, you get into a habit of sorts.

A usual Thursday, I started my day by taking a shower, putting my garments on, and going over my list for the day. No variety, no changes, nothing special. I made my way to the kitchen, where Piérre had just finished preparing my morning coffee.

"Here you are Princess, just as you like it, as per usual!" he said with a hint of pride. Even though sometimes I could get sick of the same morning routine everyday, Piérre never failed to deliver his award-winning roast. Brewed to perfection, it was the closest thing to heaven prepared in a cup. Taking a sip, I made my way to my sister's room.

There was no day court scheduled for today. I had worked longer and harder yesterday to ensure that I would have almost no work today. Having no court in my schedule meant that my entire morning, and almost my entire day was free and open, so I intended to spend it with my family.

Knocking on her door, I took another sip of coffee, reveling in the rich, bold taste. I had instructed Luna to be up earlier than usual today, and as usual, she didn't listen. I smiled at her slightly transgressive attitude to me.

"You have got to be kidding me," I heard her say inside. I gently knocked again, much to her dismay. Her doors started glowing a dark blue.

"Come in," she said as her door swung open. I stepped inside the still pitch black room. I saw it get slightly brighter, as Luna opened the curtains slowly. Birds were chirping outside her window as the sun slowly made its way over the land. It was a perfect August day outside, and I intended to make the most out of it.

"Hello Luna, how are you this fine morning?" I asked with a smile. She was just getting out of bed, her mane completely all over the place. I quietly sipped my coffee.

"Oh, just ecstatic to be up so early in the morning,"

"Oh, yes, I can tell by the tone in your voice that you are overwhelmingly excited" I said sarcastically.

Luna had never been one to want to get up early. Sleeping in was always the first thing on her agenda. Personally, I have always loved getting up early. I felt that sleeping in, while nice to do on occasion, was a huge waste of the day.

"What did you have in mind for today?" she asked me.

"Well, I figured we could start by going to get breakfast, not here, but in Canterlot. Then, perhaps we could-"

I was cut off as Luna slammed the door to her bathroom, locking herself in.

"Yes, yes, that all sounds lovely. I'll be out in a few minutes," I heard her say as her shower turned on. I grumbled slightly at her dismissive attitude, and stepped out of her room.

"Meet me in the medical wing, I'll be checking on the two," I called as I left. I heard what I assumed to be a “yes” as I walked out of her room.

I made my way to room seven, to meet doctor Windy for our weekly meeting. For the past month, we have been meeting every week to discuss any changes in the boys. After two months of daily meetings, and no changes being made, we had decided that a weekly meeting was a good substitute to our original plan. This allowed me more freedom, and allowed Windy more solo research into magical comas.

Our meeting generally occurred at eight o’clock, but I arrived a few minutes early today. I entered room seven, and…

Austin was in his bed, as usual…

Great...

Daniel was not…

Just great...

I turned around to see doctor Windy standing in the doorway with wide eyes.

Absolutely fantastic...

7:23 AM

My eyes fluttered open, and shut close immediately. My head throbbed with unbelievable pain, my limbs ached with numbness, and from what I got out of my brief glance, my vision was completely blurred. I lay in agony, praying that I would feel better soon. I tried opening my eyes, and turned my head to the right. I saw what looked to be a… lamp? I blinked multiple times, trying to clear my vision. Eventually, I could see somewhat straight, and what I assumed to be a lamp was in fact a lamp.

Well, at least I can kinda see… now… where am I?

I looked back to my left to see a white wall, with a large window to the right. I slowly sat up in my bed, and upon doing so, realized that I was in some sort of hospital.

Dismith doesn’t have a hospital, just a doctor…

Utterly confused, I laid back down until my pain subsided. After about ten minutes, I swung my legs off the side of my bed, and waited for them to wake up. Feeling the general sensation of “touch” return to me, I stood up, and found that everything seemed to be working fine. I glanced to my left, and in another bed on the other side of the room, was Austin. I walked over to him, realizing that I was in a hospital gown, and little else, other than underwear. Disregarding this, I went to check on my friend.

“Austin? Austin, wake up, it’s Daniel. Come on buddy, get up,” I called to him. When I didn’t get a response, I shook him gently, then aggressively.

“Come on man, no time for naps, get up,”

Once again, no response. This lead me to believe that he might be in some sort of... coma, which would indeed complicate things. After another round of shaking, and still no response, I went with the comatose theory. Turning around, I saw the door, and went to check it. It was unlocked, which would confirm that Austin, and quite possibly myself, were in comas. I peeked into the hall, and saw no sign of movement.

Judging from the sophisticated equipment, I figured we might be in one of Equestria's larger cities, possibly Canterlot. Looking out of the window, I was met with a spectacular view of Equestria below, confirming my thoughts. Going to the dresser beside my bed, I tried my luck, and opened the large drawer. I was met with a comforting sight. My clothes. Smiling, I quickly changed, and discarded my gown. I finished tying my shoes, and slipped into the hallway. Both directions ended in another hall, so I picked a direction at random, and started walking. At the end of the hall, was another hall, leading both directions. Thinking of the window to my left, I went right. My thought process seemed to be right, as I entered a large open area with chairs lining the walls. In the center, was an island, and in the center sat a mare, writing something down on a piece of paper. I stayed hidden in the hallway, observing the mare, debating if I should talk to her.

Before I could make my decision, the mare, who I assume was a receptionist of some sorts, got up, and left the room. She walked to the other side of the room, and left through a hallway going left. I promptly went down the right hallway, and…

Hey, why am I trying not to get caught. This is Canterlot, no one is going to hurt you Daniel…

I turned around to follow the mare, when curiosity hit me. I wondered what was down the hall I was following, and since no one would hurt me – probably – I decided to keep going where I was going.

Finding another set of halls, for some reason, I went right, and immediately came across a door on my left.

“Medical Wing staff pantry?” I echoed aloud, reading the sign on the door. Reaching forward, I found to my happiness, that it was open.

Of course it would be, right? Like, who locks doors?

Shutting the door behind me, I felt out for a light. In the center of the room, was a string, which I pulled. The room lit up, and I was greeted with a sight of various foods and drinks on shelves. Smiling, I reached forward for a box of conveniently placed Hay Hoops.

“Wait, would this be stealing?” I thought out loud.

I looked at the box of cereal in front of me, and shrugged.

“Probably,”

9:17 AM

The sweep of the Medical Wing had come back negative, and the rest of the castle was being searched as of right now.

“There’s no way he could have gone that far Luna, please,” I told my sister. We were standing in the reception area, arguing over Canterlot’s safety.

“Tia, don’t you see?! This is exactly what my vision foretold me! The downfall of Equestria, and you’re too blind to see it!” she yelled.

“What could a boy with no magical experience possibly do to hurt the nation?”

She gazed down. “That boy, he WILL destroy us, and this is the start. Why can’t you see it! How can you be so foolish, sister!”

“How can you think that one little boy could possibly bring our grand nation to its knees?”

“God, you are the most arrogant… stubborn-”

Luna was cut off from her insults by a guard approaching us.

“Your highness, we found him, come with me,” he told us, and walked away. We followed him, a smirk upon my face. I glanced at Luna. She looked genuinely annoyed, to which I silently snickered.

We approached the room where the boys were staying, and a puzzled look dawned upon our faces.

“Soldier, are you sure you know what you are doing?” Luna asked. He just smiled, and opened the door to room seven. I stepped in, Luna in suit, and I looked to Daniel’s bed.

He was… eating. He was eating a box of Pony-O’s. Luna and I were confused beyond reason, and we just stared at him.

Daniel looked at us.

“What took you so long?”

Square One

10:04 AM

The princesses and I sat in one of the meeting rooms around Canterlot castle. After a brief exchange in the hospital room, we had made our way here. I was told that we had a lot of things to discuss, and was sat down in this room. Austin, however, was still out of it.

I hope he wakes up soon...

"Well, let's begin, shall we?" Celestia told us. I nodded slowly, agreeing.

"Do you know why you are here Daniel?" she asked me.

"I... I seem to have a bit of trouble remembering. I remember... Austin and I. We were... going somewhere, I think. A forest?"

"Yes, you and Austin were in a forest. What else can you remember?"

"Pain. I can remember a lot of pain. What happened?"

The princesses exchanged skeptical glances, and looked back to me.

"Tell me if you can remember anything else," Celestia pressed.

"Uh, okay... we live in Dismith, at the orphanage. Harvest Candy... I can remember everything up until me and Austin went to the forest,"

The princess raised an eyebrow at this, and pushed me further.

"You don't remember anything else? At all?" she asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Look, I told you what I know, I don't remember anything past entering the forest, that's all," I reinforced, sitting forward in my seat.

The two looked at each other again, and back to me. I sat back in my seat. We were quiet for a few moments, none of us giving the other any room to maneuver.

Celestia sighed, and looked down. "You and Austin. You had entered the forest for whatever reason, and discovered a cave. After following it for a while, you discovered something at the end, do you remember?" she told me, looking back up at me.

I looked down, and then back to her, shaking my head. She nodded, and continued.

"What you discovered... were the elements of harmony. Luna told me that Harvest Candy said you are quite intelligent. You know of these elements, correct?"

"Yes, the elements, used by you two to imprison Discord, lost after the battle, buried somewhere in Equestria," I recounted my history.

Celestia gave me a slight smile.

"Yes, good. Up until now, we thought the elements to be lost, buried somewhere in Equestria. We believe that when you encountered the elements, you somehow found a way to trigger a reaction never seen before,"

I looked to princess Luna, who was giving me a very unimpressed look. It almost looked like she was angry with me, though I could not tell you why. I looked back to Celestia.

“So what happened to the elements?” I asked her.

“When you activated the elements, in whatever fashion you did, my best guess is that you somehow invoked them into transferring themselves into you, and your friend Austin,”

I gave her a puzzled and concerned look.

“Whenever I reach out to you with magic, I can feel part of the elements in you, and your friend. The feeling, however, is much stronger within you. It is almost as if a larger part of the elements entered you than your friend, which would only raise another string of questions,”

I processed the information that was being given to me, trying to comprehend what she was saying. And so far, I was failing. This was all so… surprising to me. Well, that was a bit of an understatement. One minute, Austin and I were exploring a forest near Dismith, the next, we’re in Canterlot.

This day just keeps getting better..

Celestia angled her head. “Daniel, did you know that you were in a coma?”

“Yes, it was my first guess,”

“Do you know how long?”

My head lowered, “No, that part I’m still a bit fuzzy on”

“Daniel, you were in a coma for a little over three months,” she solemnly told me.

My eyes widened, and my mouth opened slightly. The words hit me like a brick wall. I was gone for… three months? Three months.

“I… I...” I mumbled incoherently.

“You and Austin have been lying in that room with IV’s in your veins for the past three months,” she hammered home. I closed my mouth, and looked to the floor.

“We were beginning to wonder if you were to wake up,” Luna told me.

We sat in silence for a few moments.

“So… what happens now? I mean, we’re obviously here for a reason, right?” I asked.

“Now, we keep you here, with abundant freedom of course, until we can determine what the elements did to you and Austin. That, is what happens next,” she explained to me.

As I thought about the information I had just been given, I turned my gaze to Luna, who was still giving me a hard glare. And I had had just about enough of it.

“Why the mean look? What did I do?” I asked her.

“We have no reason to trust you, and until you prove yourself to be passive in cause, you are not be trusted, is that clear?”

I turned to look at Celestia with a confused look, who merely raised her eyebrows at me, seemingly echoing her sister wordlessly. I glanced between the two a few more times, panning my options.

“So what you’re telling me, is that you kidnap me, because I did something to your precious gems, and after sitting me down to talk, with no restraints, I might add, I am to be given no trust?” I stated.

“Is something not clear?” Celestia challenged me.

“Yeah, kind of. You mentioned that we somehow possess the elements inside of us. So if we control the one thing that you two are after, doesn’t that lock you two into trusting me?” I said with a smile.

Luna sat froward in her seat.

“Do not mistake our complacency for compliance, boy,” she said in a very aggressive tone. “I would be just as happy to remove the elements from you by force, which is usually very, very messy,” she said in a low, angry tone.

I sat forward in my own chair. “Do it,” I said, dropping my sincere look, replaced by a mischievous smile.

Luna, not liking the challenge, narrowed her eyes at me, lowering her head.

“Don’t test me, boy. You have no idea who you are dealing with,” she told me.

I sat back and crossed one of my legs.

“I know I’m dealing with someone who is way above killing a teenager,” I told her, pressing my luck. “You’re too smart for that, and you know it,”

Her gaze never changed, and I looked back to Celestia.

“So, is there anything else?” I asked her. She looked deep into my eyes.

And smiled.

12:31 AM

We exited the meeting room, and stepped into the hallway. The air in the meeting room had become stale, so it was nice to get some fresh air. I took a huge breath of air in, and let it hold. I was being led around the castle right now, being shown where I would be staying while I was here. We made our way to the staff quarters, which was a long hallway that ended in a dead end. We made our way to the end of the hall, and I was shown the last door on the left.

“This is where you will be staying while you are here,” Celestia told me, opening the door with her magic. I stepped inside, and gazed around the room.

The room was a long, rectangular shape, with the bed on the immediate left side. The space between the edge of the bed and the door was about two feet. On the end of the bed was a large , ceiling tall dresser, swinging doors on the top half, three large sliding drawers on the bottom half. Next to that was a long desk, with a human designed chair in the middle.

This must be one of their human purposed rooms…

The room ended after the desk, and on the far wall was a large square window, fitted with long, gray curtains. The window was slightly offset to the left. Right of the window was a tall door, confirming my theory about the human designed room. Through that door was a full bathroom, with a standing shower made for humans. The right wall of the main room was almost barren, save for a few tasteful pictures on the wall. Overall it was a very simple design, with nothing extravagant to talk about.

I ran my hand along the desk as I walked past it. I dipped my head into the bathroom, to take a look, and promptly closed the door behind me. I turned back to the princesses.

“I hope it is satisfactory, and if you ever need something, don’t be afraid to ask a member of the castle staff,” Celestia told me warmly.

“So wait, you said I’ll have freedom around here, right?” I asked her. She nodded her head.

“What kind of freedom are we talking about? Am I allowed to leave the castle? Can I return home?”

“For now, and by that we mean a few weeks, you will be confined to the castle, and respective grounds. Only when you have proven your passive intents, will you be allowed travel outside the castle,” Luna told me.

Celestia nodded, “Yes, that is correct. Well, we’ll leave you to get settled,” she said happily, her and Luna leaving the room, closing the door behind them.

I looked around the room, thinking about my lack of belongings.

You know, for some reason, I feel like that was intentional…

Sparks

As we made our way down the hall towards the kitchen, I couldn't help but keep glancing over at my sister. A large smile was plastered on my face, with quite the opposite look on Luna's face.

"What do you want Tia?" Luna said through her teeth, not bothering to look at me. I could practically feel the anger in her words. My smile grew by a fraction of an inch.

"Care to tell me what happened with Daniel?" I asked her.

"What do you mean," she said while stopping in front of me, stopping us in the hallway.

"I mean, in the meeting room. The way Daniel dealt with you. He played you like a fiddle, and no one does that to you. What happened?"

"I know nothing of what you are talking about," she told me, closing her eyes and continuing to walk down the hall.

"Oh please, he practically walked all over you, compared to how you act. He directly challenged you, and you backed down," I said, rolling my eyes. She continued walking without making a sound. I followed her, and pressed on.

"I've never seen someone say things like that to you, much less you be so okay with it. Why?" I asked, and she spun around to face me.

"Listen, I don't have to answer anything you ask me! What he told me almost cost him his life, and it would have been his mistake. Personally, I don't see why we are wasting resources on him and his friend, when we could just take the elements from him!" she yelled back to me. She turned, and kept walking.

I smiled a little wider at this.

6:01 PM

After a few hours of trying to take a nap in my room, which was unsuccessful by the way, I was collected by a doctor Windy. I was told that I was to undergo a full physical examination, to determine if the elements had any effects on me. Personally, I felt no different from a few days ago, but there could be underlying changes that I was unaware of.

According to the fair doctor...

After leading me down several halls, we entered a room full of medical equipment.

"Please, take a seat Daniel," doctor Windy told me. I sat down in a chair across from doctor Windy, who sat down behind a desk. To my right was a bed, and past that, all sorts of various workout equipment. I swallowed, and looked back to Windy.

"Alright Daniel, we are going to be testing you on your physical performance today of that's alright," she told me.

"Do I really have a say in it?" I asked her.

She stared at me for a moment, before cracking a small smile, and looking down at her papers. Whether or not it was genuine was unclear to me, though I would bet on the latter.

Standing up, she walked over to me, and started playing with some equipment what was behind me. Various measuring devices, like blood pressure, heart rate, weight, height, and the sort.

"If you would, please stand up for me," she instructed. We measured for all of the things just mentioned. I was quite tall for my age, my birthday having come and gone in June. At just seventeen years of age, I stood six foot three inches tall, weighed one hundred and fifty seven pounds with a body mass index of nineteen point two, a relatively small build. Blood pressure and heart rate were all normal.

Well, that's good, at least. No worries there...

"Good, very good. Your immediate physical health seems to be quite normal. Now, the fun part," she told me, leading me over to the equipment.

"Please, if you will, step onto this treadmill,"

I sighed, and did as she asked.

"Alright, start running. I'll time you, and we'll see how you do," she said, smiling. I almost missed it, but I could hear the slightest inkling of annoyance in her voice.

"You know, if I didn't know any better, I would think you didn't like me," I said, starting to run, pushing the track forward, quickly speeding up to a quick jog.

"Oh, Daniel, what ever would give you that idea?" she said with a smirk.

I groaned, and closed my eyes.

After around five minutes of brisk jogging, I was started to feel winded.

"Stop when you need to, we don't judge here," Windy told me, while writing something on her papers.

"We," I said apathetically.

After a few more minutes, my legs were starting to ache. I was by no stretch of the imagination a runner. I never ran anywhere except for gym class, and only rarely did I jog. The only reason I was anywhere near fit was because of the constant walking and exploring I did with Austin. At the same time, overweight individuals were uncommon in Equestria. Diet played a huge role in that.

I pushed for a few more minutes, before giving up. I stepped off of the treadmill, sweat dripping from all over my body. I doubled over, trying to catch my breath. Doctor Windy seemed more or less... disinterested. Writing something on her papers, she paid no attention to me. I would be willing to bet that she didn't even notice that I was done.

"Hey... do you... need me to do... something else, or what?" I said in between breaths.

"Oh, you're done, good" she spoke in a monotone. I narrowed my eyes. I had had enough of this.

"Hey, do you have something you want to say to me," I asked, walking up to her.

"Now what could I possibly want to say to you Daniel? I just want to get this done and go home as much as you do. The longer you keep me here, the bigger of a problem we have,"

"Oh ha ha, good for you. In case you haven't noticed, you're the lucky one here. You get to go home. You get to go and see your family. I mean fuck, you have family! Are you married?"

Doctor Windy looked at me, her gaze softening.

"Are you married? Answer me," I pressed.

"Yes. Two kids," she told me.

"Then you have no reason to be mad right now. You get to go home, you get to see your kids, you get to sit down and have dinner with them at night. Why would you possibly have a problem with me!?" I yelled.

"I already told you, I don't,"

"Quit bullshitting me, I can read you like a book, clear as glass. Don't sit there and pretend that you like me when you clearly don't," I pressed.

"Well maybe when a person who lies in bed for three months, keeps me here, and away from my other studies, I might get a little irritated. I still want to be more, you know. I want to be more than just a grunt doctor for my whole life. But then the princess pulls me aside, and tells me that you and your friend are my problem now. Yeah, I have a problem," she shot back.

"None of that is my problem though! It's not my fault that Celestia picked you over any other doctor! Maybe she picked you for a reason!"

"Well maybe if you hadn't gone and stuck your nose where it doesn't belong like a stupid kid, we both wouldn't be in this situation right now!"

My gaze lowered. The doctor took a big breath in, and turned, sitting down at her desk again.

"We're done here. Get out," she told me in a low voice.

I scoffed, and turned to leave.

"Good riddance," I said loudly, leaving the room. I went back to my room, and slammed the door, locking it behind me. Taking off my shoes, I plopped down in my bed, and turned on my side. I could feel my anger simmering. I closed my eyes.

...

What happened? Why did I do that? Why did I say those things, or better yet, get annoyed in the first place?

Recapping on what had just happened, I realized that what I said, what I told her, was completely uncharacteristic of... well... me. I'm not saying it isn't my fault, just... why did I say that?

I started relaying possible causes in my mind. The biggest one that stood out was stress. Being in a coma for three months, and waking up in a totally new environment, completely separated from my past life... Sure, okay, there was stress. But not enough to warrant what I had said to doctor Windy.

Anger? No, not really, I'm not a very angry person. Then what else? My mind started to drift as I thought, many ideas and scenarios swirling around in my head. I could feel the pull of sleep, and I did not resist. Before I fell asleep, a vision of six lights danced in my head. Before I could correlate anything, I fell into a deep sleep.

Visions

I awoke in my bed the next morning, yet for getting more than a full night's sleep, I felt odd. Not necessarily tired, just... odd. I swung my legs onto the floor and...

Uh, what?

As soon as my feet touched the floor, my room changed before my very eyes. I was no longer in my room in Canterlot, but in my old room, back in Dismith. I gazed around, in utter confusion. I tried to logically think this out... but I couldn't. Not as in "I don't have a solution," as in I literally could not form a comprehensible thought in my head. I could not recall any memories, just my name, and where I was.

I stood up, and looked around. Nothing seemed immediately alarming, so I moved forward, and opened my door. I stepped into the hallway. Everything seemed normal, from the looks of things. I moved to my left, and went down the stairs. Gazing around the kitchen, nothing seemed immediately out of place. I peeked my head in to... Harvest, Harvest Candy. That's her name. Anyway, I peeked my head into her room, to find nothing out of place. Turning, the living room seemed normal too. I went over to the door, and grasped the handle.

Upon opening it, I was greeted with a gruesome sight. Everything in front of me, all the shops and trees, even the far ground, were on fire. A building on my left collapsed, burning down to the ground. I quickly slammed the door, and started hyperventilating.

"If I was ever going to leave, now would be the time!" I shouted to myself. I turned, and flung open the door. I saw a path that wasn't immediately covered in fire, and ran towards it.

I only managed to take four steps before I was knocked to the ground. I opened my eyes and was face to face with Austin.

"WHY!? WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS!?" he said, but not normally. It almost sounded as if he was gurgling as he spoke. I looked at his throat, only to see that it was burned, and badly torn. Bits of flesh and bone were hanging off of his neck, and in one part, I could see straight through him. I met his gaze, terrified beyond belief.

"THIS WAS YOU!" he struggled to yell. Every word spat more and more blood in my eyes. His face was badly burned, and his right eye...

Oh my god...

Austin's right eye was gone, half of it dangling from the socket. Blood dripped from him onto my face as he gripped my shoulders ever harder. I could feel his hands starting to dig into my skin. He raised his hand to hit me. He was missing his ring and middle finger, his flesh burned and mangled.

"Ge- get off of me!" I screamed back, pushing back with all my might. He fell off of me, and I shot up, sprinting as fast as I could. I rounded a corner, and came face to face with Austin again. Confused, I turned and ran to my right. I looked behind me as I ran. He wasn't there.

Great...

As soon as I looked back to where I was going, Austin tackled me, and we both went down. His fist connected with my jaw, once, twice, three times, four. I threw my hands up, and blocked the next one. I threw him off of me, and shot up. Before I could get away, a piece of exposed bone on one of his fingers caught my leg. It must have been sharp, because it left a large gash in my left leg. The pain made me scream, and I fell to the ground. Austin was on top of me before I could even blink. He started relentlessly beating me, hitting me all over. The hits to the head dazed me, and the hits to the stomach took the wind out of me.

Completely out of options, I threw my hands in front of him in a last ditch effort to stop him. I felt the flesh on my arms get torn away as Austin ripped through them. I screamed in absolute agony and defeat as Austin did not stop. His last swing... no, not a swing, more like a grab. It caught my neck, and I felt a great pain there, along with a bit of pressure on my mouth. My breathing suddenly stopped. I couldn't breathe.

My head fell back, and my vision blurred. The pain subsided. I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe. But I could see. I could see Austin, standing over me. He was holding something. Something long, and loose. A piece of...

It was my trachea. He was holding my fucking trachea, with a piece of my lung still attached to it. Small bits of bronchial tubes were dangling from them. My chest fell, and my vision blurred even further from the lack of oxygen.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen, and my eyes shot open. I looked down, only to find a knife embedded deep in my stomach, with Austin behind the handle. He twisted it around, causing me to let out a vicious, broken scream. My head fell back, and my vision faded. The pain went away, and then... all was dark.

8:34 AM

My eyes shot open, my breathing out of control. My eyes darted around, and I found myself staring at a white ceiling. My hand went to my neck, and I was happy to find it intact. I looked at my arms. They were, happily, not torn to shreds. I put my hands down.

It was just a dream, come on, get over with it...

I sat up, and moved my legs over. A small twinge of fear shot through me, and I slowly lowered them. Upon touching the floor, I looked, but happened.

Oh, come on, get real...

I stood up, and went to my bathroom. I stripped off my clothes, and stepped into the shower. I saw shampoo and soap as I turned the water on. I quickly cleaned up, and stepped out. I realized that I didn't have any clean clothes, so I reluctantly got back into my old clothes. I exited my room, and made my way down the hall. It was then that I realized that I had no idea where anything was in the castle. I had passed a maid a few seconds before, so I turned around to chase her down.

"Excuse me, miss?" I asked when I caught up to her. I saw that she was levitating a tray with tea and cups on it.

"Yes, what is it," she asked me.

"Can you tell me where I can find princess Celestia?"

"Well the most likely place she would be would be the throne room, and I just happen to be going there to give the princess her tea. I can show you where it is," she told me.

"Perfect," I said with a smile. She walked away, me following her. The route to the throne room was relatively simple, as most of the castle was symmetrical. Upon arriving, I was met with a set of huge, ceiling tall wooden double doors. They glowed grey with the mares magic, and slowly swung open. We stepped in, and I saw the throne room. I was a large, long, rectangular room, and at the end, as the name suggested, was a throne on a wide pedestal. There was a large desk on the right side, and behind it sat Celestia, signing papers. The maid went up to her to deliver her tea.

"Ah yes, tea. Good, I could use a little distraction from these dreaded papers," she said. She looked past the maid, and saw me was I was walking up.

"Or maybe a rather larger distraction," I heard her say, with a warm smile. I couldn't hear any sarcasm in her voice. "Hello Daniel, how are you this morning?" she asked me.

"Good, thank you. Hey, who do I have to talk to about getting some more clothes for me?" I asked.

"Ah, yes. I have already instructed one of our seamstresses to make a few pairs of clothes for you. You should find them to be-"

Celestia was cut off by the doors to the room slamming as they opened. Luna charged in, and looked around. We both looked to her. She locked eyes with me. Not my general direction. Me. She charged, and I stepped back. I saw a blast of magic come from her horn.

And it was headed straight at me.

...shit...

Mind Diving

I gazed upon the town of Dismith, standing in the center of town.

It is exactly as I feared...

Though I was in a dream, it was still a hard sight to look at.

Almost the entirety of the town was consumed in flames, and the parts that weren’t burning had already been burned to the ground. Many of the few building that were previously standing lay in ashes. I was willing to bet that not a soul survived this catastrophe. I gazed around, looking for the one who caused this. I set my eyes on the Dismith orphanage. My eyes narrowed, and I stepped froward. I saw the door open, and for a brief moment, Daniel stood in the doorway. I quickly cast an invisibility spell before he could see me. Certain that he did not see me, I stopped. The door shut, Daniel behind it. I stared for a moment, before the door opened again. Before Daniel could escape, I saw a new figure out of the corner of my eye.

Austin appeared from seemingly nowhere, tackling Daniel to the ground. They exchanged a few quick outbursts, before Daniel pushed Austin off of him. Daniel sprinted off, and Austin... vanished. Without a trace.

Interesting...

I trotted around the corner that I last saw Daniel run around. Austin was again on top of Daniel, mercilessly beating him. Daniel managed to push him off, before they were at it again. The amount of wounds Austin was inflicting was, in a word, incredible. Daniel threw up his arms, before Austin tore through them, ripping his arms to shreds. Austin stood up while swinging at Daniel, and in one quick motion, tore a piece of his throat out. It was quite a gruesome scene.

Looking around, I had a thought. I spread my wings, and took to the sky. I quickly gained altitude, and gazed around. What I saw... horrified me.

The land, all beyond Dismith, the surrounding forests, the mountain ranges, everything, was on fire. I looked past the forest, north, to Canterlot. From what I could see, pieces of the castle were not where they supposed to be. Peaks and rises on the castle were totally blown off, and I could see fires rising in the city. I flew up higher, to get a lay of the whole land.

For as far as I could see, the land was scarred. Burned and torched, forests and towns were levelled. Even though I was fully aware that I was only in a nightmare, the sight was harrowing, at the least. I slowly descended, landing on the outskirts of Dismith. Before I could explore any further, I felt a slight dizziness. Before I knew it, I had collapsed on the ground, pulled back to the land of the conscious.

8:47 AM

My eyes shot open, my thoughts immediately turning to what I had seen in my dream walking session. I narrowed my eyes, and jumped out of my bed. I practically ran to Daniel’s room, my anger quietly simmering. Upon arriving, I forced the door open with my magic. Looking around, I saw that he was no where to be found. The bathroom door was open, and I heard no noise, so he was not here. I turned, and thought.

...Celestia...

I ran towards the throne room, getting many salutes and bows from guards and servants alike. I threw the doors open upon arriving. Immediately seeing Daniel conversing with my sister, I ran towards him. Quickly channelling my magic, I sent a quick, small bolt at him, enough to do significant damage. Enough to eliminate the problem.

Before I could see the results, I lost all control over my body.

And so did Daniel.

Before I could feel the impact of the lunar princesses magic, I felt all movement functions in my body stop, save for my breathing. A mild, golden yellow film coated my vision, only furthering my confusion. I looked to Luna, only to see her frozen in the same yellow aura.

“Luna! What is the meaning of this!?” I heard Celestia yell behind me. She stood up from her papers, and moved in between us.

“Tia, let go of me right now! I am merely taking care of the thorn in our heels,” she told her, and I realized I could speak.

“The fuck does that mean?! Killing me solves...” I trailed off.

“Killing you solves everything! We can have our elements back! We can have our protection back!” she yelled back to me.

“Enough!” Celestia yelled back. Her magical hold on my subsided, and I felt myself able to move again.

“Tia, let go of me. Now.” she firmly told her sister.

“Don’t do it. It’s a trap. She’ll kill me. Don’t do it,” I told Celestia, ducking behind the desk for cover. In retrospect, it probably wouldn’t have done much, but it’s the thought that counts.

“Luna, we talked about this, come now,” Celestia coaxed her sister.

“How do you plan on getting your elements back anyway? They’re gone, I possess them, and so does Austin,” I told her.

“We don’t need the physical elements, you halfwit! All we need is the magic, which we can extract from you. We get rid of you, and get our elements back. Sounds like a win-win to me,” Luna said, slowly twisting free from Celestia’s magic with her own.

“For you, but for me? Not so much,” I yelled back, ducking further behind the desk.

“Luna, I am going to release you, and you are going to calm down. We’ll examine Daniel and Austin, and see if there is any way to extract the elements, without killing them,” she firmly told Luna. Luna’s eyes narrowed, before complacency set in.

“Fine,” she seethed through her teeth. The aura around Luna slowly faded, and she regained her composure. I slowly stood up, and stood cautiously behind the desk. Celestia walked past Luna, towards the door.

“You two, come with me,” she said to us. I stepped out from behind the desk, and slowly walked past Luna, who was glaring at me the whole time. We followed Celestia into the room that doctor Windy and I had our fight in. Celestia closed the doors, and walked over to the bed. Luna took a seat in one of the chairs, and resumed glaring at me. I looked back at Celestia, who had her eyes closed. She seemed to be contemplating something, or concentrating on something. She opened her eyes, and sighed.

“Alright Daniel. Please lie down on the bed,” she instructed me. I looked back to Luna, who narrowed her gaze at me. I walked up, and lay down on the bed. Celestia took a large breath, and focused.

“Mind diving is not a spell that I am one hundred percent... acquainted with,” she told me. If smiling made a sound, I would be deaf from Luna’s.

“Wait, wait wait wait wait. Mind diving. What does that mean. I mean, besides the obvious,” I asked cautiously. Before anything drastic happened, I wanted to know what I was getting into. Entering someone’s mind via magic did not sound like the safest thing in the world.

“Simple. With my magic, I surround your brain, and then, carefully, push my magic further into your conscious. Upon entering your mind, based on the layout, I find your magical potential. That is where I would have the best chance of finding the magic of the elements. Based on what I know, the elements are likely attached to your magic potential, pushing you towards using spells. If I can find it, I can take it back with me, and give it from you, to me,” she explained.

“Okay, so, question time. What do you mean by layout, and what the hell is ‘magic potential,’” I asked, gesturing air quotations with my hands.

“Everyone’s mind is different. Some people’s minds are easier to traverse than others. Your mind might be simple, or wildly complex. And as for magic potential, well, that is less simple. You are aware that all ponies, and even other species’, are connected to the flow of magic in Equestria, correct?”

This, I knew. All life forms held at least some kind of magic. Earth ponies were better at growing crops, and physical labor than unicorns or pegasi, because their magic went into their labors. Unicorns were more connected to magic than any other individuals, because they had a focal point, namely, their horn. Pegasi magic made them lighter, and faster, bred for flying, and physical labor, almost to the extent of an earth pony.

“Yes, I am,” I simply answered.

“Well, what you know is only a fraction of the facts. In fact, almost all individuals are able to conjure and use magic, just as a unicorn can. There are very few exceptions. Humans, coincidentally, are not an exception. You are aware of this, yes?”

“Yes,”

“Good. But, as you might have guessed, humans, and non-unicorn individuals, need a sort of ‘push’ to get their magic to spike. Their magical potential is low. But, upon receiving that push, if it is a large one, using spells becomes almost second nature, like walking. Their magical potential become high. Once again, coincidentally, there are few things that can give you that ’push’. The elements, as it would appear, qualify as one,” she explained to me.

The idea seemed relatively simple enough. Upon hearing this, however, I started to question if I wanted the elements removed.

I could use magic...?

“Now that you are informed, please, lie down,” she instructed me. Deciding it was for the best, I lay back, and relaxed.

“Now, try to relax. It may take a while, but I feel like I have enough prowess to make this a possibility,” she told me.

“And if you don’t?” I asked, as Celestia starting channeling her magic. I felt a slight pressure in my head.

“Then you will go out in quite a spectacular way,” she said calmly, smiling.

Great...

Luna just smiled.

Complications

Everything around me was dark. I could not feel anything, and my sense of hearing was gone too. It was quite a weird sensation, not being able to feel anything at all. I was willing to bet no one else in Equestria had experienced it before.

Soon enough, my senses had returned to me. I winced at the bright light flooding my vision, before a droning humming sound filled my ears. It took me a moment, but I was able to get in control of my senses. I slowly opened my eyes, pushing away the pain that came with the action. I felt the ground under my feet slowly return, and the sound and feeling of a gentle breeze became clear to me.

When the light in my eyes had faded away, I was met with a rather pleasant sight.

I was standing in what appeared to be a meadow, and a rather large one at that. I assumed that I was no where in Equestria, as I did not recognize any of the land around me, and the Hallow was no where in sight. As I gazed around, I noticed the meadow was completely covered in flowers.

Just...

An unending field of colorful flowers, almost as far as the eye could see. I seemed to notice... some sort of pattern to them as well. The most colorful of the flowers were close to me. All of the reds, the blues, the yellow and bright greens, were all near me. As I looked further and further away from me, I noticed a dimming in the colors of the flowers. The blues gradually lost their vibrant hues, the same going for the other colors. I spread my wings, and took to the sky. I flew forward for a few minutes, before gazing down. The flowers were now shallow colors, dark blues had faded into greys. Soon enough, the colors had turned black. I felt... some sort of feeling towards the black flowers. I could feel them, each and every individual one. I felt... almost connected. Almost like... well, I can’t really put a feeling on it. Just, connected.

Somehow...

After a few more minutes of flying, I came across an apparition on the ground. I landed, and observed it. There was a mist-like object, shaped like a circle, about seven feet tall, and three feet wide, kind of like a round door. There was a sparkling to the mist, sort of like what you see when you cast magic. I approached the entity, and circled it. Knowing I could not be harmed, I slowly placed one of my hooves in it. The air on my hoof immediately felt cooler, and I realized that my hoof was in a portal. I slowly pressed my body into the portal, awaiting what was on the other side.

Upon entering, I was greeted with a rather depressing sight. There were more portals. In a row, all sorted into columns. I flew upwards, and gazed out.

My god...

Rows upon rows upon rows. For as far as the eye could see, there were more portals. Just... there had to be at least a few hundred thousands to the horizon line... in each direction. How many where there in total? Millions? Billions? Did they even end? That’s when I saw it. Out of the corner of my eye, I turned to my right. There was a temple-like structure off in the distance, any normal pony would have missed it. I flew as fast as I could, closing the distance between me and the temple rather quickly. The structure itself was a long and rectangular in shape, and only held one story at best. It was unmarked, and was quite simple in design. I landed at the bottom of it, and quickly found the entrance. I figured that if I were to find Daniel’s magical potential, here was likely the best place to start looking.

Upon entering, my suspicions were confirmed. One floor, with one long hallway. Immediately, on my left and right, were more portals. All the way down the hall, were gateways to the unknown. These, however, were different.

They were all different, actually.

Some of them were different colors, some were swirling instead of sparkling like all of the others outside. Some were different shapes, like squares, or triangles. My best guess is that all of the others outside were somehow intertwined, and had few variations. Yet these... these were special.

As I walked down the hall, gazing at each and every portal, I felt mesmerized. In each of these portals was another aspect of Daniel’s life, as I was still in his mind. Realistically, everything was quite orderly, as the last pony’s mind I had entered was completely strewn about, compared to this. They were also a mental institution patient, but I digress.

Ahead, I noticed something, something different, from everything. As I trotted forward, I started thinking. I was in Daniel’s mind. This is what Luna wanted. To be done with Daniel, and to have the elements back.

...I could do it. Right here, right now, and it would be over. He wouldn’t even feel a thing...

I stopped in my tracks, and looked to my right. The portal I was facing was completely foreign to me. I had no idea what was behind it. It was circular, like most others, yet this one was a red hue, with small cracks running through it. I tilted my head, and thought. I slowly pushed one hoof into the portal, then half of my body.

I dropped.

My vision went black, my hearing faded, and my sense of feeling...

The only thing I could feel was the most agonizing pain that I have ever felt in my entire life. Yet, that simply does not tell you how much pain there really was.

I started rolling around.

There are literally no words to describe what was happening. I could not from a coherent thought. Couple that with how I could not sense anything else added up to a terrifying experience.

I let out a scream at the top of my lungs, my vocal cords straining in protest. Or, so I thought I did. I could not hear or feel anything, but the action and notion came naturally. Where I lay, I writhed in agony, thrashing about wildly. I started thinking a little more clearly, and only one thought came to my mind.

Escape.

Once I had thought this, I could feel a few of my sense returning. My vision, albeit blurry, was returning, enough for me to make out my immediate surroundings. My hearing...

I could hear nothing but whispering. Nothing but... demonic, crippled whispering in my ears. Whispers of death, of pain and despair.

There was no one there.

The whispers were telling me things.

“I will kill you,”

“You will know pain,”

“No one survives,”

“You are purely worthless,”

One voice... one out of all of them, however, I heard more than the others. Because it was Luna’s voice.

“You are truly weak sister, no one could ever love you,”

The words, even though that’s what they were, still hurt.

“No wonder mother and father treasured me more than you, they never loved you. Look at you, how could anyone love something so worthless?” she taunted.

The pain was still crippling, and I could not raise a response. The demonic voices were still whispering death in my ears.

“You were never loved my our parents, just as you were never loved by me!” my sisters voice yelled to me. The pain was unbearable.

Agonizingly slowly, I pushed myself upwards. Upon gazing forward, I was face to face with Luna.

“You are a waste of skin, you no good, pathetic, worthless bitch!” she screamed at me. My ears were ringing, her insults barely getting through to me. I turned around, ridiculously slowly, and could barely make out the apparition of the portal.

“Yes, return to the real world, and drown out how wrong you really are! You will come to terms as to how stupid you actually are!” she continued to scream. Through breaths, agonizing breaths, I exited the portal.

Collapsing to the ground, I let out a scream. The pain had subsided, mostly. I lay on the ground, panting, my breath gone. I could not figure out which pain was worse, the physical one, or the emotional.

I had gathered my breath, and had promptly started hyperventilating.

“No, no, it was just a dream. Just a mirage, it was- was... it was... just a dream.” I panted. My breathing increased, and so did my babbling.

“She didn’t say that, she loves you, they love you, Equestria needs you, please, please, please, please, please,” I tried to calm myself down in between breaths. I closed my eyes, and stopped thinking, attempting to clear my mind. Eventually, my breathing slowed, and I calmed down. I stood up, and opened my eyes, starting to walk forward. The end of the hall was in sight, and I tried to put the past events behind me.

Luna loves you, they love you...

I shuddered at the thought, and took a deep breath. I reached the end of the hall, and gazed around. Like the last pony who’s mind I entered, their main essence, or “soul,” if you will, was placed somewhere of notice, highlighted to others. I do not know why, this is just the way it was.

This isn’t what I wanted, this is his soul, not his magic...

I gazed at what made Daniel, Daniel. This was his life force, his essence, his personality, his...

I did a double take at what I was looking at.

Daniel’s soul was swirling, with small sparkles in it, like the portals outside. However, only half of his soul was this pattern. The other half... was swirling different colors.

Blue...

Purple...

Pink...

Orange...

White...

Yellow...

The elements... were in his... soul?

...son of a bitch...

Lens in the Sun

But I don’t want to go out in a spectacular way...

As soon as Celestia told me this, the pressure in my head increased, and soon, I lost consciousness, but I was still able to think freely. I have no idea how long I was out for, and I have no memory of what happened. It was just black, and I was left alone with my thoughts.

At this point, I was starting to regret the idea of Celestia taking the elements back, as the proposition of being able to use magic was starting to sound really, really fun. But realistically, I had no say in the matter. The elements were not mine. Actually, thinking about it, were they even the princesses? I mean, they were the first to use them yes, but were they-

I was ripped from my thoughts as a great pain erupted in my head. I still could not see or feel anything, besides the pain. I started to panic. I was trapped my own body, and there was nothing I could do to even determine the cause of the pain, let alone stop it. The pain stopped for a moment.

WHAM!

If I could scream, I would have. A ridiculously sharp pain shot through my mind, then stopped.

WHAM!

Again. And again, there was nothing I could do.

WHAM!

...please stop...

WHAM!

...

WHAM!

At this point, I could feel my thoughts fading, as if I was falling unconscious while being unconscious. It was a strange feeling, and I could-

WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM!

My thoughts faded completely, and then, all was dark. Again.

My eyes slowly opened as I regained consciousness, shutting to stop the light form blinding me. Before I could register any other feeling, a wave of immense pain washed over me. My head, predominantly. I winced, and tried to block out anything I could. The sun, the pain, the feeling of having no idea as to where I was, coupled with the potential fact that the elements were gone, it was all too much for me. The pain was incredible, like nothing I have ever felt before. Before anything else could happen, I felt the pull of unconsciousness, and soon, everything was quiet again.

Later, though I have no idea how much later, I awoke to the sound of a voice.

“What now?”

“Now, we wait,”

“We can’t just wait! He’s unconsciousness, we could just take them, and call it an accident!”

No, two voices. There were two voices, and they were talking about me.

“Don’t you get it? We can’t take them back, they’re-”

I groaned loudly, catching the attention of the two individuals in the room.

“We will discuss this with the both of them, am I clear?”

I slowly opened my eyes, noting the ceiling. Pushing myself up, I appeared to be back in the same room as I was placed in when I was in a coma. I gazed across the room, to see Austin not in his bed. I looked to my right, to see the two princesses standing by my bed.

“...where’s Austin?” I said through my teeth, as I finished sitting up in my bed.

“He awoke up while I was exploring your mind. He must have had a small panic attack, but we managed to get him under control. He is with Doctor Windy right now, hopefully taking the physical that you were supposed to take,” Celestia told me, with a hint of annoyance.

“Is he okay?” I asked her.

“He seemed just as stable as you when he awoke, but the stress of not knowing where he is might have overwhelmed him. Hopefully Doctor Windy won’t have a hard time with him. In retrospect, we should have explained things a bit more clearly, but it is of no matter now,” she told me.

I looked to Luna, who had a somber look on her face. Back to Celestia, her face matched that of her sisters. I speculated that something was wrong.

“...what’s wrong?” I asked them. Celestia looked to me. Her gaze darkened.

“We were not able to extract the elements from you. Quite the contrary, actually,” she told me.

Internally, the implications of this were quite happy for me. The prospect of being able to conjure and use magic came back to me, and the idea stuck with me. My gaze went back to Luna, who had turned her look of solemness in that of... anger? Anger, again.

What’s new?

“...why not?” I asked, barely above a whisper. The room was deathly quiet. People talk about being able to hear a pin drop when it’s quiet, but I swear I could hear my heart beating inside of me. Celestia lowered her head in thought.

“The elements have done something that I have never in my lifetime seen before. When mind diving, I have the ability to identify different parts of your being, because that’s how the spell was written: with simplicity in mind. I can identify your emotions, different points in your life, and even... your soul.” Celestia told me. My gaze hardened, and I opened my ears a little bit wider. A question quickly wiggled its way to the forefront of my mind.

“That seems a little... I don’t know... too simple? How does that work? What does looking at a person’s soul even tell you? What’s the point?” I asked her. Celestia closed her eyes for a moment to gather thoughts.

“When you look at someone’s soul, in their mind at least, you can see a general idea as to what that person is like. Turmoil, pain, happiness, ecstasy, it all correlates with their soul. And I can see that in the... window, if you will. I can look in, and see how they feel. When I looked inside of your window, however...” she trailed off. I turned to look at Luna with and inquisitive gaze, to which she matched my look.

Celestia looked back up to me with a hard gaze. I felt the blood in my veins turn to ice at the glare. The gaze was rock, and I listened intently.

“When I looked into your soul, I saw a multi-coloured swirling orb of human essence, and that’s what tipped me off. The elements of harmony, however you agitated them, have merged with your soul. I have never in my life seen anything like it, but when I saw your soul, I knew what I was looking at. The colors were a dead giveaway. Somehow, someway, the elements found a home in you, and merged their magic, their very essence, with your soul, your being,” she explained to me.

I sat back, and pondered the thought that she had just put into my mind.

...how... does... how does that even work? My soul?

“At this point in time, we don’t know how we would even begin to extract them, or if we even could. Tampering with an individuals soul had been known to have very negative effects, ranging from a simple change of character, to very violent, aggressive deaths. And trust me, nobody wants that. Not me, not you, for sure, and certainly not the custodians,” she said with a small amount of a smile.

For one, she was right. A violent and aggressive death was not on my list of things that I wanted to accomplish in the immediate future.

Or ever, actually...

Also, there was the whole ordeal of the elements. What in the actual fuck does that mean? My soul? I thought was just an idea to get people to go to church, not an actual thing. And I made my question well known. I raised my had slightly.

“I have a few questions. Uh... how in the actual fuck does that work?” I practically yelled. Celestia raised her eyebrow at my crass outburst, and turned to look at Luna. They exchanged a glance, before carrying on.

“Like I said, at the moment, we are not sure as to how this happened. And if I had to place a bet, I would be willing to wager that the elements are not coming out of your soul anytime soon. We will look into it, old spells and tomes, but for now, the elements will remain with you. Presently, we can also assume that Austin took a bit of the magic with him, based on the fact that he was in the cave with you, and the aura of magic that he gives off. It is there, but not quite as pronounced as your aura. Your aura is significantly larger than your friends, but his is there,” she told me.

The idea of using magic danced back and forth in my head, and I posed my question.

“If the elements are inside me, what about magic? You said it earlier, that I might be able to cast spells. What about that? Can I use magic?” I asked, speaking rather quickly, expressing my excitement. Celestia looked down for a few seconds.

“At the moment, again, we don’t know, but in the future? When the elements magic has had the opportunity to set in? Possibly. Just possibly though, I would not get my hopes up at the moment,”

This excited me. It really, really did. As a human, and especially in Dismith, pony and human interaction was commonplace. But seeing unicorns be able to lift things with their magic, watching pegasi fly through the sky, and seeing earth ponies tend to their crops with ease, it made me feel a little bit... inadequate? Hm... handicapped was more of and appropriate word, I think. Regardless, I always felt a little bit cheated when it came to the spectrum of things ponies could do in this world. I mean, sure we had our hands, but compared to what could be done with magic? Looking back on it, I felt a little bit more than cheated, in retrospect.

I looked at Luna, and then back to Celestia.

“So... what happens now?” I asked, at a loss for words.

“Now, we monitor you. We watch you, closely. We monitor your vitals, your physical prowess, you mental coordination, your emotional stability. We watch your style choice, your speech habits, your dietary choices, everything. We put you under a lens, and leave you out in the sun. We make sure that what the elements did to you doesn’t make you a danger to the well being of my little ponies. And then, when we sure you aren’t? We rehabilitate you, and introduce you back into society. But for now? You are to remain under constant watch,” she finished conducting me. Luna smirked sadistically at me. I looked between the two.

“Great,” I said dryly.

Reunited

Before anything else could be said between the princesses and I, a small knock could be heard at the door.

“Come in!” Celestia said, while turning to face the door, matching whoever was on the other side of it. The door was pushed open, and Austin sauntered in, followed closely by doctor Windy. Austin was directed to sit down back on his bed and pay attention. He did as he was told, and we exchanged concerned glances. Celestia and Austin exchanged nods, and the conversation went back to what we had been previously discussing.

“Well, now that we’re all here, we can continue. Doctor Windy! I trust that your patient was a little bit more cooperative this time around?” she asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice. I felt a small pang of anger at this.

Doctor Windy directed her attention to Austin, opposite of me. “Yes princess. Everything went a lot smoother this time around, and we got through everything with that we needed to without any complications,” she told Celestia.

“And? Did you learn anything about the boy’s condition?” she asked in a slight monotone. By the way that Celestia was talking, I felt that she was quickly losing her patience with the lot of us.

“Immediately, there is no indication that any physical change has occurred. The boys physical prowess is on par in general with other boys in his age group,” she explained to the princess. Celestia closed her eyes, and looked down.

“Will you still need me to do the procedure with Daniel, your highness?” Windy asked Celestia.

“No doctor, that won’t be necessary. Just... not yet, anyway. If anything happens while we are monitoring the pair, then you’re up, but as for right now, we’ll keep a close eye on them and see if anything happens,” she repeated her point.

“You know we’re right here, right? We can hear what you’re saying,” Austin said to the room, hoping that everyone would hear him. Luna turned to him.

“Then hear this. Keep your mouth shut, you whiny brat,” she angrily said to him. This got a major laugh out of me, to which Austin was not happy about. He shot a confused gaze my way.

“I thought you were on my side!” he yelled at me, as I wiped a tear out of my eye.

“Oh, man. I don’t care what you say, that was funny,” I told him, as I chuckled at the thought of Luna’s anger again. If I wasn’t paying attention, I would have missed the small smirk that Luna had of her face. She sat back, content with the job she had done, as Austin sat back with a frustrated sigh. Celestia cleared her throat, directing the attention of the room back to her.

“If there is nothing anyone else has to say, then we will take our leave. Any questions?” Celestia asked the four of us. I raised my hand.

“Yes?”

“What kind of freedom do we have? Where can we go, if anywhere?” I asked her.

“At the moment, I would like you two to remain here. A guard will be along shortly to guide you back to your rooms. Austin, you will be given a room in which you will be staying while you are here. I trust that everything was fine in your room, Daniel?” she asked me.

Austin went to speak, but I shot him a hard gaze, which silenced him. I slightly shook my head at him, letting him know that this wasn’t the time to get into a fight. I looked back to Celestia, shaking my head. She nodded.

“Alright, let’s give these two some time to reunite. Like I said, a guard will be here in around 5 minutes to see you back to your room. From henceforth, we will keep a guard posted outside of your rooms. If you need to go somewhere, you ask him. If you need something, you ask him. You are not to leave your room without supervision until we deem you fit to do so, is that clear?” she asked us.

“Hold on. So we’re just your prisoners? Are we just supposed to rot in our rooms while you figure out what happened to your precious stones? And what happens when you do? What then? Are you just going to cast us back to our home? What then?!” Austin was up and yelling at this point. Celestia met him with a hard look, before turning around, and walking out of the room. Luna followed in suit, and the doctor gave us a small smile before herself leaving, shutting the door behind her.

Austin practically flinched at that, throwing his arms up in a defeated response. He probably wasn’t expecting such a disinterested response. He turned to look at me. Before long, he sat down on his bed, and we looked at each other for a few seconds before the silence was broken.

“What’s the name of the blue one again?” Austin asked me.

“Princess Luna,”

“Yeah, her. She seems nice,”

“Oh yeah, she seemed like she was totally into you,”

“What, are you jealous?”

“I’m practically green over here,” I said with a bemused smile. The atmosphere of the room quickly turned stale, as the usual fountain of things that we had to talk about had run dry under the absolute pressure that was the situation that we were in.

“So... Canterlot, huh?” Austin asked, to which I nodded. We started at each other, both of us praying that the each other would say something. Austin beat me to it again.

“Daniel, what the fuck happened to us? I can’t remember anything past walking into that stupid cave,” he forcefully asked. If looks could kill, I would be dead. I looked down, gathering my thoughts, before looking back to my friend.

“According to what the princesses think happened...” I stopped, thinking. Austin motioned for me to keep going.

“...We were in the cave, like you said. We... found the elements of harmony, you remember what those are, right? Well, somehow, and this is where my memory stops too, we found a way to... activate... the elements, which is what knocked us out.” I stopped, thinking about the fact that we were in comas.

“Really? Holy shit, that’s...” he trailed off. He looked down at the floor, apparently in thought.

“Austin... do you know how long ago this happened?” I carefully asked him. He looked back to me, and shook his head.

“That was three months ago,” I solemnly told him. Austin back arched, and he practically winced in surprise, before blinking a few times.

“...days?” he asked me.

“No. Months. Three of them,”

“...that’s not possible,”

“That’s what I thought as well. But it’s true. I woke up sooner than you did. We were both in comas because if the way the elements... interacted with us, I guess,” I told him. He got off of his bed, and started pacing the room. He looked at me, and went to the window, looking out of it.

“It’s the end of August, Austin. It’ll be fall soon,” I told him as he gazed out of the window.

He slowly went back and sat down on the edge of his bed again, looking at the floor, not me.

“...what happened to us?” he seethed. I could practically feel his anger, most of it warranted from his confusion.

“Princess Celestia used a powerful spell that allowed her to... enter my mind, and see what had happened. According to her, the elements of harmony fused with my soul, to who I am, in her words. And we assume that that’s what happened to you too,” I told him. He clenched his fists.

“Look, I know you’re angry, and confused. So am I. But for now? This is how it works. We deal with this, and when it’s all over, we go home” I reinforced my thoughts to him. He closed his eyes.

“What home?” he said, barely above a whisper. Before I had a change to respond, there was a knock at the door, which promptly swung open. Two members of the royal guard stepped in, clad in armour. I briefly thought about how they were able to move around without making a complete racket, before dismissing my thoughts.

“My name is Lieutenant Bell. This is Private Glass. We’re here to escort you back to your rooms,” he told us in a commanding voice. We both stood up, and moved towards the door.

“My name is Daniel, and this is Austin, thanks,” I spoke for us. The lieutenant nodded, and he turned to leave. The private followed in suit, Austin and I doing the same. The walk back to our room was uneventful, though I did make sure to absolutely memorize the way, just in case.

Upon arriving at our destination, Austin was showed his room, which in the hallway, was directly across from mine. Lieutenant Bell turned to me.

“Me and private Glass are stationed outside of your room, until the princess lifts the order. If you need anything, just ask us. I’m sure the princess gave you this talk already,” he told us. I nodded, and watched as Austin shut he door to his room. I heard the sound of the door locking. I shook my head, and entered my room. With nothing to do, I plopped down on my bed, my mind racing with what our next move was.

At the moment? Not much.

Before long, I felt the tendrils of sleep pulling at me, before I fell into a deep sleep.

A Day Out

Two Months Later

Two months. That's how long the promised "trial period," as I liked to call it, lasted. For two entire months, we were scrutinized almost everyday. From simple things to what we ate, to what time we got up, to how we dressed, as promised. We were tested, over and over again. We weren't being... experimented on, but you would be forgiven for thinking the opposite. Things like blood and urine were tested once a week. Although this sounded bad, it was rather a comfortable lifestyle, as the castle was the most luxurious place in Equestria, in my mind at least. We weren't pampered during our stay, but we weren't tortured either. More like... mildly inconvenienced, though I'm sure Austin would put it in a much more strident way. The castle staff, and our handlers, were relatively mild tempered to us, and we never got into any quarrels with any of them, making our life, and their lives easier.

The tests subtly and slowly moved on to more personal things, like height and weight, or how many times we used the lavatory in a given day and week. And sure enough, slowly, we were given small increasing increments of trust. It started out small, like being able to wear what we wanted, and getting to pick what we ate, be it on the menu. Princess Celestia had also explained to us that Harvest Candy was informed as to what happened, and that we would return as soon as whatever ailed us was discovered and terminated. At this point, I was getting a little bit more than skeptical that we were going to be allowed back home, but at this point, it was on the bottom of my worry list.

The trust we were given, based on our cooperation, was increasing sure enough, and after two months of constant watch, we were given a most prestigious opportunity.

"The constant watch of your handler guard is being lifted," princess Celestia told us in a slightly ostentatious tone. I noticed a slight smile on her face.

"Wait, does that mean that we can go where we want now?" Austin in an excited tone.

Don't blow it kid...

"That statement was a bit lenient based on what I said, but to a degree, yes," she told us.

"And what does that mean?" Austin asked.

"While not strictly off limits, venturing into the city of Canterlot will still require a guard escort. Inside the castle, however, your freedom has been granted. You are free to venture about, provided that you do not cause any disturbances. I will not hesitate to revoke this allotment, so use it wisely and carefully," she explained to us. We were currently standing inside the throne room of the castle, having being summoned here by the princess to inform us of this information. Princess Luna was... asleep, I presume.

Maybe...

By this time, we had explored most of the castle, as we were allowed the freedom to move, provided our handler was present at all times. And at sometimes, I didn't envy their jobs. Lieutenant Bell was assigned to watch after Austin, as he was dictated to be more aggressive, and needed better care. The private, Glass, had only been in the royal guard for a few months, and had told me that I was the most exciting work that he had yet. Over the two months, Glass and I had developed a good friendship, and it was saddening to see him be assigned to another post. Hopefully I'll see him around. Bell on the other hand, disliked almost every moment that he had to watch over Austin. He and the lieutenant had developed a different kind of bond, based on hate and deception. All in all, it was fun to watch them bicker, though I wish Austin would take this whole "soul melding elements" thing a little more seriously sometimes. They never really hated each other, but I could see where Bell was coming from when he told me that sometimes he wanted to strangle the kid. Overall, you could say that they had developed a somewhat rocky friendship.

On that note, after all of the tests, watching, and prying, nothing had come back that would indicate a change in homeostasis. To the tests, we were simple, growing boys. The elements were seemingly lying... dormant, if you will.

It was now late into the month of October, Austin's birthday having come and gone on October 3rd. We weren't able to see each other on that day, so I had to wish him a happy belated birthday a day late. My birthday was on June 1st, a long time ago. We were in comas at that point.

"...can we go see the city now?" Austin asked the princess. She smiled in a prudent manner, before tapping her hoof twice on the floor of her throne. I heard the large set of double doors to the room open, and a pair of guards in full armor strode casually into the room. I smiled wildly at the two before me.

"Glass! Hey, how's it going?" I asked happily. Maybe this would be better than I had expected.

"Hello Daniel, we are here to escort you into the city, and to watch over you while-" he was cut off by the lieutenant smacking him in the side of the head, before he looked at me.

"They know why we're here. And we're still in charge here, got that you two?" he established a lead. Austin moved beside me.

"Lieutenant, good to see you! Did you put on a few pounds? That suit's looking kinda tight," he asked in an innocent tone.

"If we weren't in front of the princess right now I'd put your head through the wall, kid," he whispered to Austin. Austin smiled, and stuck out his right hand, to which Bell smiled, shaking his hand in return.

Pony to human handshakes were always so awkward...

"Well, now that we are all acquainted again..." Celestia trailed off. She pulled out two small bags with her magic, and tossed them to us, one for me, and one for Austin. The bag was tied with a leather string, closed tightly.

"For your cooperation. And a way of saying sorry for ripping your from your home, for now at least," she gave us a small smile. I felt the bag, before looking inside. What I saw astonished me. Gold bits. Real gold bits, worth ten bits each. I had never taken the time to convert my money back at home, and all I had were silver bits. Gold bits were worth ten bits, silver bits were worth five, and copper bits were worth one bit. Equestria was quite a prosperous nation, and printing large amounts of small gold and silver currency was never a concern.

I felt the bag. There had to be at least a hundred bits in here, and they were all gold.

One thousand bits...

This was more than I had ever had in my lifetime, the most I had ever saved up was around three hundred at home. In copper and silver, yes... but never gold. Gold bits were rare in Dismith. I fondled the bits in my hand, stunned at the opportunity before me. Austin however, was a little bit more vocal in his response.

"Holy. Shit! Daniel, this is... this... there's got to be at least a thousand bits here!" he shouted. I barely turned my head to him, laughing at his response.

"I know that this does not compare to what you have had to go through here, and for that, I do sincerely apologize. But for now, you will have to make due, and hopefully we can resolve this issue fully in the future," Celestia told us. I gazed at the princess, expecting to see some look of smugness. However, all I saw was a concerned look, one that told us that everything she had said was real.

Maybe this is the start of something better...

"Now go, before I change my mind," Celestia said in a sarcastic tone. The two guards saluted the princess, before turning to lead us away. Austin gave her a mock salute, before we turned and left the room, following our friends. We were lead to the front gate of the castle, and we watched in excitement as the bridge was let down. The sun blinded us, and we covered our eyes.

It wasn't long before we were in Canterlot proper, escaping the residential area that was closest to the castle, and into the marketplace, where all of the shops and stalls operated. We had money in our pockets, and we were going to spend it. Well, some of it at least. Austin didn't know what he wanted to buy; window shopping was more his preference. I know what I wanted to buy. Something to cheer up my room. I had been living there for a while now and the drab, dreary colours on the walls needed something to take the attention off of them. Maybe... a distraction? Books were my first thought, as there was room in my cabinet to store at least a few books.

Over the course of the two months, we had been provided multiple sets of clothes. Nothing too fancy, shirts, pants, and an extra pair of shoes. They were all plain, unmarked, simple clothing. This left me with no desire for clothing.

"What are you going to buy Daniel?" Austin asked me, walking on my left. Glass and Bell were walking shortly behind us, engaged in their own conversation. They seemed to have placed a good amount of trust in us, given the fact they weren't even paying attention to us. And there was the fact that we could in no way outrun a palace guard, but, I digress.

"I was thinking of getting some books, something to keep my mind occupied," I told him. I could almost hear his response before he uttered it.

"Are you serious? You've been given a thousand bits, and you're in the greatest city in Equestria, the city with the highest tastes, mind you. And you want to buy books?" he questioned me, eliciting a laugh from me.

"Listen, just because you don't like to sit down and read, doesn't mean that other people don't," I told him, shuffling past a lady who was standing still. I quickly caught up to my friend. Before we could continue, a window depicting a book caught my attention. I quickly moved over to the store.

"You know the castle has a library, right?" he called out to me.

"I prefer to own my books," I called back, and stepped into the book store, closing the door behind me. A bell signified a customer. The store was humble, only having two aisles, and a back wall lined with books. The aisles were lined floor to ceiling with shelves, chock full of various types of books. I browsed for a few minutes, seeing a book I had read previously every once in a while. There was even a section for textbooks. I took a look, hoping to see one that I had previously used in school. That's when something caught my eye.

I called out for the shop keeper, and in a few minutes, a small, elderly yellow mare was standing next to me.

"Hi. Could you please tell me how much this book is?" I asked with a small smirk on my face.

"Oh sure, let me take it up to the counter, please dear," she told me in a friendly voice. She took the book, and I followed her to the front counter, pulling out my bag of bits.

"Ah, yes, here it is. Magic and Conjuration, Beginners Edition," she read from her extremely long list of books on a clipboard.

"This one is twenty bits dear. Would you like to buy it?" she asked me with a small smile.

I returned the smile.

"Yep," I said, pulling out two small, gold coins.

Author's Note

If any of you feel inclined to do so, you can check out my first and most recent blog post about Roomstyler. Roomstyler is a website that I found that enables you to make realistic 3D models of any room you could possibly imagine. I have included a link to my page on the post, and if you go and check it out, I have created both the bedroom that Daniel is staying in right now, and his old bedroom back in Dismith. Feel free to use these as visual aids when it comes to this story. I can envision what I wanted the rooms to look like in my mind, and with Roomstyler, I can show everyone else what I had in mind! Thank you!

First Steps

The rest of the day was spent exploring the grand city of Canterlot, and all of the things that it had to offer. I had come out of the book store after browsing a few more of the aisles and picking a few more books that piqued my interest. Nothing of immediate importance or interest, just a few novels to keep my attention while I had my stay in the castle. Some poetry, a little bit of mystery and romance, just general things like this to keep myself occupied.

Austin, however, had found something of better interest to his desires.

"Why? Just... just why?" I asked him, gazing at the window that he was glued to.

"Why not though? You can't ask me why if I can just ask you why not!" he said, turning to face me.

"Um, yeah, I can. Why?" I asked again. Austin turned back, and pressed his hands against the glass in the shop window.

The four of us had been walking down a street in the mercantile part of Canterlot, and Austin's attention had been drawn by a general weapons and tools shop. Posted in the window, being suspended by strings from the ceiling, sat a beautifully crafted wooden hunting bow. The price tag on it read three hundred bits, and Austin definitely had his eyes on it. The bow was configured like a normal hunting bow, and was a dark black in colour. At the moment, I saw no reason to delve into the realm of archery, but if he really wanted to, I saw no reason to stop him.

"Because I want it! I've always wanted my own bow after that instructor came to our school to show us! It was so cool!" he exclaimed, turning back to me. I shrugged.

"I mean, if you're okay with dropping that much money in one place, then be my guest, I guess," I told him, as I idly swung the bag that held my books around my legs. We both needed something to preoccupy us. I had chosen books, and Austin had chosen...

He was already through the door to the store.

...archery...

Now don't get me wrong, anyone and everyone is absolutely capable of learning a new skill. In fact, that's how one should keep their brain sharp, by trying new things. The thing is, Austin had never shot a bow before, nor did he have any prior experience, save for the instructor that came to our school a few years back. He hadn't been strong enough at the time to draw the mighty string back. It was quite humorous, come to think of it. At the same time, so would this, but I digress. I turned my gaze to our friends. Bell looked confused.

"Do you know any guards that know how to use a bow well?" I asked him, for Austin's sake. Bell nodded to me.

"A few ponies, yes. But there are few humans who know how to," he told me.

That brings up anther point. Humans in the guard. Yes, of course, there were human royal guards. Probably about a fourth of the guard were humans. This is because they were suited to more... intellectual tasks, based on their physiology and number. Ponies, especially larger ones, were more suited to physical roles based on the fact that they were built stronger. Physically, ponies are a lot stronger in a lot more ways than humans are. Their skeletons are built low, and a lot sturdier than humans. This made them a better candidate to guard work than humans were, which was reflected in the ratio of pony guards to human guards. If you were to look in the field of science and medicine, you would find a lot of unicorns, yes, but the amount of humans goes up as well. Humans are better suited to more precise tasks, as their hands prove a huge advantage. All of this correlates back to Austin and his bow.

"There had to be some, surely!" I thought aloud to Bell.

"Hmm. Maybe, but to my knowledge, no. At the same time, it isn't hard to learn how to use a bow, it just takes effort, and time. With how young you two are, he should have all the time in the world to use that thing," he told me. This was true, the basics of a bow were quite simple. It would take him a long to master the weapon, however.

By this time, Austin had just exited the shop, the newly bought bow clutched tightly in his grasp. A leather belt quiver full of arrows hung from his hip, likely holding at least thirty arrows. He had a silly smile plastered on his face as he walked over to us.

"How much did you drop on all that?" I asked him.

"Four hundred bits total, which was actually a little bit under what he was going to charge me," he told me.

"Hey, how'd they even let someone so young buy a bow?" I asked him.

"That's what I was getting at. When he asked me how old I was, I just told him that I was with them" he told me, pointing to the guards that were accompanying us. Glass gave me a small grin.

"When he saw who I was with, he just knocked the total down to four hundred even," he said, putting his bits back on his belt. I had noticed that various people who were walking by us had been giving us rather peculiar looks, most of them directed at Austin.

"If there's nothing else that you want to do, we should start heading back," Glass said to us. I nodded at him, as Austin slung his bow across his chest, the string facing forward on his chest. Compared to him, the bow was quite big, as Austin wasn't the tallest person in the world. He would have to work hard to build up muscle to effectively use the bow.

Well, he has his work cut out for him...

We started our way back to the castle, attracting less gazes now that Austin wasn't holding the bow. Nothing eventful occurred on the way back, so I will spare you the details.

Upon arriving at the castle, Austin asked the question that we all knew he would ask.

"So where can I shoot this thing?"

Glass and Bell exchanged nervous glance, which was generally uncharacteristic of a lieutenant. I can see why he would be nervous, however, as I looked to Austin.

"Well, connected immediately to the armoury is the training grounds. We can go and see if there is a slot open in the future. That's the best place that you can start practicing," he told him.

"...can we go see now?" he asked him. Bell glanced to me, before looking back to Austin.

"I suppose we can. Come on, I'll take you there," he said as he turned away towards another hallway. We promptly followed him to the training grounds, passing a multitude of guards and servants on the way there.

The training grounds had both inside and outside complexes, and were dedicated to furthering the training of the royal guards. Inside, the room was massive, with ceilings at least fifteen feet tall, probably more. The length of the room was probably at least seventy feet long, and probably around fifty feet wide. It was a huge room, and a large part of the north wall was covered in weapon racks. They held a large variety of weapons, from spears and swords, to shields and maces. There were various knives and daggers, and there were even a few bows on the far left side. I stood in awe of how many weapons were here. Of course, I would assume that not all of Canterlot's weapons were here, but I digress.

The room was surprisingly empty, as we stood in the doors to the room.

"Well no one's here. Can I try it out?" Austin asked, taking his bow off of his chest. Bell moved over to the door, finding a clipboard held on by tacks. He picked it up, and quickly glanced over it.

"Hmm... the last group for the day left about forty minutes ago, so it would seem that we have the entire room to ourselves today," he told us. I had walked over to the weapon racks, having set my books down, and was currently gazing the selection of shields that were available. Some were designed for ponies, some were designed for humans. Some were big, and some were small. Some were designed for a more aggressive role, having spikes on the front, and some were flat, designed for a stronger defence. The selection baffled me, really.

"Are those archery targets?" Austin said, pointing past the weapon racks. I looked to where he was pointing, and saw a line of large, square targets attached to rolling wheels. The target started about two feet off of the ground, and stopped after about three feet, which was quite a big target. I moved over, and gave one a small pull. It moved slightly, to my delight. I slowly pushed one out of its place, and across to the middle of the room. The frame was wood, but the material inside the frame was much softer. It seemed to be some sort of... woody material. Almost like...

Cork.

Quite smart if you ask me. The target had a much smaller target pasted to the middle of the board, with a "dartboard" style center, and a bulls eye in the middle. I stepped back to where Austin was standing, collecting my books on the way back. He stepped into the middle of the room, and gripped his bow tightly.

"Um, Daniel? How do I do this again?" he asked me. I face-palmed, and moved over to him.

"You have to nock the arrow on your string, remember?" I asked him. He nodded in realization, and did as I told him. I stepped back.

"Wait, what's next?" he asked, obviously confused. I smirked at this.

"Now you fire, just don't ricochet it and kill one of us," I told him. He looked back to the target, about twenty feet away. He looked back to us.

"Hey, Bell, twenty bits I can hit the center first try," he called out. Bell let out a hearty laugh.

"I like those odds, so sure, you're on" he said with a confidant smirk. Austin grinned devilishly, and turned back to the target. He drew back the string, albeit with a bit of trouble. Once he had the string back, he held the bow still. Suddenly, the string fell forward, and the arrow flew true.

Right into the exact center of the target.

"YEAH! HOW'S THAT FOR ODDS!" Austin screamed while fist pumping. I looked to Bell, who stood with his mouth agape. I laughed at this, and looked back to Austin.

"Yeah, well... beginners luck!" Bell called out.

One Week Later

The doors to the indoor training grounds swung open as I pushed on them. Beside me walked lieutenant Bell. We stepped into the training grounds, and I walked over to the weapon racks, Bell following in suit. I glanced over the huge selection of weapons and tools before me, and eventually gravitated over to the section that held the swords. The weapon racks were double sided, and I slowly walked around them as I reflected on my choices. There were so many! Swords and spears, some of which I couldn't even begin to name for you. I could place a few names, but that's it, just a few. I looked back to the spear section.

...halberd. That's a halberd... I think...

"You know, you can feel free to make your choice sometime this year Daniel," Bell called out to me. I looked back to him, and stuck my tongue out, returning to my browsing.

After the princess had seen what kind of purchases we had made for ourselves, specifically Austin, she had given us the proper allowance to observe and even practice with a few select types of weapons. This allotment, however, was not given lightly.

A, it had come after Austin and I had made a special request to use the training grounds more regularly. B, we were to be under strict watch the whole time we were here. Bell had been selected to watch over me, as Austin had been taken away for another evaluation today. C, if anything, and I mean anything negative was reported back to the princesses, then our privilege would be immediately revoked, and we would not be given a second chance. Kind of intimidating when you think about it. It almost made me want to just look at the weapons, and not touch them for fear of losing this opportunity. Of course, I was here for a reason, and this was not an option.
I fixed my gaze on one of the smaller swords on the racks, tilting my head as I looked at it. It was a simple piece of weaponry, being around two and a half feet long, with a straight blade. I had a general knowledge of what the parts of a sword were called from one of the books I had read for an assignment back in school. Regardless, the... hilt of the blade was wrapped in leather for a better grip, and it had a small, round pommel on the end of it. The blade came to a straight point, and was double edged, with a fuller running the whole length of the blade, save for the tip. The blade had a cross guard connecting the blade and the hilt. I reached out for the blade, and took it from the rack it was in. Lifting it, I found it to be surprisingly light compared to what I had expected.

"That's probably the simplest blade from the entire selection, which is good for you. Do you want to use that one?" Bell asked me. I stepped back from the weapon racks, and swung the blade in front of me a few times. It still felt quite light, to my surprise, and delight.

"Uh, yeah. This one seems pretty solid, but it's light. Really light! What's it made out of," I asked him.

"That much I don't know. I would normally say steel, but if you say it's that light..." he said, taking the sword in his magical grasp. Oh... Bell is a unicorn... I forgot to say that. While I'm at it, Glass is also a unicorn.

Wait, aren't most royal guards unicorns? How else would they be able to...

"Hm, you're right. This blade is quite light, even from what I've seen around here," Bell told me after swinging the blade twice. He rotated the blade in his magic, observing the entirety of it. I briefly thought back to my book on conjuration, and watched with slight envy. He handed the blade back to me, raising an eyebrow.

"If I had to wager a guess? Maybe it had a magical enchantment on the blade that keeps it light? I can't feel anything, so if that's the case, it must be a damn good spell. Other than that, I don't know," he told me. Eventually, we dismissed the thought, and I made my final selection.

Bell and I made our way over to the center of the room, standing around ten feet apart. I had the sword in my right had, my left free. I briefly glanced over to the shields on one of the racks.

"Alright, now what do you know about the weapon you are holding?" he asked me.

"...it's light?" I half said, half asked.

"No, I just told you!" he exclaimed. I blinked.

"...it's... I'm holding it?" I asked. Bell stared at me.

"It's a weapon!" I yelled.

"Precisely, that's exactly what it is. A weapon, nothing more, nothing less. That sword was designed to kill, and it'll do that more than easily. You have to know what you are holding backwards and upside down, or you could easily kill yourself just as easily as someone else," he told me. I gripped the hilt of the sword just a little bit tighter.

"You swing the wrong way, you kill a friend. You swing the other way, the blade goes through your face. Do you want that?" Bell asked in an aggressive tone.

"Nope, definitely not," I responded. Bell seemed to stop for a few seconds, before walking over to another one of the weapon racks. He came back a few seconds later, clutching a wooden sword in his grasp. He took the sword I was holding, and replaced it with the wooden sword.

"In the long run, this is a lot safer. I'd rather be smacked with a plank of wood then have my neck cleaved off," he told me. I felt the wooden sword in my hand. The blade was thin, but not sharp, and externally almost was identical to the blade I was just holding. Bell put the sword back in its holster on its rack, and continued.

"For this, the same rules I just explained still apply. You still have to treat that as a weapon, why?" he asked.

"Because it's a weapon," I told him.

"Right. Now that we have that covered at least partially, we can begin. I want you to show me your best combat stance. I looked down at my sword, and sighed. I spread my legs, to what felt natural, bending them slightly. But I was at a loss as to what to do with my arms.

"What do I do with my arms?" I asked. Bell moved over to me.

"You are right handed, yes? Always keep your blade in front of you to deny any quick frontal attacks. Keep you hands slightly apart, and always keep both hands on the hilt for now. Put your non-dominant leg in front of you, so you can spring off of your good leg if you have to. Bend you knees slightly, slightly! There, now hold that pose," he told me. Bell walked around me, evaluating my stance.

"Is this good?" I asked.

"Get a little bit lower. The lower you can be comfortably, the better balance you will have," he told me. Overall, this probably look quite silly, but first steps are first steps. Bell nodded.

"That's not bad. Now remember this pose, and keep it fresh in your memory. There are many, many poses that I can teach you, but for now we'll just move on," he told me.

"Hey, no offense, but shouldn't I have, like... a human teaching me?" I thought aloud.

"Son, I've been training guards here for seven years, now, and that includes ponies, AND humans. I think I can help you out a bit," he told me. "Straighten your shoulders!" he told me. I kept low, but straightened my shoulders as much as I could. I then realized how steady this pose was. By being this low, my center of gravity was also low, which would make it hard to offset me.

"Good. This is the most basic pose for frontal combat. It allows you to be steady, to keep concentration, as well as keeping the ability to move quickly should you have to," he told me. I stood up, back to normal.

"Alright, now, we can move on to basic handling. He took the blade from me, and swung it in a large arc horizontal in front of him, left to right.

"This is called a right cross slash. It is exactly as the name implies, a right, crossing slash," he instructed me. He gave the sword back to me. "Now, show me what I just taught you,"

I raised the blade, and gave a quick swing, trying to keep my arm slightly bent as I did.

"No, you can't do that. You kept your arm straight, but you used your body for momentum. If you do that in a real battle, one good push after you do that is all it takes to throw you completely off balance. If that happens, you're done for. Try again, but this time, use nothing but your arm. Normally, it's okay for you to do what you did, but for now, let's try to do things the classic way, the right way," he explained to me.

I readied the blade again, and gave another swing. This time however, I kept my shoulder out of the equation, using just my arm to propel the blade. The slash was not as quick, but I could immediately notice the improvement in precision as I swung. My shoulder was not there to offset what my arm was doing, and the whole swing just felt more... accurate.

"Do you notice how you are not swinging so far behind you now? That's called back-swing, and if you let too much of it out, you leave your entire front open for attack. Sometimes, all it takes is a quarter of a second for you opponent to run you through," he told me. I processed this information, taking in how precise I needed to be if i wanted this to work.

We practiced this swing for the next ten to twenty minutes, eventually transitioning to a left cross swing, for another ten minutes. Once Bell was sure that I had those two swings down, he introduced me to blocking, but said that we'd have to cover that in another lesson, as he had to go and take up a post for patrol duty. We said our farewells, and then I was left alone to my thoughts, wandering the halls of the castle. I thought about the swings that I had memorized, the pose, and to things like Austin, home, and so many other things. Realistically, everything that was happening right now was happening incredibly fast, and at the same time, incredibly slowly.

I eventually found my way back to my room, where I went to my dresser, and opened it up. I reached in, and pulled out my copy of Magic and Conjuration, sitting down at my desk. I opened it, and flipped to the page I had marked.

"Chapter two, basic conjuration" I read aloud.

Maybe there was hope for magic yet.

Oracle

Two Days Later

The day started off nonchalantly enough, which was a bit of a surprise given our situation. I was walking towards the kitchen at the moment. I had already checked in Austin's room to see if he was there. Of course, he wasn't, and my next guess was the kitchen. Austin was usually thinking with his stomach, and I felt that this was the best place to go and look for him.

I pushed open the doors to the mess, and looked around. There were a few of the guard there, just sitting and eating, socializing. I smiled at this, before noticing Austin about halfway down the aisles of tables. Before I got there, I passed by a group of humans who were eating alone. A few of the glared at me, but I could swear that one of them was giving me an almost sympathetic gaze.

There had always been rumors about what the princesses were doing to us behind closed doors. Some of the theories I had heard were quite enthralling, some were rather disturbing, and some were downright disgusting. Things ranging from torture and experimenting to questionable sexual encounters for a few of the more adventurous guards. I was pretty sure that the princesses knew about all of them, but as for now, our presence still remained hidden to the public. A couple of kids was of no importance to the people of Equestria. But once those kids took the elements of harmony, a commonly known historical artifact, and all but destroy them, it becomes a much bigger story. So for now, things were hush-hush.

I walked up to the table that Austin was sitting at, and he smiled at me as I approached him.

"Hey, did those guys over there look angry to you?" I asked him as I sat down, motioning to the group that I had passed when I came in.

"Who?" he asked as he looked to where I was pointing. "Oh, them? I mean, I didn't really pay any attention. I was hungry, so I just got my food and sat down," he told me. I nodded as I poured myself a glass of water from the carafe that was on the table.

"Hm, oh well. How's the whole 'archer' thing going?" I asked him, taking a sip of water before placing it down in front of me.

"I mean, once I started getting tired, I could barely pull back the string, but otherwise, it's not so bad," he told me.

I pulled my glass water over to me, and ran my finger around the rim. This was just something I liked to do when I was waiting. I ran my finger around the rim of the glass without looking at it, and pulled my hand back in surprise and a bit of pain. The glass apparently had a chip in it, on the rim, to be precise. I looked at my finger to see what had happened.

"I mean, it's kinda hard to pull back in general, but that's probably just because I need to work out more," he told me, lost in his own train of thought. I, however, was concentrated on another ordeal.

"Do we have a weight room in the castle? I mean, obviously. What else would the guards do to workout,"

My finger was bleeding. Okay, that's normal. But... something was off. My blood wasn't normal. It wasn't a deep red like it was supposed to be. It was yellow. And not a normal either. If it was a darker yellow, I could pass it off as being some sort of infection. But... this yellow was the brightest yellow I have ever seen. A bright, golden yellow tainted my finger. I stared at it in confusion.

"Hey, are you good? It's just a small cut,"

I looked to Austin, and flipped my hand around so he could see it. He looked at my finger for a few seconds before giving me confused look.

"Is it infected?" he asked me.

"See, that's what I thought when I first saw it. Look again. It's way too bright to be infected," I told him. He looked a little harder.

"What if it's something that we've never seen before?" he asked.

"We were perfectly healthy a few days ago, and if it is an infection, I don't feel sick at all," I told him.

“Isn’t that an awful lot of assuming to be doing?” he asked me, but I payed him no mind.

I reached for the napkin that wrapped the utensils, and unwrapped them. Before I had the napkin, my eyes landed on the knife. I tilted my head in thought.

What if... just what if...

Slowly, I picked up the knife, and looked to Austin.

"Austin, when was the last time you had your blood done," I asked him.

"...like a week ago? A little more? Why?" he asked me. I took the knife and placed the blade against my finger, looking up to him.

"...why?" he asked me.

“I mean, what if it’s just something normal, like an infection? What if, we go and see a nurse, and I get some drugs, and after taking them for a few days or weeks or whatever, everything goes back to normal, and I become immune to whatever I just had” I asked Austin. He tilted slightly in confusion, before slightly shaking his head at me.

“I... I’m... what? I mean, then that would be totally normal and you wouldn’t have to worry about getting this infection again. What else am I supposed to say?” he asked with rising confusion.

“But... what if this is different?” I asked back across the table.

“...if... what is different?”

“Tell me this. When was the last time you got an infection of any kind?” I pressed him to think.

“I guess... a few years ago? I mean, if you mean sick, then probably before all of this happened, but... if you mean full on infection... probably a few years ago? Why? What does that have to do with anything?” he asked in more confusion.

“When that happened, what color did you blood turn?” I made my point.

“...it didn’t,” he said in a slightly bored tone. I gestured to my finger, which had started to clot at this point.

“What if?” I asked him. He looked to my hand, then back up to me.

“What if what?” he finally asked.

"What if this is what we're looking for? Something might have finally changed!" I told him. He gave me a concerned gaze, before sighing and sitting back, nodding to me withe defeated look on his face. I took a breath in, and drew the blade across my finger in one quick motion. As I was hoping, a stream of golden coloured blood oozed from my finger, as I put the knife down. I held my finger upside down, letting the blood pool up into a drip. The liquid amassed on my finger until it could no longer support itself, and dripped off of my finger onto the table. My vision blurred slightly at the sight of my blood. We looked at the drop on the table, puzzled at the yellow colour. Austin looked up to me.

"Should we go show the princess?" he asked me.

"Uh... yeah, probably," I told him. We stood up, and went out the doors opposite where I entered.

“Wait a second, shouldn’t we go and see a nurse first? What if you’re still wrong?” he wondered aloud.

“I have no idea what this means, but if it means anything, and I mean anything at all, I want the princesses to be the first one to see, not some doctor. She told us that as soon as they figured out a way to get their elements back, then we would be able to go ho-” I stopped abruptly as the thought of going back to Dismith crossed my mind.

Magic, Canterlot, doctors and princesses. This had all happened so fast... and the chance for it to be all taken away from us had just made itself apparent to us.

“What? Why’d you stop?” Austin pressured me to continue talking. I slowed my walking to a crawl, before stopping in the hallway that lead to the throne room.

“What if... what if this is the answer? What if we... have to go back home. To Dismith?” I asked myself more that I asked Austin.

“Daniel, the odds of that happening today are next to none. Start walking, and let’s get this over with, right now,” Austin coaxed me into moving again. I gave him a nod, and we finished our small journey.

Upon arriving at the throne room, we found the doors wide open. Celestia was behind her desk as usual, signing away at documents. She looked up to us as she walked in, giving us a smile.

"Hello Austin, Daniel. How can I help you today?" she asked us. I shook my head viciously in an attempt to clear my thoughts. I looked to Austin, before stepping up to her desk. I help up my finger, which was still freshly coated in blood from the amount that I drew. She looked at it, and gave me a quizzical look.

"That's blood. Any idea why it's not red?" I asked her.

“Immediately, I would suspect a blood infection, but, based on how you are currently moving about, we can likely rule that option out, for now. Blood infections are nasty, and would limit your ability to walk, so...” she gave up speaking to think some more.

Before anything else could be said, we heard a voice call out from behind us.

“Greetings you two, hello sister,” Luna called out to us as she walked up to us. I glanced at the clock that was sitting on Celestia’s desk

Eight thirty two...

It seemed logical that Luna would be going to bed soon.

“I have finished my duties for the night, and after doing some light reading, I thought I might come see you for a few words before I retire for the day,” she told Celestia.

“Of course Luna, always nice to see you. I was just in the middle of helping Daniel with a problem he seemed to have regarding his blood. Maybe you could be of assistance,” he told her in a friendly tone. Luna glanced at me, before I held up my hand for her to see. She took it in one hoof, before inspecting it for a few moments.

“This is... most interesting. I have never seen such a bright color in someone’s blood. Perhaps... no, that wouldn’t be it. What...” Luna’s face ran pale.

“What, what is it?” I asked in a slightly worried tone. If something was crazy enough to startle Luna, then I definitely had ample reason to be concerned.

“Sister... have you ruled out... ichor?” she said shakily. Celestia drew her head back in surprise.

She seemed almost dazed for a few moments.

Her eyes widened almost immediately.

“Ichor. I... no, it... it couldn’t be, could it?” she asked the air.

She looked past us, and called to one of the guards who was on duty outside of the room. He came trotting in, and saluted the princess.

"Yes your highness?" he asked in a gruff tone.

"Allow me to see your weapon soldier," she said to the guard. I could swear I caught a confused look my way, but before he could ask anything, he drew his sword from his scabbard, holding it up to the princess. Celestia thanked the guard, and he nodded, taking a step back. I looked back to the princess.

"Daniel? Do you know if it was just your finger that bled yellow?"she asked me.

"Uh, yeah, just my finger, I don't know about anywhere else," I told her. She nodded, and using her magic, placed the sword against the bare flesh of my other arm. I pulled away immediately.

"Whoa whoa! What are you doing?" I yelled to her.

"Daniel, if any other parts of your body bleed yellow, we have an extremely important matter to deal with. I can only tell you what this is if you let me know," she told me, lowering her gaze. I looked to Austin, who had moved back, and was standing beside the guard from earlier. I looked back, and swallowed nervously.

"I can cast a spell that will eliminate the pain," she told me. I looked into her eyes. She was serious.

Jesus...

Weighing my options, I could see no reasonable way out of this. If the princess said it was this serious, then it was serious.

I threw my caution to the wind, and held my arm out, giving a sigh in the process. She nodded, and ignited her horn. My arm was coated in a yellow aura, before it faded away. I clenched and opened my fist a few times, before holding it out. Celestia pressed the blade against my arm, and looked to me.

"How deep are you going to cut?" I asked cautiously. She gave me a reassuring smile.

"Nowhere near deep enough to hurt you permanently," she told me in an almost... motherly tone. It was comforting, really. I nodded.

She quickly drew the sword across my arm, and I practically jumped back in... nothing, actually. There was no pain, no pressure, nothing, which was good for me. I looked to my arm. Again, the golden yellow liquid from my finger was pouring out, dripping down my arm onto my elbow, and eventually onto the floor.

"...what the fuck is that stuff?" Austin asked, looking to the princess. She used her magic to clean the blade. I was frozen, looking at the huge gash in my arm. However, the main thing that captivated me, was the color. It was the brightest, clearest shade of yellow... no, golden, that I have ever seen in my life. And it was my blood! Like, what the hell is this stuff?

"Then it is as I thought..." Celestia trailed off with a concerned expression. I looked to her confusedly.

"What? What does that mean!?" I asked, getting progressively more scared of what was to come. She then did something that I was not expecting.

She quickly looked to her sister. Celestia then held up her hoof, and drew the blade across her own hoof, putting the same style of gash in her leg. Austin and I jumped a little at this, before gazing at what she was showing is. Just like me, the same golden yellow liquid flowed out of her wound. She looked to me.

"Daniel, the substance that courses through your veins has a name," she told me. I tilted my head in suspicion.

"It is called... ichor. In terms of liquid, it is the blood that runs through the veins of gods... and immortals," she told me. I slowly processed this information, not being able to make any sense of it. Then it hit me.

My eyes widened.

"You have the same blood," I told her. She nodded.

"...you're immortal," I told her. She nodded.

The silence was deafening.

"...am... I immortal?" I asked her.

She nodded.

Potentiality

Six Months Later

“Congratulations son, and good luck in your future endeavours,” the education attendant told me as I firmly grasped his hoof, shaking it with a huge smile plastered on my face. He quickly returned the smile, before I turned around and left the room.

One of the most prevalent issues after the whole “elements” issue was sorted out was schooling. I was almost done grade eleven, and Austin was finishing up grade nine. But when all of this happened, we were torn away from completing our current grade. After we found out about our situation with the elements, we were sent back to school in Canterlot. However, both Austin and I found the work and lessons to be incredibly easy. The princess set up an appointment with an “educational assessment officer,” as they called them, to test our level of learning. Upon doing so, I was automatically placed in the twelfth grade, and Austin was jumped up to the eleventh grade. While this may have seemed like a bad idea, we were quickly found to be far beyond the level of comprehension and learning of a peer in the same grade. I easily maintained a constant mark of one hundred in the course, and once this came to the attention of the professor, it went to the princess, who once again had me evaluated higher level, to test my mental prowess. I was found to be beyond the level of a high school student, and was quickly placed under the guidance of a high ranking private university teacher to finish my grade twelve education, and move on to something more complex, like university level studies. I completed the work and lessons that were assigned to me in a little over five months.

All of the advanced learning can be correlated with what happened to us with the elements. It was a given that our physical strength and endurance had increased, and Celestia knew this. She had also expected us to have increased mental capabilities. When I had asked her how she could know any of this, the answer had seemed painfully obvious. Luna and herself had gone thorough the same thing when they were exposed to the elements. However, because they had never actually absorbed the elements like we did, it happened to them at a much slower rate, over the course of a few decades. But for us, since we got such a large... “dosage,” if you will, the rate at which we learned new things was accelerated by a large amount. This led to me being able to complete advanced university level courses in the amount of time that I did. I would expect Austin to be done his grade twelve relatively soon as well...

I left the conference room and quickly ran towards the throne room, clutching my new diploma in my hand. Because of how easy it was, I had quickly lost interest in getting my high school education, but my insatiable thirst for knowledge kept me in line with the school work. I was much more interested in learning a totally new set of skills.

Upon arriving, I quickly saw Celestia sitting behind her desk, as usual. Realistically, I don’t know how she sat there, at the same time, every day, signing away at the papers that were in front of her for so long without losing her sanity. It was almost like clockwork. Every day, without fail, she would be sitting behind her big wooden desk, signing away, with an attendant refilling her tea when necessary. I can tell you for sure that I do not envy her position.

“Ah, hello Daniel. How did everything go?” she asked me, turning away from the attendant next to her desk. When we first arrived here, we definitely got off on the wrong foot with the princesses, especially Austin and Luna. Those two still butted heads to this day. But over the long time we have been in Canterlot, we have learned to at least try to enjoy each others company, so that we are not constantly at each others throats. While the relationship between Austin and the princesses may be strained, the princesses and I share a somewhat healthy relationship, specifically Celestia and I. There is a reason for that.

Over the past... two months? Yes, it would have to be. Over the past two months, Celestia has been teaching and guiding Austin and I towards being able to manipulate magic. Being the all-powerful alicorn “sun god” that she is, I figured that she would be a prime candidate for being a teacher. Of course, I use the term “sun god” lightly, as Celestia is not an actual deity, at least in the classical sense. So far, the progress has been slow, as expected. And when I say slow, I mean slow. Because humans have no innate magical abilities, I was relying purely on the portion of the elements fused with my soul for my conjuration abilities. Recently, I have been getting quite close at being able to conjure a basic levitation spell. Once that was accomplished and the spell was bound to my memory, it was a simple matter of manipulating the magic to do what I wanted. In this case, levitating a small object.

“Everything went fine, see for yourself,” I told her as I threw the diploma at her. She quickly caught it with her magic, and slowly unrolled the paper, quickly scanning it over.

“Well this certainly is good news, congratulations! But... I feel that you aren’t here to show me this,” she said with a warm smile. I nodded, and she sighed slightly. Standing up from her seat, she placed the diploma on the desk, and walked around behind me. I turned to follow her with my eyes, and waited for what she had to say. She then levitated a small book over to herself from her desk, and began idly flipping through the pages while holding it in my view.

“...identify the differences between conjuration and manipulation,” she told me without turning to look at me. Once these words had been spoken, the attendant who had been next to her desk quickly excused herself from the room. I watched her leave in bemusement, but otherwise paid her no mind. I instead focused on formulating my answer for the posed question.

“Conjuration refers to the act of concentrating your magic into the type of spell you want. This process is always done in your mind, and can never be done externally. Once the necessary spell has been conjured, it is then manipulated, which is done by using the spell in the way that you want. The teleportation spell is conjured by focusing your magic into a thought, a place. Once that place has been sufficiently thought over in your mind, the spell is manipulated by physically teleporting to that location,” I explained.

“Summary,” she said in a slight monotone. I paused for a second.

“...conjuration is the act of creating a spell for use, manipulation is the actual use of that spell,” I told her. Celestia did not move, and instead stayed quiet. I stood, waiting for my next question. Celestia, being my teacher, liked to drop surprise quizzes on me from time to time. Then again, what teacher doesn’t like doing that?

“...explain magiplasm,” she told me. I paused again, gathering my thoughts.

“Magical plasmatic waves, commonly known as magiplasm, is the way that magic propagates through whatever medium you are using magic in. It is akin to gravity, in that while it is not impossible to detect, there is no way to physically observe or alter it, yet it allows the use of magic. Based on this, the concept of magiplasm is still considered a theory. Magiplasm is considered to act like a wave, and a particle. While there is no physical way to alter the way it moves, you can indirectly alter magiplasm. By intercepting a spell, such as absorbing a bolt of magic, you are altering magiplasm by treating it like a particle, though it is also, strangely, a wave. Magiplasm is also the way that magic is stored for use by magic using individuals. A sort of “pool” is collected around the individual, which is where the individuals magic is stored. This magic around the person can be two types of magic, either harmonious or chaotic in nature. The type of magiplasm that surrounds the person can effect how the person thinks and acts,” I finished my explanation. Celestia remained quiet.

“Explain the difference between harmonious and chaotic magic,”

“The difference between the two types of magic is what effects they each can leave you with. Other than the external factors, there is relatively no difference in what you can do with each type. A healing spell, while generally considered to be a harmonious spell, can also be used in a chaotic way. Using a harmonious spell leaves the user feeling lifted and refreshed by leaving harmonious passive magiplasm in their magical pool. Once this is achieved, because of the amount of harmonious magiplasm in their pool, chaotic spells become less and less effective. A person surrounded by harmonious magiplasm will generally be happier and more cheerful in character at the time, while also being less prone to making rash decisions. Chaotic magic, however, is much more caustic and volatile in nature. It works virtually the same to harmonious magic, although chaotic magic has the potential to much more... effective. If a person’s magical pool is balanced in the two types of magiplasm, then the two types of magic are identical in effectiveness. However, when a person is surrounded by chaotic magic, their magic will be many times more effective then someone who is surrounded by harmonious magiplasm. Being surrounded by chaotic magiplasm changes the way the individual thinks in a negative way. The person will be more prone to rash and hasty thinking, which can leave the person more exposed because they never actually thought out a plan or course of action,” I finished. I breathed in a sigh of relief, content with my detailed explanation. Celestia remained facing away from me, as I waited for a response. She closed the book, before letting out a small sigh.

“Lastly, explain how the levitation spell is conjured and manipulated, and explain why the weight of the object determines exertion rate,” she told me as she flipped over the book she was holding. I smiled at this, knowing that this would be an easy question.

“The levitation spell is conjured by gathering magiplasm at the focal point of the individual, generally a horn, or a hand. Once the magic is gathered, it can then be sent out by-” I was cut short when the princess suddenly whirled around, quickly throwing the book she was holding my way. I reacted by throwing up my arms and holding out each of my hands to catch it, but I was met with... quite the surprise.

Floating in front of me, held in Celestia’s magical grasp, was a small, brown, leather wrapped book. But... something was off. Celestia's magic was, from personal experience, always a golden yellow in colour. The book, however, was being held by magic that was not yellow. It was... pink. I lowered my hands, and suddenly the book dropped to the floor. I looked back up to Celestia in confusion, only to find that she was simply smiling. That’s when it hit me.

“Wait, was that... was that me?” I asked awkwardly. Celestia tilted her head in mild amusement.

“Well, who else could it be?” she asked me with a small chuckle. I turned my head to gaze around the area, only to find that there was no one else left in the room. I looked back to the book, and suddenly finished piecing together the answer to my question. In hindsight, it was a rather silly question. My eyes widened, and I looked back up to the princess.

“Now that you have unlocked the first step towards conjuring and using magic, search you mind. Right now. You know exactly how the levitation spell works, yes? You know how to conjure it, you know how to manipulate it, and you know what it does to you. So find it, and use it. Use it again on this book, right here, right now,” she told me. I lowered my head, and began focusing. I knew what Celestia was talking about. Once a magical user had used a new spell for the first time, the spell instantly became committed to the individuals memory. All the person had to do to use that spell again was find it in their memory, and simply use it again. Upon the second cast of the spell, that spell was then forever placed in the user’s active spell memory. This allowed the use of the spell whenever the person wanted it.

Understanding how magic, magiplasm, and various spells was not hard to learn, as it was how fillies and colts who were unicorns sometimes let out very small sparks of magic when they are young. But taking that knowledge and applying it in the real world, and actually making practical use out of it was a completely different story. Hell, they might as well be in different genres. The knowledge and theory was easy, put applying my knowledge was a much, much more complicated and hard challenge.

I searched my mind, using the memory of me lifting the book a sort of a... “guide.” Soon enough, I found it, and upon doing so, I quickly conjured the spell into my mind. Once I was sure that I had a good lock on the spell, I focused the spell into my right hand, and manipulated it so that it was surrounding the book. I could quickly feel my magical reserve being drained. Because I was a new magical user, my reserve of magiplasm was extremely small. Knowing this, I quickly raised my hand into the air.

And the book went with it.

I smiled in triumph at what I had achieved. I was actually using magic. I, a lowly human in terms of magic, was actively using a levitation spell for the first time in my life.

“Yes! That’s it! Look at you! You are actually using magic! You, Daniel, are the first human in recorded history to be able to use magic. This is absolutely groundbreaking!” she exclaimed happily to me. Before I could celebrate, I felt the book get heavier and heavier, to the point where I could no longer lift it. I let the spell go, and watched as the book fell to the floor. Before it could, it was quickly grabbed by Celestia’s magic, and she tossed it to me. I caught the book with my hands, my reserve of magic spent. It would take a while before it was built back up, probably at least a few hours. This disappointed me, but also gave me a new area in life to focus on. The feeling of magic, and actually having magical reserve was both completely alien to me, as well as... somehow... strangely familiar.

“Now comes the hard part. You know how to conjure and use the levitation spell, but your magical reserve is quite small. It will take a long time to build up a larger pool of magic, but it is, of course, far from impossible. My advice is to use that spell at every opportunity you get. Use it as much as you can without killing yourself. When things get hard to hold because you are running out of magiplasm, push harder. When you do this, you capture more neutral magiplasm that is all around us. This is how you grow your magical reserve. Keep this up as much as you can. You have been given the opportunity to rise to the level that Luna and I are on. Of course, we are much older that you, so this will likely never happen,” she told me, giving me a large, sarcastic, smile. I returned the smile. Celestia then started to walk, and as she passed me, she gave me one last piece of advice.

“And read that book. Read it twice, read it a hundred times. Learn it, and learn it well. That, is your next step,” she told me as she glided out of the room. I looked down to my hands.

“Magiplasm for half-wits,” I spoke aloud.

Thanks Celestia...

Author's Note

Reassurance

The door to my room flew open as I stepped in, making my way over to my dresser. I opened the top doors and placed the book Celestia had given me in the front of the small collection of books I had, giving a small sigh as I did. Over the past little while, I had been acquiring a few books that I felt would help me in learning magic. Just some odds and ends when it came to books, nothing special. There were even a few books that were unrelated to magic, for my personal enjoyment.

I closed the dresser doors carefully, and turned around, gazing about the room... my room. I had previously requested a clock be out into my room, and the castle happily obliged, providing me with both the unit, and the means to hang it. With the device resting casually above my bed, I cast my eyes upon it.

Eight forty... hm...

I raised my arms, and rubbed my temples with my hands, debating what my next plan was.

I had relatively little to do. Nowhere to be, no one to see, nothing to do. My eyes went back towards the... my dresser that held my books. I took a brief step towards it, before a thought hit me. I opened the door, pulling out the book in magiplasm that Celestia had given me. I exited my room, and made my way towards one of the many staircases in the castle. This one was spiral, however, and lead to the castle observatory.

My thoughts shifted, and I once again found myself thinking about the implications, and... consequences, of what had been given to me. When Austin and I had found those precious stones on that fateful day, I had wondered if we had tempted more than just fate. I tried to shake the thoughts from my head, but I could not.

Many a night did I stay up and think. Laying in my bed, with no one around, just me... and my thoughts. What was to happen? To me, to Austin. I mean, really.

Immortality.

The ability to live forever. Forever.

At times, I simply glossed over the thought like you would an old mares tale. It felt almost like something straight out of a story book. Like it almost wasn’t real. Maybe... it wasn’t. Many times when I was lying in my bed did I find myself wondering if this was all a dream. Maybe, just maybe, I could will myself awake. Sometimes I got so scared, so terrified of what lie ahead, that I would just sit on the edge of my bed and cry. Sometimes I pushed it aside with dismissive thoughts. Every time I would look at Austin, I could tell he was trying his absolute hardest to do the same.

Sometimes it didn’t matter.

There were times when I could see it in his eyes. I could see that he knew it wasn’t a dream, that this was reality, and we had simply been dealt an unlucky hand. Life is full of surprises, right?

I pushed open the large, wooden doors to the bridge, and took in a large breath of the cool, outside air. This was partially because it was nice, partially because I wanted to avoid having a panic attack. Across the large bridge lay the observatory keep, but today, the bridge was my destination. I threw my book down, and quickly slumped down against the marble railing. I lowered my head in thought, trying to push the dark thoughts from my head. The original thought loomed in my mind.

Forever.

The idea had been played with in books and novels alike, but...

To be suddenly submerged in a world that was not your own, while being surrounded with those who are. I could not even begin to form a way in my mind as how to approach this dilemma. What do you do with unlimited time?

Learn all you can. And then?

Explore everything there is to see. And then?

Have a family. And then?

Watch everything and everyone around you die. And then?

Die. And then?

Where was the end? What was the point? Why would such a vile thing exist? My gaze shifted upwards, towards the orange, darkening sky.

“Why?” I questioned aloud. The wind nipped at my hair and face as the sun began its slow journey past the horizon.

“Why?” I asked again. The idea of a creator, a “god,” had always been an idea to toy with, to test and strengthen ones beliefs. Some believed in a higher being out us here, some thought it was simple evolution. The question of whether or not a creator existed had always been one that liked to bat around in my mind. Weighing pros and cons, evidence and faith often collided.

I stood up, clutching my book in my right hand.

“Why?!” I pressed, calling out to the skies.

The lack of a response only continued to bitter my mood. I gave a small chuckle as I shifted my weight.

“Are you even real?” I called out again. I lowered my head in thought.

“No. You can’t be real. Eternal life versus eternal torture. They’re practically one in the same, aren’t they?” I asked. I leaned against the railing, setting my book down. I could feel my emotions rising, and my breathing accelerated.

“Why would you even bother? Why would you even waste your time with someone deserving of a fate worse than death?” I asked, dropping my head. My mind swirled with anger and... depression. This wasn’t what I wanted. I looked back up.

“How could you?” I asked, as a single tear welled up in my eye. “What could I have done... to deserve something as... fucking crazy as this?” I pleaded as more tears started to gather.

I pressed my head into my arms, letting a quiet sob escape.

“Nobody. Nobody could deserve something like this. Why do I?” I asked again. I pulled my head up, standing up straight.

“Wake up,” I told myself as I gave myself a light slap.

“Wake up, wake up, please wake up, wake up!” I yelled progressively louder, hitting myself harder each time. I looked at the marble railing in front of me. I raised my hand as high as it could go.

“WAKE UP!”

I slammed my hand down on my knuckles as hard as I could. Pain shot through my hand and up my arm. I raised my hand again.

“WAKE. UP!”

I brought my hand down again, more pain flaring in my hand. I raised my hand again.

“FUCKING WAKE. UP! WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!”

Each time I yelled, I brought my hand down with even more force, and each time, I did not wake up. I pulled my hand back, and looked at the back of it. My knuckles were coated in a shiny, yellow color. The dripping of blood began to from a pool on the marble railing below me. My anger peaked, and I picked up the book that was next to me, fighting the pain in my hand.

“FUCK. YOU!” I yelled, straining my vocal cords. I threw the book at the sky with all of my might. As I watched it fly, I could only feel a slight twinge of guilt, along with the terrible pain in my hand.

Before I could call out, the book stopped in mid air, being saved form being lost. A dark blue aura coated the book, and I stared for a few seconds, puzzled at the sudden occurrence.

“Daniel?! What are you doing?” I heard a voice call out as the book flew past my left side, and towards the voice. Looking behind me revealed princess Luna standing in the doorway, holding my book in her magical grasp. She was wearing a set of grey saddlebags across her back. I turned back to the sky in front of me, holding my hand so she could not see the damage. I heard the familiar sound of pony hooves on marble as Luna walked up behind me.

“What are you doing out here anyway? Was that you yelling?” she asked me, setting her bags down by the door. I moved to conceal my hand even more.

“How did you hear me?” I questioned her. In hindsight, it was a rather stupid question, but I needed something to talk about so she would not see my hand.

“I heard you when I was coming up the spire to get here. I was making my way to the observatory, when I heard you screaming,” she told me. I lowered my head.

“I was just... I was...” I stuttered, trying to find something to say.

“Are you hiding something? Turn around,” she instructed me.

“Look, I know you’re cautious, but you really should-”

“Turn around Daniel, now,” she told me again, more forcefully. I let out a small sigh, before complying, and turning around so she could see my knuckles. Luna let our a small gasp as she saw my hand, tilting her head in confusion. She looked to the railing as I stepped aside, likely noticing the pool of golden blood. She looked back to me, before my hand was enveloped in a blue aura.

“Did you do this?” she asked me in a slight monotone. I turned my gaze away.

“...yes,” I confessed.

“Why?” she asked, in a more sincere tone. I looked back to her, not expecting the tone she had used. It was caring, almost... motherly, in a way. I felt a light amount of pressure in my hand.

“I was... I was angry. I was trying to... wake myself up,” I told her. The pressure in my hand started to increase, and I looked down at it.

“What do you mean by that?” she asked me, tending carefully to my injury. The pressure in my hand suddenly went away, and when I looked at my hand again, the blood was gone, and my knuckles were relatively whole again. I gave my hand a good look over before I looked back to Luna.

“I don’t know. I guess... I guess I was trying to tell myself that this whole thing, this whole... thing, was just a bad dream,” I thought aloud. I turned and leaned over the railing again, gazing at the horizon, the sun having set. Luna stayed silent, waiting for me to continue.

“You know, I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to just... I mean, yanked away from my life, from everything I knew and cared about. Considering my situation, I would say everything was going pretty well for me, and then... this. I don’t want this, I never did!” I emptied my thoughts, venting my anger. I narrowed me eyes in anger.

“...you think I did?” Luna asked in a very somber tone. There was no harshness in her question. I craned my neck to look at her. She was gazing at the floor, with a sullen look on her face. Immediately? She looked more confused than anything.

“A long time ago, my sister and I found the elements, similar to how you did. The only difference is, we did not stumble upon them. We were actively searching for them, to stop Discord,” Luna told me. I turned to face her completely. Before she continued, she sat down. I mirrored her movement by sitting down against the railing.

“...I remember,” I told her. The history lessons came back to me. Luna gave me a small smile.

“One day... we found them them. We found the elements, the key to our freedom. Upon interacting with them, something happened to us, akin to what happened to you. We were... different. Not immediately, but... it was there,” she told me. She seemed almost pained as she recounted the story.

“After a few years, the same thing that has been happening to you, happened to us, though much slower. We were faster. We were stronger, we were smarter. We were better...” she told me.

“But all of this... it meant something more than just suddenly being better than everyone else. All of a sudden, after Discord had been imprisoned, we suddenly found ourselves elected as the rulers of the land. Our power was unrivalled, and our intellect was unmatched. Out of fear for something like this happening again, we took to power, and began rebuilding Equestria. Suddenly, life was very different. We had massive responsibilities, we had people to take care of, we had an entire land to govern. It was hard. It was tedious, and it was scary. I seldom had time for my friends or... or family,” she stopped to sigh as she explained her side of the story.

“Soon enough, I didn’t want to do it anymore. I didn’t want to be in charge of anything. And do you know what I did?” she asked me. I looked at her deeply, before shaking my head slightly.

“I ran... I ran, and I didn’t look back. For a while, Celestia ruled by herself. In that time, she lost her fun loving side. She became serious, stoic beyond belief. I... I couldn’t believe it. And at the root of it... I was there. If I hadn’t ran... I...” she stumbled. I tilted my head, looking at her with a sympathetic look.

“It’s okay. I’m listening,” I told her. She gave me a small smile. She took a big breath in, before continuing.

“Eventually, I realized something,” she said. I looked at her patiently, waiting to hear what she had to say. She looked me dead in the eye.

“Sometimes, life makes choices for you. And sometimes, those choices may not seem like the things you wanted at the time,” she explained. A warm smile made its way onto her face as she looked at me.

“Sometimes, life makes choices for you. Not for you, but for those around you,” she told me. The words echoed in my head.

“It took some time, but I eventually realized that the wants and desires of myself did not outweigh those of Equestria’s. It was my choice, but in a way, it really wasn’t. Life put me right were I needed to be, for the benefit of everyone. I think that the same thing is happening to you too,” she told me with a smile. I gave a sincere smile back.

“And you’re telling me this because... I need to accept it?” I asked.

Luna looked over to her bag, and levitated it over to us. She rifled through the bag for a few moments, before pulling out what looked to be a scalpel. She lifted her right hood up, and using her blade, made a quick, small cut on her hoof. Immediately, a thin stream of golden ichor began running down her hoof. She held it up for me to see.

“I’m telling you this, because you have to know that you aren’t alone. This is the biggest fight that you’ll ever have to partake in. And you know what?” she asked me. I tiled my head in a silent response.

“You have friends. Never forget that,” she told me. I gave her a sincere smile, genuinely touched by her kind and thought out words. Before I could give a response, the booming roar of thunder echoed over our heads, and a few drops of rain began to fall from the sky. Luna looked up at the sky, before placing my book in her bag as she stood up.

“Come on, let’s get back into the castle before we get soaked,” she told me.

“Agreed,” was all I could say back. We walked back to the spire, walking down the stairs as the wooden door shut behind us.

Sometimes, life makes choices for you. Not for you, but for those around you...

The thought would stay with me, forever.

The Study Continues

As we reached the bottom of the spiral staircase, I pondered if there was anything I needed to say in response to Luna. Emotional things are not my area of expertise, as shown by how I responded earlier.

If I was being honest, I've never had anyone say something as sincere as what Luna had said to me. Sure, there were the odd conversations and words of encouragement thrown my way over the years, but... no one ever really sat down and told me something as meaningful as what she had said to me. I wanted to tell her thank you in a way that I know would seem sincere, but I could not find the right words to say to her.

"I need to go and converse with my sister before she retires for the night," Luna told me as she continued walking down the small hall we were in.

"Okay, that's... alright," I stuttered. Luna immediately tilted her head, noticing the fault in my speech.

"What's the matter?" she asked in response.

"I just... thank you. For what you said to me, it... it meant a lot to me to hear those words," I told her. She cast me a warm smile.

"Think nothing of it Daniel," she said to me. With that, she turned and walked away, dismissing our conversation.

Damn...

Before I could think of much else, I felt the silent gnawing of hunger. I decided to make my way towards the kitchen, hoping that everything would not be shut down for the night.

Upon arriving, just before I could enter the mess, the door to the hall practically broke its hinges flying open, and I was met with the full force of the opening door. I reeled back in pain, before losing my balance and collapsing to the ground, landing hard on my rear. I shook my head to clear my vision, before looking up to see Austin standing in the door frame.

"Oh jeez, sorry Daniel, I didn't know you were there," he told me as he extended his hand to me.

"Okay, how are you so accident prone?" I asked him, before thinking about what I had said.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you!" he cried back to me.

Or maybe I'm the one who's accident prone...

"Yeah, obviously. But next time, please don't open the door so fast," I warned him, grabbing his hand and grunting as he pulled me to my feet.

He doesn't need to know that...

I stepped past him and into the mess hall as out conversation continued.

"Are you going to get some food?" he asked me, to which I gave him a completely deadpanned look.

"No, Austin, I'm not. I'm not going to the kitchen, based on how we are currently in the mess hall," I said in sarcastic response. Austin gave me a one-sided smile at this as we walked towards the order line. I stepped up to the counter, pulling my order card out of my pocket.

The way the food system worked here was rather simple. Every employee, soldier, or other affiliated person in the castle was given a small card that allowed us to get three meals a day as well as a few snacks whenever we felt the need to combat our hunger. I had yet to have my supper, and since I wasn't really hungry, I had just decided to get a small snack and immediately get back to my room to read some more.

I placed my order for a sandwich and a bottle of water, and stepped back while my food was being prepared.

"So how's the whole magic thing going?" he asked me. I turned and gave him a skeptical look.

"...it's going fine. I managed to start a levitation spell today, actually. Celestia was testing me, and she threw a book at me, and I caught with a spell," I told him with a hint of pride in my voice.

"Are you kidding me? That's really cool! Can you show me? Please?" he asked me with jovial enthusiasm. I looked around the mess for something small like the book that Celestia had thrown at me. There were many sets of utensils and place mats set out on the tables, and since it was so late at night, there was no one in the hall for me to disturb. I walked towards a table that was closest to me, and picked up a fork that was resting on it. Walking back to Austin, I placed the fork on my left hand's palm and held it up to him.

"Watch this," I told him with a smirk on my face. I felt out for the levitation spell that I had learned, and cast it upon the fork, trying my hardest to keep the spell active. My right hand became coated in a pink billowing aura, and I quickly felt a grasp on the fork. I lifted my right hand, and the fork mirrored its movements, raising into the air a few inches. I looked to Austin to see his reaction. I quickly found a smile creeping up on my face after seeing his.

Austin's mouth hung ajar, and it seemed that I had rendered him speechless at my newfound ability. I dropped my left hand, and the fork remained suspended in the air. With every passing second, I could feel the fork starting to get progressively heavier, and I tried my hardest to keep it in the air.

"That's... you... that's amazing!" Austin exclaimed as he walked around me, staring in awe at the floating fork. The fork was now starting to become almost too heavy to hold, and I was struggling to keep in in the air. What Celestia had told me about capturing neutral magiplasm was in the front of my mind, and I focused as hard as I could on keeping the fork suspended.

"Is it hard to to do that?" Austin asked me.

"Stop... talking..." was all I could manage to say through my teeth as my reserve of magic was continually drained. I was not trying to be rude, but holding the object in the air was one of the most mentally taxing things that I have ever done in my life, and I was trying my absolute hardest to not let go. Eventually, the fork simply became too heavy, and I was forced to let it go. The fork fell to the ground, making a loud clattering sound as it did. I sucked in a huge breath of air as I did, and it was only then did I realize that I was holding my breath the whole time. Apparently, focusing your magic required almost your entire mental faculty to operate, as I had no idea that I was holding my breath.

I took huge breaths in as I doubled over in exhaustion. Austin looked at me concernedly.

"Woah, Daniel, are you okay?" he asked me. I made no effort to move, and suddenly a wave of pain washed over me in the form of a severe headache.

"I... I think so. Just, ugh. Just got a bit of a headache from that," I told him. I heard the sound of a bell as I stood back up straight, and I looked at the counter to see that my food was ready. I shook my head, which turned out to be a bad idea, as the pain in my head flared up again. I grunted in pain, but otherwise ignored it. I walked up to the counter, grabbing my lettuce, tomato, and mayo sandwich, as well as the bottle of water, and started to walk out of the hall. Austin joined me by my side after he placed the fork back on the table.

"What was that? Are you okay?" he repeated his concern.

"I'm fine, I just pushed my magic a little too far, and I got a bad headache, that's all.

"Why didn't you stop?" Austin asked with a tone indicating curiosity.

"I learned from the princess that if you push your magic past what is comfortable for you, you capture... well, it's kind of like working out. If you push yourself past your limits, safely of course, you'll get stronger, in essence," I explained to him. We exited the mess hall, and started making our way back to our rooms.

"That's really cool! Do you think I could learn magic?" Austin asked with excitement in his voice.

"I mean, probably, right? Yeah, that would make sense, you were affected by the elements too, so I would say yes," I told him.

"Cool! Uh... how do I start?" he asked me.

"By completing your schooling, first of all. Get that out of the way, and then you'll have all the time in the world to practice magic," I told him.

I quickly realized what I had said, and winced slightly at the thought of it. Before we could talk any more, we rounded the corner that led to our rooms, and I turned to Austin.

"Alright, well, I need to do some studying, so I'll see you tomorrow," I told him.

"Alright, have fun, goodnight," he said back to me.

I turned and opened my door, shutting it behind me. I threw the sandwich and bottle on my bed, and opened my closet, pulling out my copy of Magiplasm for Dummies. I sat down on the bed, and flipped open the book to the first chapter, at the same time unwrapping my food. I took bites intermittently as I read the first few words. The first chapter dove right into the basis of what magiplasm was.

Understanding magiplasm, or magical plasmatic waves is the best way to get a beginners grip on the accurate casting of magic. Magical plasmatic waves are the way that magic propagates through air, solids, and any other medium you are casting on. This can include things living and non-living, and the basis does not change based on this status. Neutral magiplasm sits static in the air around us until something disturbs it, or it are captured (see chapter 7). All magic goes through these waves in the air, and this is how magical spells are allowed to travel at all.

Realistically, all of this information consisted of things that I already knew, so I decided to quickly read through it, and see if there was anything of importance in the first chapter. I did not find anything except mentions to future chapters where the severity of the material covered increased to things like mathematical equations for the workings of magiplasm. I quickly moved on the second chapter, which started identifying and categorizing the different properties and parts or magic.

Magiplasm does in fact have a standard unit associated with it. Magiplasm, magical potential, and magical limits are all measured in the unit of Degrees. An individual capable of outputting 1000 units of magical energy is capable of outputting 1000 degrees of magiplasm.

The more I read about magic and the way it worked, the more I wanted to keep trying different spells and conjurations. Of course, all of these were impractical at the time. Commendable, but impractical. I would need years of magical experience before I could even think about casting some of the spells I had envisioned. Things like teleportation, healing spells, and transformation spells were all out of my reach at the moment.

I finished my sandwich and threw out the wrapper, taking a sip out of my half empty water bottle. I finished reading chapter two, and glanced up at the clock.

Eleven thirty seven...

Sleep could wait. Knowledge awaited.

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait, I was really busy with exam week recently. I hope you enjoyed!

Polarity

I awoke the next morning to a pounding in my head. I quickly raised my hand to my head to try and control the pain, only to further flare the headache I had from the lack of sleep.

Ah! ...ow...

I took a quick look at the clock. I shut me eyes and realized that maybe it wasn’t the best idea in the world to stay up until four in the morning and wake up at nine.

“All the time in the world and I decided to stay up until four...” I lectured myself. I debated the point of staying in bed for a few more hours, before I wondered about getting some water to quell my headache. After deciding to get up, I went into my bathroom and took care of my immediate hygiene issues for they day. I showered quickly, and after getting out, I quickly dried off and put on my clothes for the day. I turned to look at myself in the mirror, debating weather or not I was presentable so far. I leaned in to inspect myself closer, paying close attention to my face.

...looks fine…

I looked back to my sink, and reached for my toothpaste, when a thought sprung into my mind. I tilted my head in thought, before quickly searching my mind for the recent levitation spell I had acquired.

What’s stopping me from using it on two things at once…?

Really, the only thing stopping me was my reserve of magical energy. I locked the spell on both the toothpaste and my brush, before casting it and lifting my hands. Both the objects went with my hand, but before I could even think about applying the paste, I found myself unable to further lift the paste and brush, and quickly had to set them down. I took a step back, breathing heavily, before getting upset and deciding to just do it the regular way. After finishing, I looked in the mirror, checking to see if I had missed anything in my teeth. I stepped back, content with the job that I had done. I gave myself a small smile as I looked at myself.

…

The glass of the mirror shattered into a thousand pieces as my clenched fist collided with it at speeds that shouldn’t have even been possible for me. I stepped back, and looked to the floor. I let out a small gasp, before thinking about what had just happened.

“...I… what?” I asked myself as I looked at what I had done.

What… why did I… do that?

I stepped away from the shards of glass before looking at the wall where the mirror once was. Shards of the mirror remained, but the majority of it was on the floor in pieces. My next thought was about who I would need to talk to to get this fixed, and weather or not I would be charged for it.

“Why did...” I said, still beyond confused.

I did a double take at the door, before exiting my bathroom and stood, bewildered, in my room. I looked at my fist, to find that there was no damage done to it.

“...What the fuck is going on?” I asked the air. I shook my head, before exiting my room in a hurry. I made my way to one of the meeting rooms that I would expect to find Celestia at at this time in the morning. As I rounded the corner, I quickly stepped around a pony who was walking around the corner.

“Sorry, my mistake,” I said aloud.

“Hm, yes, it was,” the pony responded. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the pony was not one of the castle staff, or anyone I knew either. This pony was wearing rather high end clothing, and seemed to be rather cross with the way I had almost walked into him. I turned to look at him as he walked away, and a few more fancily dressed ponies followed him. I snorted at this, but otherwise payed them no mind.

Upon arriving at the meeting room, I saw a few more ponies sitting next to Celestia. They were apparently discussing something, as they looked rather deep in conversation. A few of the ponies cast a glare my way, but I payed them no heed. Celestia met my gaze for a few moments, and I could swear I saw a look of slight anger in her face. Not an “I’m angry at you," but more of an "I'm angry at these circumstances” kind of mad.

Hm…

I quickly went over to a long table on the side of the room that had a multitude of refreshments and snacks on it. Things like pastries and assorted dainties, nothing too heavy. I grabbed a few small snacks before I exited the room. I slid down the wall parallel to the doors, and sat on the floor, partaking in my small breakfast.

From what I had gathered, though it wouldn’t take a genius to figure it out, Celestia had been involved in a meeting, which seemed to leave her slightly agitated. I quickly devoured the muffin that I had taken, and started eating the apple that I had taken. About half an apple later, the doors to the room in front of me opened, and the ponies that had been conversing with the princess stepped out, and made their way down the hallway. I looked back to see Celestia sitting at the head of the table, and I stood up to go talk to her. She looked up to see me approaching her.

“Hello Daniel, how are you this morning?” she asked me.

“Well...” I trailed off immediately. She raised an eyebrow at this.

“What… seems to be the issue?” she asked, looking me up and down.

“How much, hypothetically, does a standard bathroom mirror cost?” I asked in an innocent tone. She turned her head slightly.

“...approximately… one hundred bits. Why?” she asked me.

“Let’s say… hypothetically of course, I broke the mirror in my room. Would I have to pay for replacement? Hypothetically?” I asked her. She let her shoulders fall.

“...how did you break it?”

“I… well, that part I’m still a little confused about. I mean, I was standing there, trying to cast a simple levitation spell, when I lost hold on them, so I put them down. By them I mean my toothpaste and brush. I looked at myself in the mirror, and then I just… hit it,” I told her. She blinked a few times at this.

“So, you just… hit it? I’m still lost on the ‘why’ part,” she said again.

“I don’t know! I wasn’t angry, or sad, or upset at all! I just… look, all I know is one minute I was looking at myself, and the next, there were shards of glass all over the floor. I can’t even really remember it. I mean, I know I hit it, but I don’t know why!” I explained. Celestia lowered her head in thought.

“And the thing is, it wasn’t a normal hit either. It was fast, I mean ridiculously fast. I don’t think I could have even blinked in the time it took me to hit it,” I finished.

“I… you say you were trying to cast a levitation spell?” she asked me.

“That’s right, I was casting the spell on both the toothpaste and my brush at the same time, when I lost the spell, and then just… bang! Broken mirror,” I told her. Celestia put her hoof to her chin in thought.

“I can’t… think of a situation in which this would occur normally. Maybe...” she trailed off. I tilted my head, and motioned for her to continue. She let out a small chuckle.

“I mean, of course the obvious answer would be to say it has to do with your magic, or something about the elements,” she told me with smirk. I blinked a few times.

“...but what if that’s the problem?” I said in a hushed tone. She picked up the tea that she had set in front of her, taking a sip before responding.

“I as much as I would love to help you in this matter, I am rather busy today, and I need to make my way to my next appointment. This meeting happened to finish early, which is why I am talking to you right now. I will, however, send a member of the staff to replace your mirror,” she told me before standing up. She took her tea, finishing it before walking towards the exit.

“Perhaps you could find something about this in the library?” she told me.

“What would I even begin to look for?” I asked her. She turned and gave me a small smile.

“That’s your job, not mine,” she said, and with that, she left the room. I dropped my shoulders in defeat, before looking towards the table covered in snacks. I looked around the room, only to see a single maidspony cleaning up the table where the princess had been sitting. I looked back to the food table.

“Ahhhh… whatever,” I thought aloud, opting to take a second helping of breakfast.

One Hour Later

I placed the most recent copy of Incantations back on the shelf where I had found it, before moving on to another shelf in the Charms section of the Magic quarter.

The castle’s library was quite impressive, and was likely the largest of its kind in all of Equestria. The library was divided into sections, four of them, thus the name quarters. Magic, Life, Learning, and Tales. Each quarter was then divided into countless subsections, each listed alphabetically. My first thought was to ask why Magic wasn’t in the same category as Learning. However, when you compare the absoluteness of magic in everyday life, as well as in any science, it becomes clear to see why it has a category of its own.

“Incantations is basically a joke,” I mumbled to myself. Incantations was a yearly printed book that allowed users to send in various tips and spells about magic in everyday life, and picked the best ones to feature in its publications. However, the individuals who picked the information that went into the book didn’t seem too smart, as the series as a whole seemed more like a gimmick than anything else.

Now what could I look at next…

“Daniel! Are you here?” I heard a familiar voice call out to me.

“Yeah, if you can hear me,” I called back. I looked down the aisle of bookshelves to see Austin poke his head around the corner, before he walked up to me.

“And keep your voice down! This is a library,” I told him in a quiet tone. He gave me a look of mock surprise, before making a motion of “zipping your lips.” I rolled my eyes, before going back to looking for a book that could help me.

“So uh, can I talk to you about something?” he asked me. I looked to him with a serious look.

"Yeah, of course,” I said.

“Well… I had my blood done. Same thing with my body, as a whole. The princess said that I did everything that they ran you through,” he said. I motioned for him to carry on.

“They uh… they said that whatever you have, isn’t what I have,” he told me. I tilted my head for a moment. Then it dawned on me.

For a few moments, we stared at each other. I blinked a few times.

“So… is that a good thing?” he asked me. I turned back to the bookshelves.

“I can’t answer that for you Austin,”

“I know, but I just… I don’t know how to feel about this,”

“Well, fortunately right now there’s nothing to feel. We’ll just take this as it comes,” I told him, as I picked out a book, looking over its rather glossy cover.

“I guess so,” Austin said in response. I placed the book I had selected behind me on the floor, with a small pile of books that I picked out for reading.

“Hey, what are you doing anyway?” he asked me.

“I’m trying to find a book that will help me with something that happened today,”

“And what happened today?”

“I was brushing my teeth and I broke my mirror,”

“...that doesn’t seem like the… what?” he asked confusedly. I laughed as I went on.

“I was trying to use a levitation spell to help me brush my teeth, when I just… blacked out, I guess. For a split second, I had no control over my body, and in that split second, I hit the mirror as hard and as fast as I could. I don’t know why, and I’m trying to figure it out.

“...muscle spasm?” Austin asked quietly. I smiled a bit at this.

“I don’t think that was it. It was so fast that I doubt you would know what would happen if you were watching,”

“Then how did you know if you lost control,” he asked me.

“I lost control, not sight,”

“Ah,”

“Regardless, it’s something to keep me occupied, no matter how overdrawn and overthought it is. It could be something, or it could be nothing. Though based on recent events, I honestly doubt it’s nothing,” I explained myself.

I bent over and picked up the small collection of books I had selected. We walked over to the librarians desk, and I got my books checked out. We left the library, hearing the large wooded doors slowly shut behind us.

A Cut Above

“How does immortality even work? Like... what does that involve?” Austin asked me as he idly swayed back and forth in my desk chair. I flipped to the next page in my book before looking to him.

“When’s the last time either of us were immortal?” I asked him.

“Before all of this?” he asked. I nodded in response.

“Never,”

“Well then how am I supposed to know how it works?”

“But... what if there’s nothing to be worried about?”

“Do I look worried?”

“You look like you’re panicking, yes,”

“Well I’m not. I’m trying to find out about what happened this morning,” I told Austin, dismissing the conversation, returning to my book. Austin and I had come back to my room. Well, it was more like I had come back to my room and Austin had followed me here, and then invited himself in. Really, I didn’t mind the company, as I had nothing better to do today. We had the window propped open and the door was left agape for anyone to come by.

Austin stood up and walked over to the bathroom door. He opened it and stuck his head inside.

“Man, you really smacked this thing, huh?” he called out. I looked back to him, only to see him disappear completely into the bathroom.

“Be careful in there! There’s still glass on the floor in there,” I warned him.

“Why didn’t you clean it up, or at least sweep it aside?” he asked me.

I didn’t have a broom. I would never be able to get all of the little pieces off the floor,” I called back as he stepped out and closed the door. I flipped to chapter four, “Spontaneous Magic,” in my book on spell based magic.

In rare cases, one who possesses a large quantity of reserve magiplasm can be found releasing pent up magiplasm in forms of spells and castings before they even realize it. Most magiplasm is harmonious in nature, and is therefore non-volatile, but in extreme cases, outbursts of magic can cause significant damage to surroundings and even people, as it is not uncommon to cast an accidental ‘target based’ spell, as these are usually very demanding spells that will use a large amount of magiplasm very quickly. See Chapter 5 for more detail.

I flipped to the glossary to see if I could find anything else about the term “spontaneous,” but the word only appeared in the chapter I was just on. I went back to see if I could find anymore useful information.

“Hey, are we allowed to leave the castle by ourselves, or do we still need an accompanying guard with us?” Austin asked me as he exited the bathroom.

“Why would they...” I trailed off.

“What? What is it?” Austin asked in a hurried tone.

“Actually... I don’t know. Why?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at my friend.

“I mean... we could go and see. Not go see anyone, but go and see if we need a handler,” he responded in a sly tone. I tilted my head slightly. He walked to the door and turned back to me.

“Well? Come on, let’s go!” he told me. I looked back to my book for a few moments.

“I... ok,” I said back. I set my book down on my bed with it open so I would know where I was later, and got up. I followed Austin, and we made our way to the main hallway of the castle. We approached the large, open doors, and saw that the drawbridge was down. I looked to Austin as we approached the gates.

“What’s the plan here? Are we just going to walk through?” I asked him.

“I mean, what else are we going to do?”

“No, this is a stupid idea. Why did you have this stupid idea?”

“Why did you agree to it if it was so stupid? I thought you were supposed to be the smart one,” he told me with a large smirk on his face.

“I... you got me there,”

We continued at our rather quick pace towards the bridge, and when we got there, we saw a few guards standing at their posts, and a few were just coming back in from exercises. We got over so they could pass, and we walked right past them. As we walked past the guards on post, we caught a few glances our way, but other than that, no one made an effort to stop us. We walked right through the checkpoint, and no one batted an eye. I quickly looked back at the guards we had just passed.

“Hah! I told you!” Austin practically yelled to me.

“I guess you were right... huh,” I thought aloud.

“Was there ever a doubt?”

“Yes, many doubts. Also, why are we going to Canterlot? Why are we doing this,” I asked him. He reached to his belt, and pulled out his bag of bits.

“This is why. I still have a lot of bits, and nothing to spend them on. Why not go see what we can find?” he told me.

“Again? What do you need this time? And what happens if we come back and get in trouble?” I asked cautiously.

“Oh come on, what’s gonna happen for us leaving to spend a little time by ourselves? I mean, really. A slap on the wrist? Come on, live a little!” he told me. All I could do in response was shake my head as we walked past the houses that were directly outside of the castle. The castle was surrounded by a residential area on most of its sides, and all of the houses that were there were quite high end, at least from the looks of things. All of the houses in this part of the city looked extremely high end, and I could not even begin to imagine how much one of them would cost, even on the lower end.

We eventually got out of the residential area, and soon found ourselves on the main street with all the main shops. Once again, we browsed the windows for a few minutes each, not finding anything of real use at the moment. As we approached the end of the shop area, we found a few restaurants and coffee shops that were next to each other.

“Have you eaten yet?” I asked Austin.

“No, what about you?”

“Nope, but that place looks nice. Your treat? Great, let’s go!” I said as I took off towards a restaurant that in reality I knew nothing about. Austin ran to catch up to me.

“Wait, that’s not how conversation works! You have to wait for me to respond to what you-”

Austin was cut off as he caught up to me by a man running in between us, knocking us both aside as he did. Austin lost his balance and fell to the ground while I caught myself and regained my balance.

“Hey! Someone stop him! That guy’s a thief!” I heard a voice call out. I quickly glanced at the mare who cried out, then back to the man who was running. People were looking, but no one was making an effort to try and intervene with the crook. I glanced to Austin who was looking at me with a confused look on my face.

“Ah... FUCK!” I yelled as I pushed off of my foot, taking chase after the man. There were more than a few people out today and I had to weave through and dodge people to make any progress towards the man. Fortunately, so did he. Because of my height, I could practically see over most of the ponies in the street, and I saw the man glance back at me as I ran through the crowd.

“HEY! STOP HIM!” I yelled to the people on the street. A few people looked my way, a few looked to the man I was chasing, and a few even made an effort to stop him, but his running head start made it difficult to get in his way in time. I remembered what Celestia had shown me about my body, and I realized that if I had to, I could just outrun the man. He would get tired eventually, and this would be all over.

I must have been making progress towards catching up, because the man was definitely closer than he was before.

The man suddenly took a hard right down a smaller street, and I quickly followed him down it. This street was much more tight quarters, and had small stalls set up on the left side of it. It seemed to be a place for non-noble people, as all of the people who were here either weren’t wearing fancy clothes, or weren’t walking in a pompous manner.

“STOP HIM OR GET OUT OF MY WAY!” I yelled to the people on the street. It was quite noisy with the sheer number of people who were in the street, and once again, those who were close enough to hear me did not have enough time to trip the fleeing man. Those who were were out of earshot had no way of knowing what was happening. We were nearing the end of the shop area, and I knew that I had to stop him now. If he escaped into another part of town, I would have no idea where to start looking. The man likely knew the place around here a lot better than I did, and if I didn’t catch him here, he would likely have an unending number of placed to hide or run. That was my thought process, at least.

As the end of the street came into view, and the masses of people and ponies started to thin, I saw a small stand at the end of the street, with practically no one next to it. On the ground were a few small wooden crates, which looked empty from my angle. An idea popped into my head, and I threw my hand out, searching for a lock with my levitation spell.

“Come on... come on!” I seethed through my teeth. The man was getting dangerously close to the end of the street, and he knew it. He quickened his pace, likely only having around fifty meters of street left. I concentrated everything I had onto the box, and just when I thought it was over...

“...YES!”

I cast the spell on the box, and threw my arm out to my right. The box mirrored my movements, and slid out of its spot and into the street.

Right into the path of the man.

He was only around a meter or so from the box when it moved in this way, and he didn’t have enough time to react to it. His feet slammed into the box, and he lost his balance. He came crashing down on top of the box, rolling a few feet because of his momentum. Before he had a chance to get back up, I was on top of him. I jumped on him, placing my knee on his chest, using my body weight to keep him from moving.

“Stop! Just stop! It’s over!” I yelled to the man who refused to stop squirming and trying to escape. I glanced to my left, seeing a few royal guards running down the street. Austin was right behind him.

Nice job kid...

“Get off of him!” one of the guards called out as they approached the scene. I did as I was told, and stood up, turning the man over to the guards. One of them picked him up, and the other one started frisking him for safety. I glanced over to Austin, only to see the mare who ran out of the shop calling for help. I smiled and walked over to my friend.

“Oh my god, thank you so much for stopping him! He was eating at my restaurant, and when he came to pay, before I could do anything, he grabbed some of the money from my desk safe and took off out of the door!” the mare told me.

“Is there someone watching the shop right now?” I asked the mare.

“Oh, of course. My husband was hell bent on protecting the safe. He told me to follow the guards, once you took after him,” she told me. I nodded, looking back to the man. One of the guards walked over to us.

“Are you the owner of the shop that was robbed?” he asked us. I glanced to the mare.

“Oh, yes! That’s me!” she told the guard.

“Ma’am, we’re just going to go back to the store for now, my partner here is going to take this man to the station. Please follow me. You two. Come with me too. I’ll have come questions for you after,” he told us in a stern voice. I looked to the other guard, only to see that the man had a binding spell put on his legs. He would be able to walk, but certainly not run.

I turned and followed the guard back to the store. The mare was confirmed as the owner, or co-owner, of the shop, and the money that was stolen was returned to her. Apparently in his mad dash, the man had managed to grab a bag of about six hundred bits. A rather large amount for a desk safe.

Before the guard questioned us, the mare wanted to speak to me. Her husband stood next to her with a large, warm smile on his face,

“Thanks to you, our business has been saved from a robbery. If you hadn’t have been coming by when you were, the man might have just gotten away. My husband and I cannot thank you enough today!” she said to me. I nodded my response.

“We would like to give you a reward, as our way of saying thanks,” the stallion told me in a low, gruff voice.

“I appreciate it, really, but it was just what I thought was right. There’s no need to rewar-”

“Bah! Nonsense! Were you, by any chance, coming into the restaurant before this happened?” the mare asked me.

“Well, yeah. My friend and I were coming in to have some lunch,” I told her.

“Excellent! How does free meals for the next three months sound to you?” she asked me.

“Well, that sounds great!” I said.

“Perfect. I’ll just get your name, and you’ll be good to go!” she told me. The stallion whispered something into her ear, kissed her on the cheek, then disappeared into the back of the restaurant. I looked back to the mare.

“My name is Daniel. Dee, a, en, i, e, ell. Daniel,” I told her.

“Perfect. If you’re ever hungry, don’t hesitate to stop by. We’d be more than happy to serve you,” she told me with a warm smile.

“Thanks, I appreciate it. Um, I think this guard wants me for now, so I’ll have to make that visit some other time. Bye for now!” I said as I turned to walk out to the restaurant. The guard seemed to be talking to Austin at the moment, and as I walked up to them his attention switched to me.

“Ah, Daniel, right? Can you answer a few short questions for me about the crime that was just committed?” he asked me.

“Of course, go ahead,” I told him.

“Can you give me a brief rundown as to what transpired,” he told me, pulling out a notepad with his magic.

“Sure. Austin and I, that’s my friend here, were walking towards this restaurant here to get some lunch, when a man came running out of the door. Austin got knocked down, and before he could get up, I took off after the man. I chased him down the street, that way, and before I could fully catch up to him, he ducked down a smaller street. Just before we got to the end of the street, I saw some boxes sitting on the ground next to a cart. I grabbed one of them with a levitation spell, and slid it in his way. He tripped over it, and I jumped on top of him to stop him from getting up. That’s when you guys showed up and took him away,” I finished my description of what happened. The guard was furiously scribbling something down, before looking up to me.

“Sorry, you said you used... a levitation spell? I don’t follow, humans can’t use magic,” he said to me. I glanced to Austin who was smiling at me.

“Show him,” Austin said to me. I looked back to the guard.

“Can I see your pencil for a second?” I asked him. He handed it to me, and I took it in my hand. I quickly locked on to it, and cast the spell.

“You.. how are you doing that!?” the guard asked me.

“I can use magic. Or at least, a little bit,” I told him, before letting the pencil drop into my hand.

“I... I’ve never seen a human that could cast magic before,” he told me, taking the pencil back. I cleared my throat loudly at this.

“Of course. Is that all? Would you like to add anything else to the description that you gave me?” he asked me. I thought for a few moments, before deciding I was already content with my answer. I shook my head, and he nodded, closing his notepad.

“Well thank you for taking the time to tell my this information. You know, it’s good to see citizens taking the initiative and chances to help other folks out around here. You’re what we want to see in the guard!” he praised me. I gave a smile in response, before he gave me a look of scrutiny.

“You know, when you get old enough, you might consider signing up for guard tryouts. I saw you take off after that crook. With the way you run, you’d be a fine addition to the guard,” he told me. I digested what he had told me.

“I appreciate your praise. I’ll actually keep that on my mind, thanks,” I told him. He nodded, before sauntering away, back to work. I turned to Austin.

“Man, can you run or what! That was crazy!” he told me. I turned around and looked back to the restaurant.

“Still wanna get some lunch?” I asked Austin over my shoulder. He smiled.

“Yeah, let’s go,” he said, and we walked into the restaurant, our stomachs rumbling.

Setting Out

The meal we had was, like most of them, uneventful but nonetheless delicious. The restaurant had gladly paid for my meal like they said they would, and even gave Austin a free pass this one time after a bit of coercing, on the stipulation that this was the only time that they would. Our appetites sated, we made our way back to the castle, having had enough excitement for one day.

Upon arriving at the castle proper, Austin had taken me to the training grounds, and told me “stay put” while he went to get his bow that he kept in his room. I had entered the room, only to find it occupied with a... squad? A squad of soldiers running through drills and practices. I waited for Austin outside the room after taking a look at the clip board schedule. If it was to be believed, there would be no group outside today, so Austin could practice out there.

Austin returned after a few more minutes, clutching his quiver tightly, his bow slung across his back.

“Is the room open?” he asked me. I tilted my head with a smile.

“No, it isn’t,” I told him, handing him the schedule. He browsed it for a few moments.

“Aw, damn. I was hoping to get some practice in,” he said in a defeated tone, handing the schedule back to me

“Oh well,” I told him, shrugging my shoulders. He turned to walk back to our rooms

“Well, let’s go back to your room and hang out there, I guess,” he told me as he started walking down the hall. I stayed where I was, waiting for him to turn around. He took about ten steps before he turned around and looked at me.

“...are you coming?”

“Did you even read the schedule?”

“Yeah, it’s occupied, why?”

“The outside grounds are open, you know,” I told him with a large smile on my face. He dropped his shoulders and deadpanned in annoyance. I smiled and went through the doors to the training room, putting the schedule back as I did. The doors to the outside area were directly on the opposite side of the room, and I walked past the guards who were training, as they had left sufficient space to get to the other side of the room. Austin followed me, and we went outside, covering out eyes to the bright sun that assaulted us. I looked to the right, and saw that there were a few archery targets set up, so we wouldn’t have to bother the guards inside.

“Cool. Hey, why don’t you go and see if there are any bows for you to use? You can practice with me then!” Austin asked me excitedly. I looked to the door, and decided that it would be better than sitting around outside with nothing to do. I didn’t have my book with me, and the bows were closer, and therefore less work. I stood up and went back inside, quickly moving back to the weapon racks. On the second to last rack were a large selection of bows, with many quivers full of arrows hung next to them. I grabbed what looked to be a basic wooden bow, and one of the quivers that all appeared to be the same. I went back outside to meet Austin. He had already cleared one of the targets of arrows that were left in it, and had stepped back. I stopped next to him as he was nocking an arrow. He drew the string back, with less trouble than he was likely used to. He held still for a few moments, before letting the arrow fly. It stuck a few inches right of the center, and a few inches high, by the looks of it.

“I got one,” I told him.

“Good. Go,” he responded.

“What?

“I said go, shoot it,”

I looked to the target for a few moments before letting my quiver slide to the ground. I took an arrow and nocked it on my string. I drew a large breath in, then let it out. I pulled the string back, and focused for a few moments. Then...

“Oh god, that was awful,” I thought aloud. The arrow had missed the target completely and had lodged itself into a large wooden wall that was used as a stop for any arrows that missed.

“No, I mean, you could have missed that wall! Just... try again,” Austin told me. I picked up another arrow and drew the string back. I let go, and the arrow hit the very top of the target, the part that was wood.

“See? There you go! Do it again,”

The next arrow missed again, hitting the backstop and lodging itself deep inside the wood.

“There, I did it again. Your turn,” I told him. He laughed, before stepping up to take his turn. Austin drew an arrow, and nocked it on his string, and pulled back the string. He let it go, and the arrow flew true, nailing the target in the center of the bulls eye. He pulled out another arrow, and repeated the process, though this time the arrow missed the center by a few inched to the left. Once more, he sent an arrow into the target, in between his first and second shot. He looked to me.

“If I have to learn this, so do you, come on, I’ll help you,” he told me. I flinched in response.

“You don’t have to learn this, you chose to, that’s not even fair,” I responded.

“Yeah, but we’re here now, so you have to learn it too,”

I shook my head slightly at his logic, before pulling another arrow out of my quiver. I pulled the string back, before slightly turning to Austin.

“How do I aim? Where do I look?” I asked for his guidance. Austin had been practicing his archery skills on and off for a little over six months now, and he had a fairly considerable head start on me in terms of proficiency. This let me default to him as a guide comfortably.

“Well, I just like to look down the arrow, but a few of the guards told me that in a real situation, that could take too long. They told me to match my target with the top of the bow arm, that’s the piece that you hold onto, and judge how much you have to account for elevation based on how far you are away from the target. At this distance, it’s okay to just aim right at the target, but for things that are further away, you could have to aim up a little bit,” he finished explaining to me. I nodded in understanding, and turned to look at the target again.

I followed what I had been told, and drew my string back. I lined up the arm of the bow with the target, and prepared to fire.

“Be careful of wind, you might have to aim a little bit off center,” Austin warned me. I waited to feel any wind, and when I realized that there was very little wind, I let go, and watched the arrow fly. It sunk into the cork target, around a few inches to the left of the center. My elevation was perfect, however.

“I was aiming right at it!” I exclaimed.

“I told you to watch out for wind,” he told me.

“What wind?”

“There’s a very small breeze, I know you can feel it. Even something as little as that can mess up your shot,” he explained to me. My shoulders dropped, and I sighed. I picked up another arrow, and prepared my next shot. This time, I aimed a little bit to the right, as the wind was blowing left. I held for a few more moments, then let go. The arrow flew right into the center of the target, and my face lit up.

“Look! Yeah!” I yelled.

“Nice. Now that you know what you’re doing, how about a little game?” Austin asked me. I looked to him.

“I kinda doubt that hitting the target a few times qualifies me as ‘knowing what I’m doing’” I told him, making air quotation gestures as I did. He gave me a small shrug as I said this.

“Well, I mean if you don’t think that you can handle it, I guess you don’t have to,” he taunted me. I shook my head.

“No, see, that's not it. You have such a head start on me, of course I can’t handle it. What do you think will happen?” I said in response. He deadpanned.

“Yeah, no shit I have experience on you, what do you think I am, an idiot?” he asked me.

“Yes, yes I do, you’re a full-blown stupid person,”

“....that’s just rude,”

“Alright, what’s this game you had in mind,” I asked him, shaking my head.

“It’s called ‘shoot and move back.’ Each of us takes a shot, and if we both hit the target, we take one large step backwards. If one of us misses, and the other person hits the target, the person who hit the target wins. If we both miss, we go until one of us hits it, then the usual rules apply. You in?” he asked me.

“I guess so. We don’t have to hit the paper, right? Just the actual cork, right?” I asked him. He looked to the target for a few moments before looking back to me.

“I mean, if you want to play like that, we can,” he said. We agreed that that would be better for me, given my experience, and we started the game.

Austin’s first shot hit very close to the bulls eye, and mine went a little low. Austin took a big step back, and we played again.

“So, Princess Luna,” Austin spoke as he nocked his next arrow.

“What about her?” I asked as he took his shot, which hit the target.

“She doesn’t like me very much,” he told me as I took my next shot which landed right next to Austin’s. I chuckled a bit at this.

“This again? We’ve had this conversation, I know she doesn’t like you,” I told him. Austin took a big step back, and we turned to face the target.

“Well, I know, but...” he trailed off as he nocked an arrow.

“Well what?” I asked. Austin fired his arrow, which landed directly in the center of the target, and I picked up another arrow.

“...say I didn’t want that? I didn’t want her to not like me,” he said as I readied my shot.

“And why’s that? Why the sudden change of heart?” I wondered aloud. My arrow landed about a foot low of the bulls eye, and I made a note to not under compensate for elevation.

“I don’t know, just... It doesn’t seem smart for her to dislike me when we practically live together,” he said as we took another step back.

“Well, do you know why she dislikes you?” I asked as I backed up to give Austin enough room.

“Not really, I mean... I wasn’t overly nice to her when we first got here, to say the least,” he said as he took his shot, which went a little low and to the right.

“I know, I was there for some of it. Have you apologized for the things you said? That could be a good place to start,” I told him as I readied my next arrow.

“Yeah, I guess so. I mean... when should I do it? Not like... when as in a time, but what should I wait for?” he asked me. My arrow went a little high this time, but still hit the target.

“Nothing crazy, don’t wait for the end of the world. Just wait until you can talk to her privately, and tell her that you’re sorry, that’s all,” I told him as we backed up again. He nodded as he picked up another arrow.

The rest of the game went on with only idle chit-chat at intermittent times. Austin ended up winning because I missed a shot after we backed up a few more times. We cleaned up our arrows, and before I could put my bow away, a guard came out of the castle and approached us.

“Princess Celestia has requested your presence immediately. I am here to accompany you to the throne room, please come with me,” he told us. Austin and I shared a glance.

“We have equipment to put away,” I told the guard.

“That can be attended to later, please follow me,” he told us, and turned to walk away. I looked at Austin, who shrugged his response. We entered the indoor training room. By this time, the rooms had emptied out, and no one was in the room. I quickly went over to the weapons rack, and put my bow and arrows away. I re-joined Austin and the guard, and we made our way to the throne room.

“We’re aren’t in trouble, are we?” Austin asked the guard.

“No, quite the contrary, actually,” he told us. I smiled at Austin, who seemed rather relieved.

Upon entering the throne room, we found Celestia sitting at her desk, but instead of signing papers, she was merely reading a book. The guard promptly left us, to tend to his other duties, I would assume. Austin and I shared another glance of uneasiness as we approached Celestia. She looked over her book, before setting it down to greet us.

“Daniel, Austin, hello,” she spoke to us. I nodded, and Austin gave a small wave, which I found quite funny.

“I have received word as to what happened with the thief at the Chef’s Hat restaurant. I understand he gave you quite a run for your money, did he not?” he she asked me.

So that’s the name of that place...

I could not sense any anger or accusation in her tone, leading me to relax a little. I cleared my throat before I spoke.

“Yes, he was pretty fast, but I caught him,” I answered.

“Interesting... how did you do it?” she asked me. The guard who I talked to earlier must have told the princess what had happened.

“Well... man, this all over again, huh? Well, we were going to get some food when a man ran out of the restaurant with the money he had stolen. I chased him, threw a box in his way with magic, and then sat on him so he couldn’t move. That what happened. In a nutshell,” I hastily told her.

“Hm, interesting. Well, it’s good that you arrived when you did. Did you, by any chance, have a guard escort?” she asked me. I saw Austin look at me in my peripheral vision, and I took a sharp breath in.

“No, we did not. We were bored, and we had nothing better to do, so we left,” I answered. The princess nodded a few times before closing her eyes.

“You’re initiative may be slightly misplaced, but nothing negative came out of you not having an escort. Hm, I see. Your restriction of needing a guard escort is being lifted. You are free to leave the castle whenever you see fit,” she told us. I smiled slightly, and heard Austin let out a large sigh.

“Immediately, that is all. Thank you for helping stop the thief today. I’m sure you’ve done the owners of the Chef’s Hat a service that they will not soon forget, both of you” Celestia praised us. I looked to Austin, who was beaming with pride. We said our goodbyes, and turned to leave the throne room.

Thing were going relatively okay for us. This was definitely a step in the right direction, for both of us.

Things are looking up...

Author's Note

I apologize for the long wait. I found myself in a rather awkward spot this weekend, and I had no way to write. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Eighteenth

20 Days Later

I awoke to the usual sounds that accompanied the castle at this time in the morning.

...

Nothing.

“Hm, how predictable,” I thought aloud with my eyes closed as I rolled over onto my side. I didn’t really have to get up right now. Actually, I didn’t really have to get up at all today. I glanced up at the clock on my wall, seeing that it was shortly after ten in the morning.

Ehhhhhhhhh... I don’t know...

I moped around in my bed for a few more minutes, lazily stretching and moving about my bed. I practically yelled when I stretched out, waking up my muscles and moaning in comfort. I relaxed for a few more minutes before glancing at my bathroom door.

“Uhhhh ehhhhhhh ah flubaner ga degatibanooschiki!” I yelled into my pillow as I rolled over onto my belly, stretching again. I decided that it was a good a time as any to get up, and I rolled over and fell onto the floor with a thud, taking my blanket with me.

I stood up, and placed my blanket back onto my bed, before going into my bathroom and turning on the shower.

I had started to let my hair grow out a bit, not because I wanted to, but because the past few months specifically had been very busy, with schooling, magic, and now today on my plate.

As the cool water ran over my head and through my hair, I had time to reflect on what today was.

It was my eighteenth birthday. Today was the day where I gained my personal freedom, the day where Equestria recognized me as a total individual. I would have a lot more options after today, and I didn’t really know what what I wanted to do.

Because I was a legal adult now, I would be able to move out of the castle if I wanted to. That was my first thought. But it also occurred to me that my current situation might have a fairly large silver lining.

Currently, I didn’t have to worry about getting a place for myself. I didn’t have to worry about schooling right away, and I didn’t have to really worry about employment until someone called me on it.

I shut the water off and stepped out of the shower. I quickly dried off, and went back to my room to put my clothes on.

I still had a fair amount of bits left from the thousand that Celestia had given us. I had only spent around two hundred of them, leaving me with somewhere around eight hundred bits remaining. With free meals lined up for the immediate future, I would not have anything to really worry about.

I’ll have to speak to Celestia about what to do...

After brushing my teeth and preparing myself for the day, I looked to the clock, and read ten forty nine. I opened the door to my room, and-

“Happy birthday!” Austin screamed in my face. I jumped back a few feet, wincing in surprise at the sudden outburst. Austin stepped up to me, and handed me a... red balloon.

“Here, I got you this, now come on, we have to go!” Austin said as he turned and ran down the hall. I watched as he ran, stepping out into the hall. He turned around before he got to the corner.

“Well, are you coming?” he shouted to me.

“Where are we going this time?” I asked him, looking at the balloon he had given me, wondering where he could have gotten it from.

“Just come with me, trust me. Hurry up!” he said as he took of down the hall and around the corner. I dropped my shoulders, and gave a large sigh, before breaking out into a fast jog, taking off after my friend.

I rounded the corner to the guest rooms, and saw Austin waiting for me halfway down the hall.

“What are you so excited about? I’m supposed to me the excited one, not you,” I told him as I stopped next to him. We started walking down the hall together.

“I know, but I can’t help but be happy! You’re eighteen today, no? Why aren’t you happy?” he asked me. Austin rarely got this excited, and whenever he did, it usually came with an abundance of energy. Today was no exception.

“I mean, it’s just another day, except now I have to worry about things like taxes, and girlfriends,” I said cynically.

“Oh, don’t be like that. Come on, I know what will make it better,” he told me as he started walking faster.

We passed a few servants and guards on the way there, and a few that I had made acquaintance with even wished me a “happy birthday.” Eventually, Austin lead me to one of the meeting rooms in the castle.

“Okay, wait here,” he told me as he slipped inside and shut the door behind him. I heard the sound of a door locking, and I dropped my shoulders in disbelief.

“Not like I have any choice!" I yelled thought the door. Austin likely didn’t even hear me. I turned around, and leaned against the wall, waiting for whatever scheme Austin had come up with.

With the kind of ponies in the castle, it would have been relatively difficult to plan a party, much less a proper one. I expected some sort of half party, half “they wouldn’t let me put streamers up” kind of event, and I laughed aloud at the thought of it.

The door soon flew open, and Austin looked at me.

“Okay, you can come in now,” he told me with a large smile on his face. I stepped through the doorway, and...

“Holy... shit...”

The room had been colourfully decorated with confetti, balloons, and much to my surprise and amusement, streamers. The large round table in the center of the room had been adorned with various complex aesthetic objects to make it look nice, and the walls had banners depicting my favourite colours and objects on it. All six of the banners were pink with gold borders, and they all had different emblems on them.

The first one depicted an apple tree. Austin must have been paying attention to my clothing. The second one had a few books sewn into it. The third had a picture of a hand holding fire, the universally recognized symbol for magic. The fourth had a... broken mirror?

Ha ha... actually, how did he do all of this? These would have to have been specially made for this occasion to make any sense...

The last two each said happy birthday on them, and rested at the far end of the room. The room was vibrant, warm, colourful, and overall, just looked like a lot of fun.

“Do you like it? I spent all of yesterday setting it up. Well, me and a couple of the staff, that is. What do you think?” he said anxiously.

I had no response. I stood there in awe of the absolute attention to detail in the room.

“You... I... how did you get those banners?” Was all I could ask.

“Well... I actually didn’t get them, the princess did! I went to Celestia, and asked her if she could help me get this whole thing set up! She asked me what I wanted her to do, and I told her she could help me decorate the room. She came up with the idea for banners, and I told her what to put on them,” he told me, puffing up his chest proudly.

“Well!?” he pressured me. I looked at him with a smile.

“Austin, this is amazing! What else am I going to say? Look what you did? This... this is fucking awesome!” I said emphatically.

“Great! What do you want to do first?” he asked me. I looked at him briefly, before gazing around the room again.

“...is there cake?” I asked with a smirk on my face.

“You bet there is! Here, over here,” he told me, leading me around the table. Along the back wall, there was a long table. On it, one could find a large assortment of party foods. Drinks like punch, coffee, and tea were present. Dainties like cookies, small cakes, and pastries liked the right half of the table. However...

In the middle of the table sat a cake that had the beauty to bring a man to tears.

It was a beautiful cake. Triple layered, adorned with frosting and topped with slices of fruit. Apple slices, blueberries, kiwi, raspberries, and even a few slices of orange crowned the cake. The sides were decorated with chocolate frosting in patterns that made the cake look even more attractive. It was around two feet tall, and likely the same distance in width.

I felt my jaw drop slightly before I corrected my action.

“Looks tasty, huh? Celestia had the cooks make it, and man, did they do a good job or what?” Austin thought aloud.

“It looks amazing! You know, I feel like I’m going to be using that word a lot today,” I told him with a laugh.

“Well, let’s see if it tastes as good as it looks!” he said with vigor.

The next few minutes were spent trying to cut the cake without destroying too much of its outer beauty. Like individual people, however, it’s whats inside that counts. I took my piece of cake I had, and went over to fetch a fork to eat it with. Upon doing so, I wasted no time digging into my piece.

“This is amazing! Eh, there I go again. But seriously, this is great!” I said as I swallowed my first bite, quickly partaking in another helping. The cake was soft and moist, without being delicate to the point of not being able to handle it. It had a creamy texture, and the taste... was reminiscent of a variety of fruit. The taste and texture of the cake blended together so perfectly, and I quickly devoured my piece.

“Man, cake for breakfast. I wish I could get used to this,” I said as I started at my empty plate.

“Well, it probably wouldn’t be too good for your figure,” said a voice from behind us. Austin and I turned to see Celestia walking towards us. I placed my plate down on the table.

“Trust me... I’ve tried it,” she told us in a sad tone. I gave her a large smile, before turning towards the table.

“Well you can certainly indulge in a single piece, no? There’s plenty of cake, and I’m not going to lie. I feel like that’s why you’re here,” I said with a smirk. She placed a hoof on her chest in a victimized manner.

“And why is that? Can I not simply wish a friend well on his birthday?” she asked me innocently. I winced ever so slightly, but composed myself before anyone could say anything.

“If it was anyone else, I would believe them,” I told her. Austin laughed at this, and Celestia made a slight pouting face.

“Well, it would seem I have been discovered. No matter...” she said as she moved over to the cake. While Celestia helped herself to a slice, Austin came to a realization.

“Oh! I almost forgot!” he exclaimed while running over to the table in the center of the room. He picked up a bag, and reached in. While he was doing that, I conversed with Celestia.

“Hey, I never did find out when your birthday was. When is it?” I asked her. She finished cutting her piece of cake, and helped it onto her plate with her magic.

“I trust you can keep a secret?” she asked as she turned to me. I nodded.

“Usually I keep my personal information as quiet as I can, so that no one makes a big deal over it. But recently Luna has been pushing me to reveal the date to the public. She says that birthdays are big deals and need to be commemorated. Personally, I’ve never seen the appeal or use. It’s just a day. Nevertheless, you asked, and you shall receive. My birthday is actually in a few more days. June seventh is my birthday,” she told me. I made a “mouth zipping” gesture, eliciting a giggle from the princess.

“Here!” Austin yelled in my ear. I felt something latch onto my head, and I looked to Austin in confusion.

“If you’re going to eat the cake, you need to be wearing your party hat, that’s just how it works,” he told us, handing one to Celestia, who took in with her magic. The hats were classic party hats, and mine was blue with pink stripes if Austin was to be believed.

“Unfortunately, I cannot stay for much longer. I have matters to attend to, and I merely stopped by to wish Daniel a happy birthday,” Celestia told us. She placed the hat down on the table, and quickly finished her cake. We heard the sound of the door opening in the absence of conversation, and saw Lieutenant Bell approach us.

“Man, everyone is here today, huh?” Austin poked at me.

“Princess. Daniel, Austin,” Bell said with a salute directed at the princess in the room.

“Hello Lieutenant, I trust everything is up to code,” Celestia asked with a smile.

“Of course, your majesty. I am actually here to converse with Daniel here,” he told us. Austin glanced to me, and I gave him a small shrug in response. Bell looked at me, and made a “come over here motion” with his head. He and I walked a few feet away before he turned to me. Austin and Celestia apparently turned their attentions back to the cake.

“I heard one of the boys told you about joining the guard when you got old enough. That true?” Bell asked me. I nodded.

“Something like that. The day I stopped that thief, one of the guards told me that I ought to try out with the way I ran,” I told him.

“Well ya know what? If you think that that’s something you’d like to do, the tryouts are open to practically anyone who can pass the qualifiers,”

“And what are the qualifiers?”

“We take the ponies, and humans who want to join and bring them to boot camp. The qualifiers happen on day two. It’s a test to see where you are in terms of your physical strength and endurance. The first day is spent familiarizing ponies... people to the way the camp works, who their commanding officers are, and basic military expectations such as marching, commands and the like. If you can pass the qualifier, you can pass boot camp,” he informed me. I nodded slightly, taking in the information that he had given me.

“When do I have to sign up?”

“Qualifiers happen twice a month, at the start of every second week. The next one would be... next Saturday. If you want, you can test yourself. If you fail, you can always take it again. It would be nice to see someone like you try out. Who knows, might surprise yourself,” he told me. I raised an eyebrow in thought, before responding to him.

“Maybe I should work out a bit before, get a little stronger,” I told told him.

“You could always take the test to see where you need to work on. That would probably be a good idea. If you want to sign up... you can go to the recruiting offices in the city. Actually, she might be in today, I can take you to see if she’s in, if you want,” Bell offered me. I nodded, and with a smile we turned back to our friends, who were still indulging in the cake.

“Well, I would like to thank you for the impromptu festivities, but I must be going now,” Celestia told us, turning to leave.

“Thanks for stopping by,” I told her. She nodded, before gliding out of the room.

“So, what’s next?” Austin asked me. I looked at Bell, who merely raised an eyebrow at me.

“Bell and I have some business to attend to with the guard and I need to go with him. You can... do something, I don’t know,” I told him. He dropped his shoulders.

“...can I come with you?” he asked in a slightly somber tone. Bell nodded to me.

“I guess so, sure. Let’s go,” I said as I turned to leave. Austin and I walked to the door, and turned back...

...only to see Bell helping himself to a slice of the cake.

“Man, people are just in love with that thing,” Austin said, to which I gave him a confused look. He took his cake and a fork, and walked over to us.

“By the way, happy birthday,” he told me. I shook my head with a sigh, and we exited the room together.

A Refreshing Day

“Hey, can I ask you something that I’ve been thinking about for the past little while?” I asked Bell as we made our way to the castle offices.

“Sure, ask away,” he told me. I gathered my thoughts for a few moments.

“...what does the guard think of us? I mean... what did you guys think of the pair of kids when they first got here?” I formulated my answer. Bell let out a loud laugh.

“You place too much emphasis on yourself. I’m willing to bet that no one even questioned you being here when you got here because no one even cared,” he told me with a smile.

“Wow... now that’s just sad,” Austin chimed in. I nodded, and waited for Bell to continue speaking.

“But after a while, maybe a week, we all got called into the barracks in groups. We all expected a standard check, but when we got there, the princess was there. It was funny, I remember this one colt who was practically shaking in his boots. When the princess started talking, he-” Bell stopped as he looked at me, only to see me staring at him with a rather judging look on my face. He cleared his throat.

“Well... the princess had a message for us. Under no circumstances were we to trouble you two in any way. Some of us were a little confused at this, and some of the guard hadn’t even seen you by this point. But she made it absolutely clear. No one was to mess with you. At. All. None of us knew why, so we kinda just went with it,” Bell explained to me.

“That would explain the little interaction we had with the guard,” I thought aloud.

“And... it wasn’t like a big brother telling bullies to back off of his little brother. It was like... she was... she was almost angry with you two. Not angry, so much as... irritated. It almost felt like a... like a claim, for lack of a better word. You know? Like, ‘these two are mine,’ kind of thing,” he told me. I processed this information in silence for a few moments, before opening my mouth to speak.

“Well, here we are, the offices. Recruiting is in the third one. Come on,” I was cut off as Bell told us about our destination.

Just before we got to the office we were headed to, Bell took his plate and fork and handed them off to one of the staff who was heading to the kitchen with an already massive pile of plates on his back. We opened the door to the office, and stepped in.

“I’ll see what the schedule looks like, sit tight for a few,” Bell told us as he walked up to the desk. I looked back to Austin, who winked his eyebrows at me. I shook my head with a chuckle.

“Hey, staring contest, go,” Austin told me. I looked him in the eyes. Before he had the chance to win by surprising me, I quickly blew air into his eyes, forcing him to flinch and blink. I laughed, but Austin didn’t find it as funny as I did.

“Hey, that’s not allowed, that’s cheating!” he accused me.

“You never said anything, you just said ‘go,’ so I assumed there were no rules,” I said with a shrug.

“But that doesn’t even-” Austin was cut off as Bell came back to us.

“Listen up. Like I said, the next session happens next Saturday. In case you forgot, today is also Saturday. That means that you have a week to work on whatever you want to,” he told me. I tilted my head in surprise at this.

“A week? That’s all? Don’t you think I should wait for the next one?” I asked him in a concerned tone.

“Probably,” he said.

“It would make sense after all,”

“Uh huh,”

“Maybe even the one after that,”

“Sure thing,”

“I could get in better shape then,”

“Of course,”

“...”

“You signed me up for the next one, didn’t you?” I deadpanned.

“Yep,” he responded with a sly grin. I closed my eyes and dropped my shoulders in annoyance.

“The mare at the desk actually needs a few things from you. Go see her now, then we can get out of here,” Bell told me. I looked over to the desk and saw a tawny coloured mare waiting patiently for me.

After signing a few documents, Bell, Austin and I exited the office.

“I need to get back to my post, but this was why I left in the first place. If I hadn’t of found you when I did, I would have gone back to work, but I’m glad we got this worked out. Good luck!” he told me as he turned and walked in the opposite direction that we were going. I turned to look at Austin.

“Welp, see ya later!” he said, gesturing to the lieutenant. I grinned at this.

“Well, if there’s nothing else to do, I want to go finish the next chapter in a book I’m reading,” I told my friend. Austin blankly stared at me for a few seconds.

“What else is there?” I wondered aloud.

“Don’t you want the gift I got you?” he asked me.

“You know what, knowing you, it’ll probably explode,” I said to him.

“How dare you!” he said in a victimized tone as he placed his hand on his chest, imitating Celestia’s action from earlier.

“Ha! Alright, let’s go and get it,” I told him. He nodded, and we set off towards Austin’s room.

The halls were rather empty, and we saw few ponies at this time, certainty not anyone I knew.

Upon arriving at Austin’s room parallel to mine, he turned to me, and once again instructed me to wait outside. He quickly disappeared into his room, presumably to fetch my gift.

“Wait here, okay?” I said in a distorted and high pitched tone, mocking what Austin had said to me. I stood in the hallway for around a minute, before Austin came back out.

“Now if this explodes I’ll be really, really surprised,” he told me. He handed me a rather large bottle of what appeared to be...

“Is this... wine?” I asked cautiously. Austin nodded in response.

“Yeah! Well, I didn’t actually pick it out, I asked Bell what he thought, and he asked me if alcohol was a good idea. When I told him that it could be, he recommended that to me,” Austin told me. I raised an eyebrow in response. I never thought that Bell would be interested in wine over something more... down to earth.

“Canterlot Hill: Apex,” I read aloud. I had heard of the name Canterlot Hill before, but I never took the time to delve into the realm of specifics. The topic just never really interested me.

And come to think of it, neither did alcohol. The idea as a whole, drinking, just seemed so... actually, I don’t know how to describe it. It just didn’t appeal to me all that much. The concept of wine collecting had been around for a while, so that was always an option.

“What do you think?” Austin asked me, pressuring me for an answer.

“I think... I don’t actually know what to think. I don’t even like the concept of alcohol, but at the same time, Canterlot Hill is a premium wine. How much did this even cost?” I asked. Austin opened his mouth to speak, but I held a hand up to stop him.

“You know what, I don’t even want to know. Thank you Austin, who knows? I might just get into wine collecting after this,” I said with a laugh. Austin looked to me, then the bottle, then back to me.

“Are you not going to drink it?” he asked me blankly. I smiled at him.

“Probably not. I don’t know, maybe when we have something to celebrate,” I thought aloud.

“I thought we were celebrating today,” he said with a confused look on his face. I looked back to the bottle in my hands.

“Something really special, how about then. We’ll save it for then, alright?” I reassured him. He nodded, and I turned and went into my room to put the wine away. I would have to see about storing it properly. But for now, it stayed in my closet.

Realistically, what we did during the rest of the day was up to me. I had no immediate plans, but I’m sure Austin could change my mind if I really needed it.

“I’m not sure what to do now,” I said to my friend as I closed the door behind me. Austin stared at the ground for a few seconds before looking back to me.

“Can I drink it if you don’t want to?” he asked me. I tilted my head in confusion.

“Uh... but... it’s my gift,” I said slowly.

“Yeah, but... ah whatever. Don’t worry about it,” he drew a conclusion.

“I’m not the one worrying about it, you are,”

“I’m just concerned that something will happen to it,”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, can wine go bad?”

“Depends on the quality. Quality wine can stay good for a long time, probably longer than we’ll... than an average human lifespan,”

“Well that wine better be quality for what I paid for it,”

“I’ve heard a few good things about the brand, but I don’t really know about it. I’ll ask Bell next time I see him,” I said as I made an effort to pin that idea to my memory.

The rest of the day was spent in a relatively calm fashion. We went back to the meeting room and had some more of that cake that we had eaten earlier, and ate some other food that was prepared for us there. There were a numerous amount of drinks and dainties to partake in, and we wasted no time filling our bellies with good food and drink. We had also decided that it might be a wise idea to save a little bit of the cake to give to Princess Luna when she arose later.

Speaking of the night princess, Austin had taken the first steps towards repairing his strained relationship with her, or so he told me. According to him, he had apologized to her and told her that he “realized that his actions were wrong.” If he was to be believed, Luna had accepted his apology after confirming that he was sincere about it and harboured no resentment or annoyance towards her. He had told me this a few days ago, so hopefully he would be able to keep this flow of positivity going with her, so that the rest of us didn’t have to deal with their constant bickering anymore.

Trust me, having to deal with their arguments was in no way fun for anyone.

Back to the matter at hand, Austin had found the time to find and set up a record player, which provided us with music that we enjoyed, listened, and danced to.

Believe me, our dancing could definitely stand to be improved in many, many areas.

But nonetheless, there was no one else in the room with us, and we danced our heart’s out. Maybe one day we would become professional dancers. Up on stage, with thousands of adoring fans all screaming our name. Reveling in our every move. Watching, as each and every stride was graced with the skill of a thousand gods. We were the best, and the people loved us...

I burst out laughing at the thoughts that were running through my head. Austin practically flinched at my sudden, seemingly random outburst, before moving over to the record player and taking the needle off of the spinning disc.

I was doubled over, tears in my eyes as I laughed. The thought of us as dancers was remarkably funny to me, and I soon found myself lying on the floor, holding my stomach, crying from the laughter induced pain.

“What the hell happened!?” Austin yelled to me as he watched me roll around.

“I- I... I can’t... oh my god!” I struggled to get out between massive gasps of air.

“What happened!?” he questioned again. I sat on my bottom on the floor, before wiping the tears out of my eyes and looking to my concerned friend.

“Oh god... it’s nothing, I just had the best thought in the world,” I said as I came down from my high. I hadn’t laughed like that in a long time, and I had almost forgotten how amazing a good laugh felt.

“What was it?” he asked, desperately wanting to know what could send me into such a fit of hysteria.

“You literally would not find it funny in the slightest,” I said as I picked myself up off of the floor.

“Tell me!” he pressured me. I gave him a smile.

“I imagined us as professional dancers,” I said plainly. Austin blinked at me a few times.

“...that’s it?”

“That’s it,”

“...that’s not even close to being funny,”

“Yeah, well neither are you, so shut up,”

“...can you not please,” Austin complained as I laughed again. Before the conversation could continue, I glanced at the clock that was placed at the front of the room above the doors. It read about two seventeen. Being still rather early in the day, Austin and I had decided that we had had enough time in the meeting room, and we both agreed to start cleaning up a bit.

We took the cake and moved it to the end of the table, and then did the same with the rest of the food. We took some of the napkins that were lying around and wiped up the cake, drinks, and other food that we had managed to spill in our antics. By this point there was still a decent portion of the cake left, likely around a third. We had agreed that it would best to give the remaining cake to Princess Luna. Maybe she could give some to the guards on the night shift.

Regardless, we had taken a lot of the mess and clutter we had made, or rather, Austin had made, and cleaned it up. It had taken us around half an hour, but the place looked slightly similar to the way we had found it.

I thanked Austin for the things that he had done today, and told him that I wanted to take a small rest. He did not disagree, and I quickly retired to my room. Austin had taken the cake to the kitchen for storage, and told me that he would give it to Luna later. He also told me that if later, the kitchen still had the cake when Luna was awake, that I could just do it. I agreed to this without a problem.

Soon enough I found myself back in my room. I didn’t really want to sleep right now. I had recently started reading one of the books that I had bought from the book store a while ago. I had read most of them by now, but this one I had started only yesterday, heaving read to chapter four.

The tale was one of mystery and romance. A young colt, a murder, and a mare in need of saving. Realistically, it was one of the most cliche plot lines in the world of literature, but maybe there was a reason for that. I had quickly found myself hooked on the story, getting attached to the way the author developed their characters. Being cliche didn’t stop me from enjoying a work of art, and anyone who tells you that romance can’t be original is simply not to be believed.

I soon found myself deep into the heart of the novel, quickly losing track of how long I had been simply lying in my bed, eyes glued to the light grey pages of “Bewitching.” After I had crossed the sixteenth chapter mark, I glanced up at my clock.

Eight eleven...

I hadn’t had the time to get lost in a book in a long time, and I blinked my weary eyes a few times in an effort to renew their vigor. Once I had refreshed my eyes, I stood up from my bed, taking my bookmark and saving my progress.

I had decided to go and check the kitchen to see if Austin had delivered the cake to the Princess yet. I left my room and made my way towards the castle mess hall. Upon arriving, I went up to the canteen window, and saw a few of the chefs and staff lazily partaking in their work. There were a few guards and even some staff in the mess, but other than that, there likely wasn’t much to do at this time of the night. Not until the overnight crew took over, at least.

One of the staff noticed me, and came up to help me.

“Hello, how can I help you?” he asked me. I returned the smile he gave me.

“Yes, did a younger boy happen to come by here earlier and take a cake that had about a third of it left?” I asked the chef.

“Ah, not, but I know what you’re talking about. One moment,” the young colt told me, before going over to one of the islands in the kitchen. He returned a few seconds later, carrying the cake wrapped in cooking paper on his back. He placed it on the counter for me.

“Here you go, hope you enjoy,” he told me. I grabbed what was left, and thanked the colt for his assistance.

I thought of the various places the princess could be. She would definitely be awake by this point, so I decided the best place to start was simply her room. I walked down the hall with the cake, and soon found myself in front of Luna’s bedchambers. I held the delicious confection carefully in one arm, before knocking on the door with my other. I waited for a few seconds, and upon not hearing any signs of movement from the other side, I knocked again, louder than before. I waited, before realizing that Luna probably was not in her room. I sighed, and started off down the hall.

I passed a guard on my walk, and stopped to inquire about the whereabouts of the princess. The guard referred me to the throne room, and I set off to my new destination. The halls were relatively empty at this time of the evening, most of the staff having already left for the night. I saw no one else on the way to the throne room, but it would probably get a little more active once the night staff took to the halls.

I pushed open one of the throne room doors slightly, and gazed inside to make sure that I was not potentially disturbing anyone. Once I saw that the only people in the room were Luna, a possible assistant, and a pair of guards, I pushed the door open fully, and walked stepped inside. The guards barely reacted, only shooting me cautious glances, before returning to their usual stoic posture. I nodded at one of them, before walking towards the princess. She was sitting behind the wooden desk, like Celestia did. And like Celestia, she had a stack of papers in front of her as well. However, unlike Celestia, Luna did not seem very interested in cooperating with her assistant.

“Your highness, please. These documents carry a great deal of legal importance. It is imperative that you review and process them,” the white mare told the princess.

“I cannot see why I must concern myself with such a tedious and uninteresting process. Has Equestria fallen into such a lull of peace that this is what we resort to to keeping said peace?” she retorted.

“But your highness, you-”

“Miss Crescent, I am perfectly aware that all of these legal documents, papers, and cases carry an immense amount of weight towards keeping the country secure and in good health, but to put it simply, I am so. Bored!” she yelled as she laid back in her chair, gazing up at the decorated ceiling.

I waited for her to notice me with a rather large smile on my face. Her assistant glanced at me, before looking back to the princess.

“Your highness, you have a visitor,” she whispered to Luna. She raised her head and looked to me.

“Daniel! What brings you before me tonight?” she questioned me as she resumed her proper posture. Her assistant gave me a few confused glances.

“I couldn’t help but overhear your predicament. Perhaps this could be of assistance?” I said as I presented the cake to Luna. She gazed at it for a few moments, before taking it with her magic and unwrapping it. She stared at it for a few moments again, before looking up to me.

“A partially eaten cake?” she asked me. I smiled at her.

“Well, technically, yes. It’s what’s left of my birthday cake from today. It’s my eighteenth birthday today, and Austin and I figured that we would save you some cake after Celestia came and had some earlier,” I told her.

“Ah, is that so? Well, happy birthday to you! This will certainly help to make this night more bearable,” she said with a hint of loathing on her tongue, likely towards her boredom. She placed the cake down, and looked to a stack of papers on her desk.

She took one of the papers, and folded it twice to make it smaller.

“Your highness, what are you doing?” her assistant asked her.

“We do not keep the cases that have been rejected, correct?” she asked her. The mare nodded slowly.

“Well, we might as well put the paper to good use then!” she said happily. She used her magic to pull a slice of the cake away, and placed it on the folded paper. She handed it to her assistant, Miss Crescent, and waited for her to take it.

“Um, your highness?” she asked.

“Do you want a slice of cake or not,” Luna asked her blankly. She stared at her for a few moments, before sighing loudly and taking the cake with her magic. Luna pulled out two more pieces of paper and folded them up like before. She looked over to the guards standing by the doors.

“Guards! You two, come here please,” she told them. They obeyed immediately, swiftly walking over to us.

“Yes Princess?” one of the guards asked her, before wincing in surprise as a piece of cake was placed in front of him.

“Would either of you like some cake?” she questioned them in a happy tone. The guards exchanged confused glances, before the first guard accepted his piece.

“Thank you Princess,” he told Luna, and soon after the second guard received his piece. The second guard started giggling to himself.

“And what is so funny?” Luna asked him.

“I just... didn’t expect cake on this shift,” he smiled. I started chuckling, but not at the guard. Just... the whole situation. This was so... out of the ordinary, that I couldn’t help but laugh at it.

Before anything else could happen, Luna placed a piece of cake in front of me.

“It’s only fair that you get some, since it’s your birthday after all,” she told me. I briefly thought about the amount of cake I had eaten earlier in the day. Four pieces of cake never really helped anyone.

I smiled and took the cake, thanking Luna as I did.

But five pieces of cake never really hurt anyone either, right?

Probably...

The Princess of the Night, her assistant, two guards and a newly crowned adult in Equestrian society, all sitting in Canterlot Castle’s throne room, eating cake and talking about this and that. It was practically comical. We sat, they ate the rest of the cake, and slowly but surely, the professional atmosphere faded away into one that reflected comfort and general enjoyment. The guards revealed their inner personality, Crescent dropped her aura of consistent professionalism, and I engaged in conversation with people I didn’t know, save for Luna.

We talked, we laughed, and we really enjoyed each others company. The princess was happy that the air of professionalism had faded, and for the next hour, we just conversed. It was truly refreshing to partake in a real conversation for once.

Today had been a day of refreshing experiences, and I hoped that it would continue long into the night. Of course, this was not possible. Luna had to return to her duties, the guards returned to their posts, and Crescent returned to trying to get Luna to review her documents. I found myself back in my room.

The whole night was a blur. It really was fun, and I hoped that we would be able to have many more nights like this one. Lying in my bed, sleep came quickly to me, and I found myself dreaming, strangely, about cake. During the night, I did not wake once.

The Qualifiers: I

Seven Days Later

The rest of the week went by rather quickly, to say the least.

Over the course of the seven days that I had been allotted to train myself, I quickly realized a few things.

When attempting to perform any cardio-based workouts, specifically running and jumping, I didn’t even come close to breaking a sweat. The time that Celestia had showed me this came back to me quickly, and I realized that attempting to raise my level of stamina was practically useless. Perhaps if I pursued any kind of training in the guard, I would be more challenged, but for now, I stuck to other physical activities.

Despite my, apparently, advanced respiratory system, my level of actual physical strength had remained completely unchanged, and, unfortunately, this was not a good thing. I had never really worked out before, and the most physical activity I had ever done was in high school gym class. I kept in shape by walking a lot, particularly with Austin. Truthfully, I had no real desire to become terribly strong, like some bodybuilders that you might see. But if I was attempting to join the Royal Guard, then being stronger than average might not be a bad thing.

“Come to think of it... why am I even trying to join the guard?” I pondered out loud.

“Well, Bell signed you up,” Austin told me. I sat in thought for a few moments. Austin and I were currently sitting in the mess hall, partaking in a tradition that we held close to our hearts.

Breakfast.

“I don’t even know if I want to try out anymore honestly,” I said to my friend. I thought while I slowly chewed on a forkful of scrambled eggs. For food that was served mainly to the guards and staff of the castle, it was rather flavourful, and I had no trouble eating the food at all.

“Why not? What’s the matter?” Austin asked me in a concerned tone.

“Well, it’s not that I don’t want to try out, it’s just... I don’t really know why I am,”

“You did kinda just go along with what Bell did,” Austin said to me.

“I mean... I can at least try out, right?” I asked. Austin smiled and nodded as he took a sip of his water.

My... workouts, if you could call them that, had consisted of trying to increase my overall physical strength. Like I had speculated, the castle did indeed have a weight room, and a rather large one at that. Once I had started, there were a few guards there who were willing to give me a few pieces of advice on getting stronger. Of course, I wouldn’t get any major results when my time limit was a single week. Still, it would help to put at least a little work into my muscles before I attempted the qualifiers.

In my mind, all of this was happening incredibly fast. The past week had felt like nothing, and even since we first arrived in Canterlot, things seemed to be just... speeding up. Older people say that your life seems to go by faster as you get older. Maybe there was some truth to be found in this after all.

“What time does all of this start?” Austin asked me.

“It starts at ten. It’s around quarter after nine right now, so we have a decent amount of time. We’re supposed to meet at the training grounds, so that we can go to the place where they are actually holding the qualifiers,” I told Austin. He nodded, before standing up with his plate. Apparently in the time I spent daydreaming about what was going to happen today, Austin had managed to finish his breakfast before I did. I quickly started eating the food on my plate, while Austin took his back to the canteen. I finished my food before taking my dishes and putting them away.

“So what now?” Austin asked me as we left the mess hall.

“Well, I’m going to go to the training grounds, and you can... I don’t know, go away,” I said sarcastically. Austin practically winced at me.

“Why do you hate me?” he asked in a sad tone.

“Because! You’re just such a “hateable” person!” I told him with a large smile, before turning to walk away.

“See you later then!” Austin called out to me, and I turned around to wave goodbye.

I passed a few ponies I knew on the way to the training grounds. Not “knew” on a personal level, but “knew” as in it would be awkward to not wave at them, but even more awkward to try and start a conversation with them. That level of "knew."

I pushed open one of the large wooden doors to the training grounds as I arrived.

There were two lines in the room, one with ponies and one with humans. There were relatively few humans compared to the amount of ponies in the lines, but there were still a large amount of humans in the line. I went over to what I would assume would be my line, and stood behind the next person. He was tall like me. Actually, most of the humans were relatively tall here. That would make sense, but it just made me feel... inadequate? Maybe...

The line moved forward, and the person ahead of me turned to talk to me after he took a step.

“Hey man, how’s it going?” the man asked me. I glanced at him cautiously.

“Alright, what about you?” I responded politely.

“Okay, okay. You here to try out for the guard?” he asked with a small smile. I was slightly taken aback at this question.

“I... yes, I would assume that’s why we’re all here,” I said slowly. He chuckled at my answer.

“Of course, just seeing if you’re all there,” he laughed. I narrowed my eyes slightly.

“Right, of course,” I said cautiously. Something about the man in...

I say man, in reference to who I was talking to, but of course he was likely no older than the age of twenty-five. I would not be surprised if he was only a twenty year old. All of the people here were young, just like me and the man. The line moved forward again, and we all took a collective step.

“How do you feel?”

I glanced at the man again, slightly annoyed at the apparent need of conversation, but I kept this to myself. I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes.

“Alright,” I quickly responded, hoping to quell the conversation.

“That’s good. I think I’ll do alright,” he said. I nodded, but otherwise did not say anything.

The man was as tall as me, with blonde hair, and a slightly rugged complexion. He had a small amount of facial hair that matched the tone of his hair. The line stepped forward.

The man stepped up to a table, where a pair of people sat, writing things down as they asked questions. I tried to listen to what they were saying but I only got a few words out of their conversation. Eventually the man was done, and I stepped up to the table.

“Name please,” a lady asked me.

“Daniel,”

“Age?”

“Eighteen,”

“Alright... do you currently have any disabilities that we should know about?”

“No, I do not,”

“Okay... are you currently taking any medication?”

"I... am not,”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure,”

“Okay, just being careful. Do you have any current mental problems? Conditions or otherwise?”

“No, none,”

“Okay... can I get your height and weight please?”

“Six three, and about one hundred and sixty pounds,”

“Pretty slim, huh? You sure you won’t get knocked down by a rogue gust of wind?” the mare asked with a laugh.

I stared at her for a moment, before smiling slightly. She laughed again, before writing something down on her papers quickly.

“Alright, go over there and wait for an instructor please,” the lady told me, pointing over to a group of people standing by the door to the grounds. I smiled and nodded at her, walking over to the group. A few of them nodded at me, and I returned the gesture.

Before long, what looked to be an instructor came out from the hallway and came over to us.

“Alright, listen up! My name is Sergeant Breezy. You will refer to me as Sir, or Sergeant! Understood?” the guard yelled at us. We all snapped our attention to him.

“Yes sir!” we all yelled collectively, albeit a little clumsily. We all stood a little straighter, waiting for what the sergeant was to say. He walked around the group of us.

“You’re all here for one reason! The qualifiers! So, we need to march out to where they are actually happening. We’re all going to go out for a nice, calm jog,” the instructor told us sarcastically.

From the looks of it, our “instructor” was another one of the guards in the castle. A deep grey coat, with golden armor, and a stern look on his face. Overall, he didn’t look any different than the rest of the guards in the castle, but of course, there was something different about him. He was considerably more aggressive than the rest of any of the guards I had dealt with. Whether or not this had to do with what was happening today was a mystery to me.

“Alright, let’s go! Outside, now! Single file!” the guard told us. He started towards the door, and we all fell into a silent march behind him. We exited the indoor portion of the training grounds, and I squinted my eyes at the bright sun outside.

“Alright you lot, we need to take a long hike to get to the start of the qualifiers, so everyone is going to get there as fast as you can. You can run, or you can walk,” the sergeant told us, before stepping up to me and getting right up in my face, “but I highly suggest that you don’t take your time,” he said with an angry look. I averted my eyes from him, choosing instead to look at the horizon. He stepped back, moving on to the next person.

“Are there any questions?” he asked loudly. I puffed out my chest.

“I have a question sir!” I yelled. He looked to me, before walking up to me.

“And what is that, neophyte?” he said, and I almost winced at the word. It was a genuine surprise to me that he knew what that word meant.

“Where are the qualifiers taking place?” I asked.

“Who are you talking to, boy!?” he yelled at me, and I immediately realized my mistake.

“Where are the qualifiers taking place, sir!” I yelled back. He stared at me for a moment, before taking a step back.

“They’re being held at an arena, in the heart of the city. You’ll all be following me there. If you get lost, and can’t find your way there, then you might as well go home. We do not need people who can’t follow directions in the military, got it?” he told us all.

“Yes sir!” we said in unison again. Truth be told, I had no idea that I was doing, or what I was getting myself into. I would be willing to bet that the other people here were feeling the same way.

“Well then... if there are no other questions, then let’s go!” he yelled at us, turning and running away. The group collectively looked at each other in confusion, then we all started running after the colt.

There were about fifteen of us that were running after the guard, and I briefly wondered if all of us would make it. These thoughts, however, were quickly cast aside, as I was focused on another aspect of what was happening.

I remembered what I had been shown about my endurance, and I had been wondering if it would come into play at all during the qualifiers. This of course, was a silly thing to wonder, considering that practically all of the training we would be doing would be completely based on our physical capabilities. I would finally be pushed beyond what I normally did, perhaps even to the point of exertion.

I quickly distinguished myself from the rest of the group by catching up with the sergeant almost immediately. He glanced back at the sound of me running behind him, before looking back to focus on the road ahead of him. I glanced back at the group, to see that only two others had caught up by this point, and that the others were slowly but surely falling into line.

As the rhythm of our paces became recurrent to me, I was allowed to think freely for a moment. Personally, I could not help but cringe at the... unprofessional manner that this was happening in. I could not help but feel that this could have been done in a much more appealing way. Then again, nothing about what we were going to do was supposed to be appealing. Actually, it was designed to be the most unappealing thing that we were ever to do. Realistically, that’s what set a soldier apart from the common citizen. A soldier was willing to do things and go places that other, lesser willed people or ponies would deem unthinkable. All in an effort to protect said individuals way of life. To do what they do so that others don’t have to.

Soldiers got their hands dirty so no one else would have to.

The qualifiers were likely designed to be unprofessional and unappealing to weed out those who thought the way I did.

Self-correction... need to work on that...

By this time, all of us had fallen into a neat, single file line, and we soon found ourselves running though the city known as Canterlot. In the back of my mind, I could not help but laugh at the sight of it all.

Fifteen humans, all fairly tall, following a member of the royal guard at practically a breakneck pace. I would have been laughing, if I wasn’t focused on not running into someone.

“Slow down!” Sergeant Breezy yelled to us, and we all slowed our run to a light jogging speed. This made it much easier to avoid colliding with other individuals going about their own business. We ran through the small business section of the city, before rounding a wide corner. We found ourselves on a wide open street, where there were very few people about. Up ahead, I saw what I presumed to be our destination. A large, building, round in shape, stood tall above us. It was around nine or ten blocks away, from my view.

“Alright, double time, now!” the sergeant yelled. He started running as fast as he could, and I was quick to match his pace. Like the last time I chased down a pony, which was also the only time, I matched his speed. However, this time there wasn’t a massive crowd of ponies and people to dodge and weave through. On the orders of the sergeant, I heightened my speed. I pressed forward as hard as I could, pushing my legs to carry me as fast as they were capable of. The arena was approaching us fast, and the sergeant was running extremely quickly.

I, however, was moving faster.

I slowly passed Sergeant Breezy, and glanced over to see a surprised look on his face, before he lowered his head and ran even faster. I was surprised at his speed, though he was likely more taken aback by mine. We ran neck and neck, one of us pulling ahead, then the other.

To keep pace with a member of the Canterlot Royal Guard. As a human? It was completely unheard of.

My arms danced in an effort to help me keep my balance. At this kind of a speed, taking a fall would definitely give me more than a few scratches. I pressed my body as far as it could possibly go, and slowly crept ahead of the sergeant. He seemed to do the same, but his efforts were in vain. We had arrived at the arena.

I slowed my run to a jog, then to a walk, stopping and leaning against the side of the building. I hadn’t realized it, but sweat had been pouring down my face, and at this point it had started stinging my eyes. I doubled over, panting hard, trying to take in as much air as possible. Sergeant Breezy walked over to me, panting just as hard as I was.

“That was... that was a good run, cadet. Ya... beat me. Impressive... But tell me. How... the hell do you... out run a guard?” he asked me between large gasps of air. I glanced up at him and simply shook my head, not being able to bring my voice forward. The rest of the group, not having a magical aid on their side, were only just starting to catch up. The two who had caught up earlier arrived, doubled over in exhaustion.

It honestly felt nice to be brought to the edge of my physical capabilities. I had never been pushed this far before, and it brought a smile to my face to know what I was capable of. At least in terms of running. The rest of the group started showing up, and soon enough, we had a group of humans, all gasping for air. By this time, the sergeant and I had calmed down a bit, and were walking around trying to get our breath back. I learned in gym class that it was better to walk around then to sit down to try and get your breath back. Sitting puts pressure on your lungs, and that makes it harder to get air into them. Walk around to get your breath back, then sit to rest after.

Once we had all taken our small break, the sergeant rounded us up, and we all went inside the arena. Inside was a standard arena setting, but in the middle... was something that I had never seen before. It was an obstacle course, but it was massive! There were at least twenty different parts to it, and it took up practically the entire arena floor. I swallowed nervously at the sight before me.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, to the qualifiers,”

Author's Note

Goodness me it has been a while...

Sorry...

The Qualifiers: II

“I hope you’re all ready, because I can promise you this. This is not going to be fun,” Sergeant Breezy told us.

We stood in the archway to the arena’s doors, practically glaring at the setup in front of us. The course almost took up the entire arena floor, save for the start line, and a section that was used for running, presumably.

“This... is the qualifiers. It is an obstacle course designed to test and strain you in a multitude of ways. There are many different aspects to it. Strength, agility, speed, and of course, endurance. I can also tell you right now that absolutely none of you will be getting through this course without proper teamwork. No unit can operate with only one individual, nor can an operation be complete by yourself. Try all you want, but I can tell you that by yourself, you will not be getting through this course today!” the sergeant yelled to us. We all stood straight and tall when he was yelling at us, and this time was no exception.

“Take a moment to soak it all up. Because we’re going to be starting very, very soon. As in... right now. Line up!” Breezy yelled to us. We all quickly formed a neat line, shoulder to shoulder, none of us bothering to waste any time. I took the brief time we were standing still to gaze at the entirety of the course.

The start of it was a long, straight corridor. I presume this was meant to be a dead sprint, based on how it went all the way to the other side of the arena. The path then did a one hundred and eighty degree turn. The next section was a tall wooden frame, with a rope mesh in the middle. A pole ran up the middle of the frame, likely to give the structure extra support, and to divide the frame into halves. After that was another tall frame, but this one wasn’t as tall as the other. At about ten feet tall, there was a single rope hanging down the middle of it. Based on how hard it was to climb a rope, it was definitely one of the more daunting tasks here.

Next was a set of walls, that, from the looks of it, you had to climb over, but how you were supposed to do that was beyond me. After that was a long piece of rope that ran perpendicular to the ground, about four feet off of the ground. It went for about ten meters, before ending at another pole. Then came a long balance beam, then another twist in the course.

The next section started with a large set of ladders on a wooden frame, that were honestly quite tall. The next obstacle... was actually quite odd. After the ladders came a double set of long, narrow pipes. I assumed we had to crawl through them. After that was a crowd of poles, all about a foot high, that were sticking out of the ground. Maybe... jump across them?

Another twist on the course brought us to a set of hanging bars, which were relatively straight forward. Then came a large open pit, that we would likely have to jump across. Last on that section was, from the looks of it, a grouping of wooden... hand rails? They were set up in a way that you had to run through them... like a maze! It was like a small maze that was shaped like a square “S.”

The course then ended with another open section for running, and if I counted right, there were thirteen obstacles to overcome. Apparently in my quick gaze I overestimated the amount of obstacles. Nonetheless, the course was still an intimidating sight, and even with my slight advantage, I tried my best not to underestimate it.

“You’ll all be going in groups of two, at the same time. The way this works is quite simple. You’ll run through the course, and when you come to the end and cross the finish line, you’ll be told your time. After you’re done, you’re free to leave. If your time meets the guards standards, or I deem your performance to be exceptional, you will be contacted within the week about continuing your career in the guard. Is that clear!?” Breezy explained to us.

“Yes sir!”

“Good. You’ll all be running in groups of two. Pair up!”

We all briefly looked at each other before splitting up into pairs. There was one person left out, as there were fifteen of us, an odd number. The lone... recruit looked around for a moment, before tacking himself onto a group of two, making three. He looked to the sergeant, who nodded a silent response. I was paired with the man I had been talking to earlier. His blonde hair went down to his shoulders, and it had a unique sheen to it that I wish I could replicate in my own hair.

“We will be starting momentarily. Everyone line up in your groups, whoever is at the start is going first!” Breezy told us. Everyone started falling into order, with us in second place. I was happy about this, as it gave us a chance to see how to attempt some of the obstacles that I didn’t know how to go about.

“Now if you fall, or otherwise fuck up on one of the obstacles, that will not count as a failure. Pick yourself up, and keep going. We’re looking for performance, but you have to remember than your time is a part of that. If you get a certain time that we deem to be exemplary, you’ll be passed on that alone. And of course, you can always attempt this again in the future, so even if you don’t pass this time, there’s always the re-try. Understood!?” the sergeant told us.

“Yes sir!” we all yelled. We were getting pretty good at yelling that in unison.

“You’ll all be numbered, one, two, three, and so on, got it?” Breezy told us, pointing to us in line. I committed the number two to my memory.

“Yes sir!”

“Good. Team one! Are you ready!?”

“Yes sir,” the two people ahead of us yelled.

“Ready... go!”

The pair of recruits, both male, took off as fast as they could, running to the far side of the track in about eight seconds. They rounded the corner as fast as they could without wiping out, and started on the first set of challenges.

There weren’t just males here, there were also two females among us as well. Team three, the one behind us had one of them. From the way they looked, they were just as competent as us when it came to athleticism.

As we took a step forward to be at the front of the line, I took the time to study how the group ahead of us handled the obstacles.

The first one was simple, it was like a ladder that was looser than a regular one. The second one, however, was much, much more intimidating. At this time, the group ahead of us was roughly half way up the ropes, one of them only ahead by a little bit. I was questioning my ability to make it up the rope, but then turned my attention back to the first team.

They made it to the top if the rope, before sliding down, careful not to burn their hands. Once they reached the bottom, they came to the walls, and I lost sight of them. Before I could question how to get over the walls, they both came up and over by flinging their bodies to maximize the amount of height they got out of their jumps. They landed, and repeated the same thing on the next wall.

Upon seeing this, I knew that there were some serious contenders here, much more experienced than me. I was willing to bet that some of the people here had trained for a lot longer than I had before attempting this course.

“Are you ready?” my partner said to me. I glanced over to him.

“Truth be told, I’m not really prepared for this. I don’t know how to go about some of the challenges here,” I told him. He nodded.

“How about you stay a little behind me. That way, I can probably show you how to do some of the obstacles. Sound good?” he asked me, to which I nodded.

“Team two, ready!?” I heard the sergeant yell out to us.

“Yes sir!” we called in sync.

“Ready... go!” he yelled.

We took off, running as fast as we could. I immediately pulled ahead of my partner... who I neglected to get the name of, regardless of how I felt about him earlier. I rounded the corner, and came up to the first of many challenges.

The rope mesh was quite flexible, like I had thought, and when I stepped onto a... “rung,” the whole rope mesh went with it. I kept on pressing onto the rope until I had a good enough footing to begin climbing. My partner caught up to me, and did the same.

“Damn, you’re fast! You took that sprint like it was nothing!” he told me. All I could do was nod, though I wasn’t sure it he noticed or not.

We both started climbing, but this was nothing like a regular rope. It swayed, moved, and flexed under our weight. It made climbing difficult, at least compared to a regular ladder. Though different, it was not all that taxing to my body, and I made it to the top without incident. I straddled the top bar, and flipped over to the other side, my partner practically mirroring my movements.

“Hey, I never managed to get your name!” I called out to him.

“It’s Sawyer, you?” he called as we made our way down the ropes.

“Daniel!” I yelled over my own train of thought. He did not respond, so I imagine he nodded like me previously.

We came to the bottom of the rope mesh, and ran a few feet to get the next obstacle.

The single rope.

Sawyer ran up to it and immediately grabbed on to it. Heeding his advice, I stepped back and observed his methods.

“Make sure you have your feet wrapped tight when you aren’t climbing, in case you fall,” he told me while starting his ascent. I grabbed onto the rope and matched his grip, movements, and rhythms. I pulled myself up, before putting my right hand over my left one. Pulling again, I quickly found a pattern I was comfortable with. I soon felt a slight pressure in my abdomen and chest, which only heightened into a light burning as I pulled myself higher.

“Don’t look down, don’t think about it, just keep going. We’re almost there,” Sawyer called out to me. Listening to his advice, I kept myself from looking around, and instead focused on getting to the top of the rope. Soon enough my core burned, and my arms started to ache as I continued pulling myself up.

I pulled myself up again, and-

“Ow!” I yelled out, having bumped my head on the top bar of the frame. I glanced over to see Sawyer smiling at me.

“Now we just have to get down. Try not to burn yourself, ya hear?” he told me. Upon the last line, I noticed a slight country accent in his voice.

“Yes!” I called out, before slowly combining the actions of sliding and climbing down. Our descent was much faster than our ascent, and we made it to the bottom relatively quickly.

The next challenge was less intimidating, and I recalled how the previous group overcame it to help me. We ran towards the wall as fast as we could.

“Make sure you get all the way up, else you won’t make it!” he yelled just before we jumped. We simultaneously leapt into the air, and I turned my body as horizontal as it would go. I landed on the top of the wall, and slid over to the other side, landing and preparing to repeat the process. Sawyer landed next to me, and we took off for the next wall.

...........jump!

I sprung off of my dominant leg, repeating the same jump as before. This time, however, I didn’t get as high as I needed, and I missed the top by about a foot.

“No!” I yelled out throwing my arms out. Just before I fell, I felt a hand grab onto my arm, pulling me up and onto the wall.

“Don’tcha worry, I got ya! Come on!” Sawyer yelled as he pulled me up. I nodded, panting from my outburst. A fall here wouldn’t have been to painful, but it would have certainly impacted my time, and that was something that I could not afford to mess up.

Sawyer and I slid off of the top of the wall, and ran towards the next set of challenges.

“You have to hang from the rope and drag yourself across this one!” my partner yelled to me.

“You seem to know a lot about this course,” I said to him.

“Well, I should. I took this course once before, but I didn’t pass it that time,” he told me as we both climbed onto the rope. Sawyer took to it, but this position was completely alien to me.

“What do I do?!” I called out.

“You hafta climb the rope like I am! Just wrap your legs around it and pull yourself along! You can carry most of your weight with your legs!” he yelled to me as he started to inch his way across of the rope. My eyes shot back and forth between Sawyer and the start of the rope.

“Come on! You can’t fall behind!” Sawyer yelled to me. Swallowing my fears as best as I could, I grabbed onto the other rope, and swung my legs up while jumping as hard as I could. I wrapped my legs around the rope, using them to support the majority of my weight. Grunting, I pulled myself forward as hard as I could, moving forward about half a foot. Sawyer looked back to me.

“That’s it, you got it!”

Gritting my teeth, I continued the slow process of pulling myself across the rope. It was agonizingly slow, and soon enough I felt my core starting to burn again. My legs started to ache, and before I knew it, I was sweating profusely.

Sawyer flipped onto the ground, before turning around to face me.

“Come on, you got it! Just a little more!”

...come on... one... last... pull...

That last pull took me to the edge of the pole, and I reached out and tapped it with my hand. Letting my legs fall, I flipped over, landing on my feet, catching myself before I fell.

“Come on! Let’s go!” Sawyer told me as he took off towards the balance beams. I groaned, but picked myself up, taking off after Sawyer.

I hopped onto the balance beam after catching up to my new friend, concentrating on not falling off. The beam was not straight. It was arranged in a “zig-zag” pattern, meant to throw off people by forcing you to change directions. We were able to make small hops across the change in direction, slightly reducing the distance we had to travel. We crossed the beams with no difficulties, and sped off to the next obstacle.

Coming around the next turn in the course, I ran ahead of Sawyer, and practically jumped onto the ladders that were next. We had ladders bolted to the wall in our gym at school, so this was nothing to me.

I climbed the ladders quite fast, and straddled the top, carefully coming down the other side. I jumped off the ladder when I was about three quarters of the way down, bending my knees to soften my landing. Sawyer landed next to me just as I ran to the pipes that lay ahead of us. I almost faltered when I started running, but I caught myself before I could fall.

“Just get down and crawl through’em! There’s enough room, trust me!” I heard Sawyer advise from behind me. I practically threw myself onto my belly as I approached the opening of my pipe. It was wide enough to crawl through, but not wide enough to crouch in, like Sawyer had said. I slowly crawled forward, trying to find a rhythm that worked for me. Crawling was not that difficult, but doing efficiently was much more challenging.

Eventually I made it to the end of my pipe, crawling out and standing up. Sawyer had already made it out of his pipe, and was starting to cross the next obstacle.

There were a multitude of wooden poles sticking out of the ground, all about a foot tall. Sawyer was jumping across them, one foot after another, almost like he was running.

I mirrored Sawyer’s movements, attempting to retain the necessary velocity and momentum to keep myself going. As soon as I jumped off of the first pole, I realized why this would be a challenge. It was extremely difficult to keep jumping, and I fell before I realized this. I landed safely, but I cursed aloud before running back to the start. Fortunately I had fallen on the first one and not the last.

“Fuck!” I yelled.

I started again, this time making sure I put everything I had into my jumps I slowly made it across, jumping from one pole to the next, back and forth. I pushed off the last one as hard as I could, landing and falling to my knees, breathing in heavily. When Sawyer had seen me making progress, he had started towards the next challenge. I let out a loud scream in an attempt to energize myself, before standing up and running towards the next obstacle.

My legs burned, my core ached, and my arms practically hung limp in pain.

This.

This what I had expected from the guard. They knew how to push you to your limits, and they were not afraid to do so.

I rounded the next twist in the course, and came up a set of hanging bars. My arms screamed in protest when I grabbed onto the first bar.

“Ah! ...fuck!” I seethed through my teeth when I climbed to the next bar.

“Keep going, we’re almost done,” Sawyer told me from ahead of me. He was coming up to the end of the bars, and I quickened my pace to try and catch up with him. Sawyer hopped off of the last bar as I came to the end, jumping off and running after him. We ran towards the next challenge, which were two long pits in the ground.

“You have to jump over them! Run fast!” Sawyer screamed to me as I caught up to him. Just before we got up to the pit, I managed to see that it was full of water. It was a light brown, something that I definitely did not want to fall into. I sprung off of my right leg, pushing myself as hard as I could.

“Woah!” Sawyer yelled out.

Sawyer had jumped around a second before I did, but he didn’t get enough momentum to carry him safely over the water. When he landed, his foot slipped on the slippery edge of the pit. At the same time I came flying past him. I had a split second to realize that he was falling, and I shot out my arm towards him as I did. I, somehow, grabbed onto his arm, and with the extra momentum that my enhanced speed gave me, I managed to pull him forward with me as I fell to my knees. Sawyer came crashing down next to me, sore, but dry. He let out a huge sigh as he picked himself up off of the ground.

“Man! Thanks a lot. This is what I failed last time. It ruined my time,” he told me as I stood up.

“No problem. Let’s go!” I said as we ran towards the final obstacle. The last challenge wasn’t meant to tire you out, I decided. Rather, it was meant to slow you down as much as possible. A small maze, in the shape of a square “S.”

“Grab onto the railing as you come around and use your weight to swing around the turn!” Sawyer told me. We each ran into our own side, and I used his advice to swing around the first turn, then the second. We came out at the same time, sprinting around the final turn.

Like the beginning, it was a straight corridor with no obstacles, intended to make you run as fast as you could. I didn’t hesitate, breaking into a sprint as soon as I came into the final stretch of track. I raced ahead of my partner, no longer needing to worry about whether or not he needed my help.

I crossed a line marker that had been left on the ground. There was a pony on the right side of the finish line, and a human on the left. I crossed on the right side of the track, and the mare clicked a button on a stop-watch.

“Time! Name?” she called as I passed the line.

“...Daniel...” I seethed through my teeth. She nodded, scribbling something down on a note pad she had taken out.

Sawyer came in a few seconds behind me.

“Time! Name?” the man yelled out, stopping his timing device.

“Sawyer,” he told him. He did the same as the mare did.

I came to a stop, and doubled over, holding onto my abdomen. It wasn’t the running that got me, but the constant strain on my legs and core. It hurt, I can’t lie. Sawyer walked up next to me and gave me a slap on the back.

“Nice run... that was... pretty cool,” he said in between breaths. I nodded my response.

“Hey you two, take a walk and get some water,” the mare told us. Sawyer gave her a thumbs up, and we started walking around the perimeter of the course, which wasn’t very large.

“How do you think we did?” Sawyer asked me. I shook my head.

“I don’t know. All I know is that I’m going to be very, very sore for a while. What about you? You said you’ve run this course before, how do you think we did?” I asked him.

“Well, ah actually passed this time, so definitely better,” he told me. I noticed that Sawyer’s accent tended to change quite a bit. Sometimes his accent was quite pronounced, other times it was practically non-existent. I was trying to discern a pattern as to when he spoke in accent, and when he didn’t, but there was no sign of one yet.

We walked around the edge of the course until we came back to the start. The line had moved forward by about seven places. Sergeant Breezy noticed us walking up and called out to us.

“Hey! There’s a water cart outside, just got here. Feel free to help yourself,” he told us. We nodded to him, and went to the doors to the arena.

Stepping outside, we were immediately met with the warmth and humidity of the day. It wasn’t quite summer yet, but it was still June, and it was hot out. I looked to my right, and saw a cart with a guard standing front of it. Sawyer and I walked over to him, hoping to find something to quench our thirst.

“You guys come from the qualifiers?” he asked.

“Yep!” Sawyer simply responded.

The guard nodded and gave us each a small cup that he had filled with cold water from a tank on the side of the cart. We thanked him, and went back inside. Sergeant Breezy was standing next to the line of teams. There were only four teams that still had to go, and everything seemed to be going relatively smoothly. We walked over to him, and he glanced to us.

“You two can see your time over with the mare who actually took down your times,” Breezy told us. We thanked him, and went back to the end of the course. Sawyer went over to the man who took his time, and I approached the mare who took mine.

“Daniel, right?” she said as she turned to face me.

“Yes,” I told her as I took the final sip of my water. The mare looked over her sheet for a brief moment. She had a dark lavender coat, with a mane a few shades darker.

“The regulation time for an instant pass is five minutes, you took four minutes and fifty five seconds,” she told me, smiling as she looked up to me.

“Close,” I said to myself more than to the mare.

“Very, but I think your friend might have cut it even closer,” she told me, gesturing to Sawyer behind her. I thanked the mare, and walked over to Sawyer.

“Four fifty nine,” he told me with a laugh. I chuckled at this.

“Hey, we did it! High five!” he yelled, sticking out his hand. I gave him the most vigorous high five that I have ever given anyone in my life.

We went and talked to the sergeant again, who told us that we were free to go. We would be contacted shortly, within a few days, about progressing with our training.

Sawyer and I left the arena, a skip in our step and an ache in our legs, a little bit better than we were that morning.

Dissipation

A cool stream of water rushed over my face, and I winced, taking in a sharp breath of air as I discovered the water was a little colder than I had expected. I adjusted the dial to be a little bit warmer, then I let my mind go. Showers were one of the few times of the day that I knew I could be alone, and as such, they were also one of the few times that I could let my mind wander and think about whatever it wanted to. Other times I was always so anchored down by whatever I was doing, to keep myself sharp. But I enjoyed the times like this, even if they went against everything I believed in.

Immediately, I thought about what had happened today. Everything had happened so fast! What was a week’s worth of training and exercising had gone by in the blink of an eye, and what had been a highly anticipated and frightening event had come and gone just as fast. Now I sat on the edge of being a member of the Royal Guard, and I had only one thought.

I don’t know if I’m ready...

I had only just turned eighteen, as I had only just been entered into the Qualifiers. Something about this made my gut twist, and I didn’t know what to do about it.

I had never really sat down to think about my future. Living in an orphanage, you spend the majority of each day wondering how the rest of the day will pan out, not the next thirty years. Sometimes I pondered where I was going, but these sessions were few and far between. Now, the possibilities were endless. Schooling, work, the military, relationships, and everything in between. Some of those things interested me, some didn’t. I wasn’t actively looking for a relationship at the moment, but I would welcome one if the right person came along. As for schooling... I would never had had the opportunity in my past life to even dream of going to a college or university, but now, with the Princesses at my back – hopefully – I would be able to think about taking some sort of new course. With my advancements in mental capacity from the elements, I would be free to take practically anything I wanted.

The elements didn’t make us any smarter, at least in the classical sense. Rather, it apparently gave us the ability to retain most of, if not all information we were presented with. If I was present for a lecture, I would be able to recall the words spoke with near perfect veracity.

I really like that word... veracity...

I briefly thought about what kind of course I would take if I were to. Many fields interested me, some more or less that others. Psychology, art, medicine, music. There were more than a few courses that I would simply love to take, but to pick one would be my ultimate test so far. I wouldn’t want to get stuck in something that I don’t have any passion for.

My mind drifted to the length of an average university or college course, then to my... condition. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it didn’t really matter what kind of course I took, because there would always be more time to take something else, or earn the funds necessary again. This gave me both hope and discomfort, as the thought of eternal life loomed in my mind. I pushed it aside, and my mind fell to other things.

The concept of having a relationship with someone else was still a totally foreign idea to me. Sure, there were the few “fake relationships” that happened in middle and high school, but I had never really found the capacity to love any of those people. Something about them told me that they were not completely interested in my well being, and soon after realizing this, I refrained from pursuing the opposite sex. This, coupled with a somewhat anti-social lifestyle, gave me the feelings of both interest and apathy towards any kind of a romantic relationship. Once again, if the right person came along, then of course I would be happy, but until then, I see no real point in chasing after a relationship.

And of course, this is all in line with the fact that I had finished the qualifiers, and would likely soon be put through a long and rigorous set of weeks with the guard’s trainers. If training is anything like we did, then I would be in for a lot of sore and sleepless nights. Considering the fact that my life had just taken a general turn in the right direction, I was still unsure if I wanted to proceed with the Royal Guard. Something about it was off putting, to say the least.

I slowly and rhythmically rubbed shampoo into my hair, making sure to be gentle, as I always had.

If I join the guard... oh no. My hair...

Though a trivial subject to some, I was legitimately concerned about having to potentially cut my hair. In the time that I had been here, it had grown to be quite long. It easily stretched past my nose, and was pecking at the top of my lips. I of course did not keep it this way. I always had it parted to the side to keep it from getting in my way. I managed to keep my cleaning schedule in check, and as a result, my hair always had a vibrant sheen to it. It was soft, and when I was bored, I liked to gently run my hands through it, just to show myself how soft it was. To some, this may seem, again, likely a highly trivial matter. But to me, this was a large decision, and I did not want to make it hastily.

I shut off the water in the shower and stood for a few moments, letting some of the water drip from my body. After I had decided that I was in the shower for long enough, I pulled the curtain open, and stepped out. I quickly dried off, and changed into a clean set of clothing. I relished in the warmth that they brought, and I opened the door to my room.

Collapsing onto my bed with a large, content sigh, I stretched out as large as my bed would allow, thoroughly enjoying the comfort that my mattress brought me. My bed in Dismith had never been as comfy as this one. This is not to say that my bed was uncomfortable, but simply an acknowledgement that this bed was superior, in every way. I guess even the guest rooms in Canterlot are high-class compared to what I was used to.

I stared at the ceiling with a small smile on my face, debating that my next move was.

...

Crash!

“Daniel!”

And there went any chance of having a quiet evening to myself. I sighed briefly, before sitting up on the edge of my bed.

“Actually, what part of knocking do you not understand! How hard is it to not barge in on someone!” I yelled at my friend. At this point, I had not idea how Austin and I were still friends, but we managed to find a way regardless. Speaking of which, I seemed to be thinking that more and more often as of recently. I’ll have to make a note of eliminating this from my thoughts.

“Sorry, jeez! What got in your cereal this morning?” he asked me while walking over to my desk.

...I didn’t even have cereal this morning...

“Well, for your information, I am terribly exhausted,” I told him, just before he gasped, and rushed over to me.

“Did you pass? What happened?” he yelled in my ear while kneeling down to be on eye level with me. I winced slightly, before moving my hand up to wipe the spit off of my face.

“Thanks. And yes, I passed. Barely, but... yes,” I said nonchalantly. Austin practically jumped out of his skin.

“That’s great! ...right?” he asked. I looked up to him.

“I honestly don’t know yet. Maybe? I still don’t know if it’s what I want to do...” I trailed off, becoming lost in thought.

“What’s wrong?” Austin asked, sensing my discomfort. I thought for a moment, before letting out a loud scoff.

“Hah. It’s probably not even something that I should be worrying about, right?” I laughed to myself. Austin raised an eyebrow at me.

“...if that’s what you think is best...” he told me, trailing off.

“What do you think-” Austin said, but was cut off by the sound of a knock at the door. We both looked to it, before I got up and went over to open the door. I was met with the sight of one of my favourite guards, Lieutenant Bell.

“Hey, what’s up?” I asked casually, stepping out into the hall to meet my friend.

“Did you make it? What happened?” he asked me with a hint of nervousness in his voice. I smiled.

“Surprisingly enough... yes, I did it,” I told Bell. His eyes popped open wide at my words.

“Seriously? That’s... well, you’re right. That is quite surprising. Huh...” he trailed off. I tilted my head in confusion.

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean? Did you not think I could do it?” I asked him sarcastically. Bell shook his head earnestly.

“No no, it’s just that...”

“Bell, it was sarcasm,” I said with a deadpanned look.

That was the thing about my current sense of humour. I thoroughly enjoyed the dry, sarcastic humour that I spouted so frequently. I always have, now that I think about it. I liked seeing a confused look on a person’s face when they were debating to themselves whether or not I was being sincere. Someone once told me that this was not a good thing to enjoy, as the world didn’t need more sarcasm. I was told that it was tasteless to find comedic value in someone’s confusion.

“Ah, well... I’m glad that you passed! When are you expecting your letter?” he asked me.

“The Sergeant told me that I would be contacted in a few days, maximum,” I told Bell.

Over the time that I had gotten to know the Lieutenant, he had become less of a comrade and officer, and more of a friend, to both Austin and myself. Private Glass had been unfortunately transferred to station duty, as it was called, in Dismith of all places. He and I had a friendly relationship, but Bell and I had known each other for longer, and I considered him a good friend.

“Well, that’s certainly good news! I’m glad for you,” he told me, giving me a prize-winning smile.

“Hey, do you guys want to go and get some ice cream?” Austin said as he slipped out of my room and into the hall with us. Bell chuckled at this.

“I mean... we could. Do you want to Bell?”

“I would love to, but I have to get back to my post. I’m actually on break right now, so I need to get back to work. Thanks for the offer though, have a nice day,” he told us as he turned to walk away.

“Bye Bell,” I said, Austin offering a wave goodbye. I turned back to him.

“We could. Where, just in the castle here?”

“Or, or... we could go and get it from some placer better!” Austin told me, emphasizing the word “better.”

“Or... we could just not,”

"How the hell are you going to tell me that you don't want to go out for ice cream!?"

“I never said that I don’t want to go out for ice cream, I proposed staying here so we don’t have to go so far,”

“So you’re just lazy?”

“Today, yes, yes I am. I don’t need to do anything else today!”

Our argument went on for a few more minutes, with Austin and I going back and forth on whether or not we should actually leave the castle to get our food. I eventually managed to convince him to just get our treat from the castle, and we settled on our flavours. Naturally, I picked the best flavour. Vanilla. Now of course, Austin found it in his little heart to mock the selection I had made, stating that it was “way too plain” for him, and the preferred something with a little more “personality,” as he put it. For references sake, he got almond flavour.

The rest of the night was spent wandering the halls, cones tucked into our grips, trying to find something to keep us occupied. We found some conversation with some of the passing maids and servants, but of course, they were all working, so the time we had to spend with them was limited by how long they could stall their work.

I feel the need to explain my use of the word “servant.” Now of course, as I hope you have deduced, there are not legitimate “servants” in the castle. There are maids, butlers, and sanitary staff, and they are collectively referred to as the castle’s “servants.” Of course, all of the people on the castle staff are employed, full-time workers, working regular hours and getting paid their usual wage. I wanted to state this, in case anyone reading this ponders if the Equestrians condoned slavery. I’m quite sure that no one thought that, but it’s always better to be safe that sorry.

“Have you ever thought about what you want to do once you turn eighteen?” I asked Austin as we walked down the halls of the castle, slowing decreasing the amount of ice cream we each had.

“...not really,” he quickly responded.

“...”

“...you should probably do that,” I told him.

“And what about you? Do you know what you want to do?” he pressured me.

“No, no no no. Don’t turn this to me. I have something that I am involved with, and I think about what it is I want to do every day. I just... want to be sure you don’t run into the same problem that I did,” I said as I took another lick at my ice cream.

“And what’s that?” Austin asked me suspiciously.

“I... this whole thing with the guard. Again, I probably don’t need to be worrying about it, but it’s just so... AHHH!” I yelled. Austin jumped at my outburst.

“What? What happened?” he asked nervously.

“I don’t know! I don’t know what’s wrong! I just... it’s all happening so fast, but it doesn’t matter, right? Why would it matter at all!” I vented. Austin looked me up and down.

“What does that mean?” he asked me.

“You... don’t worry about it,” I said darkly, walking faster, making my way back to my room.

“I’m going to worry about it if you keep yelling,” he said as he caught up to me. I started walking faster to stay ahead of him.

“Don’t worry Austin, I’ll be fine,” I seethed through my teeth.

“Where did this even come from? You’re usually on top of everything, so why is this so bad all of a sudden?” he pressed. We rounded the corner to our rooms, and I quickly slipped into mine, dropping my unfinished cone onto the floor.

“Oh, sorry, goodnight!” I said with a mock smile as I shut and locked the door behind me, pressing my back against it. I heard Austin sigh, before he gave up and went to his room. I slid down the door, landing on my bottom with a large sigh. I brought my knees into my chest, wrapping my arms around them to hold them. I put my head into my knees... and just sat.

...

I briefly thought about some of the outbursts that I had been having lately. The first... with Windy. It was completely unwarranted, unexpected, and unnecessary. The mirror? The book I threw? The same, and what had just happened with Austin...

I was completely calm before all of this had happened, with no sense of anger or uneasiness in me. Yet for some reason, my emotions seemed to surface – almost randomly- in violent displays of either anger or aggression. There was no reason, no pattern, no trace of any idea.

A heard a ringing from my left, and I glanced over, only to see the edge of my bed. I thought for a moment, before the ringing in my ears suddenly became very clear, loud, and intrusive. I lowered my head again, closing my eyes in attempt to stop the ringing.

...stop...

All I could do was wait, so that’s what I did. I waited.

...stop...

The ringing started becoming more than simply annoying, and started moving into the realm of aggravating.

...stop.

I pushed myself up from my sitting position, and started walking towards the bathroom. Upon moving so suddenly, I found my vision starting to turn, and my head starting to ache. I grunted, gritting my teeth in pain.

Stop.

The word echoed throughout my mind, seemingly bouncing off of my brain to repeat itself over and over again.

I pushed open the door to the bathroom, stumbling over to the sink while I tried to keep my balance. The ringing was now deafening, and I gripped onto the sides of the mirrors to keep from falling over completely. I shut my eyes to keep the light from hurting me.

“...why the fuck... are...” I seethed through my teeth. I had no idea as to what was happening, but at this point, I didn’t really care. All I cared about was stopping the ringing.

I looked up, opening my eyes and glaring at my reflection.

Stop!

I looked down to my hands. I hadn’t realized it, but I had the sides of the sink in a death grip. I was clutching them as hard as I could, and I had no thoughts about letting go. Before anything else could happen...

“...what the fuck?” I managed to get out. Something was wrong with my hands. I looked back up, noting a slight glint in my eyes. My hands were...

There was magic, gathering around them, seemingly clinging to my fingers. I lifted one of them up, and the magic went with it.

Suddenly, some of the magic on my hand shot out as a ball, and collided with the bathroom wall, leaving a large singe mark. Immediately, I noticed some of the ringing stop. It got a little bit quieter. I gazed between my hands for a moment, before connecting the two ideas. I looked down to my sink, taking note of where my toothbrush, paste, and other amenities were. I threw a levitation spell at the paste, and once I felt it connect, I lifted. The paste went flying into the air, hitting the ceiling with a loud bump.

I turned, falling to my knees, and felt more and more magic starting to build up on my hands. I quickly realized that I needed to expend some of the built-up magic. I threw another levitation spell at my dresser, hoping that the weight would allow me to expend a large amount of magic quickly. I straightened out my back and threw both of my arms up. To my immense surprise, I found the large, wooden, solid dresser easy to lift. I held it in the air, noticing that the magic that had been building up on my hands had started to fade away, and was now retreating to somewhere I could not see.

I sat, on my knees, casting a levitation spell through my bathroom door on my dresser. Not the most ideal situation, but the ringing was slowly going away, and by this point, almost all of the magic that was on my hands had dissipated.

After an unknown amount of time, I felt the weight of the dresser becoming more and more apparent. When I had first cast the spell, it felt like I was lifting a feather. Now, it was becoming more and more obvious that I was lifting something that would likely crush me if I were to let it fall on me. It was with this thought in mind that I slowly began setting the dresser down, careful to not tip it over in any direction. Once I felt it connect with the ground, I let go of my spell. Suddenly, everything went black...

The only sensation that I had before I blacked out was my face colliding with the tile floor of my bathroom.

Author's Note

Believe it or not, I do try to write everyday, but the stress and business of college is really hindering my ability to deliver new chapters in a reasonable manner of time. Sorry for the long wait.

Questions

...

My head seemed to swirl as all of my senses slowly and painfully came back to me. All of my senses... save for one.

“...where am I?”

It was a relatively cliche question, but at this point, based on what I was seeing, it didn’t bother me too much. As for what I saw...

Nothing. My entire field of view was completely covered in darkness. I had never experienced anything like this. I was completely conscious, yet I was unable to perceive anything. I brought my hands up to my eyes to make sure that I had not forgotten to open them. Once I had confirmed that my eyes were indeed open, I started to pay attention to my other senses. I felt around me, feeling the ground that I was currently sitting on. I felt... nothing. There was...

If I could describe what it was that I felt, I would. Unfortunately, there is literally no way to describe what the ground felt like. My best analysis is that it felt like I was sitting on air. Nothing there, yet I was sitting nonetheless. This sent a jolt of fear through me for a brief moment. I took a deep breath in, before rocking forwards and standing up, being careful not to use my hands to help me. I turned my head, but there was nothing but darkness in every direction. This left me at a loss as to what to do. I could start walking, but I had no way of knowing where I was or where I was going. I wouldn’t even be able to see if I was walking in a straight line, never mind where I was. I continued scanning around me, hoping that there would be something that would be able to explain to me what was happening, or where I was.

I soon grew tired of standing around, and decided to just pick a direction and push through the blackness. I took a step, and-

“AH!”

Whatever was beneath me suddenly dropped out from under me as my foot planted onto nothing, sending me plummeting down. I strained my vocal cords with my screaming as I accelerated downwards. There was no immediate ground in sight, so I had time to try and grasp what was happening. Once I had calmed down slightly, I threw my head around, trying to see if anything had changed. I could see nothing, so that told me that-

My body impacted with some unknown liquid, and the wind was knocked out of me as I began sinking. On reaction I sucked in a gasp of air, only to flood my lungs with what was likely water. I coughed, and began kicking upwards as fast and as hard as I could. A sharp pain went through my brain, my lungs were on fire from the breath I had taken, and throughout all of this, I was in complete and total darkness. My brain started dulling and my efforts to reach the surface began weakening. The feeling of absolute terror and claustrophobia began to set in my mind, and soon I found myself beginning to lose consciousness. I kicked a few more times, before my body forced me to take another breath, the breath that usually killed anyone who was drowning. It was this breath that was the most dangerous.

When you have absolutely no oxygen left in your system, and your mind is about to slip into unconsciousness, your brain forces your lungs to take in a breath, as large they possibly can. No matter where you are, no matter what you may be in, the choice is not up to you. I forcibly sucked in another lung full of water. Instantly, the darkness became much, much darker.

My shoulders dropped. My thoughts went dark. My limbs went limp. My mind went blank.

...

“AHH!” I screamed as loud as I possibly could have. I started hyperventilating as soon as I regained consciousness, throwing my arms about wildly. My head spun around as I realized that I was able to see again, and I wasted no time trying to figure out where I was. I quickly learned that I was lying on my stomach on the floor of my bathroom. I looked up to see my large dresser in front of me. Suddenly, the memories of what had occurred previously came to me, and I remembered everything that had happened with the magic, the spells, and the dresser. I let my head down and sighed heavily, soon realizing that everything that I had just gone through was not real, but an illusion.

A dream... it was just... a dream...

I brought my knees forwards and stood up, being careful not to lose my balance. Once I had composed myself, I walked forwards, and sat down on my bed. I brought my hand up to my face, and gazed at it. I recalled the small traces of magic that had materialized on my hand, and the...

The question of how long I had been on the floor came to my mind, and I turned around to gaze at my clock. Reading five after ten, I was left hoping that that meant I had only been out of commission for the night, and not a longer amount of time. Deciding that it would be best to find out, I went to my dresser, grabbing a change of clothes and swiftly putting them on in place of my previous attire.

I stopped just outside of my bathroom, using my mirror to give myself a quick look over. I swatted the hair out of my eyes, deciding that I looked fine.

Stepping into the halls of Canterlot Castle, I briefly debated where I should head first. Things to do on the agenda included speaking to Celestia about my magical condition, finding out what day it was, and getting some food in my system. I decided that it would be better to try and talk to the princess now. If she was unavailable, then I would always be able to come back later.

I made my way to the throne room at a slower pace than usual, contemplating what had transpired last night. Everything told me that the root of my problem had to do with my magic. This had been a thought that had occurred to me a few times, but I had dismissed it. Since my magic was so weak, I had practically ruled it out as an option of thought. This, however, seemed to be incorrect. Maybe... because the elements were so powerful... but that wouldn’t make sense. If the element were so ridiculously powerful, as they were fabled to be, then why would my magic be developing so slowly? I had only just become able to cast a levitation spell, and a very weak one at that. Perhaps Celestia would be able to shed some light on the situation, now that I had something to go off of.

Something was wrong with my magic, and it was causing me to be... unstable, for lack of a better term.

One of the castle staff, a butler, passed me in the hall as I was lost in thought. I managed to see him for a brief second, and this tore me away form my train of thought.

“Excuse me! Hi, can you tell me what day it is?” I asked politely. The colt turned sideways to see me.

“Today is Saturday,” he said in a deep, gruff voice.

“The ninth?”

“Yes, sir,” he said in an extremely professional tone. I nodded.

“Okay, that’s reassuring. Thank you,” I said as I turned, waving my goodbye. The older colt nodded his response, and we parted ways.

That was a general relief to me. Had I been out for more than a day, I was concerned that others would have been worried for me, especially Austin. I was not sorry for the things that I said, because there was nothing to be sorry for. I was, however, mad at myself for exploding the way that I did. The way I reacted was not fair to Austin, and the way that I had thought was not good for either of us.

The idea of the outbursts being tied to my magic surfaced in my mind, and I briefly thought that that might have been the reason for reacting the way that I did. Of course, this was not an excuse. There were...

The more and more I thought about it, the more and more I thought that it might be an excuse. Obviously, not one to keep doing what I was doing, but... I had no control over the way I reacted to those... hindrances. Windy did nothing that should have made me overly upset, and Celestia knows that mirror did nothing to deserve the fate that it received. I did not want people to think of me as an angry person, because that is not who I am. I know my strengths and weaknesses, and there was no reason to react the way that I did. It was obvious to me now that I needed to find out what was causing these outbursts as fast as I could, lest someone actually get hurt.

My hand pressed against the doors to the throne room, giving them a slight push. I poked my head in to see if anything was happening. When I saw that nothing, I stepped in, nodding my greetings towards the pair of guards that were on either side of me. They eyed me for a moment, before deeming me as passive and returning to their stoic gazes.

The more I thought about it, the more I wondered how long the guards had to stand like that. Certainly it was not a requirement to stand perfectly still for hours on end. Then again, based on what I had seen so far, I would not be surprised.

Celestia was found sitting at her normal table, but instead of papers in front of her, she had what appeared to be lunch. Celestia picked up her sandwich and moved in for a bite, before she noticed me approaching. She set her lunch down, and I just barely caught a sad look in her eyes.

“Good afternoon Daniel, how can I be of assistance,” she asked politely. I cleared my throat before proceeding.

“Well, that depends Princess. I think... and this is put very lightly, but I may have found a reason for my outbursts as of recently. Remember the mirror?” I refreshed her memory.

“Yes, I do. I was the one who had it replaced, you know,” she said with a giggle. I smiled sheepishly at this.

“Well... something happened between Austin and I last night. I got... overly angry with him, for no real reason. It wasn’t too bad, I’m sure he and I will be fine. The point is... I didn’t choose to react like that. It just happened. And it wasn’t anger that caused it either. It was completely spontaneous,” I thought aloud. Celestia nodded as she listened.

“And you think you have found a reason for these occurrences?” she half asked, half told.

“Well... I think I may have found a place to start,”

“And that is?”

I lowered my head in thought for a moment, recalling the events that had transpired last night. It was still an amazement to me as the actions and movements played back in my mind with perfect clarity and accuracy.

“...Austin and I had just left to get a snack, and we were walking towards the mess. When we got our food, I started thinking about where my life is going, the guard, and everything that is happening with the elements. When I did, I... I got so upset, for no reason. I yelled, and then brushed Austin off... but it was different, like I said. I would have never normally reacted like that, it’s not me. I ran back to my room. and ditched Austin. I just... sat on the floor for a while. I got slowly angrier and more upset. That’s when things... got worse,” I recalled. Celestia nodded as she digested my words, then gently motioned for me to continue. I took in a large breath, and pressed on.

“I started getting this ringing in my head. It wasn’t normal though, it started off quiet and then became deafeningly loud. I couldn’t hear, I couldn’t think, hell, I could barely stand up. I went into the bathroom and tried to calm down. I... looked down at my hands, and there was this... magic that was clinging to me. It wasn’t like anything I have seen or read about before. It clung to me, like a magnet. I tried casting a levitation spell on my toothbrush, and it was incredibly easy. When I did, I realized that some of the magic on me had left, so I figured that I should try to expend as much magic as I could. I tried lifting my dresser, because it’s super heavy, but I... lifted it with ease. And not just lifting, I had the clear ability to move it. It was like a feather to me. Once I had expended my magic, the ringing stopped, my head cleared, and everything went back to normal,” I told Celestia. She merely looked at me, processing what I was telling her.

“...and then I passed out,” I said with a chuckle. She smiled at this, before taking in a large breath.

“That sounds a lot like a build-up of magic to me. How... how long did you hold the dresser for?” she asked me. I thought for a moment, recalling the night.

“It had to have been for a few minutes. Everything is kind of fuzzy, so I... guess a few minutes,” I told her. She closed her eyes in thought.

“...Daniel, I want you to lift this desk,” Celestia told me as she took everything on her desk in her magic and held it in the air.

“You...” I said, before realizing where she was going with this. I nodded to her, before taking a step back. I stretched my hand out, and locked onto the desk in front of me. I lifted, and...

That desk must have weighed at least three hundred pounds! Regardless, I was not able to lift it, only move it a few inches to the right. I lifted as hard as I possibly could have, before a jolt of pain shot through my head, causing me to stumble backwards.

“Ah!” I shouted as I let go of the desk. Lifting the piece of furniture was nowhere near my level of magic, and it showed.

“Hm, very interesting,” Celestia said as she set everything back down exactly where it was before. I stepped forward again, the pain in my head having subsided.

“I can guarantee you that your dresser weighs more than double what this desk weighs. You shouldn’t have even been able to tip it, let alone move it around after picking it up; no matter the build-up of magic at your level,” she seemingly said to herself. I nodded in understanding.

Even if the magic that had been building up had been at its absolute peak, it still didn’t make sense.

“Hm... I want you to try researching magical build-ups. I would be very careful with your magic, however. You will find that magical build-ups, especially ones of your magnitude, are more often than not very, very bad for the user. Bad things come about when your magic gets too backed up,” she warned me.

“Like what?”

“Usually? Pain, hearing and vision loss, and eventual death,” she darkly told me. I swallowed nervously at this, thanking no one in particular that I had expended my magic when I did. Nothing seemed to have harmed me in any permanent way, so immediately, I was in the clear.

“Ahem... okay, magical build-ups, got it,” I repeated to Celestia. She nodded, and picked up her sandwich.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s been a long morning, and I-” she said, but was cut off by my hand.

“Of course, I’ll leave you be now. Thank you Celestia,” I said warmly. I genuinely meant it, too.

“Anytime, Daniel. Have a good day,” she smiled back. I nodded and turned, gliding swiftly out of the throne room.

With that out of the way, it was time for me to get something to eat. I quickly went to the mess, and ordered a bowl of soup and a sandwich. I really enjoyed tomato soup, especially with a grilled cheese sandwich. That was not on the menu today, however, and I settled for something less... enjoyable. Potato soup and a salad wrap. Nothing fancy, yet still good. I ate quickly, as the ideas of the research I had been presented with drove my curiosity sky-high. I finished up, and went off towards the library in search of knowledge, and hopefully... some answers.

I moved fast, eager to get started. No one interrupted my pace while I was on my way, and I arrived without incident. I pushed open one of the doors to the library, and nodded to the librarian as I went past. She gave me a happy look, before opening her mouth to speak.

“Do you need any help finding anything? Between you and I, it’s a rather slow day here,” she asked playfully.

“Actually, yes. Do you have any books on magical build-ups? Or anything of the sort?” I said with a laugh at the mare’s happiness towards having something to do.

“Oh, it’s been a while, but yes. Let me look it up for you, and I’ll tell you where to look,” she told me, dipping her head below the counter. She popped back up a few seconds later with a scroll in her magical grasp. Unraveling it, she read.

“Let’s see... try the Magic quarter... subsection... medical, and... you could also try casting. Those are probably your best options,” she told me as she set down the scroll. I nodded and flashed her a smile.

“Thanks a lot,” I said as I turned to go and try to find what I was looking for.

“Of course. Sorry I couldn’t be more specific. Good luck,” she called back.

As I walked towards the Magic quarter of the library, I pondered if Celestia actually knew what was ailing me, and simply wanted to see if I was capable to figuring it out on my own. While that did not sound like something that she would do, it certainly would be a challenging test, and as someone who likes to drop surprise tests on people, I would not be surprised in the slightest.

“Subsection medical,” I recalled the librarian’s words, and I quickly found the section of books that I was looking for. I began gazing at the ceiling-high bookcases, taking every name into careful consideration as I did. After a few minutes, I pulled a book from the shelf, simply entitled “Magical Symptoms.” I gazed at it for a few moments, before looking back to the book cases to continue looking.

After ten more minutes of gazing and selecting, I had wound up with four books that I could use from the medical subsection. I found a table that was empty, and... well, all of them were empty at this time. Regardless, I found an empty table, and set the books down. I went back to the Magic quarter, and found the “casting” subsection. I began inspecting the books, trying to find something of interest to my situation.

After a while, I had pulled two books that piqued my interest, and I went back to my table to finish my impromptu collection. Six books lay in front of me, and I sighed slightly at the thought of inspecting all of them. I had no plans to read through everything; “magical symptoms” was over fourteen hundred pages alone.

I flipped open the book, and began scanning the index.

“This... this is going to take a while...” I sighed.

And with that, I began reading, searching for the answers to the questions that had been dwelling in my mind. Hopefully, this would all be over soon.

Dismith Life

RING RING RING RING RIN-click!

My hand automatically flew across my bed to hit my alarm clock, and stop its infernal racket.

“Uggh, flershnerfarmagurr,” I mumbled unintelligently.

Everything and everyone is terrible and I hate everything and everyone…

…

…seven o’clock…

…

…cereal sounds good right about now…

Those were my thoughts as I slowly and aimlessly rolled off of my bed. I fell onto the wood floor with a loud thud, not caring about the impact. I lay on the floor in a small amount of pain, pondering how long I should lie there until I went to take a shower. I stared at the ceiling, a small amount of morning light shining into my room, the sun just barely poking his head over the horizon. I listened intently, hoping to hear signs of other life moving around.

…

…nothing.

I picked myself up off of the floor, and turned to face my dresser, opposite my bed. I shuffled over to it, and opened the top drawer of the three-drawer dresser.

…top, pants, shoes are at the door…

I took the clothes I had picked out, and went outside to the hall. Silently moving down it, I made my way to one of the two bathrooms. Quickly checking to make sure that no one was in it, I went inside, and dropped my clothes. I removed my pajamas, and started the shower, then stepped in. Quickly washing myself all over, I made sure to spend extra time on my black hair. I had a sort of weird, quirky thing in my head that made me spend extra time taking care of my hair. Rinse, shampoo, rinse, conditioner, rinse. That was the way I did it, as I’m sure most people do. Though some people did do it this way, I made sure to be extra thorough with the shampoo, and extra gentle with the conditioner. This way, my hair was extra soft, and also had considerable sheen to it.

…rambling on about my hair. Nice one, Daniel…

I finished up in the shower, and got out to change into my clothes for the day. A solid red shirt depicting an apple tree, black sweats, and a simple pair of grey sneakers, which weren’t with me, yet I mention them nonetheless. Nothing extravagant, though I really did like the apple tree, and apples in general. I made my way back to my room to make my bed.
The grey quilt I was sleeping under was balled up in a mess from my sliding off of the bed. I only slept with the quilt, and no sheet, so it wasn’t hard to make my bed up for later. After making sure everything was neat, I walked over to the door to my room, and exited, leaving my door open behind me. No one ever had a need to go into my room, so leaving it open wasn’t a problem, thankfully. I shuffled over to the stairs, and made my way down. Stepping directly into the kitchen, I decided to go over my options for breakfast.

…definitely cereal…

“Hmmmmm,” I thought aloud, while looking through the cereal cabinet.

“Pony-O’s, Golden Stalks, Honey Clusters, Hay Hoops, which are a cleverly named yet poorly advertised copy of Pony-O’s,” I spoke to myself. Over my life, which was spent mostly in the comfort of my own thoughts and voice, I had developed a habit of talking to myself. Not like back and forth, just generally talking to the air. It was fun to watch ponies look at you like you were insane. Really, more sad once you think about it.

Having decided on Pony-O’s, I grabbed the box, the milk out of the fridge, and a bowl out of another cabinet. I sat down with all three items, and poured myself the cereal. While I was eating, I could hear other people moving around above me, slowly waking up. I looked to the clock.

Seven twenty two… hmm, about time…

My usual time to be out the door by was about seven thirty, give or take an extra bowl of cereal or two. This gave me plenty of time to take an early morning walk around the town, see if anyone else was up, and just get some fresh air. It was always so peaceful out, so I always loved to be out of doors. I finished my cereal, and decided against a second bowl. I put the cereal back, quickly washed the bowl, and put the milk away. Going over to the front door, I saw all of the human shoes lined up neatly at the door. Harvest Candy always preferred to keep everything around here neat, and we listened. I picked up my shoes and slipped them on, and looked back to the room I was in. A few couches, then the kitchen behind them, which contained the stairs to go up a floor. Off to the left of the door was a large open area, with Harvest Candy’s room behind it. It wasn’t much, but it was home…

“…here at the Dismith orphanage…” I said to myself.

The town of Dismith was a very… very…

Quaint? That sounds about right…

As I made my way down the main street, thoughts about the day entered my head. As much as society expects someone young to dread school, I actually enjoyed it, and often looked forward to it. Today especially, as our teacher, Mr. Slate, was going to be giving a lecture today on the history of Equestria, and how we found our roots after the defeat of Discord. I was exceptionally excited to hear about this, as I had always wanted to know more about Discord, but could only turn to textbooks and old library records. Now, even though these were often, if not always more accurate and reliable than a scholar, there was something nostalgic, and even thrilling about hearing about what you have already learned from a scholar. This, coupled with the fact that it was the only semi-challenging lesson I have had in a while, I looked forward to it.

Today, room four, nine o’clock…

My walk did not lead me anywhere eventful, and I instead found myself at my school, the Dismith High School. Deciding that I had nothing better to do, I went inside and found myself at the main office. Two halls stretched in either direction, as the school was basically a giant hallway. Each side had five rooms, as the school only educated grades nine to twelve, anyone lower went to the elementary which was across the street and dealt with grades one to eight.

I looked to the clock on the wall, and saw the time of eight seventeen. People would be arriving soon enough, so I decided to go to room four, and wait. I went down the left hall, and entered the second door from the office, room four. As I entered, I heard a familiar voice call out.

“Daniel! What brings you here so early?” Mr. Slate asked looking to the clock, as I did the same.

Eight nineteen…

“A lack of activity,” I responded with a warm smile.

“Well, I hope you are excited for the presentation today, it will last about an hour and a half, maybe longer depending on questions,” he told me, to my delight.

An hour and a half of history…

To most kids, this would sound awful, but to me, this was amazing. I would finally get to learn about the elusive princesses, Discord, and all of the past wars troubles. Quite interesting if you asked me.

I heard footsteps behind me, as I turned around to see the person. And there, the bane of my life, the reason I feel pain, and my very best friend… Austin…

“Hey Daniel! Hi Mr. Slat- WOAH!”

Austin proceeded to trip over a table leg as he ran into the room. He fell, tried to catch himself on a chair, and flipped the chair he was trying to save himself with, which flew up and towards me. I felt the pain of a chair connecting with my face, and only had one thought as this all happened.

Yep, that’s my friend Austin alright…

…

…fucks sake…

A Change of Pace

“A waste of time, that’s all it was, just a complete waste of time,” Austin shouted.

I looked at him while we exited the school. “Not a fan?”

“Don’t give me that Daniel, that was absolute garbage,”

“Hey, I thought it was pretty good, I liked it,”

“Yeah, that’s because you’re a nerd, a huge nerd,”

Shaking my head to dismiss the thoughts, Austin and I made our way towards the edge of the town. Austin and I liked to go out every once and a while to explore the forest on the east side of town. There were various caves and valleys to explore all over, and we had the whole day to do it.

We made sure to stop back at the orphanage to get some food first. After eating a quick meal of oatmeal and fruit, we gathered some food and packed it in Austin’s backpack. Putting two small knives as well as a box of matches in the bag, we said goodbye to Harvest Candy for the day, and turned to leave.

About half an hour later, we had descended into a small valley, and were exploring the forest floor, trying to see if we could find anything of interest.

Now, you are probably wondering what the hell we are doing in the middle of a forest, after attending a history lecture, on a Tuesday afternoon. Truth be told, we don’t even know. We just like to do things as life hands them to us. Living at the orphanage, we got a lot of freedom, so long as we are back by 10:00 PM, we could go wherever we wanted. The forest offered a place to go where we had no idea what to expect, and this is partially the reason why we came here so often. Other than that, we were kids, and kids are stupid, so what do you expect?

Walking around for about another few hours, we had found various caves and cliffs that we explored, and we got a few good views from these things. After a little while longer, we descended into another cave that we had found, to see if we could find anything of interest.

“Daniel, we need to be getting back to Dismith pretty soon, it’s getting kinda late,” Austin told me, standing at the entrance of the cave, while I pressed on.

“Hold on, this is the last one, come on!” I yelled.

Running into the cave, I pulled out the matches that I had put in my pocket. Striking one, I moved forward, being careful not to bump onto anything. I could hear Austin faintly behind me, poor guy. I should have given him a few matches. Granted, he wouldn’t know how to use rocks to strike the match, but it would have been something. Moving forward, I-

“Ah, shit,”

I gasped as the match I was holding burnt my hand, dropping it in the process. I fumbled around for another one, eventually lighting one, and pressed further into the cave. Winding around a corridor, up ahead, I thought I could see some kind of… light? I kept going, speeding up, anxious to see what lay ahead of me. Taking a wrong step…

“Woah, oh shit-“

My head collided with the ground, and I groaned in pain. Standing up, I lit another match, and moved forward, less than 10 yards from the light.

Approaching the light, I could see that the light source was actually coming from… some sort of stand? It seemed to have more than a few lights on it, almost illuminating cavern we were in. I dropped the match I was holding, and stamped it out. Somehow, these lights looked… familiar. Almost like something I had seen out of… a textbook?

It hit me like a ton of bricks. I stood bewildered at the sight before me. Stupidly, I ran around what rested before me, completely ecstatic. I shot my gaze around the almost shattered pedestal.

“Laughter, generosity, honesty, kindness, loyalty… this… these…” I babbled incoherently.

Sat before me, on a beat up shattered granite and marble pedestal, were the elements of harmony.

The Elements. Of. Harmony.

“I… how…” I took a large breath in, and closed my eyes to focus. Opening my eyes once again, I found my excitement quickly returning.

“…how in the hell did these wind up here?”

I switched my gaze to the area that I was in, taking careful note of my surroundings. The cave I was in had a roof no taller than eight feet, and the pedestal that held the gems was about five feet tall. Moss hung all over the room, as it sat in an oval shape. Vines littered the floor, flowers popping up in random places. But strangest of all, was the glow.

The elements all gave off different glows, all pooling on the ceiling of the cave. I looked back at the pedestal, and noticed an empty spot. The elements all sat in a circle, but there were apparently six spots.

Five gems… six spots…

Hm… where is the last element… and WHAT is the last element…

I had never read about a sixth element, nor had Mr. Slate mentioned anything in the lecture…

Growing even more curious, I leaned in closer. I found that the gems were all giving off heat, which intrigued me even further. I reached in even closer putting my hand in the empty spot of the last element. Upon touching the pillar, I felt a tingling sensation. I drew my hand back, but quickly found myself becoming more interested. Slowly, painfully slowly, I put my hand back where it was. The tingling… wasn’t coming from the spot, as I felt it on either side of my hand. It was coming from…

The elements…

Moving my hand about an inch to the right, I felt the sensation get warmer there and less on my left, confirming my thoughts. The gem on my right was a light blue. I picked up my hand, and slowly placed it on the gem. I felt… different.
My hand warming, I had visions of all my friends in my head, all my obligations to them...

I gazed down, and placed my hand on another element, this one a dark purple. My thought again turned to my friends, and all the gifts that I had ever given to them. I took my hand off the element, and stepped back.

There had to be a connection to the missing gem, and I intended to find out what it was. I took slow, small turns, placing my hand on each gem. Thoughts of lies I had ever told, jokes I had ever made, and kind things I had ever done danced in my head, each to its own respective element.

Taking a step back again, I thought.

Hm, the elements were used to defeat Discord… by the princesses… do they have the last gem? Mmm, that wouldn’t make sense… used by the princesses together… together… together?

Throwing caution to the wind, I moved forward, and picked up each gem carefully. I placed them all in the center, making sure all were touching. When the last gem was placed on top, which was laughter, the gems did something very concerning.

They started glowing even brighter.

And so did the spot where the last gem was supposed to be. The outline of a gem was glowing a bright white, and suddenly so were the other gems.

Now, any sensible person would turn tail and run right now, or at least unstack the gems. But a curious person would do something much… stupider…

“DANIEL! Where are you!” I could hear Austin getting closer, but I paid him no heed.

Deciding against my brain, I went with my gut, and placed one hand on the elements. Very carefully, very slowly, I placed my open palm where the outlined gem was. As soon as my palm was under the gem, my vision blurred, and soon everything went white. I could still feel, but I had lost my vision. I threw my hands away, and jumped backwards. Once again, I decided that the best option right now was to go with it. I placed my hands back where they were, and my vision once again blurred.

Remaining calm, I stood as still as I could. The elements were the most powerful form of magic in Equestria, but they were also the most forgiving.

I stood for what seemed hours, but was more likely minutes.

Incoherent, almost alien thoughts flew throughout my brain, and I couldn’t make out any of them. They felt almost… warm. Like, a physical sensation of warmness.

I waited.

…

“Daniel, finally, here you ar-“

Suddenly, I felt a great pain in my chest and lower abdomen. The next thing I know, I was flying backwards… then… all was black…

Relatively speaking, I was never one for early morning conversation, especially before I had my coffee.

“…reorganize the bills for today and that was quite the hassle, so there are those to deal with, and of course this is all under the presumption that everything goes smoothly in your…”

I could really use coffee right now…

“…because heavens knows that he is not a very lively fellow. On top of that, Captain Reigns has requested that…”

No cream, no sugar… just sweet caffeine…

“…because apparently a few of the… newer cadets haven’t been getting along so well, and the damages are extensive, regarding the new…”

Please be quiet…

“…which should about wrap it up for today! Are there any concerns, your majesty?” Ivory Hooves asked.

“Yes, what time is it?”

“Seventeen past seven, princess,”

“…damn…” Celestia said silently.

General waking up activities concluded, the day had started at thirty three minutes after seven. First on the agenda?

Coffee.

Having made my way to the kitchen, I could already smell the grounds. Stepping in, I found my favorite chef, Piérre, moving towards me. Piérre. I know, cliché.

“Ah, princess, I had just finished preparing your morning coffee,”

“Perfect, thank you Piérre,” I spoke gently, taking the coffee with my magic.

Sipping the pure, unadulterated heaven that was my coffee, I left the kitchen and made my way to the court room. Day Court started at 9:00 AM, so it was good to be there early. After making my way there, and setting up all of the cases and suits that needed to be dealt with today, I was finally ready to start. The room filled up about ten minutes before we were scheduled to start, so we began early.

Day Court is quite possibly the most boring, repetitive, obnoxious and absurd thing that ever came into existence. And I hate it and so should you. In fact, I will spare you the details of what progressed throughout the day. Just imagine having to sit in a courtroom all day long with people constantly arguing over the silliest of things, and the only thing you can do is wait for them to finish so that you can make a verdict, ALL. DAY. LONG. That, is Day Court.

Many hours and tears later…

The last pony was ushered out of the room, and the doors to the court were closed. I sat back in my chair, my eyes closed, ears ringing, head aching. Eleven. Hours. That’s how long it had taken for all of the day’s cases to be brought to a close. It was now shortly after eight, and I had gotten nothing else accomplished that I needed to.

…

“Eleven hours…” I quietly mumbled to myself.

Picking myself up, I slowly moved to the doors, and stepped into the castle hallway. The air seemed to be cooler here, which brought me nothing but delight. Having had enough of today, I decided to just go to bed. We had taken a small lunch break at noon, so food was not a concern right now. Approaching my bedroom, I flung the doors open, and stepped inside. Halfway through the door, I stopped.

…

I felt… something familiar. Something… strong.

It was…

I gasped, and turned to run and gather my sister. Something was very wrong, something with the elements. The elements, from so long ago…

Light as Air

"..."

We were relatively quiet as the princess led us towards the medical wing of the castle, increasing her pace with practically every step. Her long stride made it difficult to keep up, and we needed to walk at a brisk rate to keep up with her longer legs. While on the way there, many of the staff appeared to have concerns that needed her attention, but upon seeing the foreboding look of apathy on her face, they quickly stepped aside. My attention was only partially devoted to watching where I was going, and instead my eyes were still glued to my arm. Celestia had been able to use a light healing spell to fix most of the immediate damage, and the bleeding had stopped. But what worried me was the long, deep scar that was now across my arm. My thoughts were likely locked on such a trivial matter because I could not process the information that I had just been given.

Immortality.

...immortality...

My mind was almost numb from the sheer amount of thoughts that were racing through my brain. I was both terrified and highly intrigued at the same time.

We arrived in the medical wing shortly after, and upon entering the wing, a group of medical staff stepped forward, splitting into two groups. One of the groups claimed that they needed to take Austin. My attention was briefly drawn from my arm to the fracas in front of me.

"Whoa whoa, why do I need to go anywhere?" he asked the princess. She turned around, a look of mild annoyance plastered on her face.

"You were exposed to the same thing that Daniel was, correct? Then it stands to reason that you have the same condition as he does. These are some of the best medical staff in the entire country. They'll take you, and find out everything that they have to know about you, and the same will happen to him," she told him, gesturing to me with her hoof. I looked back to my arm.

After a few more brief exchanges of Austin being generally stubborn, we split up, the first half of the medical team taking Austin, and disappearing down an adjacent hallway. The second half of the team, comprised of three ponies, led the princess and I to a room almost identical to the one doctor Windy and I had argued in. I briefly thought about the doctor, but my thoughts were pulled away by another doctor talking to me.

"Alright... Daniel. Please have a seat," one of the doctors told me, looking to his clipboard for my name. I scowled at the cold informality of the doctor. I sat down in a chair opposite of a desk that was facing away from me on the other side of the room. Princess Celestia stood next to the desk, and leaned over to the doctor, who was apparently looking over some papers. She whispered something to him, and waited for a response. After a few seconds, the doctor looked to her and nodded. Apparently happy with the response she was given, Celestia came and sat down on a chair next to me. Before any remarks or banter could be exchanged, the doctor called out to me.

"Alright Daniel, please have a seat over in this chair," he told me, moving to the center of the room.

This is going to be a long fucking day...

Two Hours Later

We had taken the time to test almost everything physical about my body, save for things like endurance, though I'm sure that I'll be tested on that as well sometime in the near future.

"Alright, now that we have all of that out of the way, we can move on to examining your endurance and cardiovascular strength. Please, come with me," he told me.

...or right now...

Doctor Brown, as I found out his name was, led us out of the medical room and towards the outside grounds of the castle. I found myself standing in front of a large, open, rectangular courtyard. On the other side lay the barracks and armoury, with trees and benches scattered about the yard. From what Bell had shown and told me, this was a place that the guards could come and relax if they felt over worked. It was a relatively peaceful place, with a stone path running around the perimeter of the area, a few flowers here and there, and lush, vibrant green grass covering the inside portions. I had only seen this place once, when Bell was showing me around the castle, but from what I could tell, it was a very peaceful place. There were a few guards in the area, two were sitting on a bench apparently just talking, and a few were walking around the edge, probably to keep from slacking off. Overall it was a massive change from the greys and whites of the castle, and my eyes welcomed it.

"This is where you will be demonstrating your physical endurance to us, to see if anything has changed. When you are ready, please start jogging around the park," the doctor told me.

"...wait. Just... run?" I asked him.

"Well, he did say jog. Running will tire you out faster, but if that's what you want, no one is stopping you," the princess told me in a snarky yet slightly amused manner. I looked back and forth between the two of them.

"This seems highly unprofessional, I mean, just a park. Not even a real track, just a-" I thought aloud before being cut off by Celestia.

"If my theory is correct, which I am quite sure it is, then we will not need to be professional, now go!" she urged of me. I shook my head, and turned around, starting a slow pace before slowly working my way up to a real jog.

Now, let's get one thing straight. I am not a runner, not by a long shot. That doesn't mean I can't run fast, I just never had a need to, save for a few times. I made it down the first stretch of path, and turned onto the short side, rapidly covering this and moving on to the opposite long side. I estimated the long sides of the park to be around fifty meters, give or take a few meters. The short sides, or the top and bottom, if you will, were likely only around twenty meters. These, of course, were all just guesses. Overall, it was not a long distance, but doing it over and over again would quickly get annoying.

As I passed by the starting point, I noticed that my breathing was not even remotely close to strained. Even though this was a relatively short "track," if you could call it that, my breathing was not impacted in the slightest. This genuinely surprised me, as I would expect to have at least a little bit of stress on my lungs. I also noticed that my legs felt barely any stress at all, as if the crude impacts of my feet on the stone beneath me did not have any effect on me. I rounded the track again, and so did the same feeling of ease. I felt no breathing problems, no stress on any of my muscles, nothing. Just a sense of easiness. As I rounded the track for the third time, I noticed that the princess and the doctor were sitting on one of the benches, having a simple conversation by the looks of it. From the way that neither of them paid my any heed, I knew something was up. Perhaps Celestia knew what was happening to me, and she wanted it to happen at its own pace? There was no real way to know, and as such, I digress.

The jogging went on for a few more minutes. After my eleventh time rounding the track, I decided that this was just too easy, and started running faster. Before, it was but a slight jog, but now I was moving at a solid running speed. Not sprinting, but running nonetheless. This went on for a little while longer. I made my way around the park at least ten more times, I had lost track at this point. When I came by the start again, I found Celestia and Brown standing before me. I came to a stop before them.

"Can you tell me how you feel right now Daniel?" the doc asked me.

"I feel light as air! That whole time I was running, I could barely feel anything holding me back! My breathing is barely above normal, and there was absolutely no stress on my legs, and look! I'm not even sweating!" I exclaimed, surprised beyond belief at what I had just accomplished. Never in my life before had anything like that happened to me, not even endorphins could compare!

"This is exactly as I predicted. Daniel, the reason you feel so amazing, the reason you can run like you just did for so long, is because of what happened with you and the elements," she told me. I tilted my head to the side.

"What does that mean?" I asked her.

"When my sister and I first encountered the elements and were blessed by their magic, we found ourselves at a serious advantage over our foes. We had endurance and strength that matched no other individual in the kingdom. We were the fastest, we were the smartest, we were the strongest. And the reason? The elements. Because of the elements good intentions, they strive to help anything they come into contact with the best that that thing can be. When they effect a person, that person is gifted with unimaginable physical and mental abilities. So, basically what happened to Luna and I that made us the way we are today, is what happened to you, which would explain why you are able to run like you just did. What say you, Daniel?" she asked me with a smile on her face.

“That’s... I...” I struggled to form thoughts in my head. I mean, realistically, I could run better. That’s all I knew at the moment about my... condition. But, if my guesses were right, the implications for the future were looking up! I mean, what had Celestia said. That when they were affected by the elements, they were smarter, stronger, and faster than everyone else. What if... what if that could be me? Could I do something like that?

“It would seem that he has also lost his ability to speak properly!” the doctor said, eliciting a laugh from the princess. I merely stood before them, waiting for the next event to occur.

“Well, that about concludes what I need to do with you right now. The rest of the day is being left in your hands Daniel,” the princess told me with a warm smile on her face. I thanked her, before turning back, and entering the castle once again.