Ch. 9 Why I’m Here Pt.2

I’d already been teleported today so I recovered from the shock faster this time. Checking my immediate surroundings I made sure everyone in our group was here and accounted for. After confirming that, I let my eyes wander over the castle's outer walls. A small river was flowing in front of me and being fed by the water falling off of the cliffs about 100 yards to my right. After it reached the leftmost edge of the land it fell off into several small pools that progressively working their way down the cliffs I had seen earlier.

A decent sized drawbridge stood open before me. It lead to a golden gate that was encompassed within a large white arch of some material I couldn’t identify. At either side of the golden gate stood a white pony unicorn guard in golden armor. They were both equipped with the same spear I’d seen on Steel Spirit and Moon Petal. The white walls that jutted out from each side of the arch only went up about 10 feet or so. They did at least appear to surround the whole castle. As i’d guessed earlier today, it appears as though the castle had been built with aesthetics rather than safety in mind.

“What do you think of the castle?” Shining Armor asked.

“I think this castle was designed and created with the purpose of making a statement. However I don’t think that statement is, ‘I’m an impenetrable fortress’. Which is normally what you’d want a castle to be. To me it’s design screams grandeur and beauty. Sadly I don’t think any attacking enemies would stop to admire it’s beauty before besieging it.”

“It appears our thoughts on this matter are aligned. I told the princesses many a time that the castle would be better suited for protection if we made a few simple improvements. We could increase the walls height and width to make them more effective ramparts. Or, at the very least, we could simply increase the size and depth of the river. Both of these would be simple tasks for the princesses or the battalions of unicorns we have in the guard.”

He shook his head and smiled. “Unfortunately every time I suggested these changes they always told me that it would negatively impact the castles natural aesthetics. I suppose to those two the castles visuals would matter much more than it’s defenses. They have to live here every for the duration of their extremely long lives. It makes sense for them to want a beautiful home. Not to mention, as powerful alicorns small changes to the castle defenses would probably make scant difference to their safety.”

“Hey you two. Quick yer yappin and let’s get going. Don’t wanna make tha princesses wait all day now do ya?” Applejack said. Shining Armor and I ceased our conversation and looked over to see that the girls were now walking towards the guards at the gate.

“Sorry Applejack. I didn’t mean to delay our progression. I Just wanted to have a chat with Cicero about the castle architecture.”

“Why in Celestia’s name would ya want to talk about something so boring? Well to each their own ah guess.” Turning around Applejack trotted off across the drawbridge.

As Shining Armor and I made our way across the bridge he said, “We don’t have time to discuss this right now but I’d like to talk to you alone sometime in the future Cicero. Based off of our conversations today it would appear that you have some type of background in either a military or leadership position. I could be wrong but I’d like to know for sure either way.”

I smiled. “Very astute Shining Armor. You’re guesses aren’t all wrong but they're not correct either.” He furrowing his brow at that. “I suspect most of your questions will be answered during our conversation with the princesses later. They called you and Cadence here because I’m going to need the help of your wifes magic if she agrees to a request of mine.” His eyebrows raised in surprise this time.

“Nonetheless if our conversation today doesn’t answer all of your questions then I’d be more than willing to talk with you later. No matter how you disguise your curiosity I know most of it stems from wanting to protect your sister.” Shining Armor and I both nodded our heads to each other in a silent agreement.

“The elements bearers and Shining Armor.” One of the previously silent guards said. “We were told to expect your arrival today. We were also told that you’d be accompanied by a strange, hairless, two legged uh… human. Is that you?” The guard said pointing her spear at me.

“Negative. I am a proud meat popsicle of the meatsicle people from quadrant theta omega. I have come to conquer these lands. Bring me to your leader.”

The guard's eyes widened so far that I was afraid she was going to hurt herself.

“Cicero!” Twilight yelled.

She opened her mouth to continue but stopped when I answered with, “Yes twilight?”, in a calm voice. I could see she hadn’t been expecting that answer. She closed her mouth again in confusion. She looked back and forth between me and the guard.

“But… But you said-”

“Oh that!” Turning back to the guard I said, “Sorry about that….”. I rolled my hand in a leading way to show the guard I was waiting for a name.

“Uhhh Sunshine Sprinkles.” She said regaining some of her composure.

“Sunshine Sprinkles?” I said incredulously. “You’re serious?” Still confused, the guard simply nodded her head at me. “Ok then. Well I’m sorry about that Sunshine Sprinkles but I couldn’t stop myself from messing with you. You said you expected the element bearers and Shining Armor to be accompanied by, and I quote, ‘A strange, hairless, two legged human.’” I used my hands to motion towards myself. “Do you get many creatures matching my description around here?” I gave her a smile.

Sunshine Sprinkles snorted. “Alright I see your point wiseguy. The princesses are expecting you in the main throne room for a meeting. Go on ahead.” She returned back to her stoic guarding position.

I nodded in thanks. As I made my way through the gate I said, “I don’t know why but all of the sudden I have a craving for ice cream. I’m thinking a sundae with extra sprinkles.”

I heard Sunshine Sprinkles stumble and her guard counterpart snicker.

A few paces later Twilight caught up to me and said, “That wasn’t very funny Cicero. You really scared Sunshine Sprinkles.”

As soon as I heard her name again I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. Twilight assumed I was laughing at her and glared in return.

“Sorry Twilight I’m not laughing at you. *heh* I just can’t get over some of the names you ponies come up with. I mean Sunshine Sprinkles? Seriously?” I shook my head while chuckling. “How is a guard supposed to command authority if her name makes me think I’m going to get smiled into submission. Although with a name like that most people I’ve known would probably have underestimated her. Which in itself is a very powerful advantage.”

“Well advantage or not please try not to disconcert any of the other guard while we’re here.”

“I’ll certainly try my best.” I said truthfully. “Although if they ask any other silly questions,” I shrugged my shoulders. “No promises.”

*sigh* “Well I suppose that will have to be good enough for now.” Twilight responded. I could see that she was a little unhappy with my response. I guess for someone that grew up around the demi goddesses and their guards she’s probably mistaking my lightheartedness around them as disrespect. Hmmmm. Perhaps It wouldn’t hurt to share a bit more truth about myself with her.

“Alright let me explain myself Twilight. I fear that you mistake my actions and attitudes towards Celestia, Luna, and the guards as disrespect. But nothing could be further from the truth.” Twilight raised her eyebrows in surprise at this. “Let me try and explain things from my perspective. I have been brought to the capital of a nation of which I don’t know my personal standing with. This capital is full of guards whose abilities are foreign and unknown to me.”

“Assuming that Celestia and Luna are as smart as I think they are then that means all of the guards in the capitol are the best in the nation. My training tells me that even though they’ve all been friendly and helpful so far that I should be prepared for things to turn bad quickly. As we just discussed moments before you’ll recall that I said being underestimated by your enemy is a very powerful advantage. So what’s the easiest way to get your potential foes to underestimate you?”

Before Twilight had a chance to come up with an answer Applejack interjected into our conversation with, “Humor. Ya play ah joker.”

“Got it in one Applejack.” I confirmed with a smile. “Not to pry but may I ask how you came up with that answer?”

“Ah’ve been running ah stall in tha Ponyville market for as long as ah can remember. Every once in ah while ya gotta deal with some quick talking swindlers from out ah town. Most of em come in teams ah two. One makes ya laugh, gets ya let yer guard down, and distracts ya. Tha other sneaks about and steals yer goods when yer distracted.”

“Alright I understand your logic but I still don’t understand your skepticism towards the guards.” Twilight said. “Celestia and Luna invited us all here yesterday after meeting you. Surely you can see they, and their guards, don’t mean any harm.”

“Once again you’d have to see things from my perspective to understand. I already told you that I’ve been trained to expect the worst. I know you trust the princesses and their guards more than most. You’ve lived here in Canterlot under their protection. Taking that into account I can understand that it would be hard for you to consider my position of distrust. Please just know that even though I don’t trust them right now I mean no disrespect by it. My apprehension is partially because I respect them enough to fear what abilities and training they might have.”

“But you trust me don’t you?” She asked.

“Yes of course. I’ve been with you the longest since coming to Equestria. Factoring in our various interactions and all that you’ve done for me I can say that I trust you.”

“Then why don’t you trust my judgement on this?”

Damn this is getting into a very dangerous line of questioning. From my interactions with Twilight and her friends it’s simple to see that they trust others a lot easier than humans or myself. Human society and protector visions have shown me all of the possible consequences of misplacing one's trust.

Unfortunately there's no real way to convey this knowledge to her without a really really long talk we don’t have time for right now. Any answer I give her is just going to hurt her feelings. How the hell am I supposed to pull a positive scenario out of this shitty situation?

“Hey girls! The guards finally let me go!”

And it’s Rainbow Dash to the rescue.

“Glad you could finally join us Dash. Or perhaps I should start calling you the Rainbow Cannon after watching you take down that griphon. Nice tackle by the way.”

“I know right! Too bad only Moon Petal and you think so. Steel Spirit seemed put off about paperwork or some other boring stuff like that. You’d think the stallion would thank me for using my awesome aerial maneuvers to take down that criminal!”

I snorted. “Yes I’m sure your act of vigilantism right in front of the guards just thrilled them. Of course I suppose it was a bit warranted as you were the one that griphon almost ran into.”

Rainbow Dash looked away at my words. “Yeah about that.” She said. Raising a hoof to the back of her neck she continued, “Sorry for not thanking you earlier. I kinda got lost in the heat of the moment.”

“Bah! Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to thank me for that. I’m sure you’d have done the same for me.”

“Of course!”

“Well then there you go. No thanks necessary.” Rainbow Dash gave me a smile and playfully punched my arm in return. “Anyways now that you’re back we should get going to the meeting with Celestia and Luna. No more distractions.”

“But what about-” Twilight started.

“No time for buts Twilight! Wouldn’t want to disappoint your teacher and be late would you?” I knew it was slightly mean to make her choose like that but I could see my words had the desired effect. She still wanted to talk to me but her desire to please Celestia was outweighing it. “Now let’s get a move on. Shining Armor since you probably know the castle's layout better than anyone else would you mind leading us for now?”

“Of course. I know the most direct route to the throne room from pretty much anywhere on the castle grounds. Let’s go everypony.”

With Shining Armor in the lead we quickly made our way through the castle's front courtyard. There were multiple stone walkways that went off in seemingly random directions. Thankfully Shining Armor was apparently having no problem navigating his way through the maize. As I followed Shining Armor I noted the copious amount of nature surrounding each of our paths. Shrubbery, flowers, and trees were abundant no matter which way we went.

Turning the corner to walk down yet another of the courtyards walkways I saw the building that was obviously our destination. The pathway widened to give access to a short set of marble stairs which led to a massive, and rather peculiar, double door. The door stood tall at around 15 feet. It was covered in thousands of black and white lines of varying thicknesses that were curling around each other. Whoever painted this door had taken great care to make sure all of the lines edges were seamlessly connected together…. Wait a moment….

“Is it just me, or is that door moving?” I said slightly concerned.

“Don’t worry Cicero you’re not going insane.” Shining Armor reassured me. “What you see before you is actually the results of my constant arguing with the princesses about security.”

I looked back to the door and studied the slowly shifting lines of black and white.

“After the changelings invaded Canterlot at my wedding I stepped up my security suggestions to the princesses. Eventually they were so inundated with my constant requests that they finally let me implement one simply to silence me. HA!” He yelled throwing his head back. “Unfortunately for them once I knew they’d listen to me I just requested even more changes. Sadly this was one of the only battles I was ever able to win with them.”

Looking back up to the door he said, “But let’s focus on the door for now. During the invasion I noticed that one thing the guards sorely lacked was a strong single point of defense. We needed a location we could defend the princesses at as well as base counterattacks from. I figured the strongest point in the castle should logically be the section that contains the throne room. The princesses would obviously be there most often.”

And so”, he pointed to the door, “this was created. Made of everwood and infused with massive amounts of both Princess Celestia and Luna’s magic.”

“WHAT!?” Both Applejack and Twilight yelled.

“Awesome right?” Shining Armor said smiling. “Princess Celestia and Luna never told me exactly what spell they used on the door. It took them half and hour of continuous magic casting before they finally finished. All they told me was that the door was now partially alive and that they’d imbued it with pieces of their characters.”

“Pieces of their character? Partially alive?” Rainbow Dash said disbelievingly. “You make it sound like this weird door is alive.”

*rumble* “RRRRRRrrrrrrrr.”

My mouth fell open in shock. “Did that thing just-”

“GROWL!?” Twilight yelled. “It actually responded to Rainbow Dash! It should be impossible to imbue inanimate objects with anothers sentience. There’s no magic that i’ve studied that even hints it’s possible.”

“Well Celestia and Luna have been around a lot longer than you Twilight. I’m sure they have unfathomable amounts of hidden and powerful knowledge. On that note most species probably couldn’t even fathom living as long as them.”

“Forget all that magic mumbo jumbo.” Applejack said. “What ah want ta know is how ya’ll managed to get your hands on everwood! Not only that but how did ya’ll get enough to make ah door this big?”

Still smiling Shining Armor said, “Well that’s another little secret of the princesses. I don’t actually know where they got the wood. I simple suggested that we should make the front door out of the strongest material Canterlot could provide. Lo and behold the next day I come to the castle and two massive doors of everwood are just lying around the front entrance.”

“Err excuse me, but what is everwood?” I asked confused. “Based on Applejack and your conversation I’ve gathered that it’s obviously rare or expensive. What I don’t get is how this wood could possibly be the strongest material in Canterlot. Why not just build a door of steel or titanium? You guys have magic so i’m sure you could create something ridiculous like a wall infused with multiple graphene or carbon nanotube layers.”

The second I finished speaking I realized my mistake. I snapped my neck to look over at Twilight. “Don’t you dare add that to-” But it was too late. Twilight had pulled out her massive scroll and was busy furiously writing more questions down.

“Tooooooo late Cicero. It’s already on the list.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and rubbed my eyes. “I’ll expire before you ever get an answer to all of your questions, you realize this right?”

“Mmmmmhhhhhhh” Twilight responded not paying me much attention. She was much too busy with her damned scroll.

“Well I’m not sure what most of that fancy stuff ya just mentioned is but everwood isn’t just the strongest material in Canterlot. It’s the strongest material that can be found on Equis.” Applejack explained.

“She’s right Cicero.” Shining Armor added. “Everwood can’t be grown, it has to be found. We have almost no idea what conditions are needed to grow it. All we know about it is that it can be found in rare random pockets of extremely concentrated magic across Equis. Something about how it grows and absorbs ambient magic infuses it with virtually indestructible properties. Without even taking into account the princesses magic, this door could take the full brunt of an ursa major and come out completely unscathed.”

All 6 girls looked to the door in wonder as Shining Armor finished his explanation.

“With all of the dangerous mythological creatures i’ve learned exist here in Equestria i’m actually hesitant to ask what an ursa major is.”

“It’s a bear made of stars!” Pinkie Pie answered cheerily.

“A bear made of stars?” I said confused? “Forgetting that that’s impossible that actually doesn’t sound so bad in comparison to some of the other things I’ve already met. Does it have magic or some-”

“Ursa major’s are also roughly 100 feet tall.” Shining Armor added helpfully.

My mouth dropped open. It took a couple seconds for me to process what I’d just heard. “Jesus I swear Equestria just gets more and more terrifying every time I ask a question. How your race of adorable squishy ponies manages to survive with all of these insane creatures around I’ll never understand.”

“With magic dear.” Rarity said levitating around a leaf she’d found on the ground. “Twilight actually managed to fend off an ursa minor, a baby ursa major, that came rampaging into Ponyville.”

“I didn’t really fend it off.” Twilight said. “I just made it sleepy and levitated it out of town.”

“There she goes again.” Rarity said. “Always so modest Twilight. You’re most likely one of the only unicorns who could levitate a 20 foot tall bear out of town.”

“You also used the wind and plants of Ponyville to play it a lullaby.” Fluttershy said quietly.

“And ya managed to lift and feed it ah water tower full ah milk.” Applejack added.

“That’s my Twili! The smartest unicorn that ever lived!” Shining Armor said happily.

Twilight blushed at their praise and said, “It wasn’t really as impressive as you make it sound….”

“I’m afraid i’m going to have to disagree with you on that Twilight.” I said. Twilight looked up at me. “After what I just heard it sounds like you have some very impressive talents. You used wind and nearby plants to create a lullaby to calm the bear. This tells me you acted calmly in the face of danger and have the ability to think under pressure. You also managed to lift a water tower of milk and a 20 foot tall bear simultaneously. This tells me you have the magical strength to lift quite a few tons. And most impressively, you managed to resolve a dangerous situation without resorting to violence.”

I crouched down and softly cupped her cheek with my hand. “You could have been killed by a rampaging beast but you chose to show compassion instead of aggression. It’s takes an extraordinary individual to stare down that kind of danger and respond with kindness.”

Twilight’s blush deepened considerably once i’d finished talking. After a few silent seconds I felt the increased heat in her cheek through my hand. Realizing what I was doing I pulled my hand back and stood up. I didn’t want to evoke Shining Armors protective brotherly instincts again.

“With all the distractions we keep running into I don’t think we’ll ever make it to the meeting with Celestia and Luna today.” I joked.

“I’m afraid I have to concur with Cicero’s statement.” Rarity said with a smile. “We wouldn’t want you to get so distracted with Twilight that you miss the meeting with the princesses.” She gave me a wink and turned back to the door. “As fascinating as this lovely door is I think we need to find a way to get through it.”

The door apparently liked what Rarity had to say about it. It let out a, “PPPrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.” in response and then rumbled open.

“Oh how wonderful. Thank you Dear!” Rarity said as she walked through the now open front door.

Rolling my eyes at Rarity’s hidden message I followed behind her and made sure to thank the door on the way through. It seemed a bit silly but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to be polite if the door could actually understand me. Everyone else followed suit and did the same as they came through the door.

“Stupid door.” I heard someone mumble as they came through. *WAP* “YEOUCH!”

I kept walking but looked back to see Rainbow Dash quickly fly past me with a bright red mark now on her rump. I saw something that looked distinctly like a black riding crop sink back into the door. Letting out a snort I mirthfully shook my head at Rainbow Dash’s misfortune and turned back around to see her still rapidly retreating down the hallway.

Shining Armor made it to the front and took lead of our group's direction once more. He seemed to have the interior of this building memorized just as he did the courtyards. Which was good as there was no way anyone who wasn’t extremely familiar with this building’s layout could possibly find their way through it. Each corridor had the same setup as the last. Faded black and white marble tiles, a red carpet in the middle, and lots of columns. The occasional greenery, stained glass windows, or door made an appearance in some of the halls.

A strange thought popped into my head as I walked. Why haven’t I seen any guards or servants? I imagine a castle this large would have large measures of both wandering the halls at all times. I wasn’t necessarily complaining as it meant less ponies staring at me. However the protector in me didn’t like things out of the ordinary or unexpected. I didn’t have long to ponder this thought as we turned another corner and I finally saw something that broke the monotony of the other corridors we’d traveled through.

Two white unicorns guards with golden armor were standing at attention on either side of a large wooden double door. This corridor was also much wider than the last. Multiple tapestries of random ponies adorned a large portion of the walls. A few of the ponies deeds depicted in the tapestries caught my eye. I wish I had time to peruse through them all. Unfortunately I heard Shining Armor speak to address the guards.

“Shining Armor, the elements of harmony, and alien Cicero reporting to see the princesses for a scheduled meeting.”

“Welcome back sir.” The pony guard on the left said.

“We were wondering why the princesses ordered the castle hallways to be minimally staffed today.” The guard on the right said. “I suppose I can understand why now.”

“Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Cadence are waiting in the throne room.” The left one said again. “We were told to let you in right away once you’d arrived. Please go on in.”

Shining Armor gave a quick nod to both the guards and used his magic to open the doors. The throne room was breathtakingly massive. The side walls were covered with equally massive stained glass windows of suns and moons. They were all letting large amounts of sunlight through. A large golden chandelier hung from the center of the rooms ceiling. White columns of various thickness were dotted about the room. Finally, the centerpiece of the room was a large golden throne with small fountains that were coming out of it’s sides.

Attempting to keep my gawking to a minimum I focused my attention to the throne. It had three alicorns sitting on it. Celestia and Luna were easy to identify from yesterday so I’m guessing this last pink alicorn is the Cadence I’ve been hearing about. I hadn’t been expecting her coat to be bubblegum pink but I was able to keep my surprise in check. I was starting to get used to the strange colors of the ponies in Equestria.

Now that i’d identified the room and it’s occupants my training told me i’d only have about 5 more seconds to note and observe anything of importance before we reached talking distance. Right away three things made themselves apparent to me. One of which I was slightly angry with myself for not noticing the other day. First, the princesses were all different sizes. It appeared Celestia was the largest with luna second and Cadence third. I wonder if their size is a representation or their power? Or perhaps age? Twilight never specifically mentioned that Celestia and Luna were born at the same time.

Second, I noticed the throne height differences. It appeared Celestia was in the middle on a raised platform while cadence and Luna were at her sides on slightly lower platforms. Perhaps an indication of who holds the most power and sway in the kingdom? I was under the belief that the power was split equally in this diarchy but perhaps i’m incorrect. I wonder why Cadence is allowed on the throne at all though. I understand that she’s royalty but if she’s not from the same family…. Ahh I see. Cadence must be familiarly related to those two in some way. Interesting. I had assumed her Crystal kingdom was a completely separate entity.

The last thing I’d noticed was worrying me slightly. Something was wrong with the air in this room. I couldn’t specifically identify what it was but I knew that my body was reacting strangely. Every breath I took felt like it was… charged. It was making my body tense up. I felt like a beast coiled on it’s haunches ready to strike. This is completely unlike me. I’m usually very calm and rational in these scenarios. My training has taught me to be so.

My five seconds were up. I shook head slightly and focused back in on the princesses to see what they’d say. Strangely enough It looked as though they were talking to us but I couldn’t hear anything. I looked over to the girls to try and see if they could hear them either. I saw confused looks on each of their faces as well.

Luckily Shining Armor stepped forward and said, “Your highness I’m guessing you still have a protective voice bubble active right now. We can’t hear anything you’re saying.”

Celestia appeared to laugh at this and then lit up her horn.

“My apologies my little ponies. I forgot that we’d set up one to talk privately while we waited for you all.”

I saw the edges of some invisible bubble shimmer and disappear. Then it hit me like a brick. I felt an incredible wave of the charged electric air wash over me. My vision instantly sharpened and I gasped. My body felt as if I’d just released my entire cores energy throughout it. My body begin to shiver as I ground my teeth together. I was barely able to stop myself from dashing off around the room. WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING TO ME.

“Shining Armor how many times must I ask you to call me Celestia now. You’re of equal status to me after all.”

“Sorry your highness it’s a force of habit. You can’t serve anypony for that long without some side effects.”

I could hear the conversation proceeding as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. How can the hell can they just proceed as normal? Why are they ignoring the insane wave of energy that was just released? I felt my bodies shivering evolved into shaking. I’m not going to be able to contain myself for much longer. I need to get rid of this buildup fast. I began attempting to rapidly force the excess energy into my body's extremities. I might be able to take care of this without anyone noticing. I could feel beads of sweat starting to build on my forehead.

“Cicero.”

Diving rapidly down into my body I started feeling around to see if something was abnormal or broken in my physiology somehow. I’d witnessed some protectors lose control of their bodies energy regulation abilities when they’d been injured in battles. Perhaps that strange energy wave broke some connection between my brain’s regulation of my body. I could feel my body starting to randomly spasm during my internal search.

“CICERO!”

I stopped my internal search and raised my twitching head to look over at whoever was calling my name. Apparently Celestia had noticed my lack of control first and called out to me. I could see a look of concern and suspicion on her face as she stared at me. My attempts to dissipate the excess energy throughout and out of my body were failing. I needed a physical outlet now before I damaged myself. Looking past Celestia my eye was caught by a group of pillars and I realized what I had to do.

“I-I’m S-sorry but c-can you give me f-few moments before we *urk* continue?” I gritted out. Confusion replaced the suspicion on Celestia’s face.

“I suppose so. May I ask why? Are you alright Cicero?” She asked.

“No t-time I just… FUCK!” I yelled. I couldn’t stand still any longer. Crouching down I jumped and launched myself towards the closest pillar. A small part of my mind registered a few gasps coming from the direction I’d just stood. Regrettably even though I knew I was going to make a fool of myself my body unequivocally demanded exercise this instant. Landing feet first I again crouched and this time jumped towards the group of pillars I’d seen behind Celestia.

Landing sideways on one of the pillars I calmed my mind best I could and split it into two. I assigned one half to take completely control of my brain's motor cortex and force my body to expend as much energy as possible. Right away that half took to it’s job with much gusto. I threw myself at another pillar and used my arm to slingshot around it and jump towards another. As my body continued to rapidly jump between pillars I felt the excess stores of energy that were blocking my rational thinking begin to lessen.

After a good minute of jumping around the energy had lessened to such a degree that I was able use the second half of my mind. I started logically processing what had just happened. Well I don’t have much time to figure out what the fuck that was. Not only is my first impression with Cadence now ruined but I’m pretty sure Celestia and Luna might try and put me down if they think I’ve gone crazy. Damnit. I’ll just have to trace through the chain of events as fast as possible.

I entered the throne room and felt an odd electricity in the air. Thinking on it now I’m actually pretty sure it was just ambient magic in the air. I’ve experienced the same feeling through other protectors visions. So assuming that’s the case why did Celestia releasing that invisible shield trigger such a massive wave of energy? I was in Celestia and Luna’s presence for hours yesterday and didn’t notice any adverse effects like this.

Hmmmm. Perhaps the invisible shield blocked more than just sound as she stated. Maybe it’s like Twilight’s teleportation in the sense that it also blocks airflow and other things of that nature. But if that’s the case how on Equis does oxygen get inside the shield? Maybe it’s not perfect down to an atomic level? Perhaps it only contains most of the atoms it encapsulates but still allows some to escape. That would explain why the air felt charged but the whole effect didn’t hit me until she released it.

So if those three had been sitting there for a long time waiting for us to arrive it’s possible they’re magic could have naturally escaped and gathered in that shield. Jesus these alicorns have an absolutely terrifying amount of power. I hate to admit it but even if I can secure a friendship with them I might have to develop a secondary plan for taking them out if need be. Anything with that much power has the potential for just as much evil as they do good. Even if they wouldn’t willingly commit heinous deeds there are always extenuating circumstances that a protector must plan for.

*Sigh* Twilight would be absolutely crushed if she could hear what I was thinking. I suppose I don’t need to make a decision on this right now. Ignoring their power another point of concern is how the concentrated dose affected me. I can only assume the others weren’t affected as they’re of this land and used to the higher levels of magic in the air. But even if I factor in my body's inexperience to the presence of magic in the air why did it affect me like that?

Never in any vision i’ve ever experienced have I noted such an insane effect of ambient magic on any protectors body. It doesn’t make sense. Our people have absolutely no capacity whatsoever for magic. Sure we can feel the charged feeling in the air that ambient magic creates. But so can any other non magic using creature.

So why have I never seen a reaction like mine? I felt like a battery ready to burst. The closest experience i’ve had that I could compare it too were from some of the visions of other protectors. Certain protectors have tried to experiment with drugs and the like to try and increase their body's energy level regeneration rate.

Never to any success though. Some of the deaths of those who’d tried included heart attacks, total muscle seizure leading to asphyxiation, and increased body temperature that literally melted their brain. So anything that increases my bodies energy levels that rapidly is not only confusing but terrifying. Unfortunately avoiding those three until I figure this problem out isn’t going to work. I’ll need Celestia, Luna, and Cadences help if my plan to transfer materials if going to come to fruition.

“Cicero while my sister is magnanimous enough to indulge your strange behavior, I am not. Enough is enough. We demand you come down this instant and explain yourself.” Luna bellowed at me.

Shit. I guess times up. I suppose I’m just going to have to look into this problem later on my own time. My awkward actions have probably already damaged any diplomatic relations i’d hoped to establish with those two. I concentrated back on my physical body and slowly merged my split thought processes back into one.

Once I regained full awareness and control of my body I realized I was in the air travelling towards a pillar. Reacting quickly I put out my right arm and caught the pillar with hand and chest. I relaxed my grip and slowly slid to the ground. As I slid to the ground I noticed my shirt and pants were now wetly clinging to my body. Apparently I’d starting sweating profusely at some point during my strenuous exercise session. Not surprising considering the energy buildup in my body had rapidly increased my internal temperature.

Having slid down the pillar I was close enough to the floor to simply release my grip and land. I hit the ground with a thud and quickly assessed my current physical and mental state. Physically I still felt energetic but now my internal energy levels felt closer to how they’d be if I woke up extremely rested rather than that of a bomb about to explode. Mentally, with the reduced energy flow, I was now able to clearly think again. So overall, minus my now disheveled appearance, I was close to how I’d been before entering the throne room.

Alright time for maximum damage control… and even though I don’t like it perhaps a bit of groveling is in order. Straightening myself up I walked the short distance back to the front of the throne. As I neared the girls and Shining Armor I noticed a varied set of reactions to my strange performance displayed on their faces. I didn’t have to time to discern them all as Luna didn’t give me the chance.

“Based on what you showed my sister and I yesterday I understand that you’re a strange individual but that display was bordering slightly on insanity.”

“From your perspective I can definitely understand how you came to that conclusion.” I responded. “However I can promise you that I am just as sane as I was yesterday when we spoke. That being said I do apologize for my actions. Is it possible that we could just forget that happened and move on?” I asked hopefully.

Celestia gave me a frown and said, “Cicero as rulers of Equestria and protectors of it’s ponies we have a duty to seek out and deal with any potential dangers to them. That includes unknown and possible unhinged visiting aliens.”

*sigh* “Well it’s not like I didn’t expect that answer. I’m assuming you’ll at least give me a chance to explain myself, correct?” Celestia and Luna both nodded. “Very well. However before we start I actually have a quick question for Rarity” I said turning to her.

Rarity seemed shocked by the sudden attention. “Yes Cicero? Are you alright?” she asked confused.

“Fine now actually. Minus the fact that my appearance is now completely inappropriate for a meeting with royalty. I was hoping you might able to help with that. I figured if anyone knew some quick magic to rectify this fashion problem it would be you.”

Her eyes lit up with understanding. “But of course! I have just the thing. Stand still please.”

Rarity closed her eyes as her horn lit up. A second later my body was enveloped by a soft pink hue. This was followed by all of the water quickly evaporating off my body and out of my clothes. The sensation was the same that I’d felt earlier when Twilight had used her drying magic on me at the fountain. Unlike earlier, I next felt a soft breeze blow over me. As it passed by my nose was filled with a fragrant floral smell. Once the breeze has passed I took a deep whiff of the scent to try and identify it.

“Jasmine?” I queried.

Rarity smiled and opened her eyes. “Excellent deduction Cicero. You’re the first stallion i’ve met to guess that smell correctly on the first try. How did you know?”

“Because of tea. When I was younger my mother used to make me meditate for hours every single day. It was training for protector emotional control. I found it frustratingly hard to get into a meditative trance at that young age though. To help with the process mother would make me a cup of jasmine tea whenever I started meditating. Drinking tea became a relaxing phenomenon for me and eventually my olfactory receptors associated the smell of jasmine with a sense of calm.”
“You drink tea too! Oh this so wonderful! I can’t wait to invite you to Fluttershy’s and my tea parties.” Shooting a look at the other girls she said, “The girls always seem to be suspiciously busy or missing whenever I try and invite them.”

The reaction from the group was an assortment of coughing, looking away, or pawing at the ground. I was surprised to see Pinkie Pie looking away just as guiltily as the other girls. Pinkie Pie was the first person I’d expect to get excited about any type of party. Although considering how hyper she is all the time it makes sense she wouldn’t want to participate in such a calming activity. Knowing Pinkie Pie’s insane disappearing and reappearing abilities I’m assuming she’s the one pony Rarity could never find to invite. All of the sudden a devious plan snaked it’s way into my mind.

“What a coincidence! I’d love to participate in one of your tea parties Rarity and Fluttershy.”

“Really?” Fluttershy asked hopefully.

“Of course Fluttershy. It sounds like a wonderful opportunity to try some native teas of this world.”

“Splendid!” Rarity said happily. “It will be nice to have another at our little get togethers. Drinking tea with friends is always so relaxing.”

“Actually Rarity I believe you’ll find that you have two more wishing to join your future tea parties.”

“Oh?”

“I actually had a wonderful conversation this morning about tea with none other than our very own Pinkie Pie.” I watched Rarity and Fluttershy’s faces shift to delight as they looked over towards Pinkie Pie. It was only for a moment but I saw a look of horror flash across Pinkie Pie’s face before she quickly hid it and went back to smiling.

“Pinkie Pie darling I didn’t realize you were a tea connoisseur!” Rarity said. “I always tried to invite you to our get togethers but I’ve never been able to find you when we had them. I assumed you were avoiding me. How foolish of me to assume such a thing.”

Pinkie Pie’s smile drooped a little bit. “Well….” She started.

“I’m s-so sorry we never invited you Pinkie Pie.” Fluttershy said tearfully. “You probably thought we didn’t l-like you and that’s why you’ve never said anything about tea before.” Using the most adorable puppy dog eyes i’ve ever seen Fluttershy finished with, “You’ll come to our next tea session won’t you?”

OHOHOHOHOHO YES! It’s over! There’s no way anyone can deny an adorable Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie would have to accept. I watched in delight as I was proven correct three seconds later when she said, “Of course! Tea parties sound super duper fun!”

Rarity and Fluttershy both leaned in to hug a smiling Pinkie Pie. As they embraced her she looked over to me and narrowed her eyes. I mouthed, ‘revenge is sweet’ to her. She narrowed her eyes even further in response.

“It’s always nice to see that the bonds of friendship you girls have with each other are still as strong as ever.” Celestia said with a smile. “Sometimes new friendships can help further strengthen existing ones.” Celestia turned her head and for the second that our eyes connected she gave me a wink. Oh my. It appears Celestia has a slightly devious side to her. I couldn’t help but smile at this realization. How charming.

“I’ll have to concur with my sister.” Luna said straightfaced. “Thank goodness Cicero was here to help Pinkie Pie learn about a new type of party.” She turned her head and let out a strange sounding *snort*. “E-excuse me everyone.” She said tightening her bottom lip. Looking closer I could see the smile threatening to take over her face. She was fighting to keep her lips from giving her way. Oh man, Luna too. My smile grew. These two might be even more interesting than I thought.

“Tea parties are actually quite common amongst the nobles in the Crystal Kingdom.” The previously silent Cadence said. “If you’re looking for new teas to try I’d be happy to supply some interesting varieties that the Crystal Ponies make. Though I’d suggest you avoid adding sugar of any kind to the actual tea. Crystal Kingdom tea is brewed from specials leaves with strange chemical properties. They taste neutral and earthy in water but change any sweet flavors added instead to bitter.”

Pinkie Pie’s face froze in a position of complete surprise. Her mouth hung open as if she truly couldn’t believe such a horrible leaf existed. I may not know Cadence yet but she is now officially my hero. What a fucking champ. I looked over to Cadence expecting to see her barely containing her mirth. However much to my surprise I only saw her contentedly smiling at our group. I waited for a few moments and watched her face. I searched it looking for some hint or sign that she was in on the joke.

Cadence apparently noticed Pinkie Pie’s expression and with a concerned voice said, “Is everything ok Pinkie Pie?”

Well well well. Apparently she hadn’t been trying to continue the joke. That means she’s either incredibly oblivious to social cues or extremely innocent. As she’s the queen of a country i’d expect she’d need the ability to pick up social cues. Especially if she’s to effectively rule her country's ponies. Now that’s an interesting piece of knowledge. But evaluation of Cadences innocence would have to wait until later. Luna’s face was starting to balloon out as she tried to contain her laughter. I should probably save her to hopefully gain some slight favor.

“I’m sure Pinkie Pie’s just extremely excited to be offered an opportunity to try new teas from so far away. Thank you very much for your gracious offer. But moving away from tea, now that my clothes are in a presentable condition, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Cicero and I’m a human that hails from the planet Earth.” I gave a slight bow to show my deference.

“Hello Cicero. My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza but i’d appreciate it if you would simply call me Cadence. I’ve actually already heard all about you from the letters Twilight has been sending me. I’ve just finished learning even more about you from aunty Celestia and Luna while we waited for you to arrive.”

“So I’ve heard. Shining Armor mentioned that Twilight had sent you a few letters containing information about me.”

“Indeed. However these letters never mentioned anything about what exactly you are Cicero.” Shining Armor said. “Did I hear you say that you’re a human from Earth earlier?”

“Wonderful.” Celestia said. “It appears that our conversation has naturally steered us towards the main reason I wished to invite everyone here today. We’ve already told Cadence all about our conversation with you yesterday while we were waited here. If you don’t mind I’d like to condense it down and inform Shining Armor of the situation. This will allow me to confirm all that we know about you so far. You can correct me if I miss something.”

“That sounds like an excellent plan Celestia. By all means go ahead.” I said.

“Excellent. Once this is done we can have a talk about your strange display from a few moments ago.”

Damnit. I was hoping I’d managed to steer the conversation away from that. Without realizing it I made a face that gave away my displeasure. Noticing it, Celestia gave me a soft smile.

“Cicero I’ve been alive for quite a few millennia and dealing with loquacious individuals for just as long. I’m very aware when someone is attempting to hide or distract me from something with their words.” I nodded my head in defeat.

“Now moving on. Shining Armor as you know Cicero arrived in Equestria around 1 week ago, appearing near Ponyvilles Everfree forest. Since then he has been living in Ponyville and interacting with Twilight and her friends.” Shining Armor gave a slight nod to show he did in fact already know this.

“What you haven’t heard is that Luna was flying over the Everfree forest the other night and happened upon Cicero dealing with a group of aggressive manticores.”

“Dealing with princess?” Shining Armor said. “Could you please elaborate?”

“Considering our current audience I’d rather not go into details about Cicero’s interactions with the manticores. I will say that Luna watched him use extremely powerful abilities to render most of the manticores unable to continue fighting. If you wish you know more about this then you’ll have to ask Cicero or us later.”

“Oh I most certainly will princess.”

“Me too!” Shouted Rainbow Dash. “I tried to ask him about it yesterday and he gave the same excuse as the princess.” She finished unhappily.

Celestia smiled at her outburst. “I’m sure you can be present when Shining Armor asks Cicero, Rainbow Dash. But for now we must continue.” Turning back to Shining Armor she continued.

Half an hour later Celestia was just finishing getting everyone up to speed on our conversation yesterday.

“And that’s all we know so far.” Celestia said looking to me. I nodded to show she’d missed nothing in her retelling of yesterday's events.

“I can now say I understand your response earlier when I asked you if you had a military background Cicero.” Shining Armor said. “I never experienced this vision that the princesses talked about so I can’t say I trust you one hundred percent yet. However based on their, my sisters, and her friends trust in you I do believe you are who you say. And if I understand your people's visions correctly then it would appear you have the amassed knowledge of generations of military minded and experienced fighters within you. I would be remiss in my duties if I did not request that you share some of this knowledge with the Crystal Kingdom's soldiers.”

“Celestia and I are very interested in this as well Cicero.” Luna said. “As you showed us yesterday, we may have amassed many years of experience but there are some things we still have no knowledge of. We would appreciate it if you would share some of your knowledge with our current captain of the guard. Assuming your presence here indicates impending turmoil, as you’ve suggested, then we’ll need to give our guards every advantage we can.”

Well there’s a proposition I didn’t expect. Most individuals in positions of power are loathe to ever admit any sort of shortcomings in their defenses. To actively ask an outsider like myself to share military or fighting knowledge is tantamount to admitting a weakness. I acknowledge that it seems like the most logical option for them considering all of our positions. Still, I’m extremely surprised they asked.

Of course now that they’ve asked the decision falls to me and I’m not sure what I want to do. On one hand if I agree to help them I would definitely game some favor with them in return. Considering I asked them for a favor first this would go a long way in convincing them to help me. Having trained guards on my side would also greatly behoove me in a large number of situations. Unfortunately on the other hand if I train their guards and they decide to turn on me for whatever reason that would make my job a whole lot harder. Hmmmmmm. I suppose it all comes down to how much trust I want to place in these four.

Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Shining Armor. Based off of what I’ve gathered in my short time here they all sound like kind and judicious leaders. I truly want to take my interactions with them at face value and simply trust. Sadly the lessons hammered into me from past protectors absolutely refuse to leave things up to chance. I cannot afford to take risks when lives are at stake. I need more time with each of them to know their characters. It’s the only way.

A terrifying thought passed through my mind at this conclusion. What if there is no time. Another lesson I learned from other protectors is to act decisively. Sometimes it’s wiser to make a decision with partial knowledge rather than wait for all information. But if I consider these two lessons at the same time then I’m no closer to making a decision than when I started this thought process. I needed another variable. Something that can definitively tip the scales one way or another.

And then it hit me. I may not have spent enough time with those four to know their intentions but there is one who has. Twilight. I turned to look at her. If anyone knows the true intentions of those four it would be her. She has deep ties to all of them. She’d been trying to convince me of their good intentions just a short while ago. I’d wanted to discover each of their personalities myself and take some time before I decided what to do. It looks like I’m out of time though. If i’m going to put my faith in someone then Twilight is definitely the one I trust the most right now.

Having come to a solid decision I crouched down to Twilight’s face level. Being the intellectual that she was, Twilight immediately sensed something important was going on. Since my eyelids were closed Twilight couldn’t stare into my eyes as I was hers. Still, she stood firm and returned my gaze. I’m not sure what I was looking for as I stared into her eyes. Honesty perhaps? All I knew was that how she answered my next question would be the tipping point for how I acted here in Equestria.

“Yes.” She said.

I smiled. She’d already figured out what I was going to ask. Twilight really is an extremely talented girl. Cupping her cheek with my hand I said, “Thank you Twilight.” She gave me a smile in return. Releasing her cheek I stood up and faced the throne.

“I have decided that I will begin our relationships with more a sense of trust rather than apprehension. Keep in mind that until I am one hundred percent sure I know all of your motives I will still be suspicious. That said, I believe that it would help all of us if I begin the process of sharing knowledge. I will share certain pieces of tactical, strategic, intellectual, and technological information that is requested of me IF, and I stress this, IF I believe it will help this planet as a whole.”

“Wonderful! I’m sure pony society has much that we can teach you as well. Thank you for placing your trust in us Cicero.” Celestia said.

“You’re welcome Celestia. Although to be honest I’m not really putting my trust in you all.” She raised her eyebrows at this. “I haven’t spent enough time with you four to trust you yet. However I do know enough about Twilight that I’m willing to trust her judgment of you all for now.” Celestia smiled and nodded.

“Well, since I’m going to start sharing information I’ll start by explaining what happened when I walked into the room. Although my explanation might not be all that helpful as I don’t really know what just happened. You’ve seen that my people and I have what most would assume to be impossible levels of physical prowess. What you don’t know is that I augment my physical abilities to these insane levels by controlling the flow of my body's internal energy. I don’t wish to go into too much detail about it right now. The gist is that I lost control of my ability to direct my bodies energy flow when you broke your sound bubble earlier.”

“Do you lose control of your abilities often?” Luna asked.

“Never. As A protector I am always in control of my body mentally and physically. My guess, as of right now, is that because you three contain so much power that once you let down that bubble a wave of condensed magic washed over me. As Earth has no ambient magic I’m assuming that my body was unaccustomed to the strange feeling and it caused my body’s internal energy flow to go haywire. The jumping around was my attempt to regain control of my body's internal energy flow.”

Closing their eyes Celestia and Luna appeared to be thinking about my response.

“This is all very fascinating but I’m actually more interested to know what you think about ponies and Equestria so far.” Cadence said.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. I hadn’t expected a segway like that. I assume she asked to give Celestia and Luna time to think. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to answer her.

“I’ve enjoyed my time in Equestria immensely so far. These six wonderful mares have seen to that.” I said giving them all a smile. “From Equestrian nature to the ponies harmonious society everything has been more like a vacation to me this past week rather than a upheaval from my previous life on Earth. I’m excited to see what other interesting experiences this world has in store for me.”

“I’m extremely happy to hear how positively you’re taking this drastic change in your life. Celestia, Luna, and I were worried that such a jarring experience might have been emotionally upsetting for you.”

“HA! Now who’s hiding their agenda?” I laughed. Cadence looked confused by my words.
“What do you mean Cicero? I meant nothing negative by what I said. I was simply worried that you might be sad or lonely since your sequestering from Earth. I understand that you’re a protector and that you’ve been trained to be strong but I’m always willing to give a hug to anyone who needs it. You don’t have to hide it if you’re hurting Cicero.”

Good lord is she serious? Is she making fun of me or is she actually that kind hearted? I looked over her posture, trying to discern any body signals that would show she was attempting to deceive me. All I found was that she was relaxed and held no tension in her muscles. I looked to her face to see if she was holding back any facial cues that would tell me her intentions. But all I saw was a face laden with concern. Damn I think she seriously is just a really kind pony.

“Cicero?”

“I’m sorry Cadence I didn’t mean to stare I just didn’t realize you were serious. I thought you were testing me or making a joke.”

“What!?” She seemed affronted by my words. “I would never do something like that to anypony in need! Especially not after what you’ve been through.”

“Yes I can see that now. I apologize for my words.” I said sincerely. “To answer your implied questions, yes, it was upsetting to be thrust into this world unexpectedly and no, I do not need a hug. Thank you for offering though. From your point of view I can understand how it might seem like I’m attempting to hide my emotions at this sudden twist of fate. But as you know, I’m a protector. I’ve been trained all of my life for the possibility that this situation might occur. So yes, it might be a bit sudden but I’ve had a long time to make my peace with this possibility.”

“I see. I suppose that does make a lot of sense. Well, even if you don’t want a hug I’d still like to get to know you better. You and the girls really must come visit Shining Armor and I in the Crystal Kingdom at some point. I know you said you’d share information with our guards but I’d like to personally invite everyone to come stay with us in the Crystal palace.”

“That’s very kind of you Cadence. Considering that I now live in Equestria I know i’d definitely be interested in that offer.” Looking back to girls I said, “What do you girls think?”

“Yes!” Twilight excitedly replied. “It’s been so long since we’ve been able to talk face to face Cadence. I miss you and Shiny!”

Cadence’s face shifted into a wide smile. “I’ve missed you too Twilight. Ever since the Crystal Heart incident I’ve wanted to invite you girls to the palace. We’ve just been so busy getting the kingdom running again.”

“We have reached a decision.” Luna interrupted.

I looked to Luna and said, “A decision? What were you deciding?”

“Whether to press you for answers or not.” Celestia answered. “The way you answered our question about what happened to you when you entered the throne room tells me that you left something out. Something you didn’t want to talk about.”

“However Celestia and I have decided not to press you for answers at the present moment.” Luna said. “We understand that your training makes you wary of us and we wish to help ease that concern. Based off of Twilight’s letters concerning you we have come to the conclusion that you can be trusted for now. If you’re going to meet us halfway then so will we.”

I smiled. “Trust is a two way street.” I murmured to myself. “Thank you for not pressing me on this matter. I assure you that I meant no harm by leaving out any details. I’m just not sure about what happened to me and I’d like to think on it before I talk about it.”

“Of course Cicero.” Celestia said. “I hope that over time you’ll come to trust that Luna and I are simply two leaders trying to do what’s best for their country. But for now let’s move on to your request from yesterday. Now that Cadence is here could you please elaborate on what it is you wish for us to do exactly?”

“Of course. Well I was hoping that-”

*WHAM!*

Everyone in the throne roomed tensed as something heavy slammed into the wooden double door. Turning around I felt my body instinctively crouch down in response. I strained my ears as I listened for any other noises.

“Forest Heart what are you-*BAM*”

Once more something heavy slammed into the door. I waited silently for any more noises but nothing came.

“Were you expecting company Celestia?” I asked.

“No. I told the guards that we were to remain unbothered until I called for them.” I could hear the concern in her voice. Something was wrong here.

*knock knock knock*

Someone was gently knocking at the doors. I looked back to Celestia to see what she wanted to do. Luna’s horn lit up and she closed her eyes for a moment.

“I can’t sense the guards at the doors anymore.” Luna said in a steely tone. “Something is knocking at the door but I can’t identify what it is. Something about it’s presence feels…. wrong. All I can sense coming from it is power and anger.”

*knock knock knock* “Yoohoo! Celestia! Luna! Are you there? I’d love to talk.” The thing knocking at the door called. Something was very very wrong here. Simply hearing whatever was at the door grated on my senses.

“My little ponies get behind the throne.” Celestia said. I looked over to see a cool mask replacing the smiling face that I was used to seeing on her. Luna’s face had shifted into an expressionless mask to match her sisters. Cadence was attempting to do the same as the other two but the fear was much more apparent on her face.

“You as well Cadence and Shining Armor.” Luna said.

“But-” Shining Armor tried to argue.

“NOW.” She said. She stared directly into Shining Armor’s face and I saw the reason why these two had ruled for so long. There was no disobeying that face.

Bowing quickly, Shining Armor and Cadence quickly came over to our group and ushered everyone behind the throne. Cadence attempted to usher me with the rest of the group but I stood firm and shook my head. She was unhappy with this and attempted to push me with everyone else.

Celestia simply said, “Cicero is not our subject. It is his choice to stay. Go Cadence.”

Letting out a sigh she turned and went with everyone else. I looked over to Celestia and gave her a nod to show my thanks. Walking over to the throne I stood next to it on the side that Cadence had left unoccupied. I knew I didn’t have long so I quickly delved into my core and started forcing energy throughout my body. With the excess energy from earlier still in my body I was able to create multiple layers of reinforcement throughout my entire body. Letting the energy gently flow through my adrenal glands I felt a wave of clarity wash over me.

“My goodness how rude. Leaving a guest to wait outside like this. At least your parents had the decency to come to me.” The voice outside the door said.
I heard a sharp intake of breath. Both Luna and Celestia’s eyes widened in shock. They quickly hid it and hardened their faces once more.

*sigh* “Very well then. If that’s how it’s going to be.”

*CCCRRAAACK BOOM*

The wooden double doors splintered into a thousands pieces and exploding inwards towards the throne. Lighting up her horn Celestia put a shield around the entire throne. Any wooden shards that hit it were powerfully rebounded.

*KAA-Shhhhh*

I heard a few of the stained glass windows around the room shatter as the wooden shards forcefully broke through them. Then, much to my surprise, a small green unicorn pony entered the room through the now empty doorway.

“Forest Heart? Why have you destroyed our throne room doors?” Celestia asked.

“Forest Heart!?” Shining Armor yelled. Shining Armor ran out from behind the throne to confirm Celestia’s claims. “What is the meaning of this!?”

“Forest Heart?” The green unicorn asked confused. “Oh! Yes that was this pony's name wasn’t it. Not that it matters anymore. He’s dead now. This body is merely a host for me. Still, you’d think with as many times as i’ve heard that name screamed at me i’d remember it by now.” With a smile on his face he said, “I have to admit that my favorite time was when I forced Forest Heart to dismantle his wife.”

“Dismantle?!” Shining Armor roared.

*sigh* “Your yelling is getting aggravating.” Forest Heart sneered. With a flick of his head his horn lit up and an invisible force slammed into Shining Armor before anyone had time to think. Shining Armor was blown off his feet and thrown about 50 feet back into one of the throne room's pillars.

“Shining Armor! Shiny!” Cadence and Twilight yelled. I saw both of them dash out from behind the throne and go to Shining Armor.

“Monster!” Luna yelled. With a furious look on her face she shot an angry red beam from her horn towards Forest Heart. Forest Heart smiled and effortlessly used his hoof to bat the red beam to his left. The red beam impacted with the floor and quickly liquified the parts of the floor it came in contact with. The floor hissed and released steam as the tiles melted.

“There’s that temper problem i’ve been hearing about since I got back.” Forest Heart chided. “From what I’ve heard you recently got back from a long vacation on the moon. Caused by that temper no less. Tsk tsk. Seems like you haven’t learned anything.” He finished condescendingly.

Looking to Celestia he continued. “Although my favorite part of this whole Nightmare Moon story was the fact that little Celestia was the one that put you on the moon. For one thousands years in fact. Well done Celestia. I didn’t think anyone in your family had that sort of cruelty within them.”

Nightmare Moon story? What on Equis was he talking about? I looked over to Celestia and Luna to see that they were both shaken by his words. They held their masks but I could see the cracks in them. Whatever Forest Heart is talking about is something I need to learn.

“Speaking of family, was that a little Pink Alicorn I saw back there?” Cheerily looking around the throne Forest Heart said, “My goodness it is. How clumsy of me. I was so sure I’d taken care of all but you two. Oh well. now that I’m free I have all the time in the world to make sure I don’t miss any again. Speaking of which.”

Forest Heart threw his horn forward and unleashed a sickly looking green beam at Celestia. Reacting quickly Celestia put up a shield and deflected the beam downwards. The beam hit the ground and splashed around, hissing all the while. Whatever the green liquid was it was melting through the tiles like acid.

“As Luna tried to melt me with heat I figured I’d respond by doing the same with acid.” Forest heart said.

“Enough of this farce!” Celestia yelled. “You speak of my parents and the deaths of the other alicorns as if you were there but this cannot be the case. None but my sister and I were alive to remember the plague that wiped out our people. Who are you?”

As Celestia finished speaking the room began to grow dark. Looking over to the broken windows I could see that light was still coming through. What the hell. I felt a chill creep up my spine as a cold wind blew past me towards Forest Heart. I looked back to see a black aura now surrounding him. I could feel the same electrically charged feeling in the air as I had earlier from Celestia, Luna, and Cadence. But this time I felt no extra energy coursing through my body. I only felt dread.

“A plague you say?” Forest Heart whispered. “So that explains why none of your filthy pony subjects knew of my deeds.” Raising his voice he said, “Your horrid mother and father erased my existence from history with lies! But no more! I am free and you will all feel my WRATH!”

A wave of crackling black energy rushed forth from Forest Heart and towards the throne. Celestia and Luna both put up shields this time.

*BONG*

The first wave slammed into their combined shield and I felt the whole room shake as the clashing magic lit it up.

*BONG*

Another wave slammed into the combined shield and it yet it held strong. Luna and Celestia were obviously concentrating very hard to hold back Forest Hearts magic.

*BONG*

“Watching you two hold back my magic I realize that you’ve grown stronger than I thought during my absence.” Forest Heart angrily yelled over the clashing waves of magic.

*BONG*

“But unlike you two I’ve spent the last 3 millenia creating an endless list of ways I could destroy you both.

*BONG*

“Allow me to show you one of my favorites.”

*BONG*

Forest Heart and his magic disappeared during the magic flash.

“AUUGHHHHH!” Luna screamed.

Time slowed as my head whipped towards her to see Forest Heart standing at her side. His horn was glowing bright and had been jabbed into her thigh. Instinct took over as my charged muscles snapped to attention and launched me towards him. I was almost upon him before he realized I was flying at him. Faltering for a moment his smile turned to surprise. He quickly replaced it with an angry sneer. Forest Heart tried to remove his horn from Luna’s leg in time to stop me.

I helped Forest Heart remove his horn from Luna side as my fist powerfully slammed into his face. Apparently Forest Heart hadn’t assumed that this fight would turn physical as I felt no resistance when my fist smashed his face and skull inwards. A trail of blood flowed off of his horn as Forest Hearts body was sent flying from the throne. Unfortunately I also hadn’t expected him to put up such a small amount of resistance. I’d assumed he’d use some time of physical reinforcement magic for just this scenario. My momentum carried me off the throne after his body.

Luckily I landed on my feet a few yards away from the throne and then skidded to halt. Forest Heart wasn’t as lucky. His body impacted with one of the room's walls and made a wet crunching noise. I was pretty sure Forest Heart’s body wouldn’t get back up as his broken form bounced off the wall and hit the ground. Still, I walked over to it and watched the crumpled remains for a few moments. I wanted to make sure they didn’t show any signs of movement.

“LUNA!” Celestia yelled.

I spun around in surprise at Celestia's loud call. Seeing a black cloud forming over Luna I abandoned my guard over the body and jumped back onto the throne. Looking down at Luna’s body I saw that the wound Forest Heart had given her was apparently more dangerous than a simple physical attack. Lines of darkness were shooting out of her bleeding thigh and crawling quickly across her skin. Celestia’s horn shone blindingly bright as she tried to stop their advance across Luna. But nothing she did seemed to help slow the spread of the black lines or close the wound.

“AAAUUUUUGGGHHH!” Luna screamed. Falling on her side she started spasoming wildly.

“What the fuck is happening!?” I yelled at Celestia. “What do we do!?”

“I don’t know!” she said panicked. “I’ve never seen this magic before! Luna! Luna what’s happening to you? How can we help?”

“Errr! Erk! AAAAAAAHHHHH!” She yelled neither able to hear or help us.

“Princess what’s happening?” Twilight asked, coming out from behind the throne. I looked over to see Twilight and the other girls all trotting towards us. In the background far behind them I saw Cadence sitting next to Shining Armor. She was using some type of magic on him. Twilight and the girls must have heard Luna scream and come to help. If anyone had studied an obscure or unknown magic it was Twilight. I opened my mouth to call Twilight for help.

“I’ll tell you what’s happening you little shits.” A voice echoed from all around.

The voice was barely louder than a whisper but the second I heard it my entire body locked up.

“C-Cicero.” Twilight said looking terrified. “W-what was that?”

“Ahhhh Cicero is it.” The voice said again. “Congratulations creature. It has been so very long since I’ve felt such rage towards a single individual. I don’t know what you are but I can guarantee that as soon as I get another body I will find you again. I will make you regret what you’ve done here today. You have no idea who you’ve made your enemy this day. I will torture you until you can remember nothing but pain and suffering.”

Never in my entire life have I heard such hate in a voice before. Every word was laced with so much rage that I could practically feel it burning my ears. My instincts were screaming at me to block out the voice and help Luna but my muscles refused to move. I was drowning in this voices rage.

“ROOOOOAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” Luna yelled again.

Hearing Luna’s screech broke me out of my panicked stupor and restarted my brain.

“Good luck Asshole. I’ve already been tortured and killed in more ways than you could ever imagine. Your threats don’t mean shit to me. Now what the fuck did you do to Luna?!” I yelled.

“Ohohoho. Strong willed are we?” The voice taunted. “Excellent. The stronger the individual is the more satisfying it is to finally break them.” I could hear the sadistic glee dripping from its voice. “But that’s for another time. I did say I would tell you what’s happening to poor little Luna.” It mocked in a baby voice.

“One of my favorite ways to kill off alicorns back before I was imprisoned was to sow disharmony amongst them and then watch as they tore each other apart.”

“No….” Celestia whispered.

“Oh my. It appears someone has already figured it out.” The voice cheered gleefully again. “Yes Celestia it’s as you fear. Now you must choose to either kill your sister and protect your subjects or die by her hooves. Oh look, she’s almost ready.”

I looked back to where Luna had last been flailing on the floor but instead found somepony else in her place. A Celestia sized midnight black alicorn was now standing with it’s eyes closed right where Luna had been.

“I’ll be back one day for whichever of you is still alive. Have fun you two.” The voice said fading away.

“Luna.” Celestia said. She hesitantly stepped closer to the black alicorn. “Can you hear me. It’s your sister. Please tell me you’re alright.”

“Luna?” The black alicorn said. “I’m not sure whom you’re talking too. My name is Nightmare Moon.” Her cerulean eyes flicked open and I saw only hate reflected in them. “I’ve come to take my revenge.” A savage smile appeared on her face.

*uuuuuuuUUUUUUAAAAPOOOOWW*

A sphere of black magic exploded out of luna. Celestia’s threw up a shield as fast as she could but it wasn’t nearly quick enough to protect us all. The black energy hit me and I was sent flying from the throne. I could hear the girls all screaming as the wave hit them as well. During one of my many aerial flips I saw a wall rapidly approaching me. I curled my body into a very tight ball and hardened my body for the impact.

*THWACK*

Fuck that’s going to bruise up. I’d hit the wall hard enough to partially break through it. Wiggling around I managed to break myself free of the wall with only minor scrapes. Hitting the ground I looked up and scoured the throne room for the girls. Hopefully they hadn’t been thrown as hard considering they were farther away from Nightmare Moon.

*THWANG* *CRACK*

I looked at the throne to see Celestia deflect a yellow lightning bolt from Nightmare Moon into the ceiling. The fight between Celestia and Nightmare Moon had apparently continued past the initial blast. Pieces of the stone ceiling cracked and fell down towards Celestia. Nightmare Moon took advantage of this and rapidly increased their downward speed towards her. Celestia created a slanted magical shield and deflected them all towards Nightmare Moon herself.

With a furious look Nightmare Moon teleported out of their way and reappeared behind Celestia. Instantly creating 100 black swords in the air she threw them all at Celestia’s back. Celestia responded quickly by rearing around and slamming the ground with her hooves. A huge stone wall shot out of the ground and stood firm as it was impaled repeatedly by the black swords.

“I see you haven’t lost your touch Celestia.” Nightmare Moon yelled over the sound of the swords slashing the stone wall. “I was afraid the battle would be over before I had a chance to have fun with you.”

“I don’t wish to fight you sister.” Celestia called back. “But I will do what I must to protect my little ponies.”

“I AM NOT YOUR SISTER!” She yelled back in anger. Unleashing a huge red wave Nightmare Moon completely atomized all the black swords and the stone wall. “I AM NIGHTMARE MOON AND YOU WILL DIE!” Letting out a furious roar she unleashed another red wave towards Celestia. Putting up another magical barrier I saw the wave hit it with a *BONG* as both canceled each other out and disappeared.

Looking away from the fight I continued my search for the girls. I want to help Celestia but I’d be almost useless in a magical fight of that magnitude. At least without any type of plan. You don’t get in between two battling magic goddesses without a damn good reason. It didn’t take me long after I stopped watching their fight to see the girls. They were standing far behind the throne around Cadence and the still unconscious Shining Armor. Taking off at a sprint I made my way around the battling alicorn sisters and quickly reached them.

“Hey girls. Are you all ok?” I said.

“Cicero!” Twilight yelled. She jumped from her spot and tackled me to the ground in a hug.

“OUCH!” I yelled, landing on my growing bruises. “Jesus I’m glad you’re ok too Twilight.”

“I thought you died!” She said still hugging me tight.

“Well I did tell you that protectors have incredibly sturdy bodies. I wasn’t joking you know.” I stood back up and Twilight released me from hug “But forget me for now. How did you all survive that attack? Based off of the lack of damage to your bodies I’m assuming you stopped yourselves somehow.”

“Cadence created a squishy magic barrier for us to land on!” Pinkie Pie said happily. “It was super fun. I want to go again!”

I gave Pinkie an, ‘are you serious look’, to which she just smiled and nodded in return. Shaking my head I turned to Cadence. “Thank you Cadence. I should have been here to help but I was caught completely unaware by the level of magic those two are capable of. It will not happen again.”

“Don’t worry about it Cicero.” Cadence said. “I’m just glad your unharmed as well.”

“Speaking of harm, how is Shining Armor Cadence? That hit from Forest Heart along with his slamming into a pillar looked serious.”

Cadence looked towards Shining Armors slowly breathing form. “From what we can tell he seems ok. Twilight and I don’t have a very wide variety of medical spells but it seems as though he’s just unconscious. Still, we need to get him to a hospital as soon as possible to make sure. A hit like that could cause a concussion.”

I could hear the concern in her voice. Her pitch was raised and slightly wavering. I’m assuming she’s downplaying her concern to not panic everyone else here.

“Well then let’s get out of here. Can’t you teleport us all out of the throne room and to a hospital?”

“WHAT!?” Rainbow Dash yelled. “We can’t leave! Celestia needs our help!”

“Ah have ta agree with Dash on this Cicero. We can’t just leave Celestia ta fight Nightmare Moon on her own. We have ta do something.”

“Are you two serious right now?” I asked incredulously. “Do you not see the same fight going on right now that I do?” As if to accentuate my point one of Nightmare Moons spells slammed into the massive golden throne and ripped it from the ground. Tipping over sideways the throne slammed into the ground and shook the entire room.

“I want to help Celestia as well but I know nothing about this Nightmare Moon nor do I have any way to combat the insane amount of magic they’re throwing at each other. We need to get everyone to safety and come up with a plan before we do anything.”

“We already have a plan!” Rainbow dash retorted. “We just need to use the elements of harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon again!”

“Again!” I yelled in surprise. “You mean you’ve already taken down this creature before? And now that we’re on the subject where the hell did Luna go? Did Nightmare Moon possess her or is she dead and gone?”

“Nightmare Moon is princess Luna.” Twilight said. “Unfortunately we don’t have the time to go through the history right now. The short story is that eventually over a long period of time princess Luna grew jealous that all of Equestria’s ponies were awake for princess Celestia’s sun but never for her moon. Her jealousy grew strong enough that it gained an alternate poisonous personality and consumed her. Nightmare Moon is that poison.”

“But we used the elements of harmony to purify princess Luna’s body of that poisonous jealousy.” Rarity said. “Why did she turn back into Nightmare Moon now?”

“Pretty sure a spell Forest Heart, or whatever creature took over his body, used had something to do with that. Right before I punched him his horn was lit up and stuck in Luna’s side. That’s where all of the black lines that started covering Luna’s body came from.”

“I’ve never heard of any magic like that before.” Twilight said. “How did this Forest Heart know such advanced magic? Who is he? What do you mean the creature that took over his body?”

“TWILIGHT!” I yelled. “We can play twenty questions all day some other time. Right now we need to focus on the present and what we know, alright?” Twilight was surprised by my yelling and took a step back. She quickly processed what I’d said and nodded back though. “Alright so you girls can use the elements of harmony to purify Luna of whatever magic caused her to become Nightmare Moon again. Where are the elements of harmony?”

“Oh no…” She said. “They’re back in Ponyville. I always keep them locked in my rooms chest for safekeeping.”

“So why don’t we teleport there and get them.”

“There’s no way I could possibly teleport that far. Even if I went by myself and made it to Ponyville I’d never have enough magic to get back.”

“Alright well what about-” I heard a whistling sound behind Twilight and saw a massive rock coming straight for our group. Flooding my body with energy I rapidly sidestepped her and lunged towards the rock. Jumping up at the last second I drop kicked the incoming rock with as much force as I could muster. The rock was thankfully less solid than I’d thought and shattered upon contact with my feet. *Thud* Having pushed all my momentum into the rock I hit the floor.

“Fuck, I’m going to have so many bruises tomorrow.”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “With your crazy abilities and my awesome speed we could easily take down Nightmare Moon! Forget all this planning let’s go get her!”

Picking myself off of the ground I groaned out, “If you’ve learned how I can kick and punch magical beams into submission then by all means let’s go get her. Breaking apart a rock doesn’t mean we can win this battle against her. Now back to what we were discussing before. Even if you can’t teleport that far I’m pretty sure you can.” I pointed to Cadence. “I’ve seen a map of Equestria in Twilight's library. If you can teleport Shining Armor and yourself from the Crystal Kingdom to Canterlot, surely you can grab the elements from Ponyville and get back. Right?”

Cadence smiled at me. “That I can Cicero.”

“Awesome. But first can we please teleport out of here before something else decides to fly this way and crush us all?”

“Right away. Everyone stand still.” I saw the familiar aura and lines of teleportation encompassing our group. However right as the line to teleport us out of the room hit the wall it stopped and faded away. I looked over to Cadence who seemed distressed by this turn of events as well. Lighting up her horn again she started concentrated on something. Almost instantly she gasped.

“Nightmare Moon has put a magical barrier around the room. It’s blocking my attempts to teleport us out of the throne room!”

“Shit. Well that definitely puts a damper on that plan. Well if we can’t teleport I guess we’ll just have to break out of the room by force.”

“Unfortunately that’s not going to work either.” Twilight said. I looked over to see her eyes closed and her horn alight. “The barrier appears to have been created to stop any sort of physical matter from leaving it at all.”

“I guess that explains why no guards have come to see what all the noise is about yet. Since Celestia ordered the halls cleared today they probably don’t even know what’s going on. Hmmmmm. Twilight do you think it’s possible we could break or poke a hole in this shield at all?”

“Unlikely. Nightmare Moon is much stronger than I am magically. Even with Cadence’s help I doubt we could overpower her shield.”

“What about diggin?” Applejack said. I looked over to her with raised eyebrows. “From all tha confounded magical experiments Twilight’s done around Ponyville ah’ve picked up on a thing or two about magic. I remember her sayin that most magic area shields ponies put up don’t take in ta account the ground.”

“That’s right Applejack! Brilliant!” Closing her eyes again Twilight’s horn lit up once more. A few moments later her face fell and her horn cut off. “It appears as though Nightmare Moon thought ahead for that. The barrier is active about 10 feet under the ground.”

“Good lord. How can she keep this massive barrier active while battling Celestia at the same time?” I asked bewildered. “Every time I think I understand how much power alicorns have I find myself once again shocked.”

“RAAAAAH! YOU BITCH!” NightMare Moon screamed. I looked over to see her bleeding from a long scrape across her stomach. Glancing over to Celestia I could see that she also had a few cuts and bruises from their continued battle.

“I begrudgingly admit that I’m impressed you’ve managed to last this long. But we both know who will win in the end. You don’t have what it takes to rule as I do! I am as wise as I am powerful. I know how to truly wound my opponents!” Spinning rapidly she faced our group with an angry snarl.

“NO!” Celestia screamed.

Nightmare Moon unleashed a massive crackling wall of red magic. Celestia tried to cast a magic barrier to block the spell but Nightmare Moon threw another yellow bolt of lightning at her. Celestia was forced to block that instead.

“CADENCE PROTECT THEM!” She screamed. Celestia savagely threw a white bolt of energy back at Nightmare Moon.

Stepping forward Cadence flared her wings and lit up her horn. I saw a pink barrier envelop our group right as the red wall of magic reached us.

*WHUMP* *CRACKLE*

Cadence’s barrier held firm but I saw her wince under the impact of the red wave.

“I’ll hold the barrier Celestia!” Cadence yelled back.

“uuuuuuOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” Celestia roared in return. A white beam exploded from her horn and flew straight at Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon covered herself in a black shield and deflected the beam towards a group of pillars which promptly exploded upon impact. With a triumphant smile Nightmare Moon charged towards Celestia and they began their duel again.

Walking over to Cadence I whispered in her ear, “I don’t want to panic the others but how long can you keep up this shield?”

“Without another attack like that? For days. Against another direct attack of that strength? I can maybe block another 4 or so.” She whispered back.

FUCK! This situation just turned from bad to dire real fucking quick. That smile of Nightmare Moon tells me she’s a more dangerous opponent than I originally thought. Celestia and her seem to be about evenly matched in terms of magical ability but Celestia has a lot more to lose than Nightmare Moon and that’s weighing her down.

Nightmare Moon knows that Celestia doesn’t want to fight her because she’s doesn’t want to hurt her sister. However she also knows that Celestia doesn’t want any harm to come to our group. She’s torn between doing her duty and trying to save her sister. Nightmare Moon is trying to panic her into making a mistake. This is exactly why emotional control is such a large part of protector training. God damnit there are two many distractions and we need a plan right now.

“Sometimes risks must be taken for the greater good Cicero. Just because it’s a risk doesn’t make it the wrong choice.”

My mother's words echoed in my ears. Suddenly I knew what I had to do. *sigh* I was really hoping to not have to resort to risking my brain this soon but I need answers now. Sitting down I curled myself into my normal meditative pose and focused intently on my cores energy. I could see the lines of energy coursing through most of my body keeping it reinforced and ready to go at a moment's notice. The one part of my body that was mostly lacking any energy flow however was my brain.

Sure I had a slight amount of energy forcing my adrenal glands to work faster but other than that my brain was bare. That was about to change. Taking another line of energy from my core I snaked it up to my brain and began delicately working it throughout all of my lobes. Right away I felt my body's internal temperature begin to rise. A surge of panic hit me as my brain alerted me to the dangerous amount of energy and heat coursing through it. A few moments later I managed to suppress the panic and I felt time begin to slow as I began analyzing our situation.

Cadence is powerful but judging from her stance, sweat levels, and facial expressions I can see she’s worried. Most likely she’s a subspecies or watered down interbreeding of the Alicorn race. If I’m to take any information from what Forest Heart let slip it would appear as though true Alicorns, minus Celestia and Luna, are extinct. Taking this into account I’m guessing that Cadence doesn’t truly know how long she can hold out against more attacks and that’s worrying her.

Very well. So now I have even less time to work with. Looking over to Celestia and Nightmare Moon I could see that the battle, while appearing even, was in fact not. Even without knowing much about the magic they were using I could see that Celestia kept hesitating when she used any attack magic against Nightmare Moon. She was mostly blocking, dodging, and deflecting whatever was thrown at her. Nightmare Moon’s attacks appeared as powerful and rapid as they had before. Celestia is going to need help soon no matter what our group does.

So how can we help her? From what knowledge I have now the elements of harmony are the only thing that can purify Luna of Nightmare Moon without killing her. But we can’t get the elements of harmony as we can’t get past the throne room shield Nightmare Moon has put up. Or wait….. Perhaps we can. So far as we’ve discussed there is absolutely no way to take things from inside the shield and get them out. But perhaps the opposite isn’t necessarily true.

From my discussions with Twilight I know that most magic appears to be heavily reliant on intent. Maybe not to the same level as the magical fire of dragons but perhaps it holds enough importance to leave loopholes. Teleportation requires that small line to be able to get past the shield but perhaps the shield is only blocking it because it reads the magics intent to move things out of the shielded area.

Twilight said that she didn’t have the power to teleport us to Ponyville but perhaps she has the ability to teleport matter to us here. I remember her saying that teleporting non living things required much less magic than things that are alive. Perhaps we could use Cadence instead? Fuck that won’t work. Twilight specifically said that teleportation works by knowing the exact point you’re teleporting to. Not a picture in the mind. She’s the only one who knows where the elements are. Not to mention I doubt Cadence can spare any magic right now.

“Twilight.”

“Um yes?” She said confused. “Are you alright? What was that kneeling all about?”

“Yes i’m fine. Stay focused Twilight. Remember what I said about asking questions later.” I said looking at her.

I’m guessing she picked up on my seriousness as she hardened her face and said, “I remember. What do you need Cicero?”
“Do you remember our conversation about the intent of magic the other day?”

“Yes.”

“Is it possible that Nightmare Moon's shield might only block magic with the intent of leaving this shield? Is it not possible for you to bring things in?”

“I… I’m not sure.” She said thinking hard. “I suppose it’s possible.”

“Do you remember that hanging basket of plants right outside of the throne room before we came in?”

“Yes.” Her face lit up in understanding. “You want me to try and teleport it in. Give me one moment.” Closing her eyes her horn lit up and I watched the line shoot over towards the throne room's entrance. To my relief and everyone's surprise it went straight through the shield and suddenly a basket of plants popped into existence right in the middle of our group.

“It worked!” She said excited.

“But how are plants supposed to help us win this fight!?” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“Plants always make me feel better.” Fluttershy quietly added. “Maybe if Twilight can get enough plants we can calm Nightmare Moon down. I’m sure if we bring in some adorable bunnies as well we could convince her to stop all this fighting.” She finished hopefully.

“OOH! Or maybe you could teleport in a bunch of party supplies!” Pinkie Pie said. “Nothing makes a pony happier than a surprise party! I’ll bet she forgets all about this fighting if we give her a welcome back to Equestria cake!”

Despite trying very hard to ignore distractions I still felt the side of my mouth twitch into a smile. I’m impressed these girls are still so happy and positive even in such a dire situation.

“Those are certainly excellent suggestions you two. But for now we’ll keep those as backups plans. Twilight is actually going to try and teleport the elements of Harmony from her rooms chest, to you girls.”

“My goodness dear are you sure?” Rarity asked. “Twilight we all know that you have an amazing amount of magical power but as a unicorn we both know the dangers of pushing our magic too far.”

That set off warning bells in my brain. “Rarity I’m unaware of these dangers at the moment. What dangers are involved with performing magic of this level?”

“Well… It’s not really a pleasant topic for unicorns to discuss but considering the current situation I suppose it’s warranted. If a unicorn attempts to pull more magic from their body than it’s capable of supplying than it can have disastrous effects on that unicorn.”

“Disastrous effects? Could you be more specific please?” I could see she didn’t want to continue but I ignored her social cues and pressed her. I needed to know what risks I was asking Twilight to take.

*sigh* “Well the effects can be rather diverse. Some unicorns have found that the magic naturally attempts to get the energy from the rest of their body. This can mean something like a leg shriveling up and dying as it’s energy is stolen and used to power the spell. Sometimes the unicorn's body simply can’t handle the magic buildup before the spell and naturally the magic seeks an escape path. This leads to it escaping the body in rather explosive ways.”

Fluttershy gasped at this. She appeared to be on the verge of tears as she looked at Twilight. Applejack made way over to Fluttershy and nuzzled her to try and help. Meanwhile I held my hand up to signal Rarity to stop.

“My apologies Rarity. I understand you didn’t want to talk about this but I needed to know and there is no time for tact.”

Rarity’s eyes showed sadness but she gave me a weak smile to show she understood. She then walked over to Fluttershy and proceeded to help Applejack calm her down.

“Everyone it’s alright I can do this! I know I can!” Twilight said confidently.

I looked over to see her determined face. She was putting up a brave front but I could see the doubt in her eyes. Twilight knew that we were running out of options and time.

“Are you sure Twilight?” I asked. “I have confidence in you but this plan is rather risky. We can figure out another way.”

Twilight looked over to me. I saw the confirmation that she knew the direness of our situation as well as I did.

“I can do this.” She said.

“Very well.” I took a few steps back. “We won’t distract you. You’ll need to concentrate.”

Nodding her head one last time Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep break. Her horn lit up and I saw the familiar teleportation line rocket off of her and out past the shield. I stood by the others as we watched Twilight’s horn continue to grow brighter and brighter by the second. Half a minute later I could see sweat starting to form on her body. She scrunched her face in concentration and the light continued to grow.

Another thirty seconds of waiting and Twilight was beginning to shake. The sweat was starting to fall from her body. Her horn was reaching blinding levels of light. It was at this moment that Nightmare Moon apparently noticed the blinding light and looked over to our group. All of the sudden, six golden pieces of jewelry with various gems stuck in them popped into existence. They landed right in the middle of our group. Twilight’s horn cut off and she wobbled around for moment. Running over to her I knelt down and pulled her sweating body against mine.

“Well done Twilight.” I whispered.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Nightmare Moon screeched. Apparently she’d figured out what our group had been up to. I looked over to see a horrifyingly angry face staring directly at our group. “NOT AGAIN! NEVER AGAIN YOU HORRID PONIES!”

She reared her head back and then violently brought it down in our direction. An absolutely massive black beam flew towards us.

“AHHH!” Cadence cried as the beam hit her shield. Cadence’s horn lit up wildly in response. Somehow the shield managed to hold against the powerful onslaught. But Nightmare Moon wasn’t stopping this time. The beam continued to slam into our shield. I could see miniscule cracks beginning to form and snake around the shield. Cadence was struggling to keep it up.

“LUNA STOP!” Celestia screamed.

Encompassing her body in a forcefield, Celestia charged full speed into Nightmare Moon's side. Having put all of her attention on our group, Nightmare Moon was completely unprepared for the attack. The beam from her horn stopped as she was thrown off her feet towards a wall. Recovering just in time she threw a shield around her body and hit the wall at a much reduced speed.

Landing hard on her feet Nightmare Moon turned her furious gaze on Celestia and gave an animalistic war cry. She covered her body in a forcefield and charged. Celestia charged to meet her and parried her attack. The two locked horns and began attempted to impale one another with physical and magic attacks.

Looking to Cadence I could see that the shield had held against Nightmare Moon's fury but that Cadence didn’t have much more in her. She was sweating and had the same exhausted look that Twilight did right now. I felt a nudge as Pinkie Pie bumped her head into me. Turning to her I saw that she had a golden tiara stuck in her mouth. The tiara’s gem looked exactly like Twilights Cutie Mark. Taking the tiara from her I looked down at Twilight.

“Are you alright to stand now?”

“I think I’m ok.” She responded. Shifting from my arms she put her body's weight back on her legs and stood back up with a little wobble. I watched to make sure she was ok. Once she gave me a smile I reached over and placed the golden tiara on her head.

“So what happens now?” I asked. “How do you active the magic in these things?”

“As soon as I push magic through mine it connects with the other girls and we can use the combined magic to purify Luna. I just need to- woah!” Twilight had attempted to light her horn again but stumbled instead. She fell back into my side.

“Twilight are you alright!” Fluttershy cried. Bounding over to Twilight’s side Fluttershy nuzzled Twilight to make sure she was alright.

“I’m fine Fluttershy.” Twilight said dizzily. “That teleportation spell just took more out of me than I thought. I think I need a moment to recover.”

I looked over to Nightmare Moon and Celestia’s raging battle. The two were ramping up their magic casting and physical attacks. The blasts were getting larger and each alicorn now sported a few more wounds on their sides. Celestia was panting and tired from simply being on the defensive all the time. She needed help stalling now.

“How long do you need Twilight?” I asked still watching the two battle.

“I’m not sure. The magic the elements of harmony create is different from using normal unicorn magic. It mostly comes from the elements themselves. I just need to start the actual process.”

“Give me a minute estimate Twilight.”

She was silent for a few moments. “I think five minutes should be enough.”

“Then five minutes you’ll have. I’m assuming Luna needs to be still so you girls can hit her with the magic right?”

“That’s how it worked last time.” Twilight said.

“Alright then. As soon as your magic is ready, call out to let me know.” I shifted Twilight so she was resting against Fluttershy and then stood up.

“Woah there partner! Where do ya think yer goin?” Applejack asked, getting in front of me. “You said it yerself earlier. There’s no way we can fight something like that and win.”

“True I did say that. But there’s a big difference between fighting to win and fighting to distract. Celestia needs help now and Twilight needs time to recover.” Side stepping Applejack I said, “Don’t worry about me. I already told you girls that protectors have quite the sturdy body. I’ll be ok. Just let me know as soon as you’re ready. I’ll figure out a way to keep Luna still.” Before they had a chance to argue I turned away and walked over to Cadence.

“Twilight needs 5 minutes to recover enough magic to use the elements of harmony. Do you think you can hold this shield for that long?”

“I’m not sure Cicero.” Cadence panted out. “That last attack from Nightmare Moon was horrible. If she attacks again I might not be able to stop it.”

“Just keep holding on. I’ll do my best to distract her from you girls as long as possible.”

Taking off at a sprint I heard Cadence yell, “Cicero no!” Ignoring her I quickly made my way over to the two battling goddesses. Alright Cicero. Putting on a brave face was nice but it’s time to concentrate. No matter how much you reinforce your body if you’re directly hit by the magic they’re slinging at each other that would pretty much mean death.

Nightmare Moon deflected yet another white bolt of magic from Celestia. It hit and shattered one of the few intact remaining stained glass windows. She grasped the shards with her magic and threw them at Celestia side. Celestia reared back and stomped the ground, as she had earlier, to raise a massive wall of stone that blocked the shards. Nightmare Moon's horn lit up to send what i’m sure was another nasty bit of magic her way once again.

Deciding on my course of action I quickly fell into a rapid sprint and tore off towards Nightmare Moon. Jumping up right before I reached her I threw my feet forward and landed a powerful jump kick into luna’s side.

“AUHH!” She yelled. She was send flying into a wall. Sadly as she slammed into the wall I could tell she’d learned from Celestia’s last attack. Her body was obviously protected with a physical barrier. Landing the kick had felt more like slamming into a rock wall instead of a squishy pony body. Landing on my feet this time, I watched Nightmare Moon hit the ground and stagger for a second. I took the few seconds she was dazed to run over to Celestia.

“Cadence’s barrier won’t hold for much longer. Twilight needs 5 minutes to recover so the girls can use the elements of harmony. I’m here to help distract Nightmare Moon with you.”

Keeping an eye on Nightmare Moon Celestia said, “You realize that if she hits you with her magic you’re going to die, Right?”

“It’s something I came to terms with a long time ago. I told you earlier Celestia, I’ve been trained since birth with the knowledge that one day I might be required to give my life for the greater good.”

“Very well Cicero. I could definitely use the help after all. Allow me to at least somewhat protect you though.” Celestia’s horn lit up and I felt a strange wave of energy encompass my body. “That shield won’t block any direct attacks from her but it might deflect enough to keep you alive if you get hit.”

“Thank you Celestia.” Turning back towards Nightmare Moon I said, “Now let’s get down to business.”

Nightmare Moon had recovered from my blow and was now warily watching the two of us. She still looked as furious as ever but I could see her hesitating from making the first move.

“So what’s your plan?” Celestia whispered to me.

“Well I figure that if you kept her occupied with magic attacks and I periodically physically assault her, eventually she’ll make a mistake that we can capitalize on. When Twilight and the girls are ready we’ll need to hold her still so they can hit her.” I whispered back.

“So this is how low you stoop Celestia?” Nightmare Moon sneered. “You can’t defeat me alone so you request the aid of a lesser being. No matter what little plan you two create it will fail before my might!”

“Planning?” I called back. “Naw. We were just having a little laugh at how this lesser being just stomped your ass into the wall. With one kick at that. Pretty sad to be honest.”

“WHAT!?” She yelled.

She let loose a bolt of black crackling energy that I easily sidestepped and watched as it went past.

“Seriously? Are you even trying right now?” I taunted her.

I watched her face contort with anger as she growled.

“Taunting her might not be the wisest move.” Celestia said.

“Actually it’s the best kind of move we can make right now.” I retorted. “The angrier she is the less likely she is to think logically about her next move. I’m going to take every chance I can to make verbal jabs. She seems to think very highly of herself. Let’s use that to our advantage.”

“ENOUGH TALKING! FIGHT ME YOU COWARDS!” Nightmare Moon bellowed.

I reached down and stealthily picked up a rock with my hand opposite Nightmare Moon. Giving her a cocky smile I said, “I thought you’d never ask.”, And threw the rock with all my force. Nightmare Moon easily deflected the rock with a small barrier.

“Pathetic! Is that the best you can-”

*WHAM*

As she’d deflected the rock I dropped into an insanely fast sprint and followed up her block with a fist to the face. After landing the hit I screeched to a halt and jumped backwards. She spat magic flames from her mouth in retaliation. I felt the heat wave hit me as I got out of their range just in time. Damn she must seriously be angry. Celestia followed up my distraction with a blast of white magic aimed at her side.

Hearing the approaching bolt Nightmare Moon turned to block most of it just in time. But I could see another bleeding wound appear on her back rump as Celestia’s magic whipped past the edges of her hastily constructed shield. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, I launched myself towards the ceiling and flipped in air. Bouncing off of the ceiling I did another flip and landed with full force on Nightmare Moon's back.

The impact threw her legs out to the side as her body slammed into the ground. I jumped off and away from her but made sure to yell, “Three for three bitch! You’re going to have to do better if you want to block me!”, as I retreated. Landing on my feet I watched as she slowly rose back up once more. Celestia threw what looked like a net of white magic at her. Right before the net impacted her I saw a flash and Nightmare Moon disappeared.

My eyes caught the edges of another flash right behind me and I instinctively dropped dropped onto my back. As I hit the ground I saw a glowing horn fly over me and gore the air where i’d just been standing. Using my hands I pushed myself across the ground and under Nightmare Moon's body. I kicked up with my feet attempting hit her stomach but she disappeared in a flash right before contact. Appearing with another flash I saw her rear back and bring her hooves down towards my head.

I Rolled to the side and her hooves slammed into the ground. The ground cracked and rocks splintered outwards. A couple cut me as they flew past but I ignored them as none were critical wounds. Reaching out I grabbed one of her hooves and kicked off the ground with my legs. It wasn’t very graceful but I managed to bring her body to the ground. Pushing myself up I saw another bolt of white lightning approaching her side and started backpedaling to get away.

To my surprise Nightmare Moon turned to me and ignored the incoming magic. Her horn lit up and a red beam flew at me. I tried to dodge out of it’s way but the beam was too fast. I felt the small energy shield around me pop and give me a few more milliseconds to dodge.

“FUCK!” I yelled. The beam burned a nasty looking line across my stomachs side. I could smell my flesh burning from the impact.

“AUGH!” Nightmare Moon yelled. I put a hand to my side and staggered to a crouched halt as I saw Celestia’s bolt blast her across the floor. There was a flash on my right and Celestia appeared next to me.

“Are you alright Cicero?” She said worried.
I pulled my hand off my burnt side and saw a lot of blacken charred skin. Thankfully as the attack had been hot in nature it had the added side effect of cauterizing my wound. It looked worse than it really was.

“Yeah I’ll be fine. Your shield gave me just enough time to get out of the way before anything serious happened.” Celestia’s horn lit up and I felt the same shield envelop me again.

“Thanks Celestia.”

Ignoring the searing pain in my side I forced myself back into a standing position. I looked in the direction that I’d last seen Nightmare Moon go but found that part of the throne room empty. Shit. Celestia and I were both distracted by my wound for a moment. Now she’s gone and disappeared.

“Celestia you didn’t happen to see where Nightmare Moon went, did you?”

Celestia’s eyes widened. She jerked her head to the last place she’d thrown Nightmare Moon only to confirm the same thing I had just a moment ago.

Crouching down I put my back to Celestia’s rump. If Nightmare Moon was trying to go for a stealth attack I wasn’t going to make it easy for her. Celestia and I were both scouring the room for any hint of her whereabouts. As we watched and waiting a disturbing idea came to mind.

“Celestia. Nightmare Moon can’t turn invisible, can she?”

“No Cicero. Such magic doesn’t exist. At least not in the way you’re most likely thinking.”

“So in what wa-”

*plink*

The sound was delicate but I’d heard it. Looking down I saw a small pebble rolling across the floor. Then I realized where we hadn’t been looking. I threw my head back. Bearing down on us was one of the throne room's massive pillars.

“SHIT!” Pushing Celestia out of the way I used my momentum to jump the opposite direction.

*WHAM*

The pillar crashed into the ground and I heard a, “RAAAAHH!”, from an enraged Nightmare Moon.

Rolling upright I had a split second to see a few more pillars flying my way. Dodging to the side another pillar slammed into the ground.

*WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM*

I weaved and dodged my way around the falling pillars as she floated above me. Now that I was aware of the danger the pillars were easy to dodge. Nightmare Moon grew frustrated with my dodging and decided to simply explode the pillars on their way to me. The jagged shrapnel remains came flying towards me. Spinning around I lunged forward to avoid the shrapnel.

“AUGH! MOTHERFUCKER!”

I managed to avoid most of the shrapnel but some pieces had been going too fast. A few had actually managed to break through my hardened skin and were now lodged into my back. I felt a wave of adrenalin hit me as the pain set in. Rolling upright I turned back to Nightmare Moon. I saw her smile as I winced in pain. I’m going to slap the shit out of Luna when the girls turn her ass back.

Looking past Luna I saw that Celestia had been busy while I was dodging. She had a large aura of golden magic surrounding her body. Releasing the strange aura of magic I saw it condense down into five golden rings and then disappear. Those same five rings reappeared on Nightmare moon’s legs and horn. The four on her legs quickly formed golden shackles in between each other.

Nightmare Moon flailed her legs wildly in the air as she tried to escape the golden shackles. Once that failed she lit her horn with a red glow. She winced in pain as an arc of electricity shot from the golden band down her horn.

“Enough Luna!” Celestia cried. “You can’t escape anymore. Let us help you! Please!”

“Help me!? HELP ME?!” She shrieked. “I don’t need your help! I am Nightmare Moon! The most powerful alicorn who ever lived!”

“Cicero now!” Twilight yelled.

My head jerked over to the girls. They were all standing tall, ready for action. Each girl now had their corresponding element equipped. Talk about perfect timing.

Nightmare Moon struggled violently and tried to use magic once more but was again met with a shock.

“
Luna you know you can’t escape those bonds! The fights over! Stop before you hurt yourself!”

“I AM NOT LUNA!” She shrieked. A faint outline of black began collecting around her form. Don’t you dare look down on me!” Lines of black began to crawl over her body as they had earlier. “Now you will know why they call me NIGHTMARE MOON!” The lines crawling across her skin quickly converged onto the 5 golden bands and shattered them. In that same instant she disappeared from sight.

“That’s impossible!” Celestia cried.

I saw another flash behind Cadence’s shield and my veins filled with ice. Nightmare Moon had teleported behind the girls. Her horn was now lit with a nasty green glow.

“Victory!” She cried.

My body screamed as I forced it to react faster than I’d ever pushed it. I launched into a frantic dash towards Nightmare Moon. But I wasn’t going to make it. She lowered her horn and I saw the beam slam into Cadence’s shield. It held for only a second before it exploded into a pink wisp.

“AHHHH!” Cadence screamed. She hit the ground and didn’t get back up. Nightmare Moon’s horn light up for another attack. Closing in on her fast, I prepared my own attack to stop the killing blow. To my horror, Nightmare Moon snapped her head to me at the last moment. She unleashed the green bolt at me. I saw a maniacal smile on her face and realized that she’d tricked me. There was no way I could dodge in time.

*BONG*

An instant before the spell impacted my body I saw it slam into an invisible barrier. Nightmare Moon's smile turned to shock. Ignoring my stroke of luck I quickly reacted to this development and rammed my fist into her windpipe. Even with her physical barrier of magic I could feel my fist sink into her throat. She coughed and I saw spit fly from her mouth. But I wasn’t done with her.

As her head bucked down to cough again I caught her neck over my shoulder. With a mighty heave I viciously swung the rest of her body over me and slammed it down. The floor shook as her impact cracked its tiles. Not giving her a chance to recover I jumped onto her back. Hooking my legs around her side I wrapped my arms around her neck and pulled back to disorient her.

“BLOCK HER MAGIC CELESTIA!” I yelled.

Almost instantly I felt a great pressure decent on us both. Nightmare Moon dizzily struggled to free herself.

“NOW GIRLS!” I yelled.

Nightmare Moon was quickly coming out of her daze. She began to flail violently, trying to escape my hold. This only prompted me to tighten my grasp around her neck. I could feel her throat wheezing for air through my strong grip. She let out a hoarse, “NOOO!”, as something bright flashed in front of us.

Jerking my head towards the flash I saw first hand what it was that defeated Nightmare Moon before. The girls were all floating in the air with their eyes glowing bright white. A white line of magic was growing brighter as it connected all of the girls jewelry together.

*BOOOOM*
A rainbow of magic energy exploded out of the girls and flew directly towards me. The beam crashed into Nightmare Moon and I felt my body's internal energy flow go completely haywire. I could sense Nightmare Moon writhing underneath me as the beam continued to envelop us. Whatever the beam was doing to her was obviously not the same as what it was doing to me. The only thing I felt as the rainbow washed over me was an immense sense of contentment and joy. The emotional overload was too much for my body to handle.

My mind informed me that I was about to lose consciousness. I could feel my grip on Nightmare Moon’s throat beginning to loosen. My head fell back and I watched the rainbow magic swirl around our bodies. The colorful vortex continued upwards and completely filled my vision. Even in the middle of this intense situation I couldn’t help but stop and appreciate it’s beauty. I smiled at the thought. Then I knew no more.

Author's Note

Google docs newline and tab rules are making formatting a miserable experience. I believe I caught all strange formatting issues before posting Ch.9 Part 1 and 2. If anyone notices any that I missed, please let me know. Thank you.