Gems: The Sun Princess

Chapters

Chapter One- Watcher
Chapter Two- The Duel
Chapter Three- The Stranger
Chapter Four- Celestia?
Chapter Five- Dragon Corporation
Chapter Six- The Job
Chapter Seven- Will You?
Chapter Eight- Watcher and Celestia's Day Out!
Chapter Nine- Discovering the Truth
Chapter Ten- The Journey Begins
Prologue- The Beginning

Chapter One- Watcher

Chapter One-Watcher

It was the day of the finals as Watcher began walking alongside his oldest friend, Midnight Blaze, a blue unicorn with a black mane and tail with a single blue streak going through it and a crescent moon cutie mark surrounded by five twinkles around a larger star.

Watcher could only groan as the two unicorns trotted towards the Beta-class ceremonial finals. “Why do we have to have our finals… So early in the morning?”

“You do realize that it’s almost… 9:30 right?” Midnight explained looking at his watch.

“Well excuse me for going to bed late… I was practicing a new spell and wanted to impress the teachers,” Watcher answered only for Midnight to snicker, causing him to raise a brow at the sapphire unicorn. “And what’s so funny about that, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“What’s funny is that I think you're not trying to impress the teacher, but a certain mare that you’ve been crushing on since she moved from Manehatten?” He said with a smirk only for Watcher’s eyes to widen, giving Midnight a scowl as he raised an eyebrow.

“That’s completely absurd, Midnight!” He said, suppressing his blush. “Besides, I don’t know who you’re talking about?”

“I’m pretty sure you know who I’m talking about-”

“Let’s just move on from this ridiculous conversation… it’s still hard to believe that after all this time, we’re finally going to become Alpha-class magic users! I mean, the written part of it is going to be easy-with the amount of studying we’ve been through it’s practically nothing,” Watcher explained as a smirk peered across his muzzle, only for Midnight to roll his eyes, grinning.

“Even if that’s true, there’s the magic and combat testing after that… and even though we’re good, there’s a lot of other students who have more talent at this then us,” Midnight said, concerned as Watcher patted his back.

“Hey come on, we’ve been through alot together and with the amount of training you and I have been through, we’ll be ready to take whatever the council throws at us.” He said grinning as he held his hoof up for Midnight. “We got this, Midnight!”

Midnight couldn’t help but chuckle as they bumped their hooves together and carried on to the ceremony, which was full of Beta level magic users who had the same goals as the two unicorns as they pushed through the large crowd of ponies that had gathered at stage. Most ponies chatted amongst each other, while others sat down and waited patiently. Before long, three stallions each wearing a black robes approached the stage with grins plastered upon their faces. The oldest amongst them was a grey unicorn, with a long beard and blue eyes stepped forward as everypony silently listened.

“For those who don’t know me… I’m Soul Writer, second counselor of the Order and today is the day you get to show us the your true capabilities as a magic user and gain a place as a Guardian,” Everypony began to cheer as they clapped their hooves together. Soul couldn’t help but chuckle before he continued. “Most of you are have studied hard and will most likely pass our exams with ease no doubt, but knowing isn’t the same a doing… So this year we’ll be focusing on your abilities in magic with duels.”

Soon the crowd began whispering to each other as their eyes widen, but he simply went on, explaining everything that was needed to know. “Many of you are wondering why? Well it's because we feel that most of you have a good grasp of the knowledge of the magic your teachers have taught… and all we want is to see your abilities in action. As of right now there are two hundred Beta-class magic users here… but only half of you will be graduating to Alpha-class, while the rest of you shall relocate to a different sector and be given a new assignment to serve the Order.”

The crowd begin to stir as a single pony stood up from the crowd with a vicious glare.

“That isn’t fair! We should all have the rights to graduate together!” A stallion shouted as ponies around them began to agree.

“Now I know this is hard for most of you, but you must consider that some of you aren’t fighters and would prefer a different assignment rather than be a guardian. The headmaster and I shall hold the event in an hour, so practice your magic… you’ll need it.” With that Soul Writer stepped off the stage along with the other two members of the counsel. Some ponies, began to panic, while others argued among themselves about who should move up and who shall be left behind, but for Watcher, everything depended on that test and with this new changes it only made him more determined to succeed,

‘I’ll do whatever it takes to pass… No matter what!’

“Why the buck are they doing this now?! They should have at least told us ahead of time so we could be a little more prepared!” Midnight said aloud, snapping Watcher from his thoughts as he looked back at his friend.

“I know what you mean… still we can only hope for the best… And like I said, you and me are have been through a lot and as long as we stick together we’ll be fine.” Watcher said, patting Midnight on the back as the two unicorns headed to the mess hall to eat breakfast.

The Mess Hall

Watcher sat down with a daisy sandwich in hoof, while Midnight left to grab breakfast from the lunch ladies. Things were quiet for Watcher… at least it was until he heard the sounds of giggling behind him, one that he was all too familiar with. He turned his head back to a sky blue mare with dark blue mane with a light blue streak.

“Hello Watcher… How are you this morning?” She asked.

“S-stardust! I’m doing good,” He replied nervously, trying his best to suppress his blush. “Uh… what about you?”

“I’m doing alright, but tell me are you ready for the finals? If so you should probably see that new boarding system they installed, it’s showing us who we’ll be facing. Who knows maybe we’ll face each other~” She said, winking at him. He couldn’t suppress his blush, but not only was the Order changing the testing system they had, but went as far as to add a boarding system as well for duels.

“Honestly, I don’t think this is a good idea… Not that I’m against it or anything like that, but I mean why change something that isn’t broken? The tests have always been the way they were for almost two thousand years! So why change it now?!” Watcher asked, only for Stardust to place her hoof against her chin as she hummed, before giving her reply.

“I don’t know honestly, but you know sometimes changes are necessary,” She answered, sitting besides the stallion. “Just like what happened with the great divide when the Princesses disappeared.”

“Please don’t tell me you still believe in that foals tale?”

“Of course I do! There’s been a lot of books and history lessons to back it up-”

“Okay; sorry for interrupting, but have you actually seen an alicorn around?” She wanted to answer, but nothing came to mind as he went on. “If alicorns did exist, then we wouldn’t have to worry about those rebel attacks in the cities.”

“I know it’s childish to believe in that stuff, but seeing isn’t believing….believing is seeing, Watcher.” She replied with a cheeky grin, only for Watcher to blush as he scrunched up his face.

“But that doesn’t make any sense at all… you can’t just believe that it’s true when there’s no evidence?” He said confused.

“Well history says otherwise Watcher, She soon got up from her seat and headed off before sticking her tongue out and winking at him, swaying her hips a bit. Watcher for his part wanted to tell her she could stay, but couldn’t even utter a word.

The sounds of a cough soon caught his attention as he turned to see Midnight standing there with a smirk. “I see that Stardust came to talk with you.”

“How much did you hear?” Watcher asked with a sigh.

“Enough to know that you seriously need to work on your confidence when asking a girl out-” Before he could finish his sentence, Watcher interrupted.

“I have confidence!” He argued.

“Remember two months ago when she snuck into the library in… a latex suit?” He said coyly as Watcher blushed intensely.

“Y-yeah? How could anypony forget that… ”

“And if I recall… we were in there during that time on cleaning duty… than she came through the window and fell on top of you…”

“Alright I get it…”

“Your nose was bleeding a lot and that wasn’t even from the fall.” He explained as Watcher groaned as he hit his head against the table.

“What about you dude! Your face was completely red!” He countered as Midnight laughed sheepishly.

“Well, it’s not like she isn’t an attractive mare and that suit she wore was quite sexy, but come on! Are you really going to ask her out, or are you going to let some other stallion take her?. You and I both know you have the hots for her.” He said, patting him on the back.

“Look, I find her attractive, but I don’t have the hots for her and… there’s nothing wrong with liking a mare in a tight suit okay!” He said finally finishing his sandwich.

“What about that picture-” Watcher immediately shoved Midnight’s bread into his mouth before glaring at him.

“Don’t bring that up.” He sighed.“Okay, I admit it already, can we just move on ? Right now, I’m just worried about those duels, and asking Stardust out isn’t exactly helping.” Watcher said as Midnight nodded in agreement, swallowing the bread in his mouth.

“I hear ya, still don’t you think it’s a little weird that they changed the finals of Beta-class and not the other ones?” Midnight asked, wiping away the crumbs from his face.

“It’s a little weird, but it’s not like changes haven’t happened before… I mean Equestria was one of the largest nations in the world two thousand years ago, but now it’s only a fraction of what it was before. Just because ponies honestly believed that alicorns actually existed and disagreed with the Order.” Watcher said nonchalantly.

“Amen to that… I can’t believe that ponies still believe that there were alicorns.” There was a time when the two stallions believed it to be true, but as time went on and facts on proving that they weren’t real as scientists have studied the biology of the pony body, stating that it’s impossible to possess all three traits of the pony races. It showed the two that they needed to rely on each other and not some myth.

“Yeah, well we should probably go check out that board just to see who we’re facing.” Watcher suggested as Midnight took a sip from a cup of coffee that he had with him… Somehow?

‘When did he have the time to grab that? I was here with him the whole time’

“Sure let’s go,” The headed towards a massive board that had a couple of other ponies checking it as well, some would whisper as Watcher and Midnight passed them. Watcher couldn’t help but raise a brow as ponies walked away from the board. That was until he saw his name on the board.

“Oh, that can’t be good,” Midnight said, looking towards his friend who looked at the board in horror.

“I have to face… Stardust?!”

Chapter Two- The Duel

Chapter Two- The Duel

It was shocking for Watcher as he looked at the board with his name next to Stardust’s. Out of all the students he had to face it had to be her. The only mare that was both beautiful and skillful in the magic arts and it only made him confused and saddened by this. He could only ask himself, Why her?

“Well that can’t be good… on the bright side you get to have one on one time with her like you wanted-” Midnight tried to make him laugh, but only received a deadly glare. “I’ll just shut up now.”

“Why does all of this bad stuff have to happen to me?! Now I have to chose either to win and break Stardust’s dream of being a guardian, or let her win and crush my own.” Watcher said, growling at the board in front of him.

“I know what you mean, but you’ve been dreaming about this your whole life. So why should you have to give up on it for some mare?” Midnight reminded him as the two walked out of the mess hall. Watcher for his part could only nod and think, he agreed he shouldn’t lose his dream, but he knew she wasn’t just ‘some mare’ to him.

‘Damn… out of all the magic users I could have faced, it had to be her! What the hell am I going to do? I can’t take her head on… she’s someone I care about! To make matters worse, if I win I deny her the rights to become an Alpha-class magic user, but if I let her win… I lose the only chance I have to become one as well.’

The two were able to arrive at one of the training courses where a couple of other Beta-class students were chatting or training in some way. A few were sparring with one another while others reviewed their spells and practiced separately. It made Watcher smile as he looked at the training course as many of his fellow classmates were working with one another or having fun. Still that grin disappeared the moment he saw Stardust talking with a green unicorn.

‘Just great, another guy is flirting with her… again!’

“I told you that you should’ve said something to her,” Midnight said with a sigh as Watcher’s eye began to twitch.

“Why does every stallion have to make a move on her the moment she’s seen?” Watcher said aloud as he watched the two off in the distance.

“The same reason why you have pictures of her in-” Before he could finish Watcher clamped his mouth shut with his magic.

“Midnight I swear I’m going to kill you if anypony finds out about this,” He whispered as Midnight nodded, but kept grinning nonetheless. “Besides at least I’m not like those two idiots who walked into the mares’ room the other day.”

“Hehehehe… I know, and those two got expelled after what they pulled.” Midnight added, soon the two began laughing . “Anyway, even if she is taken, there are plenty of mares who’d like to go out with you.”

“Name one mare that would, Midnight...” Watcher said, raising a brow.

“Well there’s… what about that mare… Uh, Umbra I believe, she was in Alpha-class who’d hang around us when we graduated from Gamma-class?” Midnight said as Watcher slowly faced hoof himself as his entire face turned cherry red as images of Umbra appeared in his mind with that same seductive smile.

“Midnight? Did you forget what happened two weeks after we started Beta-class? She broke into my room, tied me to the bed and… Urgh, have her way with me… Not to mention it wasn’t the first time she jumped me… I literally had to have security make improvements to my doors and windows, just to so I could sleep,”

He wasn’t going to lie saying that Umbra wasn’t extremely attractive, because she was and almost every stallion on campus drooled over the sight of her when she was around, before she became one of the youngest magic users to graduate. But even though she was hot and sexy, she was the biggest pervert he had ever met and she only had her eyes on him. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but Watcher also figured it didn’t help that she was a descendant of King Sombra.

“Oh, right I forgot about that… still you have to admit that you were lucky to have a girl like that after you! The guys around here were pretty jealous, heck even I was… well a little bit anyways,” Midnight admitted, but that didn’t help his case.

“Well besides Umbra? I doubt there are any mares that would be with a guy like me. I mean just look at me! I’m bigger than most stallions here. Not to mention that they’re intimidated by me. What about those jerks that thought that I was a demon that crawled out of Tartarus? So do tell me there is one mare out there who isn’t a total freak, who isn’t afraid to have a conversation with me, and who is single? Last I checked there isn’t!” Watcher explained clearly with a snarl, while Midnight returned it with a snarl of his own and a glare.

“You know you don’t have to be act like a foal to explain!” He shouted, despite the differences in size, Midnight’s strength rivaled Watcher’s, one of the reason why most stallions don’t pick on the two.

The two could only stare each other down, but with a deep sigh, Watcher looked at his friend with regret. “Look I-I’m sorry… it’s just been hard with me lately and not only do I have to face Stardust in a duel, she’s probably already agreed to go out with that guy.”

“It’s alright, I know what you mean Watcher, but at least this gives you a reason to not lose right?” He asked as Watcher looked back at him, before nodding. “Than let’s show those councilers that we’re meant to be guardians!”

“Yeah you’re right!” The two bumped their hooves together.

Soon the entercom began to make a loud humming sound before a mare's voice began to shout through it “ALL BETA-CLASS STUDENTS! FINALS SHALL BEGIN IN FIVE MINUTES!!! PLEASE HEAD TO DUELING ARENA FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS!!!”

“Well, that looks like our cue.” Watcher said as the two head down to the arena to not only finish their finals strong, but to become the next guardians for the Order just like so many others before them.

Beta-Class Arena

It took almost an half and hour for every student to arrive in the arena, but Soul Writer was pleased nonetheless. “Now I hope that you’ve used your time wisely and practiced your best spells, because now it’s time for you to demonstrate your full capabilities. As you may have already noticed our bracket system, each one of you has been paired up with an opponent. You shall compete against one another in a duel.”

“As for who’ll go first, well we have a list of every round that shall be held today… since there’s so many of you we shall only be doing half of you today… the rest shall be held tomorrow afternoon. Now our first student that shall be entering the arena shall be… Midnight Blaze and our new transfer student, Blackstar,” Soul Writer said, as Midnight stood up from his seat and teleported into the arena. While Blackstar hopped off his seat and leaped in instead.

‘Well at least I shouldn’t have to worry about going out so soon.’

“Now, none of you are allowed to use dark magic or forbidden spells in this match, you’ll have only three minutes, other than that anything else goes in this duel, you shall begin the moment the timer hits zero,” Soul Writer said, exiting the arena as he placed a large magic dome around it. “let no one interfere with this match!”

As we all sat silently, a magic barrier formed around the arena, sealing us out as we watched the two unicorns circle around, waiting for the timer to hit zero. It was a large brass clock with a countdown of 20 seconds written on the face, each second causing the silver pointer in the middle to tick ever closer to the zero. Midnight and Blackstar made eye contact, quickly shifting back and forth from each other to the clock, both wanting the opening salvo in the fight, as they were both offense-oriented battle casters.

A small eternity passed, and then, the bell in the center of the clock rang, the unicorns froze for a split second as their tensions made them forget everything, and then…

Midnight Blaze’s horn glowed a furious cyan as a ball of energy formed at the tip of it, and he launched a wicked bolt of glowing plasma at Blackstar, who instantly jumped to the right. The powerful projectile of excited particles impacted the floor of the arena, exploding and leaving behind a thick black burn mark on the arena floor. Blackstar retaliated with a darkened crackle of electricity, a zig-zagging bolt of infused lightning, meant to quickly disable his opponents. Midnight tried to move out of the way, but the bolt kept wiggling back and forth, tracking his movements. It seemed unavoidable, but the blue unicorn noticed his opponent was having to hold perfectly still to control his beam, and with a flick of his head after placing his horn to the floor, he sent out an arc of blue energy, which smashed into Blackstar’s front, making him lose control of the electric attack and filling the air with static.

“Not bad Midnight,” he answered, his left eye shut, possibly bruised, “of course, now that the air’s full of that null lightning… you won’t be able to use your plasma bolts anymore.”

Midnight felt the twinge of horror and gave a dry swallow. The null lightning beam was a somewhat advanced, but versatile spell that would either shock the opponent or fill the area with free electrons, which would mess with any kind of excited particle spell, including Midnight’s plasma. He’d have to figure out another way to deal with Blackstar.

“How’d you know to use null lightning?” he asked his enemy, “You’ve never used it before, why’d you study it?”

“I decided that instead of studying some stuff that was going to get predictable, I’d just see what everyone else was studying and learn to counter them,” chuckled the other unicorn, “I saw you practicing all those plasma attacks, so there ya go.”

Blackstar charged up another shot and fired an elongated, sparkling bolt of ions that seemed to be sped up by the new aura in the arena, narrowly missing Midnight’s head as he ducked. The beam impacted the shield around the arena, creating a ripple in it and a dampened explosion on the surface that made a strange twang like sound, making the students outside cheer. The shield also provided a bit of sound protection for the combatants, but Blackstar could tell he was gaining favor fast.

“Come on Midnight, just think of something else…” whispered Watcher, hopeful for his friend.

The thought then came to him, ‘Wait… if Midnight wins… will I… no, I can’t get my hopes up… It doesn’t change the fact that I still have to face Star. My best option is to play defensively until the time runs out. But for now I can only hope Midnight can win this match.’

Watcher’s thoughts got interrupted by Blackstar’s wicked grin and slow approach to Midnight, who nearly had his tail pushed up against the edge of the arena. Midnight had the wave attack, but it wasn’t going to help him the moment Blackstar got close and emptied whatever strength he had left into his shaking body.

“That stupid electron field,” muttered Midnight, “come on, there’s gotta be something I can do about it. Think positive!”

A moment later, and the unicorn had it, and laughed nervously, “Oh yeah, positive.”

Blackstar paused as Midnight’s horn sparked, and formed a rectangular shield in front of him. It was obviously the most basic energy defense known to the magic school, and he scoffed at the pitiful defense.

“Midnight, come on, that little barrier won’t stop direct lightning attacks,” he said, “just lower it and I promise you it won’t hurt, I’ll keep the voltage down niiiiice and safe for you.”

“Well that’d be nice Blackstar, but the shield's not for magic, it’s for… an explosion,” he answered, grinning.

Midnight’s horn split off a separate kind of attack, a purple sphere which rolled out from underneath the shield. Instinctively Blackstar thought it was a grenade of some kind and jumped back, covering his face. But the purple sphere did not explode, it just sat there in front of him, and started to slowly rise.

“Ok, ok…” he laughed, pointing at Midnight, “trying to run out the match time by scaring me with a fake bomb. Good one, champ.”

The purple ball slowly lifted up towards the electric atmosphere of the arena, and just before it touched, Midnight made sure that shield of his was right in front of him.

“Heh, who said it was fake?” he quipped.

Blackstar watched as the purple ball touched his electron field, and a mighty explosion consumed the inside of the arena, making the students scream. Soul Writer seemed unfazed by the explosion, simply nodding once in understanding.

When the blast cleared, Midnight dropped his shield, Blackstar stood in front of him, most of his coat and mane damaged badly, his legs clearly beaten up, and a sputtering cough indicated a little internal damage. He fell over, landing on the floor as his consciousness was suddenly lost from the pain. The bell rang, and the shield lowered, the barrier disappearing from over the arena, and the students cheering.

“Midnight, I’ve seen you use magic bombs before, but I’d never think one that tiny would go off so big,” demanded Watcher, quite surprised, “what kind was that?”

Midnight explained, “Blackstar filled the arena with electrons. I cast a ball of the opposite particle, positrons. When they touched… boom! Guess I learned something in chemistry after all.”

But before long, Midnight was shot in the back by a red, thin streak of energy, which burrowed into his back, scalding his flesh and making him cry in pain and terror. The brutal backstab with the dark magic he had just been struck by erased any remainder of his coat, scarring the tissue and boiling the local veins into nasty patterns. Students were screaming, Soul Writer stood frozen, not knowing how Blackstar could have conjured and launched a Ray of Boiling so quickly and without any charge time.

Things only got worse from there as the writhing Midnight, now bent down and trying not to scream, steam escaping from his back, was being approached by Blackstar with mortal hatred in his eyes.

“Had to be this way, Midnight,” he said, shaking his head and growling, “it’s a shame, you could have gone down easy. Now I’m going to have to make a mess.”

Blackstar’s horn sparked red, and a crimson dagger of pure energy appeared, wicked in appearance with jagged edges and a notched back. It looked like an ancient sacrificial knife, eager to remove Midnight’s heart and put it on display for his terrified peers.

But before he could deliver the final blow, he was confronted by Watcher, who had broken the rules of the arena to face him. There was anger in his eyes as well, but for a completely different side of morality, a type of rage that Blackstar had never seen before. It startled him slightly, but he spun the knife again around once.

“Fine, two stabbings it is then, Watcher!”

Watcher’s front hoof began to glow, which Blackstar took note of, slightly curious as to why the aura wasn’t coming from his horn. In short order, a long blade of bright energy formed around the hoof, extending out like a glorious sword of light. Watcher gave a loud shout, and stepped forward at Blackstar, bringing the blade across, and then down in a diagonal slash from left to right.

Blackstar panicked and attempted to block with his dagger, but went cold as the blade of light met the blade of darkness, the dagger shattering into dozens of shards as the sword passed clean through the destroyed blade and cut clear through his neck and chest, leaving a glowing, pulsating slash across him. A moment of silence happened, not a pony in the room uttered a word, as the glow dissipated. Blackstar’s eyes, frozen in shock, glazed over slightly as he puffed out a thin mist of blood before dropping on the arena floor again. The energy blade disappeared from Watcher’s hoof, and he stood there, barely understanding what he had done.

“Watcher!” Soul Writer called out as he stepped into the arena with a terrible scowl across his face. “Do you have any idea what you have done!”

“I was protecting my friend from a lunatic! He could have killed Midnight!” Watcher argued only to receive a slap across the face from his peer.

“And what makes this any different?! We would have dealt with Blackstar the moment he created the dark dagger, but you intervened and performed one of the deadliest forbidden spells in the school.” Watcher could only stare at the ground in shame as the paramedics arrived with a stretcher in hoof.

“I-I’m sorry Master Writer, I wasn’t planning on killing him or anything like that-” But before he could finish, Soul continued to lecture him.

“It doesn’t matter now! I hereby strip you from Beta-Class and Expel you from our institution!” Soul declared, before turning his back on the charcoal unicorn. Watcher’s eyes widened in shock as he looked at the condition Blackstar and Midnight were in.

‘No, no this can’t be happening? I-I’ve worked so hard?! This just can’t be true?!!’

“Master Writer, please reconsider! I was only protecting my friend! How is that justice?!” Watcher asked, trying to reason with Guardian as some ponies from the crowd began to agree with him. Noticing this, Soul simply sighed as he looked back towards his fellow council members in agreement, before facing Watcher again.

“Even though you did break the rules… I won’t expel you, but you will no longer be moving up from now on. You’ll remain where you are as a librarian. We shall discuss this tomorrow, but in the meantime…” Soul soon turned his attention towards the other Beta-Class users. “All of you return to your dorms and remain there until the wounded have been taken cared of! Finals shall continue first thing tomorrow!”

As Midnight and Blackstar were taken into the infirmary, everypony left the arena, whispering about Watcher as he collapsed to the ground in defeat. He tried his best to not cry, but tears still managed to have escaped his shut eyes. Watcher couldn’t believe that after everything he worked for was all thrown away because he saved his friend’s life.

‘I wish there was something I could do….’

One Week Later

A week had passed since the incident and Watcher wasn’t doing so well as he kept a melancholy expression ever since he was forced to become a librarian for the Order. He hated it and even after saving Midnight’s life, the thankless council still prevented him from moving up to Alpha- Class. It was as if his leaders had preferred that his best friend die over him interfering with the match.

The charcoal unicorn could only organize the books by section and check out books to other students now. To make matters even worse is that rumors have spread claiming that he had killed a pony on purpose, even though Blackstar was alive and well thanks to the medical staff.

As he grabbed a stack of books the sounds of the library doors opening echoed throughout the library. Stardust and Midnight entered the library, concerned from the looks of it, but Watcher didn’t pay them any mind as he continued to put away the stack of books that were brought in. “The library is closed, so if you're here to check out any books, you’ll have to wait until morning.”

“We just wanted to know if you’d like to join us at the mess hall? You know for a bite to eat?” Stardust asked, but Watcher could only scuff before setting the remaining books down on a nearby table.

“I’m not hungry.”

“Watcher, I know that it’s been rough for you lately, but you’ve been in this library for almost a week now. Come on it’s just a little snack.” Midnight tried to convince the charcoal unicorn, but to no avail as he slammed his hoof against the table.

“I said I’m not hungry! Now Go! I have a lot of work to do now!”

“Fine!” declared Stardust, turning around, “Keep wallowing in self-pity. We’re going to go eat, shame you don’t want to go.”

Watcher wanted to say something, but kept to himself as she exited the library, leaving Midnight and him alone. The two remained silent for a brief moment before Midnight began to head out, taking a final look at his best friend.

“You know if it wasn’t for you, Watcher, I wouldn’t be here today. I just want you to know that I’m grateful for you saving my life, friend.” Midnight said, before following after Stardust. Watcher wasn’t a fool to notice that he has been spending a lot of time with Stardust, but he didn’t care anymore. Even though he had saved his life, this was his reward for his efforts.

‘Maybe I do need to get out of this dusty, old library… but after that little stunt I just pulled I doubt they’ll just let it go. I could head out to the city and get a bite to eat there. Who knows… It’s not like I’m a student here anymore.’

Without a second thought he began to head out with a bit more confidence in his step as he finally exited the library. He looked up towards the sky to see that it was already nighttime in Baltimare as he trotted through the campus, but took a moment to look towards the glass of the mess hall, seeing Stardust and Midnight laughing together before hugging one another.

‘Ouch… As much as that stings I’m not that surprised by this… I was too upset to even leave the library that those two have been spending a lot of time together. As much as I hate you right now Midnight… I wish you two the best of luck.’

Watcher simply turned his head away and returned to his lonely volumes and with each step he took as he exited through the campus gates and out into the city. He couldn’t help but feel a little depressed as trotted past many other ponies. The city of Baltimare was always busy, even at night as ponies would either return to their homes or head off to the nightclubs to drink and party.

He soon found himself at one of those old diners called the Late Bite and with a loud growl coming from his stomach he couldn’t help but enter the diner. Soon the smell of hay fries and tasty sandwiches hit his nostrils, almost making him drool, but he held his composure as he took a sit at a nearby window and awaited for the waitress to take his order.

Two Hours Later

After having a full course meal the unicorn could only sigh in satisfaction as he left his pay and a few extra bits for the waitress and headed out to return to the library once again to finally rest, but as he exited the diner he was soon rammed by another pony to the ground.

“Ow! Hey watch wher-” Before he could finish his sentence all he could do was gawk at a unicorn with a beautiful white coat and pink mane and mesmerizing purple eyes. The two unicorns could only stare at one another before the she hopped off of him and ran in the opposite direction, leaving Watcher with a bewildered look, before noticing two officers approach him.

“Excuse me have you seen a white unicorn run by here? She’s been stealing food from a local shop down town and we’ve been trying to catch her. Have you seen her?” He asked, as Watcher shook his head before responding.

“Uh… yeah I think I saw her running that way!” He said pointing towards an ally before the two continued their pursuit. Watcher himself was surprised that he lied to the police for a pony he didn’t even know, but he couldn’t help but think of how pretty she was. “Get a hold of yourself! She’s a thief and what’s the chances of meeting her again anyway?”

But what he was unaware of is that the same mare had been watching in the distance and couldn’t suppress a smile of her own.

Chapter Three- The Stranger

Chapter Three- The Stranger

Two days have passed and Watcher still couldn’t put his hoof as to why he lied about some mare he had barely known. But that didn’t stop him from grinning at the site of her. His heart skipped a beat when images of her flashed through his mind as he organized the used library books.

‘Why can’t I stop thinking about her? I’ve only seen her once and I barely know her?’

He was still confused, but pushed those thoughts aside as he continued to organize the books by category from Comedy to Romance to… Clop. He truly hated his new job, especially when it came to organizing the Adult Section of the library.

“I’ll never understand why mares like these crappy, romance, clop stories? There a huge waste of time.and it’s disgusting how these ponies make these scenes so… Explicit!” Watcher gagged to himself as he shoved the book in it’s proper shelf before finishing one stack of his books.

Before he could return to his desk he felt a slight tap on his shoulder, causing the stallion to jump in surprise, letting out a yelp before facing Stardust who had sheepish grin. “Uh… Sorry Watcher, didn’t mean to startle you. I just came here to see how you were doing is all?”

“It’s fine… I’m doing alright. Although I’d rather be out there trying to help the be in here, stacking books and organizing them by categories and letter. It’s stupid if you ask me.” He explained, earning a giggle from the mare the two trotted towards the main desk of the library.

“So… do you want to go out and eat with me and Midnight?” She asked, hearing only a sigh from the stallion before he turned to face her.

“No thank you, but maybe next time… If you want you and Midnight could stay here with me?” Watcher said coyly while Stardust rolled her eyes.

“I don’t think me wearing glasses and carrying dusty old books is really my style Watch.” She replied. “And I seriously doubt Midnight would want to be a librarian either.”

“It was worth a shot.” He chuckled.

“Watcher, are you okay with this? I mean you deserve to be a guardian just as much as Midnight and me.” She asked, as the charcoal unicorn turned to face her with a sigh before smiling at the mare.

“It’s not exactly what I wanted, but at the very least I get to stay here with you guys, instead of being locked up in a prison cell like Blackstar. But you do make a point… I save someone’s life and I’m repaid by becoming a librarian. Pfft… there’s a joke in there somewhere you know.” Watcher said with a light chuckle before sighing again.

Watcher simply sat down by his desk before slamming his head on top of it, letting out a loud groan as he mumbled ‘Why can’t things ever go my way?’ even though it was hard for the mare to understand him.

“Well anyways Watcher, just let me know if you ever want to just spend sometime together. Just the two of us?” She asked, hiding her blush as she exited the library before he could even respond to her question. Watcher simply sat in his chair a small grin slowly crept up across his face.

“Yes!” He cheered before covering his mouth to make sure nopony had heard until he realized that he was the only one in the room. “Oh, right… Nopony comes in here at night. I better close up and head to bed.”

Watcher began to turn off the lights within the library and head upstairs to his bed, but what he was unaware that on this very night everything would change for him.

Outside of the Academy

“Hey, you little troublemaker, get back here!” demanded the security officer as he chased after the young mare with the pink mane and purple eyes that seemed to glow back at him.

His quarry rounded a corner up ahead and vanished into the darkness, making the enforcer stop and blow on the whistle tied around his neck to summon backup. His lieutenants were soon on the scene, and he pointed down the dark alley.

“She’s trapped in this back alley, gents,” said the captain, a smirk on his face, “I need your help subduing that mare without attracting too much attention.”

“We’re with you sir,” answered one of his cronies before the three walked down the alley.

“Come on out sweetheart,” teased the captain haughtily, “promise the guys and I aren’t going to hurt you if you come quietly.”

The three officers reached the end of the darkened alleyway, to find nothing but a brick wall and no trace of their guest. Looking up, they spotted the mare had somehow managed to get herself on the roof of the building.

“What the hay?” cursed the captain, “How’d she get up there? Quick, around the building, we need to keep her from escaping!”

The unicorn left her pursuers and slid down a fire ladder on the opposite side, landing on the pavement and taking off again at a full gallop. She was beginning to plan a way to more permanently lose the pursuit of the aggressive cops, but she needed a place to hide until she could think of something. Up ahead of her were the gates to The Order’s academy. A place of high education was unlikely to treat her much better, but being detained by concerned mages was a better fate than being thrown in a cold prison for the night… or longer.

‘It may not be the best place to lay low, but I don’t see any other options. When did my little ponies lose their way? Before they would have welcomed me warmly, but now…’

Before she could finish her thoughts she soon took notice of an old library within the academy not too far from the campus and began to make her why there, taking notice of the sky above as clouds darkened and drops of rain began to pour down on the white mare. “Shoot, I need to get out of this rain.”

Without a second to lose, she hurried over the library building, and found a window that had been closed, but carelessly left unlatched for the evening. The unicorn managed to get herself up to the windowsill, and pushed it open with a hoof before dropping herself inside the library. She began to take notice that most of the lights were off, making it slightly difficult to see. Her horn glowed brightly, illuminating the area a bit before she noticed a flight of stairs leading up to an upper level.

“It may not look much but it’s a safe place for me to lay low until I figure out what has happened to my little ponies.” She whispered to herself, taking in her surroundings as she trotted quietly up the flight of stairs, leading to doorway which she twisted the knob with her magic and entered quietly. Taking notice that nopony was in the room and noticed a small bed with a mug of hot chocolate on a nightstand beside the bed.

‘Somepony must live here if it’s still hot… I’m sure whoever lives here won’t mind me taking a sip or two.

Without a second thought, she casually grabbed it with her hooves and took a sip from the mug, before setting it back down on the table. She realized that she drank more than she should have and sighed before hearing her stomach growl. Blushing intensely she couldn’t help but drink the entire mug of hot chocolate.

She set the mug back down before sighing in relief, but even after finishing all of the hot chocolate it could only satisfy her thirst, but not her hunger. Ever since she returned to Equestria she had no luck finding food and had resorted to taking food from stands. She had lost everything since her return. She was once a princess but now she was labelled as a common criminal.

As she was about to head out, she soon noticed the door knob began to slowly turn. Panicking she quickly dived to the other side of the bed, taking cover as she peered over slightly. Watcher had returned, seemingly from a midnight snack run, as in his possession hovering in front of him on a plate was the most delicious slice of dark chocolate fudge cake she had ever seen, perhaps in her entire existence. She watched as he set down gently on the nightstand, before picking up his mug with his magic to take a sip only to realize that it was empty.

“I could have sworn I filled this up a minute ago...” he said scratching his head as he was about to grab his cake off the stand only to feel the surface of the plate and a few crumbs left over. “What the-”

He took a peek under the bed to find that nothing was there. Watcher began to search the room for clues for some kind of rodent or vermin that may have taken his cake. “What’s going on here?”

Watcher soon did a magic scan of the room and noticed an entity hiding on the left side of the bed and a sly grin appeared across his face. He quickly jumped on top of the bed, and looked over to the left side, only to discover that nothing was there.

“Wait, what?” he gasped, “There was something here a second ago.”

The unicorn had scurried under the bed, and now popped up behind Watcher, perched at the edge of the bed. With a shove using her magic, she pushed the hapless stallion off of the bed, where he fell to the floor below shouting in surprise.

“Ow! What the heck!” Before he could finish the mare soon held a fork with her magic he held it against the stallion’s neck. “Okay take it easy lady!”

“If you even try to harm me in anyway I’ll… shove this fork down your throat.” She said as her face scrunched up, but Watcher soon realized that she was bluffing.

“Okay listen if you're going to threaten somepony then you better mean it!” He shouted as he grabbed the fork with his hoof and held it up instead before he mentally face hoofed himself.

‘Great now I’m threatening a pony with a fork… wait a minute… that pink mane and those purple eyes? SHE’S that mare from the other night!’

His eyes widen after finally realizing who she was and he soon placed the fork on the night stand before clearing his throat. “Your that thief from the other night aren’t you?!”

“I am no thief you! And I take it you're the stallion I bumped into the other night?!” She shouted back as the two growled at one another, both horns glowing brightly as the two were only a few words from fighting, but being a mature adult, Watcher sighed before the glow from his horn dissipated.

“Alright… let’s just calm down for a moment… I’ve already got in trouble last time I got in a magic fight and I’d rather not repeat the same thing again.” He said, trying to reason with the mare who only raised a brow as she kept her guard up.

“How do I know you're not going to attack me if I let my guard down?!” She asked with a snarl.

“Well one I don’t want to loose my home and job here and secondly I’d rather not destroy a library with priceless spell books that are either a one of a kind or priceless. Also I really don’t want to spend billions of bits that I don’t have.” He stated and even though the magic from her horn dissipated as well, the mare still glared at him as he picked up his plate and mug. “You know you say your not a thief and yet my mug is empty as well as my dark chocolate fudge cake.”

She couldn’t help but blush in embarrassment as he waited for her response. “Well you see I was… I don’t know? I’m not usually like this… Everything is different from how I remember it and it had been so long since I’ve actually eaten cake that I couldn’t help myself.”

With a sigh he rubbed the back of his neck. “Are you hungry? That was the fastest I’ve ever seen somepony eat a slice of cake.”

“Y-yes please… I would like something to eat.” She replied nonchalantly. In a flash of light he vanished from the room, and returned with a nice pile of peanut butter sandwiches and some more mugs of steaming cocoa for them to enjoy. They sat on top of the bed, eating their meal silently, Watcher still curious as to what the intentions of his guest were. She seemed to just be some kind of beggar or runaway, given her hunt for food and shelter. It was raining furiously outside anyways and as much as he would like to send her on her way. He couldn’t do that to her with the weather outside so bad.

“So do you mind telling me who you are and why you’re in my library?” He asked before taking a bite from his sandwich.

“You wouldn’t believe who I was if I told you and as to why I’m here it’s because I needed a place to stay for a while, seeing that no pony really visits the library as much since everypony mostly uses technology from what I’ve seen and I figured it would be a good place to lay low until those guards forget about me.” She explained as the charcoal unicorn sighed in response.

“Well you’re sorta right… true we use tech mostly to study our magic, but some of us still use books because they actually contain the full instructions of spells. That and ponies can’t find those classic novels that they search for because it was probably never cataloged or something.” He said, as he looked back towards his guest who looked at him with curiosity.

“So I take it your hobby involves literature and magic?” She asked as the stallion chuckled a bit before replying back to her.

“I do enjoy a good book once in awhile, but I’d prefer to go in blind and learn from experience how to use magic instead of reading it through a book.” He replied before remembering his previous question. “Anyways, who are you really?”

“I’ll tell you if you tell me.” She replied, only for the charcoal unicorn to roll his eyes in response.

“The name’s Watcher.”

After hearing his name she had remained silent for a moment before hoping off the bed and stood up straight, facing the stallion with confidence. “I believe you’ve earned that much for helping me out.”

“Okay…” But what she said next was not what he was expecting.

“I am Princess Celestia, it’s a pleasure to meet you Watcher.”

Chapter Four- Celestia?

Chapter Four- Celestia?

Watcher could only stare back at the mare who declared herself to be Princess Celestia, the Sun Goddess from legends. To him it was impossible and was unlikely. He didn’t know whether it was a joke or that this mare was completely insane because of how impossible it was.

“Pfft… Hahahaha! That’s a good one!” He laughed while the white unicorn glared at him with disbelief.

‘“Is there something humorous that I missed?” She asked as Watcher’s laughter began to seize before facing her, wiping away some of the tears from his eyes.

“Okay I’m going to be very blunt right now. There’s no way in hell that you're her!” He said out loud as his voice echoed around the small bedroom. Celestia only gave a scowl at the stallion as he began to trot out of the room, following after him she could call out his name.

“Watcher! I am Celestia!” She said, following him down the flight of stairs.

“Well for one you don’t have a set of wings, secondly you're too short, no offense, and last I checked, Princess Celestia is a mythical goddess made up for little fillies and colts to dream about… and I do not believe in myths, lady.” Watcher stated as picked up a key with his magic that was hanging on the wall. “I’ll even prove it right now you crazy mare.”

“Where are you going you insolent gelding?!” She demanded, but was ignored as the charcoal unicorn began to head towards an old door. Without hesitation, Watcher placed the key in the keyhole, unlocking it. “Answer me!”

“We’re going to the forbidden archives and I’ll prove that you're just as crazy as that ridiculous legend!” He said, entering the room that was surrounded by ancient books. Celestia could tell that nopony had been in there for centuries judging from the shoddy condition of every book. “Don’t touch anything here, it’s bad enough that I even allowed you in here!”

“What is this place exactly?” Celestia asked as she followed Watcher further into the old archives. The two continued walking for a little while in utter silence before stopping suddenly as Watcher glanced at the white unicorn.

“It’s a forbidden place of ancient knowledge! I still remember when I broke in here when I was just a colt. Hard to believe that it’s still here/” Watcher said as his horn began to glow as he levitated a brown book. “This book has everything about the real Celestia!”

He soon opened the book and began to turn the pages to where an old photograph of the ancient princess was and showed it to the white mare with a twitch in his eye. “You mean to tell me that his is you! Pfft… I will admit that you have the same coat color, but other than that you nothing like her! You don’t even have wings and you still claim to be the same princess who disappeared for over TWO THOUSAND YEARS!!!”

The unicorn mare’s mouth fell open slightly, a timid groan came from her throat as she stuttered, “Two… two thousand years?”

“That’s what it says right there, cupcake,” teased Watcher, pointing at the book again, “I hate to say it, but you don’t exactly look two thousand years old. Heck, I look older than you!”

“This can’t be possible,” continued ‘Celestia’, ignoring Watcher’s insults, “I can’t have been gone for two thousand years. It’s felt like such a short time.”

“How delusional can you get?” groaned the other unicorn, “Don’t you get it yet, you’re not Princess Celestia! I can understand looking up to such a big figure, I can even sort of get wanting to be like her, but there’s no way that you are actually this alicorn right here in the book.”

She stopped talking for a moment, reflecting in sadness about how long she had been gone, and how far her ponies had fallen in all that time. Instead of even giving her a chance, they rejected her existence entirely and pretended she had simply vanished into thin air one day for no reason. Watcher’s statement only made her fears worse, that nopony might believe in her at all anymore.

“How else can I prove to you that I am who I say I am?” asked the white unicorn softly, knowing talking above Watcher’s level wasn’t going to get her anywhere.

“How the heck am I supposed to know! Just give it up already! I’ve had a long day and would appreciate a goods nights rest. You can stay for the night, but I want you out first thing in the morning!” Watcher growled as the mare began to slump, just staring at the ground as tears escaped from her eyes.

“Please I need help! I promise that’s who I am and if you help me I’ll…” She tried to finish, but Watcher could only groan in response.

“You’ll what? Get give me psychological damage or even better 25 years years in prison with a cellmate named buffalo fricken Bill! Seriously do you take me for a fool?!” He said, as he placed his hoof on his face and began to rub it. “Even if I were to believe everything you say is true… What do I get out of this? You have nothing?”

“I… I don’t know?” Was all she could say while Watcher sighed at the pathetic sight of this delusional mare.

“I’ll set up a futon for you to sleep on for the night. I think I’ve had enough of this crap for one day!” Watcher said as he began to lead the depressed unicorn out of the archive to the same room to turn in

Across the City of Baltimare

Two ponies began to make their way in a tall building called Dragon Corporation. The two continued to make there way towards the front desk where a receptionist had greeted them and immediately allowed them entry to the corporations labs.

“Sir are you sure you want to test the glider now?” A young unicorn mare with a grey coat and blond mane asked the grey earth pony who wore a black suit and a red tie.

“Don’t worry Miss Stencil! We’ve worked on this project for quite sometime now and I guarantee you that it’ll work this time.” He replied before winking at the mare, causing her to blush in response.

The continued down the hallway to a locked security door. He soon pulled out an ID card and aimed it at scanner that was beside it, allowing him entry to see fellow scientists collaborating with one another as they began diagnosis on a glider with twin turbines on it, “Ah, Mr. Pen Dragon, sir we believe we may have figured out what went wrong last time. While we believed that the glider may have been carrying too much weaponry causing it to take on too much drag and crash during the initial testing, it actually appears that the power linkage between the engines and the generator came undone, shutting them off prematurely and causing the craft to crash quickly. I think we’ll need a way to make sure the cables are more secure next time, say, an armored casing… or a lot of duct tape.”

Pen Dragon looked over the badly damaged fighter craft, Equestria’s early attempts at some way for earth ponies to fly armed alongside pegasus ponies was having a rocky start. Since Equestria didn’t have far developments in gunpowder based weapons thanks to the lack of ways the pegasus ponies could pull triggers, their kind having decided most of Equestria’s military history. So in the place of rapid-firing guns were a pair of magical-weave bolt cannons, constructed from specially treated power crystals that unleashed rapid fire blasts of energy when excited with electricity.

“Thank you Professor Hoover… While it’ll take some time for the damages to be repaired. I believe my assistant Miss Stencil has made a few suggestions to me earlier during our little uh… Meeting~ That may be useful.” He said as his assistant approached the professor with board of names that were chosen specifically by the Order.

“I have spent some time trying to find alternate power sources but couldn’t find any until, I found a crystal deposit beyond the Everfree City and I even brought a sample with me.” She said, pulling out plain ordinary crystal. To the Professor it looked like glass. “Now I know it doesn’t look like much, but trust me this one is very sturdy from the other ones we’ve used. As for the list of names, they are powerful unicorns that have recently passed beta-class or have received new assignments.”

“I don’t mean to sound rude, but would you please get to the point of this already!?” Hoover said aloud even though the way he said it indicated he was still interested in there being some depth to the discussion.

“Well, we might be able to perfect the design a bit better if we get one of these unicorns on our team to check our designs and magical conduits,” explained Stencil, a bit stunned by his sudden rudeness.

“Oh, I see… who’s available then?”

Stencil turned back to the list, “Quite a few, although I’m sure not all of them would want to participate. Any of these in particular you’d want us to ask?”

Professor Hoover groaned, “No, just find me somepony. Any help is better than nothing.”

“If I can make a few suggestions Professor?” Pen asked while the Professor shrugged in response. “There have been a few exceptional students who might be up to the task. There’s Stardust, Midnight Blaze, and a few others… but there’s also Watcher.”

“Watcher?” asked the professor curiously, raising an eyebrow, “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Well, he’s sort of been removed from his usual line of duty thanks to some kind of incident I can’t really discuss,” admitted the researcher with a tone of embarrassment, “but he’s ironically got the best qualifications… I thought I’d put him on the list despite his shortcomings.”

“Fair enough, I don’t care about mistakes made, just a willingness to learn and a heart for science,” Hoover answered, dismissing Stencil’s worries, “now how soon can you ask them for their help?”

“Possibly tomorrow afternoon at the latest… Is that fine for you Pen… Mr. Pen Dragon” Stencil caught herself as Pen chuckled a bit before nodding to the mare.

“That’s perfectly fine… but just send in this Watcher first before anypony else? I want to have a personal meeting with him before you call the others. Anyways thank you for letting me know of our progress on the glider Professor Hoover. After hearing the rumors of those rebel scum trading crystals for muskets from the Griffon Empire. I want our society to be able to deal with any situation that may come our way.”

Pen explained as both him and Stencil began to make there way out of the lab and out to the halls. They waited patiently for Professor Hoover to leave the room and leave the building through the hallway, and once they were sure nopony was around, Pen grabbed Stencil and pulled her in for a passionate kiss.

The Next Day

Watcher didn’t sleep well that night, knowing that a strange mare was sleeping in his room, but in the back of his mind kept nagging at him, saying ‘What if she’s telling the truth?’

He didn’t know what to make of it. Was the unicorn sleeping like a foal across the room truly Princess Celestia? Why would a super-powerful being thousands of years old need his help, an effective dropout who couldn’t catch a break in life even when he needed it most. And furthermore, a posh, elegant princess should not be drooling in her sleep like the unicorn mare was all over her pillow.

“If she really is Princess Celestia, I can really only see this going one of two ways,” he whispered to himself in the darkness, “either she’s been cursed to be a regular pony, or she’s testing me to see if I’ll help her...”

Watcher figured that regardless as to which option would end up playing out, he needed to trust this stranger’s word and assist. If everything turned out to be true, maybe rescuing a multi-millennium old alicorn would be just the thing to get him back on the good side of his superiors. And if nothing was true, at the very least he helped out a pony who was very, very sick, a good deed that would prove his worth.

‘Urgh… I can’t believe I’m even considering this!’

With a sigh he hopped off his bed and headed out, being careful to not wake the stranger. It was a strange day for him as he began to make breakfast for himself and his unexpected guest from the other night. Even though he hated the thought of helping somepony who could potentially get him in locked up in prison for associating with a pony that believed to be a lost princess. He could at the very least try to convince her that she isn’t who she says she is.

It was a difficult choice but he ultimately decided to help her. At least back to sanity. As he had finished cooking a side of eggs with toast, he saw the white unicorn make her way downstairs with a ruffled mane and tired eyes. Each piece of her mane hair seemed to want to go a different direction, maybe because of the funny way she slumped her head over her pillow.

‘Our graceful princess has arrived, Oh joy.’

“Did you cook us breakfast?” she asked humbly.

“Well, yeah, I have to get up early to open the library up,” answered Watcher, rolling his eyes, “and you’re going to need something for the road.”

The supposed Celestia’s ears sank back as she said, “Thank you so much for everything. I know this is all very hard for you to believe, but you’re truly a good stallion, Mr. Watcher. I hope you know that.”

Watcher sighed and looked down at the half-burnt toast, he was really only skilled with the eggs, “I really wish I could believe that. This entire Order doesn’t think so.”

His guest stuffed in a piece of the ill prepared bread before continuing, “I don’t understand their hatred for you. You take in strangers, you do a job most of the others would find boring, and you put up with so much. What could have happened that would lead to such poor treatment?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

She refused to take no for an answer and continued to stare him down. Maybe it was her stare, maybe it was her serious facial expression coupled poorly with her bad mane style, but Watcher found himself unable to resist.

“A while ago, we were supposed to have a final exam, all the unicorns about to graduate were going to duel each other in a single-elimination bracket. First up was Blackstar and one of my… friends, Midnight Blaze.”

The other unicorn was stuffing her face with eggs, leaving Watcher to roll his eyes and continue, “Blackstar lost fair and square, and decided to cast a dark boil flesh spell on Midnight. I thought he was going to kill him, so I sort of jumped in and helped with a spell of my own.”

“Oh well it couldn’t possibly have been so bad,” said Celestia, mouth full, “what spell did you choose?”

“I can’t remember, think it was the Dark Energy Blade,” he said casually.

Celestia started to choke on her food for a moment, before pounding her throat with a hoof and managing to swallow the rest.

“Goodness, you used an energy blade on him? You could have sliced him in half from head to hoof!”

“I know, that’s what they told me. Strange the blade glowed brightly given it was supposed to be dark magic and all…”

The incognito princess tilted her head in curiousity, “The blade glowed brightly? That’s unusual.”

“Yeah and Midnight would have died if I hadn’t done anything,” argued Watcher, clearly upset, “yet they decided I was wrong to help and put me here. They would have expelled me, or maybe even thrown me in prison, but I bet they didn’t because Midnight would have exposed them as caring more about their stupid test than their students.”

“That seems to be the likely explanation,” she said, “but hearing this, I have an offer for you.”

“This had better be good.”

“Is having your very name here cleared good?” she answered, a tad sarcastically.

Watcher was truly convinced she was mentally ill, but what the hay, anything was better than continuing to be stuck in the allergy-inducing library he was calling home, “What do you want me to do?”

“Let me stay, just a little longer, so I can keep working on what’s happened to me,” she offered, “I’ll help you out with your day to day life, and once everything has been settled, I’ll reward you handsomely.”

“As tempting as that is… I don’t think that’s going to fly. Reason one is that you have nothing I want or… Anything for that matter. My second reason is that I have only one bed room and I was really uncomfortable with you being in there for one night.” Watcher said, blushing in embarrassment.

“Please help me and I’ll do my part to help you?!” She was desperate and Watcher could tell that she was serious. It would be weird, lewd even to sleep in the same room with a mare, but if it meant helping her forget about being a princess and getting to know the real mare underneath than it could be worth it.

“Fine, but we’re going to set up a few rules around here!” He shouted as his guest responded with a nod.

“Okay I’ll… Follow your rules for now.” She replied to the stallion as he took a deep breath.

“First off… Don’t go around saying that you are Princess Celestia, It makes it look like you’re a crazy pony. So is there any name we can call you by that doesn’t make you sound crazy?” He asked, hoping that she could at least come up with something decent.

“Well… My sister used to call me… Tia.” She said, blushing a bit as Watcher raised a brow for some reason.

“Okay… Tia it is… Anyways the next thing is that we’ll need a cover story that’ll be believable?” He said, tapping his chin with his hoof as Tia looked at him confusingly.

“Why would I need a cover story?” She asked him as he faced hoof.

“So if ponies ask where you're from it’ll be believable! We’ll just say you're from… Appleloosa who’s… trying to learn proper magic from me.” He said, but was beginning to think that wouldn’t be as believable now that he said that aloud. “We’ll work on your story another time, but the last thing I ask of you is to stay here in the library. That way we don’t have to worry about ponies asking too many questions if they get suspicious.”

“Very well, but what about if the authorities come by?” She asked, worried about the same ponies coming to take her away.

“I’ll deal with them… But for now I think I’ll just close the library for the day and help you catch up on our modern society.” He said as Tia smiled back at him.

‘She maybe messed up in the head a little, but once I show her everything and teach her about how things work around here. Than maybe she’ll start to actually remember her real life before believing that she was ancient princess.’

“... It’s foolproof!” He shouted, surprising the mare as she almost fell out of her seat.

“What’s foolproof?” She asked.

“Huh… Oh, uh nothing, let’s just finish eating and I’ll start showing you around the library.” He said sheepishly while Tia shook her head as she continued to eat her eggs.

‘Such a strange stallion… But his personality is very amusing.’

Chapter Five- Dragon Corporation

Chapter Five- Dragon Corporation

A board meeting was being held in a hi-rise deep in Baltimare city, the 30th floor room adjacent to the windows facing the east side. The room was a large, open area with wooden panel walls, a long cherry wood table set with multiple information packets, some of them untouched, and some of them opened by the dozen and a half of ponies in business suits seated at the table. It was raining hard outside, the water hitting the glass and sliding hundreds of feet down to the concrete floor far below. It was here that Pen Dragon was giving a speech about the proposal to build his new power source using help from the Order’s students. But he had to get all of his biggest investors on board, inviting his own ponies would have led to a lot of flank kissing to get promotions, so he had to ask his paying customers for their honest opinion. As he stared out the windows looking into the urban abyss below, he figured there would be a bit of browbeating involved to get them to agree.

But they were going to have to, anyways.

“Ladies and Gentlecolts,” he said, turning around from the rainy window, “I’ve called you here today because you all own at least five percent of the company. This is a very big announcement I wanted to make concerning a change of course in our company’s short-term objectives, and it’ll be a very difficult plan to go along with, but the rewards in profits will be quite nice if you’re willing.”

“Well you can always promise us more money like every CEO is going to do,” chuckled the richest investor in the room, an earth pony mare with a fancy sun hat and elegant purple colored dress, “what we’re looking for is more value for our shares, a way to grow.”

“Ha, you want growth?” retorted Pen Dragon, smirking, “I can give you that. This is a brand new chapter for Dragon Co. Supplies, the field of energy.”

Half of the board room erupted into laughter, with the smaller investors giving angry, glaring looks at the ones with more money in the business. Pen Dragon smiled haughtily, he knew from the cross looks of the smaller partners that he had their support merely on the ground that they were not jerks, and the other investors were. The larger investors were like the top of a pyramid, they may hold a larger percentage, but they would not be able to get their returns without the others in the room also contributing, along with the countless holders of small numbers of shares currently not present. Some of the smaller owners in the room even held meetings with the “invisibles” to get their advice before attending gatherings like this one. All was going according to plan.

Once the laughter had died down, Pen continued to speak, “Yes, yes, I know it’s weird. After the huge success of the Hybrid Directed Energy Weapon, or HDEW, it sounds really stupid I’m standing here telling you I want to take us into energy sources. But hear me out here, hear me out, and I think you might just be interested.”

“Go on,” said one of the lesser contributors.

“Thank you,” he answered, “recently I’ve discovered that there is an incredible amount of untapped power in crystalline materials originating from the northern territories. Many of those, of course, are out of reach right now, but we have our own mineable supply. The problem has always been ‘closing the gap’ between crystals from the north, and crystals from around here.”

“So you’ve found a substitute?”

“No,” he answered honestly, “I’ve found a way to get around the issue entirely. We’ll use the help of unicorns with ‘special talents’ to go around the need for power crystals and develop our own energy source with an artificial crystal solid.”

“Meaning?” asked the mare in the purple dress.

“Meaning…” continued the CEO, “I am going to recruit a few members of the Order who have been overlooked by their betters. The Order has made mistakes in their ways of choosing their top students. So I’ll hire them to create crystals for us in order to build the new crystal power plant we need.”

“And how will they be making these crystals?” asked one of the other investors.

Here was the hard part. Pen Dragon had to convince the majority of the ponies in the room that what he was about to suggest was not something horrible.

“They’ll make our new power source… using dark magic.”

The board room erupted into a mixture of gasps and incredulous looks, some of the investors looking around and pretending they hadn’t heard what the CEO had said.

“Mr. Pen… if what you just said happens to get out of this board room, the share price for this company will drop hard!” said one of them.

Pen Dragon was losing his support fast, so he quickly tried to make his point, “Look, I know that sounds bad, but… a lot of this dark magic the students use at the academy is accidental, or random. I’m not suggesting we get criminals to make the power source, these are misguided stallions and mares who just need a good outlet for a magical art most ponies don’t like.”

The mare in purple retorted, “Even if your program gave work to them, the implications of this.”

“... are perfectly fine!” countered Pen Dragon calmly, “look, dark magic is the only way to make this new type of crystal, and the power output is four hundred times what a regular Crystal Empire power source provides.”

The board room fell silent again, before one voice spoke up, “Four… hundred times?”

“Yes, and I’ve got proof. Our battle glider project is powered by a dark crystal reactor. If we get it working, we’ll have unlimited, clean, and cheap energy, without corrupting the minds of the students.” He declared as his patience was beginning to falter. It was a difficult decision for the board to make with only his word and the glider project has failed on multiple occasions.

“I’m sorry sir… but your glider project has failed multiple times and have cost your company millions. We suppose that if these unicorns from the Order can come up with an unlimited power supply then we shall see.” The mare in purple answered as with everypony nodding in response. Pen was relieved that his board would allow it, but he was going to go through with it either way.

“Thank you… I believe that will conclude our meeting for today. Do send for Miss Stencil. I have to know when our candidates will be arriving.” Pen asked, smiling towards one of the female guards who nodded in response.

Back at the Library

Watcher wished he was dead right now, teaching Tia everything about modern Equestria was like teaching a rock how to swim and that was impossible. He spent nearly two hours trying to teach her about Equestrian Order to hopefully jog some memories from this delusional mare, but failed in the process.

“So you mean to tell me that none of this rings a bell?” He asked while Tia laughed sheepishly.

“Uh… Hehehe I didn’t quite understand what you said… Could you maybe repeat it again?” She asked as a bead of sweat dripped from the side of her face as she laughed sheepishly again, causing the stallion to groan in response.

“I’VE EXPLAINED IT TO YOU TWENTY TIMES ALREADY!!!” Watcher shouted in anger as literally began to chomp on his clipboard. “You know what? I think we’re done for today. I’m going to sleep for the rest of the day.”

“But you said, we’d be studying modern Equestrian history with the founding of the Order?” She asked hopping of her chair to pursue the stallion as he ignored her. “I’m trying my best to understand all of this material Watcher! It isn’t easy when you’ve been gone for two thousand years.”

“Yeah, but I think we could use a bit of a break and a good nap sounds pretty good right about now.” Watcher said, entering the bedroom before collapsing on his bed.

“But… What should I do?” She asked.

“You’re in a library you know? Just read a book or practice your magic.” Watcher groaned as he closed his eyes and tried to sleep the day way.

‘How rude of him, I suppose I should relearn some of those spells I’ve forgotten.’

After making sure Watcher was fast asleep though, and having gotten bored with casting cantrips, Celestia got the idea that she should try to figure out her own past a bit more. That would mean breaking into the forbidden section of the library against her “gracious host’s” wishes. Yet the risk had to be taken, and it made no sense to keep around books anyways if they were going to be off-limits to absolutely anyone.

The unicorn crept away from the sleeping form of Watcher and began to cast an old teleportation spell she had learned a long time ago. To her chagrin, the teleport spell fizzled, and bright pink sparks floated down to the floor shamefully. A piece of the unicorn’s hair drifted into her eyes, and she blew it out of the way before shaking her head and deciding to give the teleport spell another go. This time, she managed to vanish in a flash of light, moving a grand total of four inches to the right, which made her even more angry than the completely failed teleport.

“This is no good,” she muttered, “I need more space to practice.”

She walked down to the ground floor, and picked a sizeable alleyway between two of the larger bookcases. Now, with the silence of the library around her and nobody but the books to judge her, she was able to focus more on her teleportation. After a quick rub of her hooves and a short dance in place to build up focus, she stared intently at the space in front of her, energy accumulating at the tip of her horn quickly. Next thing she knew, she had flashed down the entire length of the bookshelves, sending a flurry of dust and papers around her where she had appeared.

“Yes! Much better!”

Looking up, the mare noticed that she was in front of the gated-off area Watcher had led her to before.

“The forbidden volumes,” whispered the unicorn intently, “why have them at all if they are so strictly forbidden? Why not lock them away in a vault where nopony can lay eyes upon them?”

A short pause happened as she decided to break the rules and go inside. After messing with the lock for a while, she grew impatient with the physical tumblers and decided to steal the key from Watcher while he slept. One trip back upstairs later, and with Watcher sleeping as heavily as a brick, she had the key floating in front of her, and into the lock it went. Soon “Celestia” was inside, the piles of forbidden knowledge around her calling out to be read.

“Perhaps I should use this opportunity to learn more about my predicament,” hummed the sneaky unicorn, “Watcher is so uncooperative I have to take matters into my own hooves!”

She searched over the messy piles of ancient tomes that hadn’t been handled in perhaps decades, centuries even, until she came across a very peculiar brown book, heavy and bound at the spine in red, with a golden sun on the cover embossed into the front.

“The Tale of the Sun Princess”

It was definitely her old cutie mark, just like she remembered it, and the book certainly looked and felt dusty enough to have been written in her time… but was it truly her story? She felt an odd connection to the elder piece of literature, and slowly opened the book with curiosity in her eyes.

“Long ago, there were four Princesses who ruled Equestria in Harmony for centuries...”

The former princess could not believe she was reading about herself and the former life she had once led. The beautiful palaces in Canterlot, Ponyville, the Empire… all territory she and the others had sworn to protect. How each day they would strive to make the lives of their subjects more meaningful, and the praise and admiration that they had received, the true love of their subjects poured upon them each and every day. She remembered the nights her sister would raise the moon, and how each morning she would raise the sun, sometimes staying on that balcony for hours after just to enjoy the feeling of the rays on her body. How could anything like that come to such a terrible end?

“But all good is matched with evil of equal force… one who hated Equestria rose to challenge the princesses. He was… The Demon King.”

Celestia remembered. The dark blue form, scaled and tall, who went by so many names. The Shaded Death, The Evil One, The Last Dragon. Every city that he found, destroyed without a trace of life remaining for miles, even the worms in the ground dead for meters into the soil. Each township destroyed left in shadow and misery, and the occasion where any individual managed to return was left a shell of themselves until the day they died, a mute scream still visible on their lips. At least, that is how bad the unicorn remembered what his rampage brought upon her world.

“The Sun Princess and the others battled valiantly, but...”

She read on into the volume about the struggle, and then, unlike the first two parts of the book, her awe and memories vanished into a confused, indignant burst of emotion.

“This… this ending is not true,” she said slowly, “that isn’t how things happened at all!”

A scream came from her at the top of her lungs,

“WHO DARED TO WRITE IT THIS WAY?”

Suddenly she covered up her mouth, remembering the other unicorn asleep upstairs, and quickly hoped he hadn’t have woken up. Celestia slammed the cover of the book shut, and got out of the forbidden section quickly, locking it up and leaving no evidence behind that she had gotten there. The key was soon safely returned to Watcher’s nightstand, and she stared with a blank look at the sleeping bookkeeper, shaking her head at his laziness.

“Why couldn’t you have just helped me?” she sighed.

She didn’t know why this was happening to her, but if she was around than her sister is most likely alive as well, wondering this new world that they were in. It may be the same soil that she has walked upon a thousand years ago, but her country was split in two as one claimed power over her land.

“I’ll find out what really happened to my ponies in my absence…” She paused before looking towards Watcher “And you're going to help me Watcher.”

Three Hours Later

Time had passed for Watcher as a began to stretch his limbs and let out a loud yawn. He soon looked to see Tia sleeping in a pile of blankets and books scattered all over the place. She maybe charming, but he seriously doubt a princess would drool over her pillows. He didn’t know what to think of this strange mare that had recently entered his life, but one thing he did know was that she needed help, mentally of course.

“What am I going to do with you?” He asked himself before sighing, he was about to wake her up until her heard the sounds of knocking at the front door. With a loud groan he began to make his way downstairs to the front entrance to greet whoever was there. “I’m coming, I’m coming!”

With a flicker from his horn, his magic wrapped around the doorknob and began to twist it, opening it to find a unicorn with a grayish coat and a pair of glasses on while holding a clipboard. He had to admit that regardless of her likely age (all that mattered was that she was older than him), she was still gorgeous.

“Oh… hello,” she said, “are you… Watcher? I think this is you here on my clipboard.”

“Y… yeah that’s me,” he answered, stuttering as he let out a yawn. “Don’t want to sound rude, but why are you here?”

“I’m here to make you a job offer, actually,” answered the mare, pulling down her glasses slightly and staring at him with her big light blue eyes, “how would you like to get out of this dusty old library and do something important with your life?”

Watcher thought she was messing with him, who on campus was going to hire him after his accident?

“Wait, what? What kind of a job?”

Stencil Guide asked him to step outside, which he did in order to have a more private conversation with Watcher. She didn’t want anyone else to hear about the offer, lest word spread that Pen Dragon, master weapons developer, was hiring. The stack of resumes would blot out the sun if she wasn’t able to keep to just the unicorns on her list.

“I have a special assignment you can take on if you’re willing, you’ll be working on a new project involving crystals and magic interactions between them,” said the mare quietly, “it pays much better than what you are doing here, and you can even get back to this from time to time so that no one suspects you’ve quit!”

“What’s the pay? ” Watcher asked, as Stencil began to write down notes.

She raised an eyebrow in a teasing manner, “What are you making now?”

“Not enough,” he responded, chuckling, “Make me an offer.”

Stencil took out a pen and scribbled a figure down on a sheet of paper from her clipboard, making a few motions with the writing utensil before ripping out the sheet. She passed it casually to Watcher, who accepted it without much emotion until he actually saw what he was being offered. The mare in front of him struggled not to laugh when she saw his eyes widen at the salary offer.

“So I take it that’s a yes then?”

“I… I want to accept this,” he said, “but I don’t really know much about science. I might not be too good at this at first.”

“Keep in mind we don’t expect you to do absolutely everything,” she explained, “in fact, there’s budget for you to bring one assistant with you if you want. Since you’re on my list here, I trust you’ll pick somepony with excellent qualifications.” She said, smiling at the unicorn as he gave her the paper with his signature on it. “Perfect, I’ll have you and your companion start tomorrow night at Dragon Corporation. See you then Mr. Watcher.”

After that the mare soon headed back towards her limousine as Watcher gawked at her. He could only wonder why a rich pony would request a reject librarian like him in the first place? But there was also one small issue with this problem.

‘What am I going to do with that insane mare?’

Chapter Six- The Job

Chapter Six- The Job

“So you mean to tell me that you accepted the job just like that?” Midnight said, raising a brow at his friend. “It’s not really like you to accept a job just like that without checking to make sure it’s safe or something.”

“I know, but I’m desperate since I can’t make enough for tw-” he paused before letting out a cough. “I mean I figure I could use the extra bits for some… renovations for the library. It’s kinda depressing.”

‘That was too close.’

For a brief moment he almost revealed that a mare was staying at his home. Of course most stallions would do anything to have a mare in bed with them, but he wasn’t like that at all and he doesn’t want his friends to get the wrong idea about him. Not only that but it would be difficult to explain the situation about Tia since Watcher believes she’s a little messed up in the head.

“Yeah… I guess that is a good reason?” Midnight replied, still unsure about believing him.

“Anyways, a mare named Stencil dropped by an offered me a job, said that I was the first candidate for the job. She also said that I could bring a partner with me… So are you in?” He asked as Midnight smiled at him.

“Sure, why not… I’m willing to help you out Watch, but is it okay for Stardust to tag along? I’m sure she’d enjoy a trip to Dragon Corporation?” He asked.

“Sure, that’s fine with me.” He replied, but he still wandered if he should bring Tia, but seeing how she’s very confused with basically everything, he wouldn’t be surprised if she accidentally blew up everypony.

‘It’s probably best to leave her at the library while I’m out… I should only be gone for a few hours at the very least. She maybe delusional, but she isn’t an idiot. The library should be in capable hooves.’

“Okay, well I better go meet up with her… We have a lunch date set up and I can’t afford to be late.” By the time Midnight realized what he had just said, Watcher could only groan as he slammed his face against the table.

“So when were you going to tell me Midnight?” Watcher asked, bluntly as his friend began to laugh sheepishly.

“W-well you see it’s just that… after the incident, she dropped by when I was in the infirmary. We got talking and she was even willing to pay for the hospital bill once I was released. After that we became more than friends,” Midnight said, but judging by how Watcher began grinding his teeth, he could tell that he wasn’t happy.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THIS BEFORE?!!!” Watcher did know after he left the library that night when he ran into Tia, but that didn’t make it any easier for him to get over it.

“I wanted to tell you… but I didn’t know how!” He tried to explained, even though he was indeed mad at him, Watcher began to take a deep breath before exhaling and looking back at him with a stern look.

“Look I get that you and Star are a… couple now, but you should have told me instead of keeping it a secret. Sure I probably would have strangled you a bit, but I would have accepted it eventually,” Watcher said, even though he still really wanted to kill him, but he did understand why. Stardust was the complete package and any stallion would kill to have a mare like that in bed with them, and he may have wished that it could have been him, he still never made a move.

“Listen I’m sorry, but it’s just that you’ve never made a move,” Midnight said, shamefully as Watcher’s scowl turned into a small but genuine smile.

“Well you’re right... I don’t think I would have had the courage to make a single move on a mare like Stardust. You better take care of her or else I’m going to drag you into some mess that gets us killed so I can beat you senseless in the afterlife! Understand?!”

“I promise Watch… I’ll be there for her!” Midnight said, chuckling nervously.

“Good… I better go check on my guest at the library and… See if she’s found what’s she looking for.” Watcher chuckled back nervously, hitting himself mentally for slipping up like that, hoping that he won’t find it suspicious.

“I understand… Dealing with those Delta-Class student that stroll in there and take forever must be exhausting.” Midnight added before chuckling.

“Y-yeah… They’re just… so dumb.” Watcher said, before disappearing in a flash of light, leaving his friend alone.

Dragon Corporation

“Pen, are you sure you want to go through with this project? I just… don’t want you to get hurt okay?” Stencil asked, pouting a bit at Pen before he turned towards her with a grin.

“You don’t need to worry about anything Stencil my dear… I promise that once this project is complete, we’ll make enough money to retire early.” He answered, patting her head as she blushed in response.

“Well… if you’re sure, then I’m with you.” She replied, hugging him.

They overlooked the construction and assembly area below where the glider weapon was being put together. Technician ponies surrounded the machine, welding together components and attempting to fix the previously damaged engine core. Pen Dragon knew that this weapon would be the one to make him rich enough to never have to work another day in his life. As it was, he had already amassed a pile, but the payouts to those dubious investors he’d met with had cut him short of the wealth he really desired. Now all of that was about to change, he thought to himself, and he might even be able to enjoy that money with a hot wife… if he played his cards right.

Outside of the manufacturing facility, the chain link fence topped with barbed wire surrounding the factory grounds was unguarded, but recorded on camera for safety. It was starting to look like rain, with dark clouds gathering outside of the facility, encouraging the guards to go back inside and watch from the cameras. No sooner did they choose to leave their posts, a cart, propelled by a steam engine, crashed through the outermost gate away from the main road leading back into Baltimare, crushing the metallic gate and clearing way for the out of control vehicle. The alarm didn’t trip, but the vehicle was easily spotted on the camera system, and the security staff rushed to investigate.

The overturned vehicle’s doors opened, and tall figures wearing solid white armor stepped out unharmed, having practiced the rough entry. They were griffons, and their protective suits each had a golden marking on the front in the shape of a lion’s paw. On their feathered faces, white stripes of war paint sharpened their menacing appearances, and they rushed up to the nearest wall of the factory, some of them carrying blow torches on their backs.

Each of the guards inside the building heard the footsteps of the intruders, followed by the torches starting up against the wall of the factory. The open room the enemy was trying to break into was used for storage, and several boxes, crates, and oil barrels were stacked up in the area. Each of the guards took a position behind the obstacles.

“Someone notify Pen Dragon, and call the police immediately,” shouted their captain, his red soft cap slipping down his head, “these guys mean business!”

Two dots of light appeared at the top of the far wall, evidence the torches were burning into the sheet metal. They split, moving down in two perfect arcs away from the apex as the intruders dug their way through the wall.

The captain turned to a nearby earth pony mare, a smaller guard who had just started two weeks ago. Fear was obvious in her purple eyes, and he knew he couldn’t let her face whoever their enemy was with the other half-dozen security guards.

“Millstone, get out of here,” he ordered softly, “you need to be the one to warn Pen Dragon.”

She nodded, and galloped off into a nearby open hallway, leaving the other six guards by themselves to face the falling walls, which slammed onto the floor of the warehouse ominously, kicking up a big cloud of dust. The eight griffons stepped in carefully, each of them holding a crude, primitive pepperbox revolver in their talons. They looked around, some of them stepping backwards into the room in a very tactical manner.

Captain Javelin got a good look at the invaders from safe behind cover, and identified them immediately.

‘It’s them… the White Talons! But they’re supposed to be… disbanded!’

Javelin could feel the tension in his four stallions and two mares around him, the urge to attack the griffons was overtaking them. But they needed to not give away their hiding places until exactly the right moment.

“Come on guys… hold on just a bit longer…”

Eventually one of the less experienced guards couldn’t take the stress and panic anymore and wailed loudly before discharging a crossbow from a balcony above the area. The arrow flew forward and penetrated the armor of the frontmost griffon, striking him in the upper chest area and causing him to trigger his revolver, sending a wild volley of three badly molded bullets off into the warehouse as he hit the floor.

Instantly the others turned their weapons on the poor guard who had dared to take down their squad leader. Ammo tore through the railing, and several more entered him, shredding his uniform and throwing him backwards onto the floor of the walkway.

The other guards came out from their hiding places and attacked with their repeating crossbows, the unicorns contributing with magic attacks. A rogue fireball spell from the unicorn mare of the squad struck between two of the griffon soldiers, exploding between their legs and flinging them into the air, their screams of pain echoing before they collapsed into a burnt heap on the ground. Captain Javelin could hear the bullets from the revolvers bouncing off of his cover, and he knew he wouldn’t hold out long. A round penetrated through the crate and tore into his right leg, making him wince. Quickly the pegasus stallion drew a blade with his right wing and threw it from behind the cover, the spinning knife quickly finding a spot in one of the griffon’s neck, downing him quickly.

“It’s up to Millstone now...”

“Mr. Pen Dragon!” shouted the mare, running through the hallway.

The alarms had started to go off already, alerting anyone left in the building to the situation, but Millstone still had a job to do. She entered the laboratory area, where Pen Dragon and Stencil were looking around in a panic over the alarm.

“Millstone, what’s going on?” he asked.

“We’ve got intruders,” she answered, “take a look at the cameras!”

Pen Dragon moved over to a nearby monitor and rapidly clicked through the channels with his hoof. The cameras shifted between several rooms before focusing on the warehouse area just a few hundred feet from where they were. Several dead soldiers on both sides were scattered around the floor, and four of the griffons clad in white remained, walking over to the wall opposite the camera.

“No… it’s the White Talons,” gasped Pen Dragon, cursing his luck, “those guys aren’t in business anymore, I thought.”

“Who are they?” asked Stencil.

“I can tell you later, all I know is, they want the glider,” he answered.

“Wait, something’s going on!” demanded Millstone, pointing at the monitor.

They could make out on the monitor Captain Javelin, wounded, limping away along the wall. The four griffons had him surrounded and pinned up against the warehouse, with no route for him to exit. Each of them raised their weapons and pointed them at the pegasus, who refused to show them fear.

“No… please!” whimpered Millstone.

Several loud cracking noises echoed throughout the factory, Pen and Stencil could only look away as the griffons began cackling at the sheer pleasure of killing a helpless enemy. Millstone cried in horror, tears streaming down her face as she watched her friend take their rounds to his body. She had met his two foals only last week, as his assistant and friend she had gotten close. Now he was gone, leaving behind those two adorable young ones she had seen playing together.

“Unforgivable,” commented Stencil, glaring at the screen, “those monsters…”

“Grrr… Stencil, activate the glider, I’ll make them pay for this,” was all he said as began to make his way out of the meeting room, heading down for the factory floor.

On his way down, he grabbed a helmet meant for test pilots and strapped it on over his head. His mind was focused solely on his poor security team, just a group of innocent guard staff hired from Apex Defense Solutions. None of those sorry ponies had been thugs or ordered to kill on sight, they were just meant to keep graffiti artists and vandals away from the factory. Now they were dead, and it was all because the location of his secret project had somehow been leaked.

'Well, if they want my glider so badly… I’ll let them have it!'

The mechanics at the ground floor moved away from the prototype glider board, having refueled it and energized the pair of energy weapons at the front. It drifted slightly up from the circle of punched steel it was resting on.

“Sir, we haven’t finished all the repairs!” warned one of the technicians, before being shoves aside.

“If it flies, I’m using it,” growled Pen Dragon, “untether it and open the hangar doors, then get out of here. There’s no sense in you guys dying too.”

Each of the labcoat clad ponies looked at each other with great concern, before finally obeying and releasing the ropes holding the craft down. They fled the room, leaving Pen Dragon by himself with the prototype weapon. He stepped on the board, climbing onto the device carefully before planting his legs firmly in the small indented areas the user was meant to stand. It responded to his touch, as if it was aware of who its master was, and a set of lights illuminated down the middle as the craft rose into the air. Pen Dragon took the craft high enough near the tall ceiling of the laboratory room in hopes of catching the remaining soldiers off guard. The hangar doors were opening up slowly in front of him, which would let them in, right into his trap.

The four griffons waited patiently for the hangar doors to completely open, expecting more guards. Instead they found an empty room, their target missing, and not a trace of that surviving guard mare they had so eagerly wanted to splatter on the wall. Getting to savor her dying screams would have been the highlight of their heist if only they could find her…

Each of them went back to back as they advanced into the room, holding their bulky guns at shoulder height as they swept the room. Occasionally, one would fire a round into a likely hiding spot, hoping to catch someone who might be behind cover.

“Methodical creeps…” whispered Pen Dragon, “good thing I sent out the techs…”

A drop of oil began to leak from the edge of the hoverboard, spilling out of the side from a crack that had failed to been covered over. It fell down quickly, and splattered on the ground near one of the White Talon goons. He followed the drop up to Pen Dragon’s location, and quickly shouted for his friends to look up.

His cover blown, Pen Dragon hit the accelerator and dove the board down, opening up with the energy blasters on the front of the craft. Twin pulses of green and white colored energy emerged from the barrels at the end of the board, streaking down towards their targets. The blasts burnt through the first soldier’s armor, frying his plumage and tearing through him quickly, energy cauterizing wounds as soon as they were formed. He dropped, but his allies quickly spread their wings and took off after Pen Dragon, opening fire with their weapons. The nimble hoverboard was proving difficult to hit, but the weapons expert soon found himself in a three on one dogfight within the large, open area of the laboratory. Most of the bullets from the guns were not very accurate despite the White Talons switching to firing them with both clawed hands, but the lead projectiles were still causing damage to sensitive lab equipment. Pen Dragon was pulling off the best loops and spins he could with the glider, but all he was doing was allowing the three to tail him constantly while they shot up expensive chemicals and machines, setting off explosions in his lab.

“I’ve got to take this outside,” he said as he steered the board out the hangar doors and into the stormy weather outside.

Rain had not yet begun to fall, but the dark clouds would make for excellent cover if he could reach them. The earth pony felt a bullet graze his tail, shredding a few hairs and giving him a solid reminder just how dangerous the situation was. He pierced through the dark cloud cover, and re-emerged above, where of course it was still sunny. The griffons came out from below, one of them reloading his crude handgun quickly.

“Where’d he go?” demanded the leader of the group, looking around in the blinding rays.

“No idea sir, I… AAIIIIEEEE!”

Another one of the griffons died in a hail of electromagnetic projectiles as Pen Dragon dove out of the sun to conceal his position. The remaining two griffons dove away, hammering at the board with their guns. One of the rounds managed to find the front of the first engine, making it flicker and giving the hoverboard a tilt to the right. Pen Dragon hoped it wouldn’t cut out too soon, and started to chase one of the last two soldiers, firing away with the energy guns. The other soon got on his tail, and Pen heard gunfire behind him again. Smoke trailed from the back of the board, the engine beginning to go into its death throes from the bullet.

With the griffon in front of him too busy dodging the blasts from the board, and the one behind him too intent on killing him, Pen Dragon finally decided on a way to end the fight quickly. He suddenly cut off power to the engines, sending the board backwards into the griffon behind him, who yelled as the glider crushed his armor partially and wounded his middle. The two fell together back underneath the cloud cover, droplets of water just starting to fall from the clouds. Just a few hundred feet before the ground, the pony reignited the engines on the board, burning his opponent and pushing him away. He dropped down to the ground, a loud yell followed by a sickening crunch as his armor tried to absorb the fall.

Pen Dragon brought the board to a stop, the griffon on the ground in front of him gasping for breath, his lungs somewhat injured. The last of the White Talons swooped in from overhead, but he soon found himself in his opponent’s sights, and Pen Dragon ordered him to drop his gun. To his surprise, the final griffon obeyed, and went to pick up his injured commander from the ground.

“Why?” asked the White Talon soldier, unsure why Pen Dragon had chosen to spare his life.

“One of you has to go back and tell the others not to throw themselves away like this,” Pen Dragon answered sternly, “take your commander and go home. You’re lucky I need you to send the message back.”

Unsurprisingly, the two surviving soldiers left without any further trouble. A total of six White Talon soldiers had been killed in the conflict, and one of them had gone missing and was simply presumed dead. They had murdered five of the patrol in cold blood, including Captain Javelin. Only Millstone and one other guard had survived the attack on the cargo bay. Even though their valiant effort meant the lives of the technicians and factory workers had all been saved, the hard truth was that they had lost. There was no way this incident would not leak out to the public, and Pen Dragon would likely find himself held responsible for the amount of danger he had put everyone in by playing down how important his project was.

Pen Dragon parked the board back into his loading bay, and watched as his technicians surrounded him again, along with Stencil Guide and Millstone, who was unable to stop crying. He felt like a hero having stopped the griffons, but the eyes of his employees, friends, and possible spouse all pierced him with looks of disappointment and hatred. Five were dead over his greed, five were dead over his quest for the perfect energy source and weapon. His ears sank back in despair, and he threw off his helmet, which rolled over to a rest near a workbench.

“Stencil, have the police been notified?” he asked solemnly.

“Yes sir,” she answered.

The weapons developer took one more look at Millstone, a mere trainee thrust into a practical warzone. He would never forget that look of horror and mortal sadness that stared back at him in disbelief and shock.

“Very good, Stencil… let’s… let’s just wait for them.”

Later that Evening

Watcher sat patiently in his comfy sitting chair he had purchased a week ago, while reading a book on amnesia. As for Celestia, she was curled up in her pile of blankets and pillows as she watched the latest news on the old libraries computers. Watcher was able to get it to work well enough so she could at least watch something to keep herself occupied while he was trying to find a solution for all of the crazy in the mare’s head.

He was wondering when the ponies from dragon corporation would arrive to pick him up, so he could let his friends know when they were going to be here.

‘What’s taking them so long? I would have figured that those business ponies would have been here by now?’

“Hey Watch? I think you need to see this?” Celestia asked as she gestured him to come over, and while he wanted to see what she was talking about, he began to feel nervous. He said many times in his head and he’ll say it again. She may be a bit crazy, but she was hot in his opinion. He couldn’t help but stare at her flanks for a brief moment before slapping himself mentally.

‘Get ahold of yourself! She’s loca, just see what she’s talking about and than head back towards your chair and fix her head.’

Watcher soon took a seat next to Celestia to see what she was talking about, but what he saw next was unexpected.

“Today’s breaking news: In a moment of true terror, Dragon Corporation came under siege by a mercenary group who are claiming to be the White Talons… A group that was allegedly disbanded almost 2 decades ago. The attack was stopped by the company owner Mr. Pen Dragon with a new invention of his that hasn’t been released for use by the military or the Order. But even with his aid, 5 ponies were killed and 6 were injured during the attack. Whatever the White Talons were after, they still live up to their murderous reputation.”

“Also in other news: Apparently we’ve recently discovered that Mr. Pen Dragon has been dating his assistant for quite sometime behind the back of the public, seeing how close those two have been after the attack,”

The News Mare stated as Pen glared at her while holding Stencil in his hooves.

“That’s not important right now! Our company was attacked! And you’re trying to turn this tragedy into a some kind of love story. It may be true that I’m with Miss Stencil, but you will not change what really happened here! Good ponies have died by the claws of those fiends, and if they think they can bring havoc to not only my company, but to everypony else out there, then they better be damned ready for when I come for them. That’s a promise to you… White Talons!”

He stated clearly as both him and Stencil entered their limousine and drove off.

“Well there you have it everypony… CEO of Dragon Corporation has not only threatened the White Talons on a personal level, but has also admitted to dating Miss Stencil of Dragon Corporation. Onto more important matters, Chancellor Apollo of the Order also has a few words to say about what has happened here today.”

The camera soon turned towards a grey unicorn wearing a golden robe with a halo of some kind wrapped around his waist.

“I know most of you are distraught… angry… even terrified by this… a terrorist attack that has impacted the Order’s wealthiest weapons company. But I see this as a hoax! The White Talons stopped operating 20 years ago… it is true that we have lost good ponies to the griffons that attacked us today, but the White Talons are more coordinated and wouldn’t have been taken down so easily, by some… CEO… Of course this shall not be ignored and all Alpha-Class unicorns are to begin searching for these renegades that have defiled the good name of not only Dragon Corporation, but the Order as well!”

He stated, leaving the press to ask more questions.

It was at that moment Watcher turned off the screen to see Celestia crying as she glared at the computer. “How could they… why would they kill my… my little ponies?”

“I-I know how you feel Tia, but griffons have always been our enemy since the treaty between the Order and Rebellion had been settled a thousand years back. What makes this worse is the fact that our two greatest enemies are now working together. True it may have been White Talon, but we’ve known for awhile that those Rebel Scum and those griffons have been working together for a while now. It’s sad… really… But you shouldn’t feel too bad about this… Ponies come and go… That’s something we can’t change.” Watcher explained, but before he could say anything else, Celestia had hugged him, sobbing into his fur while he blushed in embarrassment.

“It’s… It’s just not fair… those ponies didn’t deserve to die!” She shouted, while Watcher looked down at her and began to feel empathy for this stranger.

Before he could say anything, the doors to the library opened up as Stardust and Midnight entered in a panic. “Watcher, you need to see the news right now! There was an attack!”

“Yeah, you need to see-” Stardust paused as she noticed Watcher holding Celestia in his hooves as she began to wipe her tears away. Everypony in the room stood there in utter silence while Watcher could only blush in humiliation.

“Sooo… Is this your… marefriend?” Stardust asked, trying her best to keep her composure while Midnight began to snicker.

“Watcher you sly dog! So this is the reason why you ran off earlier!” Midnight smirked as both him and Celestia looked at each other before letting go of each other and getting up from their spots, blushing intensely as both Stardust and Midnight began to whistle at the two.

“It’s not what you think! She was just crying after watching the news! We hardly even know each other!” Watcher said, defensively as the two unicorns continued to laugh and awe at them.

“He’s right and why would I ever date such a crude stallion that has little respect towards mares!” She pointed at him while Stardust looked at them curiously.

“I am not rude to mares! I’m just rude to you!” Watcher countered, as the two growled at each other.

“Well it’s a real shame than… For a moment I thought you two were about to have a very saucy moment with each other.” Stardust giggled while Watcher and Celestia turned completely red as a mental image of what she said began to plague their minds.

“NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS!!!” The two shouted in rage as both Stardust and Midnight began to laugh sheepishly.

“Anyway… We already saw the news… I didn’t really think something like that would happen. It’s depressing, the reason why Tia was soaking me in her tears.” Watcher explained as he tried to clear his mind of those impure thoughts Star put in his head. He could only hope that Celestia doesn’t spout any nonsense like before,

“Yeah… They also said to delay our meeting since Midnight and I are Alpha-Class now and we need to focus on finding White Talons.” Star explained as Midnight nodded in agreement, while Watcher’s ears fell down slightly. The two didn’t notice it, but Celestia did and she could tell he was a bit upset.

“Like she said, we won’t be able to go with you for about a month, so you’ll have to find somepony else to be your assistant… And I think I found the lucky pony for the job.” Midnight gestured his hoof at Celestia while Watcher grabbed Midnight and began to strangle him.

“ARE YOU DEAF? I SAID NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS YOU TWIT!!!” He yelled, shaking Midnight back and forth as Star tried to pry him off his coltfriend. Celestia could only giggle in response, she figured she’d be spending a lot more time with these ponies, which was something she was looking forward too.

Capital of Baltimare

The Chancellor sat alone in his office with a group of guards wearing red and orange armor, each of them holding a large compound crossbows near them magically. The official sat there at his desk, taking a long sip from a glass of vintage wine he had been saving for a while. It seemed like another boring evening, and he had grown tired of waiting for the treat. Boredom always caused him to need to uncork one of his more precious bottles. As he finished the tasteful and aromatic glass, the doors to his chambers opened suddenly. Three griffons from the White Talons approached the Chancellor with large blades mounted to their wrists, and the aging revolvers they were know for. The guards were about to attack, until Apollo raised his hoof.

“So I take it you’re here to kill me?”

“Well aren’t you the perceptive one? Why else would we be here? Once you’re out of the way, we can begin taking DNA samples and use our new technology to make a perfect clone of you to run things under our rule,” one of the griffons stated as he pointed his revolver at Apollo who didn’t flinch at the sight of it. “Maybe you would have stood a chance if you hadn’t told your guards to stand down. For that you’re going to pay the price!”

“Well… since you’re so confident in your abilities… why don’t you just take the shot?” Was all he said as the griffons gave him a surprised look, but smirked at him before firing every round at the stallion while laughing psychotically. Rounds tore into the official’s body as the weapons discharged, but what happened next after the guns had been emptied was truly beyond impossible.

He was still standing, though his body was filled with holes and puffs of smoke leaked from each of the exit wounds. Miraculously, the bullets that were in him began to fall out as his wounds closed, leaving behind perfectly healthy, unscarred tissue as if nothing happened.

“You know lads, these robes are very hard to come by these days… It was a gift from member of the high council in Everfree City. Made from the finest silk in the provinces. I’m afraid I’ll have to patch up this damaged article… once I deal with you filthy birds.”

“W-what are you!” One of the griffons asked as they backed away, but were soon held in place by a purple aura surrounding them.

“Hehehehe… I’m the Order!” Was all he said as his horn flashed brightly.

A bright beam of white energy emitted from his horn, washing over the griffons, who screamed as their bodies were turned to dust in a flash. Their guns fell into the piles of smoldering remains from the gruesome attack, and the chancellor chuckled to himself as if his brutal murder of his opponents was a simple parlor trick.

“Guards do send in one of my maids to clean this mess and to bring me one of my robes. These old rags were… out of style anyway.”

Chapter Seven- Will You?

Chapter Seven- Will You?

Watcher couldn’t believe he was bringing her along with him. Sure, he could have left her at the library since no pony actually knows she’s living there, but he didn’t want Midnight and Stardust to get suspicious about anything until he could figure out what is wrong with the mare. Also he didn’t want to go alone.

“Alright Tia, I’m going to level with you now. Since you have… problems... I want you to be on your best behavior.”

“I have been very honest and patient with you, Watcher, why can’t you just believe me?” She asked quietly.

“Like I said, I don’t believe in fairy tales and you need actual proof if you want me to believe you’re a multi-thousand year old alicorn,” he rebutted as they were able to make their way to the city. He couldn’t believe that she was the only one he could bring with him, which made him realize that he doesn’t have many friends and needs to make more sometime soon.

“So where are we going again?” Celestia asked as the charcoal unicorn groaned at her.

“I’ve told you NINE TIMES ALREADY!!! We’re going to Dragon Corporation for the job offer, remember? And since there’s nopony else available you’ll have to do me a solid and help me get the job.” He explained as his eye twitched a bit. It has been almost two weeks since the attack on Mr. Pen Dragon’s company by White Talons. Celestia and Watcher were getting along with each other… Mostly.

“Well excuse me for asking...Jerk.” She uttered quietly as Watcher growled at the mare like a common animal. She has dealt with all kinds of stallions in her long, long, long life, but she has never met one that treated her like she had committed a crime.

“Call me names if you want… I didn’t realize that I was taking an immature child to work with me!” He growled as he flared his nostrils as Celestia gasped at his response.

“Who are you calling immature! At least I’m not acting like some dog!” She countered as he stared coldly at her. The tension between the two was like fire and ice as they argued the entire way to Dragon Corporation.

Meanwhile Pen Dragon and Stencil Guide waited patiently for the arrival of the two unicorns they requested to come. After the attack the two were still shaken by what they witnessed that day, but Pen had something more important on his mind, but wanted to wait till after work to speak with Stencil. “Stencil once we’re done here I want to ask you something important…”

“Oh, of course sir!” She answered nervously as she fidgeted with her hooves, noticing this Pen wrapped his hoof around her to try and calm her nerves a bit. “T-Thanks.”

Earning a little praise was enough for Pen, seeing as he didn’t have to wait long for his guests to arrive. He noticed a two unicorns arguing with each other, one was a stallion who had a charcoal coat and the other a mare with a pure white coat. It was clearly obvious that the two despised one another, but he had ways to fix problems like this and seeing how Stencil was giving him that look not to do it. He was going to do it.

“If you two are done arguing why don’t you kiss and make up?” He stated in front of the two who suddenly turned their attention towards him before blushing intensely.

“Pen, Sir you didn’t have to do that, you know...” She faced hoof as her coltfriend chuckled at the confusion the two unicorns were having.

“Do forgive me, but you two seemed to be so wrapped up in your argument that I thought that was the best way to break it. Anyways, I’m Mr. Pen Dragon, CEO of this outfit... and this lovely mare standing beside me is Stencil Guide,” he introduced her as she blushed at the compliment.

“Oh, uh sorry, forgive our rudeness… I’m Watcher and this annoying girl beside me is Tia. She has a few screws loose if you know what I me-” Before he could even finish Celestia smacked him on the back of his head as she growled in response.

“Ignore whatever he’s saying… Whatever he’s saying it’s most likely insulting either way. For the past week I’ve received nothing but insults from this half-witted buffoon, Pen Dragon,” she said, growling, “and no matter how hard I try he won’t listen to me.”

“Well I certainly think you’d make a more effective team if you’d slow down and start giving each other a chance,” suggested Stencil, “she is supposed to be your helper after all. Why would you pick her if all you’re going to do is insult her?”

Watcher was well aware that “because I don’t want her going nuts while I’m away”, was going to lead to a circular discussion with the CEO and Stencil, so he knew he was going to have to give up and convince them things were ok. He didn’t want to lose the massive pay he was being offered after all, and maybe “Celestia” would be quiet if she got her stipend too.

“I guess you’re right Stencil, I’m sorry Tia,” he lied with a fake smile, “I picked you to be my helper because you’re smart, not because you’re cute. Maybe you could cut me a break on being a bit blunt?”

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” she huffed in return, “fine, I’ll be nicer since you’ve agreed we should behave for our new… leader.”

“Hey now I’m just your manager, this is a job, not the force!” chuckled Pen Dragon, holding up a hoof, “but I’m glad you guys are going to put a better effort into getting along. Can’t have you fighting near the machines.”

“So, this is our interview I guess,” mumbled Watcher, “what do we do?”

Stencil took out a small red crystal, a lozenge in shape, and tossed it magically to Watcher, who grabbed it with his own aura quickly. The small gem looked strangely familiar, but it was a bit too crystal-clear to be something from within Equestrian borders.

“Try turning on that power crystal,” the secretary said softly, “this is the kind of thing you’ll be working with.”

Watcher focused on the gemstone in front of him, turning it over a few times in mid-air before closing his eyes and pouring his magical energy into it. The red crystal started to spark with electricity, a ring of energy surrounding its middle. Pen Dragon watched in curiosity, hoping that the stone would hold together as massive amounts of energy flowed around it. When Watcher opened his eyes, the electric ring had stabilized around the stone, and it did not fade away when his horn stopped glowing.

“Congrats, you’ve passed the test,” said Pen Dragon, smiling, “you’re both employees now if you want it!”

“Really?” Watcher asked, startled, as he had been asked hundreds of times in class back at the campus to turn on and off power crystals all the time. They were somewhat rare materials considering where they came from was mined within rebel territory… but the school had a large stock and used them to train in the art of building magical power sources.

“Yeah, really!” he answered, interrupting Watcher’s disbelief, “All you have to do is sign the contract in my office, it’s on the table. Stencil and I will wait right here for you.”

Celestia looked at the door to the office and nudged Watcher, who had been staring at Pen Dragon with a mistrustful look. The two unicorns entered the office to sign the paper, while Stencil and Pen Dragon stayed behind.

“That crystal is an artificial one forged on our side of the world,” he told Stencil sternly, “it only reacts to dark magic, and can’t produce power without that kind of a magical catalyst. Watcher has no idea he’s mixing dark magic into his regular spellcasting, and that’s why he’s perfect to help us build our power source. Most dark magic users turn on the public in a matter of years, but he’ll stay loyal to us as long as we keep the bits coming. I want you to make sure he gets at least double their salaries by the end of this fiscal quarter, so you’ll have to disguise them as merit raises. Can you make it happen?"

“Yes, of course,” she answered, nodding, “and the assistant?”

“Just make sure she’s not unhappy,” he answered, smirking, “we don’t want her convincing him to leave.”

“Understood.” But before she was about to take off Pen had grabbed her front leg before giving her a note.

“The note will explain everything… I have something I want to ask you later.” He said, sweating a bit as he scratched the back of his neck while Stencil had a feeling that it was going to be special and simply gave him a kiss on the cheek before heading off to meet Watcher and Celestia at his office. “How could a guy like me end up with the most amazing mare ever?”

He still could remember the day they first met.

Three Years Ago

It was Pen’s first day as CEO and even though he was doing fine on his own, his father Scissor Dragon had insisted that he hires a secretary to help him with his schedules and important paper work. Normally he wouldn’t have a problem with it if his parents hadn’t placed his picture on Equestria Models for the sexiest stallion of the year contest, which may or may not have attracted many mares to apply for the job. He thought it was very embarrassing and what’s worse is that the mares thought it was true.

“Father do I seriously need an assistant? I’m perfectly fine with taking care of my own paper work and meetings. I don’t need somepony slowing me down.” He stated before his father patted him on the back and gave a light chuckle.

“Son you may think that now, but trust me it’s a lot harder than it looks and a little help from time to time never hurt anypony. Are you worried having a very attractive mare by your side could lead to something scandalous?” He replied with a smirk as Pen rolled his eyes.

“If you ask me it’s a waste of time… Most of the mares waiting downstairs are probably gold diggers or some crazy fan girl that only wants to get in bed with me or kidnap me like in those weird Tv shows that ponies are making nowadays.” Pen explained while his father thought it was a bit of an exaggeration, but he did understand that some ponies are like that, but he had a feeling one of those mares would be willing to help his son out.

The had soon exited the Elevator only to see a line of beautiful mares lined up with papers to apply for the job. Many of them had very long, elegant dresses on, and lots of fresh makeup on their faces, jewelry, and fancy perfumes that would burn out one’s nose just by trying to breathe. By the time they saw Pen they immediately began to crowd the grey earth pony. Each of them was trying to shove their paperwork in his face… or something else. The smell of the perfumes as he was mobbed by the eager mares choked out his lungs and he felt like he was going to suffocate to death right there in a mountain of paperwork and unwarranted hugs.

“Easy son!” laughed his father, “You’re biting off more than you can chew.”

“Y-you don’t say?!” he gasped as he struggled to collect all the paperwork without being crushed.

Eventually he managed to get all the “resumes” in order, most of which reminded him of prenuptial agreements as opposed to a decent work history! How was he supposed to choose a decent assistant and secretary when none of them were really interested in his line of work? The defeated earth pony retreated into his office with the stack of papers, well aware he was going to be choosing a wife… not a new helper.

The line of mares came in one at a time, each of them doing many things Pen Dragon found uncomfortable, at least in the sense that he’d never met or known them before. One of the mares explained to him how each and every day, he would have his suit nice and ironed in the morning for him if she was chosen for the “job”, and a hot breakfast ready to go. Another was already a rather wealthy mare with her own oil industry, clearly looking for a trophy husband and uninterested in doing any work. Nothing creeped him out more though, than that one pegasus mare who, despite answering the interview questions correctly and trying to pay attention, would not stop playing with the pencils on his desk, knocking them off his table… going to pick them up… slowly.

But there was nothing that could compare… to HER.

His door had squeaked open again, just like with the other mares. But this one had been very different. She was a pink coated unicorn mare, with long light blue mane, A green and orange dress clad on her body, and gray eyes that tracked his every move, beaming brightly as the smile on her face. She bounced up to her chair in front of his fancy desk, and took her seat, but she could not stop fidgeting no matter how hard she tried.

“So… um, which one are you again?” he asked, sweating profusely from all the other mares he had interviewed.

“I’m Bubblegum Wishes,” she squealed, “I’ve heard so much about you Pen Dragon! I really love your work and I wanna be a part of it!”

“Oh, ok…” he said slowly, praying she wasn’t as crazy as her enthusiasm seemed to indicated, “so let’s get started. What are you going to bring to the company?”

“Weeeeeeeeell,” she said, blunt as a stone, “for starters, I’m gonna be your marefriend!”

“Wait what.”

Before he knew it, she was already on his desk, leaning over to grab at him, “I’m gonna do the best job I can while giving you all the sugary goodness you want, babe!”

“Hold on, this isn’t part of the…” he shrieked, but it was far too late for that, he was already getting unwanted cuddles from Bubblegum.

“Pen you’re so great,” she said, falling off the table as he stood up and tried to back away, dragging the mare with him, “we’re gonna be the best couple in Baltimare! Photo shoots, news stories, and I’ll help you advertise for all your best products! All ya need’s a hot mare!”

“Miss Bubblegum, please!” he begged, shaking his legs in hopes of losing her, “It sounds like you want to work unlike the others, but I can’t have you doing this right now!”

“Don’t be shy darling, come kiss your new girl!”

She ignored his cries for help and opened her mouth slightly before burying her lips into his, forcing him into the most awkward game of tonsil hockey he’d ever participated in. Pen Dragon shut his mouth as tightly as he could to get her out of it, but he was pinned by the pegasus and he wasn’t going anywhere, no matter how hard he kicked. Soon his tie and shirt were disheveled, and he only managed to get away when she grabbed his sport coat for a moment instead of him. Pen Dragon ran out of his office, crying for his security team. His father saw his son, face covered in lipstick, and laughed at him for failing to enjoy the “free attention”.

Bubblegum Wishes didn’t make it very far after that, having been escorted out by the facility security for such a stunt, but not before she promised she’d try to find her sweetie Pen Dragon again, which terrified the poor earth pony. As soon as she was gone, Pen Dragon went to the restroom to wash the lipstick off of his face. Pen’s dad entered the small, tile floored bathroom behind him, and he walked up to his son, a smirk on his face.

“Boy,” he whistled, “that mare was nuts. Sorry about that, son. I thought my boys had done a better job screening them. Turns out she’s been obsessing over you for over a year, hope she doesn’t take the rejection too harshly.”

Pen Dragon turned around, water running down his face, possibly some of it his own tears. He was miserable about everything, how he’d been forced into that stupid male beauty contest of a magazine, how none of his applicants were really trying for the job, nothing.

“Dad… I don’t want a secretary anymore. I’m done,” he sobbed.

His father sighed, then rolled his eyes, “Pen… you can’t give up just yet. I can always find a new batch of possible assistants, but you gotta have somepony, it’ll really help you learn how to run the company. Now there’s one more out there, take care of her, and we’ll be done for today, ok champ?”

“Fine,” answered the younger pony, wiping away the rest of the water, “one more.”

Pen returned to his office, turning the chair back up and cleaning the area from the crazy mare’s rampage. He felt like crying again, but he pushed back the emotions and sat there quietly as he waited for the final one. The door opened slowly, and in strolled a gray coated unicorn mare, wearing a purple suit with tan dress pants, like a schoolteacher. Her hair was long and light orange, messy at the top, with a blonde stripe running throughout it. She had a gentle amount of makeup on her face and eyelash extension, but it wasn’t enough to complain about, and her perfume was a gentle mint without any asphyxiating fumes Both of her light blue eyes were on the floor, not him, but she gave him a glance and a weak smile as she stepped forward, a bundle of papers floating in front of her in her graceful light blue aura.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” she said, “I had a hard time getting in, and I forget my resume in the lobby.”

Not paying attention to her steps, her shaggy, lengthy mane caught her hoof, and down she fell, shrieking as she collapsed on the floor, papers flying everywhere.

“Are you ok?” gasped Pen Dragon, getting up and helping her to her hooves.

“I’m fine, thanks… I just tripped,” she said, laughing nervously.

Pen Dragon led her to her seat and returned to his, as she stepped off the chair again to go collect her paperwork.

“Oh forget the CV,” he sighed, “look I just want to get this over with… why do you want to work here?”

He braced for the inevitable offering for marriage, a relationship, or even a “romantic evening”, before relaxing when she coughed gently and retrieved a single piece of her papers from the floor magically.

“Well I think I’m very qualified for the job, I’ve researched many magical sciences and arts for about four years since graduation, and I’ve completed two theses on magical tool design.“

He gave her a startled look, not expecting she’d actually take things professionally. She looked back at him with a raised eyebrow, wondering if he was ok, and cracked a silly joke.

“I can also do your taxes if you want.”

“W… what’s your name?” asked the stunned earth pony.

“I’m Stencil Guide,” she answered, smiling, “it’s on the resume you said you didn’t want.”

“Oh… right, I’m an idiot,” he chuckled, taking the surviving bit of the document from her, “oh… you really do have all that experience.”

“Of course,” she said, “this is a job interview, right? Those other mares didn’t have any experience?”

“Not the kind I was looking for,” he said, pulling at his collar, the taste of Bubblegum still in his mouth.

“Oh, well, I guess it’s a secretary job, I can’t really… um… compare that way,” she said, her ears falling back, “I guess I’ll just answer any other questions you have then.”

Pen Dragon relaxed his collar and looked back at her. She had the job qualifications, sure, but she had one other quality that made him want to choose her for the job. She wasn’t crazy, but she would get his father of his back, and as an added bonus, he wouldn’t be dragged into any unwanted advances.

“Yeah…” he answered confidently, “when can you start?”

Stencil Guide perked up, “Really? That was fast.”

“Well you have everything I need for this job! Congratulations, you’re hired!” he answered, smiling back.

“Oh… thank you!” she squeaked, “I’ll be in this Monday, promise!”

“Sounds good Stencil, I look forward to our… partnership.”

She bounced out of the room, happier than ever with her brand new job, and Pen Dragon slowly sank down into his chair in relief. Now he’d be left alone by his father, and he’d have somepony sane to work with.

Present Day

Pen Dragon finished reflecting upon his meeting with her. Stencil Guide hadn’t been love at first sight, something only true in storybooks… but she had been the first mare interested in what he liked to do. In a way, he was thankful his father had gone to the trouble to get all those applicants. He may not have been able to patch over his relationship with his dad, but he did learn how to be happy on his own with someone else who truly cared.

‘Now the hard part... is asking her.’

He thought deeply about his future as he pulled out a small black box and opened it to reveal a golden ring with a white diamond.

Outside the Library

Watcher was actually happy after his incident a few weeks back. True he had to start working with Celestia if he was going to make this work, but with the amount of bits the two were going to make was all worth it. Not to mention that the two would be riding in a limousine everyday to work, for a moment Watcher thought he was dreaming.

“I still can’t believe that we’re working for Mr. Pen Dragon. If this is a dream then please pinch me!” He said, before he could rant on he felt somepony pinch his flank. “OW!”

“You said to?” Celestia said sheepishly, Watcher could only groan as he faced hoofed himself.

“You really need to read up on sarcasm because I was being sarcastic!” He stated, rubbing his flank as a pink blush appeared on his cheeks. Noticing this Celestia couldn’t help but giggle as she passed him, entering the library. There is a time in everypony's life where they feel like killing somepony they really despise.

“One of these days I’m going to throw you out the window Celestia.” He whispered before following after her. Of course he wasn’t going to let anypony ruin his day as he began to think of all the bits he’ll make on the job. He wasn’t greedy but…

“Did you... call me Celestia?” she said softly, hope in her eyes.

“Huh, I guess I did… Well nopony is around so I guess when we’re at home it’s okay to call you by your real name.” Watcher explained before coughing. “Anyways, I’m still going to throw you out a window one of these days.”

“You know it’d be nice if you could show a princess a little respect?” She asked, pouting at the stallion as he rolled his eyes. He still thought she still had a few screws loose, but she was a little fun to have around.

“I’ll be going to bed now, we’ll have to celebrate some other time.” He said, heading up the stairs as Celestia went to her pile of blankets and pillows by the fireplace. “Good… Good night Celestia.”

“Good night, Watcher.” She replied, before she laid down atop of her pillows and blankets and drifted off to sleep, praying that someday she’d be reunited with her sister.

Part de Gâteau (Piece of Cake Restaurant)

Pen was nervous as he waited for Stencil to arrive at the party he was holding. It wasn’t something he would do normally but he was willing to do anything to impress Stencil. He invited several of his friends and family to this and a few employees to this, hoping she’d be comfortable with meeting them.

He continued to wait near the entrance until he felt a pair of hooves grab his torso and began to squeeze the life out of him. Turning his head to see who it was it was someone that he thought wasn’t going to make it. A tan mare with a cherry red mane and tail continued to suffocate him as she smiled in response. “Cherry! Let me GO!”

“Oh come on is that anyway to treat your sister?!” Releasing him as he gasped for air, she couldn’t help but laugh as she patted him on the back.

“I thought you weren’t going to be here?” He said before smiling at her.

“Oh come on you didn’t think I’d miss your little proposal did you?” She winked at him as she bounced up and down as Pen rolled his eyes at her.

“T-thanks for coming… I’m really nervous about this and I hope she’ll say yes.” He said, blushing as he scratched the back of his neck.

“I can’t wait to see how surprised she’ll be!” She said, giddy at the thought of having a sister-in-law.

“Well don’t say it or it won’t be a surprise! You did read the invitation I sent you right?” He asked.

“Yeah, yeah keep the proposal a secret and wait for the signal… I pretty sure everypony got the message.” She answered, her brother sighed in relief as he took a sip from his cup, she couldn’t help but giggle at him until a very dirty thought came to her mind. “Anyways brother… Did you sleep with her yet?!”

His eyes widened as he did a spit take and stared at his little sister, blushing intensely as she smirk at him. Pen’s sister was always the naughty one of the two as she tried to pry into his love life and dig up anything naughty that she could use to mess with him. “That’s none of your business Cherry! Why can’t you go one day without sounding like a pervert?!”

“What? Oh, I am wounded! How could you say that about your angelic, little sister?!” She said dramatically as Pen gave a blank stare.

“Cherry you ain’t fooling me… You and I both know you like being dirty about that kind of stuff. I really don’t get that honestly!” He said, rubbing his forehead as she gave a wink at him.

“Hehehe… Guilty as charged! Anyways if you won’t tell me then perhaps your marefriend would like to provide some details?” She said, pointing at the front entrance, turning his head he could only freeze at the sight the sight of Stencil. She was wearing a beautiful red gown with roses, and with a gold necklace that had a green gem stone. He couldn’t find any words to describe her beauty. Everything was going swimmingly for him at least until Cherry rushed over to her.

“So your Pen’s marefriend right?” She asked as Stencil smiled before nodding in response, shaking her hoof. “Anyways I’m curious… Did you do anything with him in bed?”

“W-WHAT?!”

“I kinda want to know if my brother’s keeping you happy, so to speak,” she giggled, amused at the shock.

“That’s a pretty disgusting question, don’t you think?” gasped Stencil, “I… I don’t know if I should even answer!”

“Just ignore her… She’s just joking aren’t you Cherry?!” He said, glaring at her as she stuck her tongue out and winked at the two before running off to a random stallion. “A-anyways I just… Wanted to say that you look very lovely tonight Stencil.”

“Am I?” she laughed, appearing by Stencils side with an eager smile.

“Cherry, please don’t talk like that,” cried Stencil.

“Oh ignore her… how are you Stencil?” He asked as his sister once again left the two.

“I’m doing great… So you said you wanted to ask me something?” She asked as she blushed a bit. Pen couldn’t help but try to straighten his bow tie.

“In a bit, we have a few moments, so let’s try to enjoy this party,” he said, pointing to the various things available in the establishment.

As the name implied, a massive chocolate cake topped with white icing and frosting flowers of all colors and sizes was in the center of the room, with a chef carving the cake for each guest. Food and drinks were on the surrounding tables, blue tablecloths on each one soon to be ruined by the barbeque hay stacks, and even the fancier foods available drenched in different flavored sauces. Much conversation was being had at the tables where many of Pen Dragon’s employees were sitting, although a few quiet whispers were definitely being had.

Pen Dragon tried to keep Stencil and Cherry away from each other by filling up the table he and Stencil were at, but it didn’t stop his nosy sister from coming around several times and attempting to ask the same lewd questions. After another round of probing and awkwardness, a stallion in a yellow dress shirt and tie came over to the table.

“So, who’s that girl bothering you and Stencil?” he asked.

“Oh hey Voltage,” said Pen Dragon, acknowledging him, “that’s my sister… embarrassingly enough.”

“Your own sister? What’s her problem?” he asked.

“She’s kinda always been there for me, but once I became an adult, that kinda turned into finding a… um... “

“Oooooh I see,” chuckled Voltage, smacking the roof his mouth with his tongue, “she’s out for helping you that kinda way? I kind of like that.”

Pen Dragon had always known his ace mechanic Voltage as a bit of a typical bachelor, but he’d never actually seen him go out with anyone before. Maybe it was just an act, but no matter what, the mechanic never failed to smile at work or off duty, truly a pony that was fun to be around.

“Voltage, where are you going with this?” asked Pen Dragon, a bit afraid.

“Well, not trying to be a jerk since she’s your sister, but how about I get rid of her for a bit, hmmm?” he chuckled.

“That’s disgusting,” whimpered Stencil.

“Aw come on, I’m just going to get the DJ to turn on the music and get her dancing with me, that’ll give you two enough time to talk,” he laughed, “you can’t take me too seriously.”

“All right Voltage, give it a go,” agreed Pen Dragon.

As he walked away to go find the silly mare, his boss couldn’t help but sit back down and think about the situation.

‘Don’t know what to think about this. Voltage is a great guy but… Cherry is crazy. Would they…? Nah.’

A few minutes later and some pop began to play and Voltage approached Cherry and offered his hoof to the mare, who gladly took it with glee. Pen and Stencil could only laugh sheepishly as they looked at the two. “Well at least we’ll be alone for a bit.”

“Yeah, anyways Stencil come with me? I have something to show you!” He asked as he began to lead her outside. The back of the restaurant was a beautiful flower garden featuring dozens of species of roses, and many of the colored petals fell slowly down as the afternoon wind plucked them from their blooms. He didn’t know why, but it felt like butterflies were flying everywhere in his stomach. Stencil gave him a curious look as she leaned closer to him.

“It’s very beautiful tonight, don’t you think Pen?” She asked, fluttering her eyes, causing his heart to skip a beat. She truly was the one for him.

“It is… but it’s not as beautiful as you Stencil.” She blushed at his compliment, but before she could say anything she saw Pen pull out a small black box. He was soon on his knees before looking up at her and opening the box to reveal a golden ring with a pure white diamond. “Stencil… For the past three years you’ve been by my side, helping me… dealing with me everyday even though I can be an idiot. I love you Stencil and I want you to be mine…

“… Will you marry me?” He asked, waiting for a response, but instead he was tackled to the ground and was smothered with kisses from her.

“Yes… A thousand times yes!”

Things were going their way finally, and it felt like nothing could go wrong, as was with all bliss. Stencil finally released her new husband to be, and stood still with her heart ablaze as he placed the ring carefully over her horn, a sense of completeness quickly formed between them.

“I can’t believe I did it,” whispered Pen, so happy he could barely speak, “want to go inside and tell the others?”

She nodded, a tear running down her face. The mare turned around and made her way back to the door, so eager to spread the good news. Pen Dragon stood by himself now, ring box empty and heart full of joy. He wanted to give her a few minutes to talk with the others while he spent time reflecting. But he wouldn’t get the chance.

“Pen,” came a stern voice from behind him.

Pen Dragon turned around to see one of his closest employees, his financial advisor and head manager, Cobalt Banks. He was a tall, strong earth pony stallion, bigger than him and better dressed at the moment, wearing a white tuxedo and black bowtie over his light gray coat. His dark blue hair was slicked back with gel, but only for this occasion, as he normally left it in a combed-over mess. Cobalt was his father’s best friend, and had helped Pen Dragon set up his finances since his dad left the company to him. The older stallion was normally a friendly mentor of his. But now, the happiness he’d known in his teacher was gone, a subtle anger taking its place.

“Cobey!” said Pen Dragon, using the nickname he’d been accustomed to calling him, “Thought you weren’t coming.”

“I changed my mind,” he said, “we need to talk, Pen.”

“I’ve got time,” answered the CEO nervously.

Cobalt stepped forward, “I see you’ve proposed to Stencil. You’re both awfully young, Pen, do you ever think about how much responsibility being a husband is? How hard it’ll be to raise foals?”

“Hey, I really appreciate your concern, but I’ve had a while to think this over,” answered Pen Dragon, “and she really is the one for me. We’ll cross the bridge of having foals when we come to it.”

“You know I’ve got two of my own at home,” sighed Cobalt, running a hoof through his dying mane, “and it’s been hard to explain to them why daddy has to pack a crossbow and ammo for work every morning now, because some demons came in and killed some of the ponies he worked with. They saw it on the news, and my wife made me sit down with them and tell them what had happened.”

Cobalt’s eyes went to the ground, then back up to Pen with piercing anger, “I had to tell them that some foals were never going to see their mommy or daddy again. Do you know how that feels? Oh, and while I was busy explaining death and hopelessness to my foals years before they needed to know, you planned a dinner to propose to your own secretary. Great company leadership, Pen.”

Pen Dragon tried to defend himself, “Cobalt, I… I didn’t know. The party was just a distraction and a way to celebrate our new partnership with The Order’s students. I didn’t mean to act like we should all just forget about the attack, it’s just....”

“Pen, I want you to shut up and listen,” interrupted Cobalt, shouting over him, “I let you get away with a whooooole lot of horsefeathers because your papa and I were buddies, but he’s not here anymore.”

“What are you talking about?” he growled back.

“Here’s what I’m talking about,” Cobalt said as he continued to lecture him, “this morning Apex Defense Solutions sent a representative to let us know they were terminating their contract with us and opening a lawsuit for endangering the lives of their workers. ADS is a rent-a-cop operation, Pen, not a mercenary firm, and when you told them you were working on low security weapons manufacturing, they expected you were making something that nopony more dangerous than a cat burglar would want to take.”

“We’re being sued?” gasped Pen, his ears drooping.

“Oh yes, we’re being sued. By ADS, by their families, even some of our own employees. They know those guards didn’t die trying to stop the White Talons for profit… they did it because they knew if they didn’t stop them, we’d have all been slaughtered, shot like animals against a wall. Our lawyers haven’t slept in three days.”

“No, no, this can’t be happening, not right now,” cried Pen Dragon.

Cobalt stomped his hoof, “And it gets worse, Pen. The company share price has dropped four hundred points this morning. Half those investors you saw at that board meeting last time are no longer owners, they’ve dropped our stocks like live bombs. There’s footage of you out there killing White Talons, which has totally divided the authorities opinion on you between hero and dangerous vigilante with a factory full of weapons.”

“Why are you telling me all this?” he whimpered, color draining from his face, “Why do you have to ruin this for me, Cobalt? I thought you were my friend.”

Cobalt Banks stepped one inch in front of Pen Dragon’s face, “I was never your friend. Your father was my friend. He had what you didn’t, a spine, a mind for business, and a sense of reality. You’ve got a month to turn this company around, or the board and I will be voting you out.”

Without another word, Cobalt turned around and walked away, saying nothing more. The happiness brought by proposing to Stencil had been stomped out by the financier's cold words and hate. Pen Dragon felt overwhelmed by the trouble he was now in, having to try to save his company so soon. But there was still one way he could come out on top, and it was his most recent project.

“The power source is my last chance,” he said slowly, “if it doesn’t get the company back up… we’ll lose everything. What a way to start my life with Stencil...”

Slowly, Pen Dragon turned to go back into the restaurant, and considered whether or not he should tell Stencil what had happened. It was going to be a long month.

Chapter Eight- Watcher and Celestia's Day Out!

Chapter Eight- Watcher and Celestia’s Day Out!

It was one of those days where everything felt… Slow and Celestia could only lay back on her pile of blankets and pillows as she pondered what to do? She was in a library with only books, she wanted to go out and do something fun, but she couldn’t because her host practically has her under house arrest.

‘I can’t take being in this library anymore! Things have been really dull since we got this ridiculous job. Something isn’t right here…’

Celestia couldn’t stand the boredom as she watched her friend constantly work on transferring energy into one of the crystals that was sent from Dragon Corporation. For six days straight Watcher has done nothing but try to create the energy crystals that Pen Dragon had asked for. He was growing tired and felt like he couldn’t transfer any more magic into them and it was more or less frustrating.

“It’s been almost a week… and all I have… to show for my… efforts is 24 lousy crystals… At this rate It’ll take me a month… just to finish the first 50 crystals.” He said, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he placed his shoulder on a nearby desk. He thought he could do it all on his own, but with how much magic these crystals consume it wasn’t easy. Celestia couldn’t help but roll her eyes at him, she offered to help him awhile back, but being like any other stallion he insisted that he do it all by himself. Even though it was an admirable trait to work hard, he had been working himself to death for the past week and they needed to finish those crystals tomorrow night.

“Watcher, you’ve done enough… Take a break and let me finish this order-” Before she could finish Watcher placed his hoof over her lips to silence her as he tried to take deep breaths. Her friend wasn’t looking well as his face looked a little pale.

“I… Don’t need your help… I just need… To catch my-” Watcher soon fell to the ground as he felt a sickening pain in his stomach as it made a loud growl. Celestia could only sigh as she helped the charcoal unicorn to his hooves.

“You should eat something, Watcher, it’s hard to think when you’re starving,” she suggested in a motherly way, “perhaps it’s time for a break.”

“A break? But I’ll be far behind,” he said, continuing to lie on the ground helplessly.

“You’ll be much farther behind if you die of starvation!”

“I guess you have a point there,” answered the unicorn, “a guy’s gotta have some blood sugar. Ok, we’ll go get something to eat.”

“Perhaps I could convince you to instead take the entire day off,” suggested the alleged princess, “that way, you’d be nice and refreshed tomorrow to start working again. Doesn’t a nice, delicious dinner out and a relaxing day at say, the park sound nice?”

“Sounds like something a certain somepony else wants to do,” he chuckled as he got back on his hooves.

“Whatever gave you that idea?” she giggled.

Watcher shook his head in disbelief, “All right, we’ll go get dinner together and take a nice walk in the park. You’ve talked me into it.”

“I can’t have my fool dying on me, what’s a princess without her fool?” she teased.

“You’ll regret that,” he warned playfully.

Campus Grounds

Watcher led her outside of the campus grounds and headed downtown with her, staying right by her side. She hadn’t seen much outside of the library, and Watcher could tell from her awed looks that she appreciated the time outside and it didn’t take long for them to arrive in the big city. What he didn’t know, was that after two thousand years of absence, the sight of the modern city was something brand new to her, and the abundance of radio towers, electric lights, and other modern conveniences used only sparingly in the cities she had left behind were now everywhere en mass.

“Never seen Baltimare city before?” asked Watcher, watching her tail swish in excitement.

“Never like this!” answered the other unicorn, breath taken away, “Oh it’s so beautiful, and there’s so many more lights and street carriages than what I remember from so long ago.”

“Oh man, not this again,” groaned Watcher, “a long long long LONG time ago, this place was just a small city. You remember that too, princess?”

“Like it was yesterday...” she said with starry eyes.

“I had to ask.”

He brought her to a fancier restaurant near the harbor in the middle of Baltimare, a place that overlooked the water with all its ships coming in, and got them a great table on a large second floor patio, with candles that burned on each table. As it was mid-day, most of the lighting was off, but Celestia watched each string of lights with glee, as if she’d hoped the day would end fast. Watcher pointed out a fish that jumped from the harbor water, as well as having a good laugh when a hapless mare, not paying attention to where she was going, walked off a pier and had an embarrassing climb back to land up a rescue ladder. Soon the waiter came by, offering them each a menu, Watcher grabbing his quickly with his magic and flipping through. It felt good to be able to afford much better food, with the massive salary he was being paid, and he took a new sense of pride in earning a good living and being able to enjoy a better life.

‘Maybe I didn’t need to be an Alpha class after all, with all the bits Pen’s shoveling out…’

Watcher caught his own thoughts and cursed himself, ‘Aw what am I saying? Being an Alpha class was my dream… but I guess for now, I can settle on being a lot richer.’

“Excuse me sir, what’ll you be having?” asked the waiter, a pegasus pony interrupting Watcher’s thoughts.

Watcher hadn’t spent a moment on the menu, so he stuttered for minute and pointed at something random, “Uh… I guess I’ll take the… house pasta bake.”

“That comes with salad or soup.”

“Oh no, not this,” sighed Watcher, “ok, I’ll take the salad.”

“What dressing would you like?”

He cringed, knowing what was coming, “What do you have?”

Celestia covered her mouth with her hoof as she tried not to laugh. The waiter listed nine different types of salad dressings, none of which appealed to Watcher until he got to the very last one, an herbal vinaigrette.

“Very good, and how about you, miss?”

‘Oh goodness, I’ve never quite ordered at a… normal restaurant. I’ve only been to fancy ones where it’s chosen for me. What do I do?’ she thought, looking at all the choices.

“I… I suppose I will have the same thing,” she said, earning another groan from Watcher.

The waiter nodded and then made his normal suggestion to Watcher, “So, will you and your date be opening a bottle of wine this evening? I have the perfect bottle for young couples!”

“D… date?” stuttered Watcher, shooting up in surprise, “she is not my date! We’re just friends is all.”

“Well I don’t have a ‘just friends’ wine,” muttered the server.

Celestia decided to be a jerk while she had the chance, and smirked before saying, “This stallion is being too modest. I’m the most beautiful, and smartest mare at his office and he had the courage to ask me out, only to back down right now!”

‘Why you little…’

“Ah, I see,” chuckled the waiter, “well now, courage like that deserves a reward, don’t you think?”

“I don’t even drink wine, Tia,” he said, frowning.

“Perhaps a shareable dessert would do better?” suggested their server, smirking, “We have a brand new fudge cake in today, extra rich. It’s practically a block of icing with some cake inside.”

“That’s perfect,” answered Celestia, her mouth watering already, “we’ll take one of those after our lunches…”

“Great, one shareable cake slice will be ready to go after the meal,” he answered, taking note.

As soon as he was gone, Watcher tore into her, “Shareable... yeah right. You’re going to swallow it whole when it gets here.”

“Promise I won’t!” she said, winking.

Minutes later, the delicious smelling lunch was in front of them, baked hot pasta with mushrooms in between the noodles and copious amounts of sauce and cheese cooked into each bite. The salad was also very fresh, topped with chopped vegetables and the dressings they had picked from the long list. They sat and talked about their new job while they ate, but not without the usual insults they liked to lob at each other. Once they were finished and the dishes were cleared away, their waiter brought out the tantalizing piece of chocolate cake Celestia had yearned for.

It was a massive dessert, at least a thousand calories, seven layers of moist chocolate cake with thick, creamy layers of lighter colored frosting in between, the slice had been chilled for so long that it was barely cuttable with a fork. To make matters even more bad for the two ponies’ health, there were chocolate chips stuck into the outside of the cake right into the icing, creating a crunchy last few bites. It was on a huge white plate, with caramel and chocolate sauce poured at the bottom, creating the richest dessert Watcher had ever seen. Two forks had been provided for them, but Watcher took one look at Celestia’s expression, her eyes wide open and her mouth nearly foaming with drool, and he knew he wasn’t even getting a taste.

“Well, go ahead,” he said, mocking her, “you talked me into getting that for you, dig in!”

The white-coated unicorn picked up her fork with her magical aura and went to plunge the silverware into the tempting slice. But something made her stop, a voice in her head had her pause in reflection.

"Celestia, that piece of cake is for both of us, stop being piggy!” she had said to herself.

‘I wouldn’t dare take the whole thing, for I’m the older one,’ she remembered having said back, ‘And the older one has to set an example. Here, I’ll give you a bigger share than myself… if you want.’

Celestia had remembered it all. The smile she had gotten back from her after all that worry she would take the whole thing. The refusal from her to take a bigger piece, wanting exactly what was her fair share… half. The indecision in her eyes as she tried to choose which of the two halves she wanted. From there, they always each got half, from possessions, to new homes, to invitations to parties...

But one day... when they were older… she no longer got half… and then… she was lost.

Now she was gone again...

The unicorn placed the fork gently back down on the plate, her eyes staring off into space, tears welling up, and she pushed with her hoof the slice of cake over to Watcher.

“No… you first,” she said, trying not to cry in despair.

Watcher could see the tears in her eyes, one escaping and rolling down her cheek. He wanted to yell at her for making a scene over his rude comment, but he knew from her expression that she wasn’t being dramatic. If it had been just his joke, he would have gotten a joke from her in return. This was different… the pain in her eyes was very real.

“Tia… I’m, I’m sorry,” he said slowly, “I was just joking.“

“Watcher… I’m going to cut the slice in half, and I want… I want you to pick first,” answered the other unicorn, sniffling, “please…”

“Sure, sure,” answered Watcher, nodding slowly. Was this new feeling he was experiencing pity for his companion’s craziness? Where was all this mysterious agony in her coming from?

The mare dragged the plate back and picked up the fork again magically, turning it sideways and methodically cutting through the icing, another tear landing just next to the plate. The dessert was cut in half now, the pieces almost laser-precisely cut in two. She then pushed the plate back at him again.

“Pick the bigger one for yourself, Watcher.”

He began to feel nervous as he looked at the slices. They were exactly the same, and unless he planned on turning the plate and counting all those stupid chocolate chips, he was going to be awhile figuring it out. Watcher was worried she would cry out loud if he picked wrong, though, and so he went about looking over the pieces as carefully as he could. But it quickly became hopeless, she had cut the pieces that well.

Without a good way to tell which was bigger, he sighed in defeat, and said, “These are the same size, so I can’t tell which one is bigger, they’re equal halves. Thank you for offering me the first pick though.”

And just like that, she relaxed, a weak smile forming on her face, “You’re right, I did make them the same, just like when I’d cut dessert for…”

She stopped, and diverted her eyes to him, knowing he’d say she was crazy again if she told him what she was thinking. So she simply laughed, changing her mood at the absurdity of the situation.

“Watcher, I just.. I didn’t mean to get all emotional, I was merely reminded of somepony I knew. Cake has always been my favorite, and I have so many fond memories around it.”

“I guess everypony has a food they loved growing up,” he answered thoughtfully, “I thought maybe I’d just pushed you over the edge with that last rude thing I did.”

“Oh don’t worry, I’m quite used to how rude you are,” she joke, sniffing up her last bit of mucus from her sadness.

Watcher smiled, “Good to see you’re cheering up.”

With that, they picked up their forks, and for the first time, Watcher saw her enjoy a piece of cake slowly. She lighted up with each bite, able to savor it now that she wasn’t starving like when he first met her. He tried a taste himself, and immediately felt his mouth bombarded with thick, fudgy goodness. The lunch was going to cost him a lot, but he didn’t care. Some warm feeling had come over him, and it made him happy for the first time in his life since he was kicked out of school.

After they had finished their rich dessert, Watcher and Celestia began to head out to do some sightseeing, taking their time to enjoy the scenery around them. Although he was a bit upset with the huge chunk of bits that had been devoured by the cost of their meals, and had nearly suffered a heart attack when the bill came by, he decided to let go after he had paid. Still he was very salty about the expenses.

“Never would have thought that place would have charged us 200 bits… That was almost all the money I had saved for today. I’ve only got 50 bits left.” Watcher could only sighed seeing how Celestia was lost for words as she glanced at an ice cream stand. He knew where this was going and he had a feeling that his wallet was going to be finished off sooner than he expected.

“Cele… I mean Tia, do we have to get ice cream? We just had cake for dessert!”

“But, there’s always room for ice cream,” she pouted as the stallion groaned.

He didn’t want to waste anymore of his bits, but seeing that they were having a good time he gave in and the two headed towards the ice cream stand where a white mare with a pink mane and apron on smiled at the two.

“Hi, what flavor would you two lovebirds like?” She asked, they on the other hoof could only blush in embarrassment when they were asked.

“We aren’t dating… We’re only friends,” Celestia stuttered as Watcher nodded in agreement, it was utterly disgusting to imagine them together.

“Aww… Oh well what would you like anyways?” She asked smugly. “We have the couple’s delight, chocolate and vanilla combo, the banana split sundae and mint ice cream.”

‘She’s doing it on purpose isn’t she?’ Watcher thought to himself as his eye twitched slightly. Still he needed to order something.

“Just… give us the combo.”

“Excellent choice… That’ll be 16 bits please!”

Just as soon as she said that Watcher slowly gave her the bits. Once again another huge bite was taken out of his wallet, soon he’d be broke if this kept going. What happened next was a bit awkward, as she gave them a single bowl of ice cream with one spoon. There was no way it was going to be split neatly like the slice of cake.

“Enjoy you two and try to stay out of trouble~”

“Gee, thanks,” they both said as they began to take their leave, by the time they were out of ear range they could only groan.

“I still don’t get why they see us as… that?” Celestia shivered at the thought, before looking at the ice cream that was held by Watcher’s magic.

She couldn’t help but stare at it as a bit of drool escaped her lips. “Well, either way we did get this… tasty bowl of ice cream. I haven’t had ice cream in over a millennium, so just hoof it over and I can start eating it!”

“Now hold on a minute! What makes you think you get to eat all? I spent most of my bits so if anything I get to have the ice cream!” he countered as he levitated a spoon with vanilla ice cream, Celestia could only glare as he smirked at her.

“Watcher… you agreed to share so it’s only fair that I get the first bite at the very least.” Of course Watcher could only glare as he brought the spoon closer to his mouth, which in turn made somepony very upset. “If I hadn’t suggested that we wouldn’t have gotten it in the first place… and I did share the cake!”

“True but… I lost about two hundred bits today… So I think it’s fair that I get to have the first bite,” he said, just as he was about to take a bite, Celestia immediately grabbed the spoon out of his grasp and put it her mouth. “Are you sure you’re Princess Celestia? Because I doubt she would ever do that!”

“Well perhaps you are right about that… I wouldn’t have acted like that which is why I am now,” she stated before taking the bowl from his hooves, “since you’ll never believe I’m a princess and neither will anypony else, for the first time I can truly act like a normal pony. But mark my words, Watcher I can still raise the sun if I was so inclined.”

‘Out of all the crazy things she has said for the past three weeks… This one really takes the cake and it needs to end now!’

Before he could speak, Celestia went on. This time, she seemed to have dropped her usual sarcasm.

“You know… I never really thanked you for helping me have I? You gave me a place to stay, offered me food and helped me get accustomed to modern day society. You even agreed to help me and for that I am thankful for everything you have done. Despite you still being a jerk to me and all. Either way… Thank you for everything,” Watcher was caught off guard by her words, and as a result totally fumbled for a good response.

“Your welcome… A-anyways can I have some ice cream? I haven’t had a single bite,” he asked, but Celestia ignored him for ruining the moment and continued eating it as she glared at him. “Fine I’ll just buy myself another.”

He decided to head back towards the stand where the mare gave a sly grin. “So you’re back… Did you miss me~”

“Can I get a small mint cone please?” He asked, ignoring her question.

“Ahh… I understand completely, here you go. It’s on the house,” she said winking at him, as he shook his head, “you’re a good coltfriend for letting her have it all.”

And with that, his free “small” cone soon turned into a large, and she gave him the mounded cone of mint chocolate chip with a smile on her face and a teasing grin. Watcher accepted the free generous portion, but still felt uneasy about it all.

‘Why does everypony in this town think I’m with her? True she’s sweet but still messed up in the head...’

As he walked back, he remembered what she had said… how the cake had reminded her of something.

'Oh… she… probably has loved ones, the cake must have reminded her…'

Watcher slowly approached the other unicorn, ice cream smeared around her dainty lips, holding his own cone magically in front of him. She threw out the empty dish in a nearby trash can and wiped away the ice cream from her mouth with her hoof, staining it with the sticky melted treat.

“I see the ice cream mare took pity on you and gave you your own,” she said, chuckling, “I’m going to watch you eat that whole thing, Watcher.”

“Can we please do something else besides eat when I’m done with this?” he asked, “I… I kind of want to know about what you were thinking over the slice of cake.”

Her ears moved back slightly in surprise, as if her heart had skipped a beat, “Oh. That? I… I suppose I could talk a little while we walk in the park together.”

He took a good lick from the cone, enjoying the cool mint flavor,“Ok, good, you really did give me a scare when you got upset back there at the restaurant.”

“Please don’t worry about me,” she answered, “enjoy your ice cream!”

“It’s going to be hard with two purple eyes staring at it,” answered Watcher sarcastically.

She rolled those exact eyes at him, and laughed, waiting patiently for him to finish his ice cream so they could start their walk. Maybe she’d tell him why she felt down soon, but for now, all she wanted to do was watch him get a brain freeze from scarfing his ice cream down to avoid having to share with her.

After finishing his ice cream off, Watcher took a deep breath before leading Celestia towards a nearby park. Celestia couldn’t remember the last time she had a normal walk through the park. Even when she was a ruler she hardly stepped out of castle due to political problems, but it was nice for once to relax and not have to worry about ponies surrounding her and bombarding her with questions.

“Anyways… Did you enjoy your day Celestia?” he asked, earning a light nod from the mare as they continued their way through the park.

“I had a good day today Watch, it’s been nice thanks to you,” she said, “especially since I know how much it cost you… you seemed concerned.”

“I’m sure the free food is nothing compared to the huge, expensive ones you got as a princess,” he teased.

“Well, actually,” she answered, sighing, “many of the times I’d get something, it’d be to try and get me to do something for them in return. A long time ago, I was offered a grand swimming pool lined with marble, if only I would do something about that plumber’s competition. I never was offered many gifts out of the kindness of a pony’s heart.”

Watcher was beginning to suspect that perhaps she had been raised in a wealthier home and merely convinced by equally crazy parents that she was the ancient Sun Princess. Maybe beneath the facade though, was a pony who yearned for real friends, and real relationships. At least bearing the brunt of her behavior seemed to slowly help her improve.

Pushing past his thoughts, he answered her statement, “I didn’t realize you had to put up with bribes so much. Must have been awfully tempting, all those nice gifts. How’d you resist putting everypony’s taxes through the roof to rake in the bits?”

“I’ve always loved my little ponies and want them to be happy,” she answered, “so I was as fair as I could be. But perhaps now that I’ve lost everything, it’s best I learn how to be fair to you… since you’re my only friend now.”

There was subtle, yet clearly intense pain in her tone of voice. Her words made his heart sink, and he was losing quickly the ability to remain a sarcastic and rude individual like he usually was.

He muttered, “Am I really your only friend?”

“Yes.”

“But what about your family? Don’t you have a family? Friends?” he said, “I understand you believe yourself to be Princess Celestia, but where are all the others who are supposed to love you, too?”

She stood still, realizing the scope of her situation, and tears began to form in her eyes again.

“I suppose… they’re all dead. I’m alone now.”

Watcher stopped, having walked past her, and slowly turned around, the strings tugging at his feelings finally granting him understanding. He remembered as a young colt, being told how likely it was all his loved ones were dead. How he’d cried into his pillow knowing he’d never get to meet his family. A sense of connection came over him, and the Watcher who wanted to remain a jerk and a recluse for being kicked from school was starting to fade away.

“You’re not alone… I’m in the same boat,” he said to her, walking up to her slowly, “When I was just a young colt… I was told… that my original parents had left me at an orphanage within the Order. All I had was my friend Midnight… The two of us grew up together and even though I’m glad to have a friend like him, I wondered why my family left me? Was I a mistake or was it something else? To this day I still ask myself that.”

“I’m sorry to hear that… Whatever the reason… I’m sure they had a good reason… Still it’s hard to imagine.” She said, placing her hoof on his shoulder and giving him a gentle smile. “Watcher… We should probably head back to finish the first batch of crystals and this time… Let me help you okay.”

“Alright… I guess I could use your help… Thank you.”

“Your welcome... friend.” Soon the two began to make their way back towards the library to finish the last of crystals and to get a good night’s rest.

Chapter Nine- Discovering the Truth

Chapter Nine- Discovering the Truth

On the outskirts of Baltimare, Midnight and Stardust attempted to find tracks of any kind that belonged to a criminal that had violated the statute of the late Chancellor Apollo and was seen running out of the city before the authorities could apprehend him. Midnight for once was frustrated with the new job as a guardian. All he and Stardust have done was search for common criminals that do ridiculous crimes that isn’t even worth investigating other than White Talons invading Dragon Corporation, but they had retreated nearly a month ago to the griffon kingdom.

“Urgh… I became a guardian so I could fight against rebels, stop terrorists, save lives, but all we’re doing is… Looking for somepony who painted a clown face! The police should be handling this right now!” Midnight said, shaking the tracker they were given with his hooves while Star just rolled her eyes before giggling at her stallion.

“Well things could be worse… We could be back at the academy teaching beginners and that isn’t fun at all. Honestly I think I’m talking to rocks sometimes.” She commented, slightly punching his shoulder before kissing his cheek.

“I-I guess you’re right… Anyways what do you think of this… Tia character that has been secretly living with Watcher for about…a month now?” He asked, Stardust could only blush as naughty thoughts plagued her mind of the two ‘going at it’, and it was embarrassing.

“Uh… I-I-I don’t know!!!” She shouted in his ear.

“Geez Star calm down… I didn’t mean it like that… What I mean is, don’t you find it strange that she’s staying at the library with Watcher? Because he’s been keeping it a secret from everypony else except us. It’s like he’s ashamed of it or something.”

“I suppose that is a bit weird… Maybe he’s afraid about others finding out that they’re dating or something? Somepony saw them two weeks ago eating ice cream together… I’m not sure it’s true since those two argue a lot, but you don’t think…”

“Hmm… Something isn’t right here… Those two are hiding something and we’re going to find out what it is,” Midnight declared before hearing a cough from Star as she began to glare at him while pulling out a two tickets to a concert from her saddle bags. “Hehehe… Right after the concert.”

“Luckily… It doesn’t start till Midnight! Get it?” She tried to joke, but only received a sigh from her coltfriend.

“Star… I love you, but that was an awful joke. Poorly executed.”

“I thought it was good.” She mumbled under her breath. “Luckily I have an entire list of them from Watcher that he said you’d like.”

‘Watcher! I swear I’ll get you back for this!’

Later that same morning

“Hey Watcher? Where are you?” Celestia asked, looking around in the library corridors. For almost 2 minutes now she could find no sign of the stallion anywhere in his usual spots. It was strange for her to not have him around, teasing her or helping her regain some of her magical talents. Maybe he had wandered off to get something to eat, but she could have sworn she saw him eat breakfast before he had vanished.

‘He has to be here somewhere,’ She thought as she continued to look around, unaware that he had hidden within the forbidden archives to search for answers about the four princesses.

“There has to be something here!” He shouted, throwing old books that weren’t important to his search.

After his little outing with Celestia he began to wonder if she truly had mental problems or she was just messing with him. He didn’t know why he was searching for more pictures of the actual Celestia for comparison. His friend’s appearance was definitely a bit different from the first picture he had seen, except for one thing.... her cutie mark. It was exactly like the Princess of the Sun, but that was the only close resemblance she had towards the alleged goddess.

Watcher had dismissed the idea that her cutie mark automatically made her who she said she was, after all, cutie marks throughout history sometimes ended up a bit similar. While studying history with The Order, he had seen black and white photos from centuries ago compared to pictures of modern ponies. The study showed that cutie marks from ponies in the past sometimes closely matched marks seen on their descendants who had grown up discovering they had the same talents as their ancestors.

‘If that’s true then maybe she’s related to her. Maybe she was raised by Celestia’s distance descendants… or she got dropped on her head by them… but she’s very descriptive about everything she says, and does. This doesn’t make any sense.’

He couldn’t wrap his head around it… was she insane or was she telling the truth? All he could do was look through book by book, but could find absolutely nothing about her. He could take her the doctors for a blood test, but they would probably think he was insane or something and even if they did take a blood test what would their reaction be? It was all very stressful for him as he looked into a dusty brown book that held some history but he tossed it aside seeing that it was useless like the other books he read recently. Taking a deep breath he stood up from where he was sitting and decided it was time to head out and get started on those crystals he was given yesterday.

By the time he had exited the forbidden archives he began to make his way downstairs where Celestia was eating his donuts to his surprise. “HOW DID YOU FIND MY STASH OF CHOCOLATE DONUTS!?!”

“They were… in the cabinet and I got tired of looking for you and thought… I could help myself to one, but it was just so good and… hehehe, I ate them all.” She said, swallowing the final bite from the donut before smiling sheepishly.

“Grrr… Fine, but you do realize that if you keep eating too many sweets that tush of yours is going to get bigger~” He said slyly, earning an eep from the mare as she blushed furiously. He couldn’t help but laugh as she wiped the crumbs from her face before snarling at the charcoal unicorn.

“T-That’s not funny!” She shouted, still blushing as she glared at Watcher.

“You're right… It’s hilarious!” He couldn’t help but laugh so very hard before being hit in the face by a large textbook and tumbling down the flight of stairs.

“Never make fun of a lady’s behind! Especially me Watch!” She sneered before making her way upstairs, stepping on the stallion in the process.

‘As much as I would enjoy making a remark about that… my everything hurts too much to say anything… hehehehe.’ He thought to himself, still thinking that it was worth it in the end. Once the coast was clear he stood up as his bones began to crack from her stepping on him and slowly made his way to the kitchen and opened the same cabinet, but before he could reach into the empty cabinet he looked around the room to make sure he was alone before turning his head back and began to open a slot in the back of it where all kinds of sweets and junk food he had hidden away and pulled out a bag of potato chips before closing it up and closing the cabinet. “Pfft… Like I’m going to give away my real hiding place.”

He soon began to make his way back into his room, but he was unaware that a certain mare that he thought stormed off had cloaked herself with an invisibility spell was standing only a few feet away from the cabinet.

‘This’ll teach that hotheaded jerk for making fun of my flank.’ she thought, trying to stifle her giggles as she opened the secret compartment of the cabinet and took everything out and placed all of it into the broom closet. “Hmmf… He can just buy more food anyways and won’t even remember this food missing. I’ll just have to watch what I eat.”

Few hours after their little argument the two had begun to transfer magic into the crystals sent from Dragon Corporation at a fast pace thanks to Celestia’s help. Ever since the crystals were delivered to the company, Pen Dragon was thrilled and because of it they government had begun to manufacture the glider project immediately after it’s completion. Not only that but Watcher and Celestia were given 20,000 bits for their efforts, saying it’s ‘a small cut of the profits for their hard work.’ but it was still a disturbingly big bonus in their eyes, given that they were new employees. What was that Pen Dragon guy hiding from them, anyways?

“That should about do it… can’t believe that they’re still… a lot of these crystals still even after multiple workers from the Order have started working.” Watcher said, wiping the sweat away from his forehead.

“Indeed… I’m surprised as well, but thanks to us… Pen Dragon’s company was able to prosper from the energy crystals we have made.” She said, stretching her limbs.

Watcher couldn’t help but smile before remembering what he was doing in the archives previously. “Hey Celestia… there’s something I need to ask you.”

“Oh, sure go ahead Watch.” she said, earning a deep sigh and a serious look from her close friend.

“Are you really her? I mean the Princess of the Sun? The Princess Celestia that has been missing for a thousand years? I’m only asking because I want to know the truth.” He said, as Celestia remained silent before clearing her throat.

She couldn’t believe he wanted her to prove herself. For the past week, he had acted as if she had no clue as to what was real and what was not. But now, his new faith gave her hope, and a sense of magical strength came to her. Maybe there was something she could do to prove it to him.

“I want you to come with me back to the forbidden section,” she said slowly, “you need an understanding of the situation I don’t think you have.”

Watcher reluctantly agreed to take her back to the old, dusty volumes locked up for safekeeping, where Celestia found a book she remembered seeing earlier, and opened it up to a beautifully illustrated portrait of herself standing on a grand balcony from the outside of her original castle. She was truly regal, tall and elegant, with a mane that flowed like a silken flag in the wind. Her horn glowed in the picture gently, and at the top right corner of the frame, the sun sat in the sky directly across from her horn.

“This is truly who I am… or was,” Celestia explained as she pointed at the picture, “a princess of Canterlot who watcher over her subjects with care, and completed for them daily a special task.”

Turning the page with her hoof, the next photo revealed her at a small formal gathering. Unlike the previous illustration which demonstrated her glory, this one demonstrated her more immature side, as the princess was secretly stuffing down slices of chocolate cake from the food table while the other ponies dressed in the finest suits and dresses talked and pretended she wasn’t greedily eating desserts behind their backs.

Watcher joked, “Oh hey, maybe it really is you, she’s a greedy piggy, too!”

He earned a playful swat from her hoof, barely managing to avoid getting a slap mark on his face.

“Well as you can see,” she continued with a gentle huffing, “I still considered myself just as much of a pony as any other in my kingdom, and I embraced my flaws… even in front of the most distinguished guests.”

“Huh, so… you really weren’t a stuck up goddess wannabe?” he said, sarcastically pretending to be impressed.

“Are you going to take me seriously, Watcher?”

“Sorry, sorry,” he laughed, “It’s just… I’ve never really read this far into the forbidden books. I am kinda starting to see this character in you though, but I have to be absolutely sure. It’s not exactly a small thing to have befriended somepony usually called a myth. I’m starting to wonder if you really are this lady.”

Celestia flipped back to the portrait of her and the sun… and she thought carefully about her growth over the past few days. Perhaps she was finally ready to give her old ritual a try once more.

“Watcher… I am the real Celestia and I can prove it to you… Right here, right now.”

“How?” Was all he asked.

“Follow me to the roof… I can show you there.” The two began to make their way up the flight of stairs, not saying a word as Watcher began to open a hatch that led outside onto the roof. It was near the end of the day and the sun was near the horizon. Watcher looked at his wristwatch seeing that it was 5:45 PM, before looking back towards Tia.

“Tia… What are you up too?”

“As you know I am still connected to the sun… it has been over two thousand years since I even saw it… now I have the strength to once again set it.” She said, smiling at him as her horn glowed brightly.

“Tia! It takes over a dozen skilled unicorns in the Alpha-Class to even raise it… You can’t possibly-”

“Watcher,” she interrupted with urgency in her voice, “do you really want to see if I’m the true Princess of the Sun? I have been very patient with you, and it seems like you’re ready to see the truth for yourself. But if you want to know for sure… you need to let me try.”

He became speechless, and nodded slowly before taking a step back, almost falling into the access hatch again. Celestia stood at the very edge of the roof, the wind flowing through her mane hair, helping her to remember her past. It took a lot of getting used to, not having hair that sustained its own motion… but being on this rooftop with one of the few ponies she dared to call her friend made her feel like she was there again, in the past… doing what she loved to do. Now, with laser-sharp focus and a deep breath, her horn began to accumulate a charge of energy, and Watcher slowly backed up again, waiting for a powerful spell to blow his mind, and possible him off the roof too!

The sphere of amazing energy expanded into a ball three feet wide above Celestia’s head, her eyes closed as she focused. Watcher watched the horizon, the sun unmoving. If she didn’t hurry, the unicorn brigade tasked with moving the celestial bodies would, she had only a few minutes remaining. Her spell reached its maximum strength, even as Watcher doubted her she remained focus. The stallion’s mouth fell open slightly as he watched her slowly levitate off the ground, her hooves leaving the roof, and she rose into the air under her own power, eyes remaining shut gently as if sleeping.

Sparks flew, shingles from the roof broke off and were tossed away or incinerated by the magical energy. Watcher thought he ought to dive into the safety of the library, just in case the spell would shatter the roof and possibly the world’s crust. With her spell ready to use and her mind cleared, Princess Celestia tilted her head back, aiming her horn up towards the horizon.

And then, in an ancient act she had performed many times, the ball of energy collapsed in on itself in perfect silence, peace, and grace. Instead of the awesome explosion Watcher had feared, the energy disappeared into a singularity of bright light at the tip of her horn, her normal aura surrounding it, and Princess Celestia sighed, slowly opening her eyes. As if on cue, the sunrise began to appear, brilliant colors of pink, orange and red flooded the land beautifully. The brigade certainly hadn’t done it, for they more abruptly rose the sun each morning, almost completely skipping the slow sunrise phase. Watcher thought he might shed a tear, he hadn’t seen the true sunrise either in his life, the beauty of the slow progression of the sun left him silenced and feeling warm on the inside.

It continued for what seemed like an eternity, the sun slowly moving up and the light getting stronger and stronger, until the world was bathed in the normal light of day. Princess Celestia’s horn cooled down, the singularity vanishing with a faint whisper of dispelling as her hooves touched the roof again. She slowly turned around, and looked at Watcher, who had the most blank expression she had ever seen on a stallion.

“Do you know, Watcher,” she said softly, like the voice of an angel, “that of all the sunrises I’ve ever performed… this one felt the most meaningful?”

Her legs were posed gracefully, her hair still fluttered in the breeze, and her long eyelashes blinked softly over her pink (purple?) eyes as she stared at him. Watcher felt something in his heart his brain screamed at him not to feel. Ignoring the conflict, he stepped forward, and all he could do was throw himself around her in a big hug.

“You did it!” he said in a stuttery, screamy kind of way that made her giggle.

Watcher realized Celestia was hugging him back, and they laughed together while embraced about her great success.

“Do you believe me now, Watcher?” she asked rhetorically.

“As far as I’m concerned, you can tell me you’re whoever you wanna be!” he answered, “I don’t know how you did it, but you did!”

“There is a secret to it,” she said, “but I’ll tell you later. Shall we go back inside and finish our library duties?”

Suddenly realizing his place before her, Watcher released his hug, which confused the other unicorn greatly. It was as if something had instantly changed now that she had mentioned their work.

“Well… I don’t know,” he answered slowly, “I mean, you’re Princess Celestia. A goddess amongst ponies. I guess I’m not supposed to… you know, ask you to hang out here anymore.”

She shook her head, “Oh Watcher… I might be Princess Celestia, but this world I’ve come into is much different from the Equestria I once came from. Our relationship shouldn’t change just because I’m actually a princess. After all, I told you who I was for a long time, it was just as true then… and because you didn’t believe me, we’ve had such a good time together. I do not get to make very many friends with my usual duties, but now that I’m in a world without most of them… well… it’s like I’m a filly again!”

“So you want to stay here with us losers?” he asked, surprised.

“Indeed!” responded Celestia happily, “Although it would be nice if you fed your princess an extra piece of chocolate cake once in awhile! It would be a great way to keep her off of your case, Watcher.”

“We can make that a weekend thing,” he suggested, “we’ll make a cake together in the school’s kitchen.”

“That would be wonderful,” answered the princess, “but for now, we ought to attend to the library and our energy crystals. I rather enjoy having a real salary and a different job.”

Outside of the Capital

After hours of work and terrible joke behind them now, Stardust and Midnight were finally able to make their way towards the library before the concert started. The two had managed to catch the crook who vandalize the Chancellor’s statue and confiscated everything, but to their luck, the stallion had also stolen two tickets for the big concert that they were going to as well and decided to invite Watcher and Tia and hopefully find out what is going on exactly with the two unicorns.

“I still find it hard to believe that guy had stolen these tickets… but are you sure it’s okay to just give them to Watcher and Tia? It’s not that I don’t enjoy their company, but these were stolen and it just feels… Wrong.” Stardust explained as guilt washed over her.

“Star, trust me it’s okay… the guy stole those tickets and the cops were more than happy to let us keep them. I’d say we earned them, besides this gives us an excuse to find out what those two are up too. I really am curious though...” Midnight replied.

“Maybe, they’re long lost siblings?” Star replied, as Midnight gave her a deep sigh.

“I don’t think that’s it. If that were the case than it’d be really, really awkward if they were… making out without knowing that they were siblings.” Midnight said as a cold shiver ran down his spine as Star’s face turned completely red at the very thought of it.

Before he could say anything else he soon received a slap across the face. “WHY DID YOU MAKE ME THINK THAT?!”

“OW! I wasn’t the one thinking that! Besides you don’t have to worry… I doubt they are and even if they were they can hardly stand each other.” He said, rubbing the back of his head until a vile smirk creeped across his face. “But then again why’d you think that? If I didn’t know any better you imagining it weren’t you?”

“N-No I wasn’t…”

“You totally were… there’s no WAY they are siblings, don’t you have any class you perve-” Before he could even finish he received another slap across the face, Star’s face was completely red as she snarled, her horn glowing brightly as she zapped him with electricity.

“Bring this up with anypony and I’ll end YOU!” She growled, flipping her mane as she trotted off as Midnight Picked himself off the ground.

“Y-Yes dear…”

As they go closer to the library something phenomenal had happened on the roof of the library. An orb of light shined brightly as the sun began to rise, and the two unicorns could only stare as the light began to decrease. Just as they were about to make their way their to find out what the source was, a loud beeping began going off from Stardust’s bags. Midnight’s horn began to glow as his magic reached in and pulled out a strange disk-like tracking device, messaging a distress signal blaring in big, orange holographic letters,

“FALSE GODDESS!!! APPREHEND AT ALL COSTS!!! ”

“What the heck is going on?! It has to be some kind of fluke! There’s no way!” Midnight said, finding it hard to believe that the light source from the library’s roof was some kind of false god. “Star, hang onto me We’re going to find out what the hell is going on!!”

With a flicker of magic coming of his horn, the two disappeared in a flash of light and appeared on the roof, hidden behind the statues atop of the build and what they saw next was unbelievable. They saw Watcher standing there in awe as the light from Celestia’s horn began to dim down and saw the two hugging.

‘That light was coming from her?!’

“I guess you’re right… we should finish our library duties… even though there isn’t really much for us to do,” they heard Watcher from the distance as Tia began to giggle, “still, I can’t believe the Princess of the Sun is back in the flesh.”

“What the hell is he talking about?” Midnight whispered to Stardust as she glared at the two, which was surprising to say the least.

“Whatever those two are talking about is ludicrous and heresy! We need to report this immediately to the council… It’s wrong and crazy!” Stardust said, glaring at Celestia mostly for corrupting her friend about being a god. “How dare she claim to be somepony of great power and elegance like that?!”

“I know how you feel, but remember this is the same Tia we have come to know over the past few weeks… and let’s not forget that Watcher is her friend as well.” Midnight said, concerned that his best friend might be consulting with a false goddess who was manipulating him.

“I-I know how you feel… but sooner or later the authorities are going to find out. At least the Order will show mercy with their punishment. It’ll be a lot better than being locked away for the next 25 years with a cellmate named buffalo ficken bill!” Stardust said, sweat began to drip from their faces as they watched their two supposed friends re-enter the library.

“I still can’t believe…” Midnight paused before pulling out the extra tickets and lit them on fire with a light flicker of his magic, “they lied to us!”

“So… what are we going to do?”

“I’m going to the council to bring a few skilled magic users they have to spare. I don’t think Tia will be a problem, but I know Watcher will be, seeing how he’s spent more than a month in that library with some of the most advanced magic books in the city. Not only that but his skills in combat make this even more challenging.. I don’t think we can take him on with that dark magic blade he knows how to use. I’ll need all the help I can get.” Midnight explained as he was about to teleport again, only to feel a hoof touch his shoulder.

“Midnight… I know what they did was wrong, but tell them not to hurt them… Even if they are heretics, they are still our friends. I’ll do what I can to buy you some time.” She said, exiting the rooftop to confront Watcher and Celestia as Midnight teleported to bring reinforcements.

Meanwhile

Watcher and Celestia had barely entered the library, with a newfound friendship. Now knowing the truth, the two were able to understand one another and because of it, they could finally set aside the whole dispute they had.

“Alright, so what does the Princess of the Sun, want for dinner,” Watcher said, bowing to her as Celestia rolled her eyes.

“Perhaps some pasta, with cake on the side.”

“You’ll never get tired of eating cake will you?”

“Nope~” She said, but as the two were about to make their way downstairs, they heard snarling behind them as the sounds of hooves clopping against the marble floor echoed. When the figure stepped out of the darkness, they were utterly shocked.

“Stardust!” They both said as the angry unicorn glared at the two.

“HOW COULD YOU?!!”

“Ouch, what are you yelling about?” groaned Watcher, his ears twitching from the noise.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about you dumbass,” she growled, “you’ve been harboring a criminal this whole time, right under our muzzles!”

“What?” complained the stallion, “Stardust, are you talking about Tia? There’s no way she’s a criminal, she’s been here with me the whole time doing absolutely nothing.”

“Is that so? Well, I’ll have you know she’s been posing as a fake princess this entire time, Watcher!” laughed Stardust as she walked over to a nearby table and set down her own holographic device, displaying a bright wanted poster of Celestia.

“Well look at this,” she laughed, pointing from the virtual poster to Celestia, whose ears fell back, “It’s a perfect match. This little tramp’s been using you, Watcher… faking her identity this whole time to hide from The Order!”

Watcher had just witnessed the sun rise from the power of the unicorn next to him, and believed that Stardust wasn’t telling him everything she knew. It wasn’t so much that he had seen her power with his own eyes… so much as the fact that The Order was now a pile of garbage to him. Not only had they refused to take his side when he went to save Midnight’s life during his final exam… they had intentionally put him in a library without simply expelling him from school. It was obvious to him now that his superiors hadn’t put him there to minimize damage… but to keep him from interfering with the other students. Perhaps, even Midnight had been intended to die.

He laughed heartily, angering Stardust further, “What’s so funny?”

“You!” he said, pointing at her, “Stardust, you know I saved Midnight and they put me in this dusty library for it, right?”

“So?”

“So, they’re doing this again because they’re still mad,” he answered, “Celestia’s not a criminal, Stardust, they’re just doing this to test you and get rid of me as a cover up!”

Stardust could only smirk at his response. “Look, this tramp here is the only reason why you’ve been so distant! It doesn’t have to end in a fight… If you two could just follow me and maybe the Council will show you leniency for this heresy!”

“Star… you’ve known me for weeks now! We are friends aren’t we?” Celestia asked, saddened by the fact that a friend was about turn them in to help the authorities.

“It doesn’t matter, my loyalties are to The Order first, Tia,” declared the mare, scoffing, “I’ve been given too much by them to just ignore what you’re doing here. Just give up, and this will be easier.”

Watcher soon got into a fighting stance, a green aura forming around his horn as he was prepared to defend himself from Stardust’s attack, but instead of firing at him, she shot at Celestia, sending the mare crashing down onto the staircase. Watcher flew into a rage and jumped for Stardust, soaring above her with intent to drop down in a heavy stomp on her head. But Stardust merely smirked, stepped back, and fired a small magic blast, smacking him right between his hind legs. Watcher dropped to the floor and writhed while curled up into a small ball.

“Why… there…” he wheezed.

“Ooh… sorry, Watch I hope you’ll forgive me later, but this I’m taking care of this tart for good this time!” She said, hopping down behind Celestia as she got up into a fighting stance, blowing her mane out of her sight.

“Star… you said it yourself, that you didn’t want all of this to end in a fight… please stop and let’s talk about this-” Before she could finish, Stardust attempted to jab her in the face, only for Celestia to evade it.

“It’s already too late! You started this fight when you lied to us all!” She shouted, firing multiple magic blasts, only for Celestia to deflect them by creating a magic shield with her magic. Stardust could only snarl as she tackled Celestia to the ground, only to be sent flying towards the wall by Celestia’s hooves.

She soon picked herself up and immediately teleported to where Watcher was, struggling to stand on his hooves after being hit in such a soft spot. He looked up to see her horn furiously glowing and aimed right at his head, at such close range there’d be no chance for him to avoid whatever attack she was planning next. Stardust chuckled and unleashed a tightened blast of energy pellets at Watcher’s head, only for them to be absorbed by a bright plate of white energy, the pellets vanishing in faint ripples along the shield as Celestia covered them both.

“Stop this at once, Stardust!” demanded the princess as she got Watcher up to his hooves, “this will only end in suffering for all of us.”

“That may very well be what it comes to,” she answered haughtily, “it’s hard pretending to be the eye candy all the time, anyways. I was hoping I’d get my hooves a bit dirty!”

The unicorn fired off a long leash of electric energy in hopes of snaring them, Celestia reacted quickly and teleported herself and Watcher behind her, forcing her to turn around to face them.

“Stop moving and fight, for a supposed princess you’re acting like a total coward!”

“I think it’s cowardly to use violence to solve all problems,” growled Celestia, “and I believe this Order you belong to may very well be dedicated to cowardice! Your kind can’t find a suitable way to settle a problem.”

“Eh, I don’t know, sending you to the mortician’s a pretty easy way to solve this problem,” answered Stardust, giving the pony equivalent of a shrug.

Having let her guard down, Stardust suddenly found a ball of light smacking into her head as Celestia blinded her with a rapid blast of bright light, a blue and purple blur temporarily burnt into her retinas even as the blinding rays faded away. The risky spell had bought the two enough time to make a break for the exit to the library, and they rushed outside in hopes of leaving the area before they got caught. Just as soon as they reached the light of the outdoors though, they see Midnight Blaze, having assembled a posse of four Alpha-class unicorns ready to engage them.

“Watcher, that’s far enough!” ordered Midnight, stepping in front of the four stallions, “You’ve got to stop this and let us take you in. We can sort things out with the authorities and get you all off easier that way.”

“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” moaned his opponent back, “I thought you were my best friend, Midnight. We… we did everything together! Didn’t our friendship mean anything to you?”

Midnight felt a slight twinge of guilt from those words. Being an Alpha-class was his life dream as well as Watcher’s, and ever since his friend had failed to accompany him to that status… they had drifted quite a bit. He had ignored him save a few small offers to grab food together, made fun of Watcher’s job behind his back with the others… and had even stolen his love interest, although Stardust had started things with him. With that in mind, Midnight pushed away his feelings, and focused on the present. Now that he was an Alpha and Watcher was not, Watcher was an inferior unicorn to him, no longer worthy of his friendship!

“Sorry Watcher,” he said, shaking his head and giving him a condescending smirk, “I’m the guy who passed the exam, and now that I’m in The Order’s top ranks, I can’t disobey an order. Even for a former friend.”

The word “former” rang in Watcher’s ears, and he held back his desire to cry, “I saved your life... you ingrate!”

“Midnight, this is insanity,” pleaded Celestia as she noticed Stardust had emerged from the library, “I won’t warn you again! You will both regret this.”

“I’m sure we will,” he answered mockingly, “take care of them, guys.”

The four stallions stood forward, and from the tips of their horns, red energy accumulated until each of them had floating in front of them a crisp, red dagger of sinister light glowing in front of them.

“Wh… what?” gasped Watcher, taking a step back, “That’s the same kind of stuff Blackstar was using! Isn’t that...”

“Dark magic?” chuckled Midnight Blaze, stepping forward as he conjured up his own sword made from light blue energy to match his eyes, “Of course it is, Watcher. There’s a reason why the Alpha-class unicorns don’t stick around to teach the other students. They get to taste real power, Watcher.”

“You mean the students would learn Alpha-class unicorns get to break the law and treat them like dirt,” yelled Celestia, stomping her hoof on the ground, “this was never how Equestria was supposed to be! There’s no room for abuse from the better magic users!”

Midnight smashed the blade onto the ground a few times, producing a wild spray of sparks and smoke before he lifted the sword over his horn again. Stardust created her version of the blade spell, a more curved energy blade, and approached from behind.

“Times have changed you insufferable tramp,” he said darkly, “It’s a shame we have to keep everypony else in check, but hey… if it keeps the place safe, I’m willing to be a bit of a control freak.”

“You wouldn’t dare do us in,” said Watcher, hearing the hum of the energy blades against the air, “I’m gonna bet the council wants us alive.”

“Well… they want her alive,” he said, smiling like an idiot and pointing to Celestia with his blade.

One of the larger stallions in the gang jumped forward and grabbed Celestia by the back of her mane, pulling her head back right next to his. His chiseled face gave away his horrid personality, and he laughed as he held the dagger right next to her neck.

“Come here you. Once we’ve taken down Watcher, we’re putting you away for a long time, missy!”

Watcher felt his anger welling up in his heart, and shouted loudly as his horn emitted a bright flash of light. Incredible streams of light flowed to his right hoof, and a long blade of energy extended from it, which he rapidly turned and swung at full force towards the thug holding celestia. The flat end of the blade smashed into his right cheek, burning the side of his face and sending him flying into the dirt, his dagger sailing into the air before disappearing as he lost control of the spell.

Celestia, now free, launched a long rope of white magic from her horn, wrapping up the legs of another of Midnight’s stallions, who started to cut himself free right away as the rope disabled his other magic. Midnight and Watcher ran for each other immediately, an overconfident grin on Midnight’s face as he swung his blade down to cleave Watcher in half. The white sword of energy tied to Watcher seemed to detach from his hoof while he galloped, and reattached when he jumped, allowing him to make a diagonal swing with his hoof. The blades met, and sparks of energy flew as the stallions crossed blades. Watcher’s sword followed his every movement just like Midnight’s, flashes of energy and bright colors flashed as the weapons crossed with each swing. Midnight locked them into a close situation as the blades met again, his face right in front of Watcher’s, who glared at him.

“Ha ha, I can see why Blackstar got his face bisected, you’re pretty good at this, Watcher!”

Stardust made a mad leap for Celestia as the other two stallions went to help, leaving Watcher to Midnight. They drew their daggers and started to use alternating teleportation spells to jump all around the princess, confusing her and making themselves extremely difficult targets. In response to their attack, just as Stardust brought down her blade, Celestia ducked and cast a large bubble shield over herself, blocking all three weapons and absorbing their energy. With a flick of her horn, she popped the now saturated shield, exploding on the other ponies and sending them flying into the air.

Midnight made a wild swing while the ponies behind them scuffled, cutting a wide arc of blue light across where he thought Watcher would move, but his opponent had stepped back instead, and he was thrown off balance to try and keep his energy blade intact. Watcher’s retaliation came in the form of a heavy overhead swing, the larger white light of destruction crashing down towards him. Midnight attempted to parry, but his blade came short. He yelled, but by the greatest stroke of luck, Watcher’s blade appeared to miss him entirely, just millimeters from him judging by how the whining of the blade filled his ear. But now Watcher’s blade was fully down, and the plasma sword had cut deeply into the earth beneath them, leaving him defenseless. Midnight brought his light blue blade around, and thrust…

A horrible scream came as Watcher felt the very tip of Midnight’s blade enter his front just below his neck, a sizzle as the flesh and muscle burnt. Midnight laughed and withdrew the weapon, knowing he had won, and pulled out the sword quickly. His enemy slumped to the ground, the great energy blade that had taken down Blackstar shattered into a thousand sparks and vanished. Celestia saw that Watcher had been wounded badly, and that her own enemies were beginning to stand up, the unicorn she had tied up was also free and headed for her.

“Watcher… no! I’ll… I’ll save you!” she said softly, her horn beginning to charge.

Midnight waited patiently for Watcher to weakly look up at him, before turning his sword around.

“I really, really didn’t want to do this,” he said with a bit of guilt, “definitely felt good to win that fight Watcher, but… I’m not going to end you if you still want to come willingly.”

Watcher peered behind him, and saw that Celestia was staring at him with a horn glowing at an increasingly strong rate, then returned his gaze back to Midnight before giving him a weak, friendly smile.

“Midnight… go to…”

He vanished, just as Celestia did in a flash of energy as the princess teleported them both out of the situation, leaving Midnight dumbfounded.

“Wh… what?!” he shrieked, “They’re gone!”

His four stallions returned to his sides, and one of them informed him, “That false goddess stunned us and teleported them both away. We’ll track them down easily though, they’re only Beta-class at best, sir.”

“And then you’ll get him!” assured Stardust, wiping dirt off of her muzzle with a hoof.

Midnight spun his sword around, regaining his confidence, “Heh, yeah, you’re right! We’ll find Watcher again and then I’ll...”

A bright line of white appeared in his stylish mane, which quickly faded, followed by a chunk of his hair being cut away by the delayed damage. In shock, Midnight dispelled his energy sword and turned pale in fear. Watcher’s sword had come far closer than he had imagined, having burnt his hair in place until it had been given that short time to cool. That could only have meant one thing…

“He… he could have killed me,” said Midnight slowly, shaking slightly, “he didn’t miss, he… moved the blade away!”

Stardust walked up to him, a swing to her hips, and kissed him gently on the cheek, “The big jerk probably just thinks you’re still his friend inside. He’s so naive… we’ll get him next time, okay honey?”

Midnight wasn’t so sure, and answered after a dry cough, “Y… yeah. Sure we will, let’s go hunt for him!”

Downtown of Baltimare

“Tartarus!” shouted Watcher as he and Celestia re-appeared in a nearby road.

He looked around and noticed there was no one but himself and Celestia out in a dark alleyway surrounded by bricks.

“Oh come on,” he groaned at her, “I had the perfect insult lined up!”

“Watcher, you were hurt, and I was scared,” answered Celestia gently, “there’s a large hole in your body right now, and I wanted to get you out here so I can heal you. Settle down!”

The pulsing pain in his front reminded Watcher of his injury, and he held a hoof over the hole just next to his ribcage, leaning against the wall before sitting on his flank. Any deeper and it might have gone into his heart, and farther up, and his carotid would have gotten it instead. He was very lucky to be alive, although the slight cauterization granted by Midnight’s energy blade had helped a bit to stop the bleeding and keep him stable.

“Hold still,” said Celestia softly, a green blob of energy forming around her horn.

She placed her horn next to the wound, and as if alive, the green energetic slime moved off her horn and into the wound, regenerating the missing tissue rapidly as the hole closed over without so much of a scar, small sparks in the shape of hearts floated up gently from the sealed wound for a few seconds before evaporating.

“Where did you learn to do that?” he asked with surprise as the pain stopped suddenly, “Healing magic is one of the most draining and difficult things to accomplish!”

“From a true friend,” she answered, smiling in remembrance, “family, even…”

“Thanks… Celestia, but after that fight, I don’t think I’ll be able to cast spells for a while…” He said, groaning even after she had healed him, the soreness was still there.

“They’ll be coming for us… we have nowhere to go…” She sighed as a single tear dripped from her the side of her face. The only place where she could call home was gone now, but she was even more upset that because of her, Watcher had lost his home.

“I know… We can’t stay in the city anymore… I know somepony in the Everfree City… She has a mansion, we can lay low there until we figure out what to do.” He explained.

“Watcher, I know this is a lot to ask, but I need to find my sister… Please help me look for her!” She begged, desperately praying for his help. With a deep sigh, Watcher could only look at Celestia with a saddened look before placing his hoof on her shoulder. Looking directly into her beautiful purple eyes.

“Alright, but we need to go to Everfree City first… Lay low for a bit… After that we can go look for your sister once the heat dies down.” He said, only to receive a hug from the mare before hugging her back. “Alright… We better get going… they probably searching for us already.”

After what had transpired, the two had set out on their quest to reach the Everfree City and search for the Lunar Princess. The journey would be difficult, especially with the Order after them. They could only hope that they could reach their destination before word gets out about Celestia’s return to Equestria.

Chapter Ten- The Journey Begins

Chapter Ten- The Journey Begins

It had been a few hours since Midnight and Stardust had returned to the capital to report the false goddess escaping with Watcher. True it pained them to say everything to them about their former friends, but of course it was the right thing to do and the Chancellor was more than pleased by their reports.

“Midnight, you and Stardust have done many things for the Order and I am more than pleased by the results. Even if you failed to capture this… mare that claims to be our benevolent goddess of the Sun.” Apollo said, praising them for their efforts even if the target escaped.

“Again, we’re sorry Chancellor Apollo, if it wasn’t for Watcher than we would have been able to capture her and none of this would have happened,” Midnight explained, still frustrated at how close Watcher’s final attack was to killing him, barely missing his face as a some of his mane was clipped.

The two had spent years together, studying and training in all sorts of magic and combat as well as having fun, but now he was an Alpha- Class unicorn with more responsibilities… and Watcher was just a nopony dropout. Yet, he had previously saved his life, something that was beginning to get hard to ignore. Either they were mortal enemies, or friends each on the other side of a bad conflict… but it was hard to tell at the moment.

“It’s apparent, I can see you’re missing some hair,” chuckled Apollo softly, “ah… it seems you underestimated Watcher’s ability. Oh such a talented little stallion he is!”

Midnight was confused by the chancellor’s lack of anger, “Sir? You’re not… angry?”

“I might have been angry if I knew he’d have been an easy target for you, but that’s simply not the case my colt,” came the reply with another chuckle, as if Apollo was acting like his grandfather, “Watcher will be very, very difficult to subdue. I am proud you came as close as you did to defeating him as you have, the wound you inflicted upon him will serve as a good lesson. Perhaps he will turn himself in before matters get worse, hmmm?”

“I… I did land that blow on him,” stuttered Midnight, “I guess we just need to keep the pressure up.”

“Yes, yes, that’s the idea,” he nodded in return, “now, I will have some of my troops search for them. I’m sure once we catch them, we can get that poor, confused mare some medication so that she stops claiming she’s a long dead, much missed alicorn. Please continue with your best efforts, Midnight Blaze… I expect great things out of you, although I’m sure you’ll deliver!”

“I promise not to let you down!”

“I’m sure you won’t Midnight, now if it isn’t too much trouble, I’d like for you to send in Mrs. Stardust… I have an assignment for her.” He asked, smiling at him as he levitated an empty glass and a bottle of vintage white wine. Pouring himself a glass as the sapphire unicorn bowed his head and made his way out. “I do wonder where Watcher and this… Celestia are now?”

Downtown of Baltimare

It had been hours since Watcher had gotten any sleep, all he could do was worry about the authorities all night as the two managed to have hideout near an old abandoned apartment building. It wasn’t much, but they had a roof over their heads for the night at the very least, but he couldn’t rest… not when his former friends were after them.

Watcher soon looked at Celestia’s sleeping form and couldn’t help but sigh, before looking out the window. ‘What did I get myself into? I’m literally hiding at a trashy old apartment with a goddess that everypony wants dead while also being hunted by my only friends. Maybe I should have been a lawyer? I could have at least made a living off of it.’

Still he couldn’t help but smile at the sleeping unicorn before turning his attention back towards the window, watching ponies pass by the old building, smiling and enjoying their day, before turning back towards Celestia. He knew the authorities would search this place eventually and the two needed to be out of the city before the Order could spread word about them to the public. Watcher walked over to Celestia and gently shook her.

“Celestia… we… need to go now.” He said, yawning as Celestia began to stir from her sleep.

“Can’t we just… sleep for five more minutes?” She looked at him lazily, trying to keep her eyes opened.

“I… know how you feel Tia, but you’ve slept enough… I on the other hoof haven’t slept a wink since we got here… and I’m still willing… to try and… get a head start.” Watcher tried his best to explain as he to tried to keep his eyes opened. Celestia could see the bags under his eyes as he struggled to stay up.

“Watcher, you need to sleep… You’ve been up all night.” she said as the stallion groaned.

“I-” Before for he could even say anything Celestia placed a hoof over his mouth.

“Watcher, we can leave later. The two of us won’t make it very far if you're falling asleep on me.” She joked, earning a slight chuckle from the stallion as he began to lay down.

“Okay, I guess I could sleep for an hour at the very least… be sure to wake me up if something happens. Okay?” He said, closing his eyes before falling asleep. Celestia couldn’t help but giggle before laying next to him.

‘I’m sure he won’t mind if I get little more rest as well.’ And soon the sun princess was sound asleep.

Back at the Library

“Alright everypony, fan out and start looking for information about Watcher’s whereabouts,” ordered Midnight Blaze, directing a group of stallions clad in armor around the dusty, now-abandoned building.

The stallions gave a quick affirmative before fanning out and beginning to search for hints. Apollo had sent some of his finest agents from the intelligence gathering branch of his troops to help Midnight out. If there was any hope of finding more information, the chancellor’s top spies were going to be able to find it. Stardust too joined the search, scouring the books for information or evidence of use.

“Sir, you might want to come see this,” said one of the spies urgently.

Midnight walked over to where he was, the spy had found the opened forbidden section, the gate to it clearly unlocked, and the ancient books in a mess.

“It looks like they’ve been reading some kind of ancient tomes, sir,” he said, “we’ve got their hoofprints all over these books.”

“Oh, and what are they about?” he asked curiously.

“Well from what we can tell… they are stories about the ancient princesses, mythology really, probably just a pastime those two had.”

“Let me see those,” ordered Midnight, pushing past him to look at the ancient material.

The unicorn picked up the massive book with his magic and began to run through it, reading about Princess Celestia’s past. Watcher’s companion certainly had a few similarities, but being mistaken for a celebrity was a historically common thing, sometimes ponies saw a famous singer that had been dead for decades while they were out in the town.

Stardust entered the forbidden section and walked to Midnight’s side, scanning the books with him curiously. It seemed Watcher had been only reading a half of the book, a fair assumption given the size of each one. Midnight flipped back, disappointed in the lack of an index, and turned the page to look at the very first one with pictures and writing.

There he saw an illustration of four stylized alicorn ponies fighting with a massive drawing that looked like a dragon colored with blue. Each of them was attacking the monster from different sides with their magical attacks from their horns, only for them to just wear down the monster. In the next page, the illustration had changed, this time the ponies were missing, and the dragon held floating beneath his cupped hands four gemstones that glowed brightly. It was a cryptic message, perhaps an ancient story or ritual of some kind that had since been lost to time. A large amount of text in very small writing sat beneath the drawings, likely a quill guided by unicorn magic had written it.

“The Dragon, blue as the drowning depths of the sea, and with a heart as cold as the strongest ice, lay waste to everything in his path,” read Midnight, squinting to see the old writing and also to translate the old grammatical ways of the ancient script to modern speech, “the Four went to slay the beast, and began to break him a piece at a time. With his might, he used all the energy he had to trap them in gems, and scattered them throughout the land. He had won, but at a price, for turning his enemies to stones had drained him of his strength. The Dragon would have to go into hiding… for now.”

“What do you suppose all that means?” asked Stardust, raising an eyebrow at the cryptic story.

“I don’t know, it’s some kind of ancient story, probably just a myth,” droned Midnight, closing the book, “doesn’t help us out really.”

Stardust made a suggestion, “Hmm, do you think maybe there’s any connection between the stories, babe?”

“There could be,” he answered, “it looks like these mythical goddesses have been a topic of interest for Watcher. Maybe he thinks that mare is one of them.”

“But in this story they were turned to stone by some dragon,” Stardust countered, poking at the other book, “how could she be them if they were all turned into gems?”

“I… I don’t know,” Midnight said honestly, sighing, “I think maybe Watcher’s finally gone nuts. That fight with him should have been my first clue though.”

“Sir, you need to see this,” interrupted a spy, holding up a piece of paper with his magic.

Midnight walked over to the investigator and snatched the small leaflet from him. It was a folded piece of scrap paper, which Midnight unraveled in mid-air, revealing a wrinkled, crude set of directions. On it were a list of emergency contacts and places to buy supplies, a very strange thing for a librarian to keep around.

“Where did you find this?” he asked.

“It was in a nightstand upstairs,” answered the soldier.

He pointed with a hoof to the staircase that lead to the upper loft area, several of the boards having been torn up from the fight between Celestia and Stardust. Splinters lay smashed all around, making half of the steps unuseable.

“From which bed?” asked Midnight, wanting to know the owner of the crumpled page.

“There’s only one bed, sir,” answered the guard.

“Oooh,” hummed Stardust, biting her lip.

“Don’t start,” said Midnight sternly, “she was probably couchsurfing.”

“I didn’t say anything!” giggled Stardust, swishing her tail and rolling her eyes.

“Anyways,” he continued, ignoring her, “we’re just going to have to assume it belongs to both of them, and their first item on their list is Everfree City.”

“Now why would Watcher go there?” she asked, “He’s just a librarian.”

“He’s smarter than what you think,” explained the blue unicorn, “Watcher has suspected everypony’s out to get him since he got kicked out for ‘saving me’. That exam we were taking was partially an exam, but also a test designed to weed out dark magic users who might be questioning The Order’s ethics and standards.”

“But Blackstar cooked you alive!”

“Yeah, and we weeded him out too,” snickered Midnight, “I was there when they froze him in ice. He’s going to be in the underground correctional facility for a long time. They told me I could have had him turned to ash, but we might need him later.”

“Oh… so I guess you took one for the team.”

“Well, I had a little ‘healing’ from you to make it better,” he answered, teasing her.

“Sir, please,” cautioned one of the spies, hoping he could get him to stay focused.

“Right, right, sorry,” continued Midnight as he held up the piece of paper, “I’m pretty sure he’s headed to Everfree City to stock up on supplies. From there he’ll either head for Rebel country, or...”

“Or what?” asked another soldier nearby.

“Or he’ll be looking for the other three mares that are pretending to be these mythical characters,” said Midnight, “Watcher is probably not much of a cultist, but I’ve got a strange feeling Chancellor Apollo wouldn’t have us on this case unless there’s some kind of importance behind that mare Tia and these books…”

“Oh come on, she’s not actually a goddess,” laughed Stardust.

“Maybe not… but the Rebels might believe that, and it might give them motivation to keep fighting,” suggested Midnight, “and that’s why we’re going to have to take out Watcher and bring that mare back with us. Now how soon can we get to Everfree City?”

“If we leave at once,” said the closest spy, “we can possibly make it there in four days, maybe we’ll beat them there… if that’s where they are really going. It will be a huge waste of time if they are not there, Sir.”

“Look, Watcher’s a nerd, he’s going to have followed his own list in order,” grunted the unicorn in response, “I’m sure he’s going to be there. Now move out!”

They left the library quickly to catch a train to the city, hoping to cut off Watcher before he could escape and leave for Rebel territory. Midnight shut the door behind him, closing the badly damaged library down. It felt strange, knowing he was going to be trying once again to kill someone he had called a friend for a long time. A hot marefriend and the best job in the world had led him down a different path now, and it was as if the Midnight who had entered The Order as friends with Watcher… was very dead. The hot feeling on his scalped from his damaged hair that was burnt away made him strongly think about his choice.

Back at the Abandoned Apartment

Watcher had begun to stir from his slumber, feeling something heavy on top of him that was strangely warm and soft too. He tried to get up, but whatever was on top of him was right on top of his hooves. It wasn’t long until he heard a heartbeat coming from what was on top of him. He soon realized at this moment what or who was on top of him.

The charcoal unicorn soon turned his head to see Celestia sleeping on his back, drooling on his fur. He couldn’t help but mentally face hoof himself as he tried to wiggle free from Celestia, but her hooves wrapped around his waist, refusing to release him no matter how much he struggled.

‘I can’t use magic or they might find us, but… Why is she sleeping on me?!’

“Celestia… get up… we need to go!”

“Huh…” She jerked up as drool landed over the stallion’s back, grossing him out as he literally threw her off his back as he tried to wipe it off. “Oh, Watcher… Sorry I must have dozed off a little.

“A Little! Look outside you idiot! It’s fricken Night now!” he yelled at the top of his lungs as the former goddess began to whimper as tears formed in her eyes. He couldn’t help but sigh at her, he had pushed her a bit too hard again. “We need to go… now!”

“Okay… just one issue.” She paused looking out the window.

“What is it?” He said taking a look out the window to see a group of officers looking around the outside of the apartment. “Just Perfect!”

“How could they have known where we were going to be?” whimpered Celestia.

“Somepony must have tipped them off,” answered Watcher, “we’ve got to get out of here and head for the woods.”

“The woods? But why?” she demanded to know.

“Because if we keep poofing around with teleportation, we’ll be found every time,” he explained quickly, “they’re tracking our magic.”

They heard the door downstairs get smashed to bits as the police captain and his crew entered the ground floor to go capture their quarry. Hurrying, the two unicorns started to head for the rear exit of the apartment to get to the ground via the fire ladders on the outside of the apartments. The stallions on the ground floor swept the dusty lobby of the apartment complex with their light spells, illuminating the abandoned, rotting furniture.

“I hear hoofsteps upstairs, move quickly!” ordered the police captain, his troops obeying them.

Watcher guided Celestia out of the rear window and onto the metal platform, where he quickly kicked the fire ladder, deploying it with a loud slam.

“We’re gonna have to slide down it,” he said, jumping on it and skidding the whole way with his hooves stretched over the sides, “come on, Tia!”

She carefully got around the ladder, and tried to slide down the same way, but fell off almost immediately. Watcher galloped over to the mare as she plummeted, and broke her fall with himself.

“Ouch! I said slide down, not fall down!” he groaned as she stood up again.

“I’m sorry, thanks for saving me again…”

The police officers appeared at the window and readied a pair of crossbows, aimed right for the fugitives.

“You can thank me later!” Watcher said, “Let’s get out of here!”

They moved just in time for the two bolts to smack into the road, shattering on impact. The stallions manning the weapons muttered some unpleasant language and began to reload the weapons when the chief stopped them with his hoof. His gray coat made him stand out amongst his team, as did his red peaked officer’s hat.

“Hold a minute, gentlecolts. It looks like that report of squatters at the old apartment site has led us to our old friend, that mare who was looting the market a while back. Looks like she’s found herself a nice little coltfriend.”

“We’re going to pursue, right sir?” asked one of the officers, putting the crossbow down.

He smirked and flicked his blue, ropelike tail, “Of course, but not right behind them like some mob of idiots. They’re thieves, they know every little way to lose officers in alleyways and crowds. But I do know one thing, there’s nothing after a few blocks past where they’ve run off to, just a forest with a river.”

“So we lay a trap...”

“Exactly,” the captain chuckled, “they’ll run out of city, and then we’ll catch them.”

Next to old restaurant

“I… Think we lost them…” Watcher said, taking deep breaths as he leaned against the wall in the back alley of a noodle restaurant as the former sun princess fell to the ground, trying to catch her breath. “It’s going to be hard to leave the city at this rate!”

“... Well what should we do than? The cops will be everywhere and we can’t risk using our magic or the Order will follow our trail.” She asked.

“I have one idea and it’ll help us get out of the city… but you aren’t going to like it.” He said, turning towards a sewer lid just a few feet behind him.

After arguing for a brief moment… the Charcoal unicorn had won as the two entered the sewers, of course Celestia wasn’t too thrilled about it… especially after accidentally slipping into the filthy water while walking on the path and Watcher couldn’t help but laugh at the poor dear princess and her now-stained fur on her legs.

“Urgh! W-Why did this happen to ME?!” She cried as dirty water dripped from her mane and coat, her eyes watering as she walked a few feet behind her friend.

“I did tell you to watch your step, but you didn’t want to listen to me.” Watcher sighed as he looked back at her. All she needed was a bath and she’ll be clean and beautiful once again. Still it was rather amusing to see her so upset.

‘Why is she so fricken cute?! No matter what we do she’s always acting cute! Even if she’s filthy now’

“W-what are… you staring at?!” She asked, shivering as her body began to get cold from the wetness of her fur.

“Huh? Oh well… just thinking that you can take a bath once we get out of here is all.” He said, shaking his previous thoughts from before and continued to lead them through the sewers, but the smell was actually bothering the stallion and he couldn’t tell what smelled worse, the sewers or Celestia.

“H-how long… until we get to… t-the surface? I-It’s freezing?” Celestia said, Watcher couldn’t help but chuckle again.

“Don’t worry Celestia… Once we get of the city we can stop by a lake wash off or find an inn and get you cleaned up.” Watcher said, still trying his best to stifle his laughter as Tia pouted at the stallion.

“J-jerk!” She stuttered, shivering a her face burned with embarrassment. “Y-you better find… us an inn! Or e-else!”

“Fine! Let’s get going than!” Watcher groaned, leading on as Celestia continued to whimper as her nostrils flared from the smell of her coat.

It took them almost an hour, but they managed to have found a way out of the sewers and out near a hidden dirt road, leading out of the city. Watcher couldn’t have been more relieved, because Celestia was giving him a headache from her constant whimpering echoing throughout the sewers. Watcher was the first to emerge from there and out into the open, checking to make sure the coast was clear, he was about to offer his hoof to help her up, but his nose flared up and he immediately jumped away from her and hid behind a tree, trying to stay as far away from that awful stench coming from the mare. Which made her growled in response.

“W-why… are you hiding?” She asked as Watcher gave her a deadpan look from afar.

“You’re really going to ask me that? I think it should be pretty obvious from where I’m standing,” He said, as Celestia growled with her face beat red,

“Jerk!”

“Happy to be a jerk if it means saving my poor nose,” he teased.

“You really ought not to be so mean, Watcher,” she said, huffing at him, “I bet you don’t realize how lucky you have it! Back in the middle ages of Equestria, ponies used to throw this kind of sewage right out their windows, and you were lucky to bathe once per year.”

“Oh no, please not a ‘back in my day when ice cream was a bit’, story,” whimpered Watcher, “look, I said I believed you’re really Celestia, isn’t that enough?”

“No,” she answered rolling her eyes, “you’re still a stallion who calls a lady smelly and large-bottomed. I have yet to do it, but I shall turn you into a refined gentlecolt, Watcher!”

“You would have done the same thing if our positions were reversed!” He shouted from afar, but sighed while he came out from behind thXe tree. “Look, let’s just find you a lake and we can wash this smell off of us… well more so for you, but still.”

“Fine… let’s get going already… I hate this.”

“I can tell.”

He searched for the nearest body of water with due diligence, mostly because he was getting really tired of smelling the foul air around his companion, but also because a swim in the lake might be a bit of fun. It was getting a bit boring being hounded, shot at, stabbed, and overall being a wanted fugitive for seemingly no good reason. Maybe a little bit of recreation would lift his spirits before they headed out to Everfree City.

Eventually he spotted it, a crystal-clear lake surrounded by tall, healthy cattails. The marsh plants had filtered the large, shimmering body of water to perfection, and a couple of wild sunfish leapt and swam in the shallows of the pond. Watcher galloped up to the water eagerly and stuck a hoof in, the water nice and cool on his leg.

“Woah, it’s perfect!” he said, stirring the shallows around, “Hey Celestia, come on in!”

She got a running start, and with a woosh of speed and a long jump, the unicorn made a long arc over Watcher’s head, and landed in the water with a loud splash, sending a column of water up and scaring the poor fish away. He was struck by a spray of water droplets, half sewage and half clean water. Celestia’s body muddied up the water with a sickly teal cloud, evidence the nasty liquid was washing out of her coat.

“Come on in, the water is perfect!” she said, rinsing her mane out.

“I think I’ll be fine over here,” he answered, shaking his head.

“Suit yourself,” winked Celestia before continuing to frolic in the shallows.

Watcher couldn’t help but stare, her wet mane sticking to her now clean as snow coat fur, her sparkling eyes watching him as she splashed and cleaned off. Soft pink hair waved and flowed with droplets of water around her curved, slender body. A warm feeling stirred in his heart, a feeling he wanted to suppress, but couldn’t help at all.

A cold splash of water hit him in the face, waking the unicorn up from his short daydreaming.

She reminded him with a laugh, “Excuse me, you’re staring! Perhaps you’d like to join me after all?”

He shook like a dog to get rid of the water, and cursed his obliviousness. Now he was going to get teased even more later!

“No, I’m fine!” he answered stubbornly, “Now hurry up and let’s go!”

“Fine… It’s not like you fell into sewage!” She pointed out only for him to scuff at her.

“Well I did warn you…” He stated as Celestia groaned, scowling at the stallion as she continued to wash herself in the lake. After what felt like an eternity, Celestia had finally finished her ‘quick bath’ as she put it. “Alright… next stop the Everfree City”

Now that the danger had passed, it was time for Watcher and Celestia to begin their journey to the Everfree Forest.

Prologue- The Beginning

Prologue- The Beginning

The city of Baltimare was one of the largest cities in Equestria and was home to many ponies. All across the city, it was with great sorrow for them to hear that all four princesses had vanished without a trace. The country was left without rulers. In order to prevent Chaos from spreading, the solution was the Order. The Order is a gathering of some of the most powerful mages and magic users in the land.

The was there when ponies were in need of help, in need of hope and they were there to help us from the ashes of when the fires were put out, but some ponies said that they were the problem, claiming that the Order was false, that it went against everything that the four princesses had established over the years. Thus leading to the first revolution in pony kind where the Order battled against the rebellion forces.

When neither side could win, they split Equestria in half, The rebellion taking the north in the Crystal Empire and the Order taking Canterlot in the south, creating a border between the two new governments.

Some would question the decisions that were made, leading to rebellion that split Equestria in two. Even though half of the population was left to rot in the north, the Order had flourished in prosperity leading to the construction of towers built to watch over and protect those around them. And after two thousand years the Order became one of the world’s most powerful nation.

As time went on, the Order had established four classes for magic users who would one day become Guardians for Equestria. Usually, the most who would become a guardian would be twenty out of an entire academy, while the rest would remain and become guards for guardians.

I was very young when I was taken into the Order and they raised me as one of their own. My name is Watcher, I'm currently eighteen and for years I've wondered if life could be different, a bit more interesting. I wanted something to happen and it turned out I got my wish... the day she broke into my house and changed my life forever.