Marco stared up at the towering castle before him. In his life as a Whitebeard pirate only a few buildings could compare to the size and grandeur to the structure before him. It’s walls of glimmering blue crystal reached to the sky, with four gigantic pedestals keeping the main structure of the castle aloft. “Impressive right?” Marco’s shifted his gaze away from the splendor before him to the unicorn. “Yea-yoi,” came his reply as his eyes turned back again to the castle.

“My name’s Shining Armor by the way, what’s yours?” asked the unicorn, or rather Shining Armor.

“Marco.”

“As in the game?”

“Um, sure.”

“Cool! Let’s go in, if the guard I sent earlier delivered my message then my wife should be waiting inside .”

~~~~~

Ten minutes later...

As Shining walked down the halls his mind raced with questions. Who was this creature? What was he? Where had he come from? Why was he here? Was he going to harm him and his family? As he thought of the last question Shining’s eyes hardened and turned his head around to the creature. “Before we go any further I must ask you something. Do you mean to harm my family or my subjects?”

The creature raised an eyebrow at as he gave his reply, “No-yoi. Well unless you provoke me, then who knows who might get hurt.”

As Shining looked into the eyes of his guest he saw that this person wasn’t joking. His cold eyes stared back into his, showing that he spoke of experience. This, Marco, had seen war, a bloody one at that from the look in his eyes.

“Well, we’ll make sure to not provoke you then,” Shining replied. “We should hurry, we’re almost there.”
With a nod and a quickened pace Marco followed Shining down the shimmering halls of the castle.

~~~~~~

Cadence was bored to say the least.

She had rushed down after receiving the letter from her husband, and now had been waiting on her throne for the past fifteen minutes waiting for Shining and his “guest” to arrive. Her head resting on her her forehoof and her eyes dull with boredom she began to think of ways to keep Flurry asleep that did not involve magic or medicine. ‘Maybe I can ask Shining’s mom for any solutions, or maybe Twilight has some-’ Her thought was interrupted when both doors to the throne room opened. She quickly sat up straight and made sure she looked presentable.

She smiled as she saw her beloved walk through the doors, that smile immediately turned into straight line as she saw the creature behind him. Behind Shining was a creature that stood on two legs, wearing a pair of dark blue pants, a light blue sash, and a purple dress shirt that was left unbuttoned to expose his chest that had a weird blue insignia on it. His face was just as weird as his clothes. He had a long angular face, a nose that was quite long and hair that resembled that of a pineapple. ‘That’s new,’ she thought in surprise. ‘I’ve never seen something like him before, if that even is a him.’ “Ahem,” she spoke catching the creature’s attention. “My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, or Princess Cadance. Welcome to the Crystal Empire Mr.?”

“Just call me Marco,” came the reply of the creature.

“Well alright Marco. May I ask what you are exactly?”

“I’m a human-yoi,” he said, although Cadance could here a hint of surprise in his voice.

“I’m sorry but I’ve never heard of such a race. Where are you from?” As she said this she saw that Marco’s eyes begin to rise.

“I don’t have a place I call home, and really? I was sure you minks knew of us, even though your anatomy is a bit off.”

“Minks? I have no idea what those are either,” out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Shining had moved from Marco’s side to hers as he was now sitting on the throne adjacent to hers.

“Odd, humans and minks are found all across the Grand Line, both in the New World and Paradise. What is this island called?”

“Our land is known as Equis, I’m not sure if it is an island or not but there are many countries in this land and all of the bordering states do have water so maybe.”

“Equis? I’ve still never heard of it.”

“Now I’m the one confused.”

“Ahem,” the focus of the room then shifted to Shining Armor who shifted uncomfortably from all the eyes on him. After gaining some confidence back he asked, “Well, since we know what you are, why are you here?”

“Well it definitely wasn’t on purpose that’s for sure. I was sailing to an island where I have friends that I had wanted to meet up with, but I was met with a fierce storm. During which I was knocked out and when I woke up I found out that my boat had moored itself on the icy shores past those mountains. That’s why I’m here, well not really why but how.”

“That’s quite unfortunate. Personally I don’t know too much about the surrounding states besides a couple. You should talk to my aunt, Princess Celestia, she deals with foreign states all the time so maybe she can help you. Let me write you a note.” offered Cadance as she got up to go do so. “Shining honey, could you give our guest a proper tour of the city?”

“Sure honey, I’ll show him around. Come on Marco I’ll show you around the castle first and then the city,” said Shining as he got up from his throne and trotted over to where Marco was standing. “You sure you don’t have any sake-yoi?” Marco asked abruptly. “Like I said already, I have no idea what that is,” Shining said with a roll of his eyes. Marco in turn rolled his eyes. “Alcohol-yoi.” Shining’s mouth formed an “O” as realization dawned on him. “I mean we can hit the local bar first if you want,” Said Shining as he saw Marco’s lips form into a smirk. “Lead the way-yoi.”

Author's Note

This took way too long to get up. Truthfully I had like 70% of this chapter done it's just that I was hella busy this week. Plus ranking up to legend in Hearthstone takes a lot of time. Hopefully you enjoyed this snippit. Next chapter, Shining and Marco head to a bar!