Author's Note

As a word of warning, this chapter deals with some heavy themes of abuse, self-harm, and general sadness. Sorry if this upsets anyone.

This has been your warning.

Chapter Twenty Seven: A Heart Transformed.

My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty Seven: A Heart Transformed.

A moment or two passed in silence as Dustan seemed to prepare himself. Going to grab some water as well as a few snacks before coming back and divvying them out to the both of them as well as pouring him a glass in preparation for what was to come. Another moment of silence went by, seems like he was half stalling by now and it was kind of the truth. These type of memories were not something that came out easily.

“Ok.” Dustan finally said as he closed his eyes and sighed. “Some of these questions require a bit of a story. Feel free to interrupt anytime you want.” He told her as he opened his eyes. “That being said, don’t feel offended if I tell you that the answers are to come in some form or fashion ok?” The unicorn gave another nod to this as he sighed. “Ok then, before I answer your first question, tell me. How is it you know I come from another world?”

This seemed to be an easy question for Vinyl to explain. “Simple. On your desk, in one of the memories that I got, is a complete globe that is filled out with the names of countries and everything on it. You have explored your world completely it seems.”

That particular globe was a gift from his parents and he knew exactly which one she was talking about. “Ok then, with that answered what is your first question?”

Seems it also took a minute for Vinyl to organize her thoughts on which to ask first before finally she asked. “~What are you really?~”

Smiling at this question the Thief told her. “Honestly, I have told the truth on that. I am human. Nothing about that has changed really except for one thing.”

“~That you are not from this world?~” Giving her an affirmative nod she gave a follow up question. “~Why hide this fact?~”

Taking his first sip of water he responded. “There are too many reasons to count. Suspicion on who I am for one, ponies haven’t exactly been forthcoming to my presence normally you know. Saying I am from another world wouldn’t really help that any and saying I am from far off but I am not sure exactly, is both truth and fiction depending on how you look at it.”

This was a tense conversation for sure, both could feel it between the heavy pauses that just seemed to increase the pressure in the air that was weighing them down. “~Are your people really technologically advanced as you told us? I remember catching images and flashes but nothing concrete.~”

“Yes, terribly so in fact.” Leaning back on his bed so he was against the headboard Dustan spoke up. “We have weapons that would destroy pony cities just out of pure destructive power if we unleashed them, and I am not talking about a small city like Ponyville or anything, but think Manehattan sized with just a quick button press.” The look in her eyes was both disbelieving and of horror. “Yeah, there are people back on my world that are called Doomsday Preppers for that very reason. We could at any moment of any day destroy ourselves because of the destructive power of our weapons. However make it be known that we don’t use those weapons willy nilly. They tend to be reserved for the direst of situations and as such most countries have a written agreement never to fire these weapons, of which they could essentially hit the other side of the planet from.”

“~That sounds…I don’t even have words for what that sounds like.~” The unicorn rubbed her temples with her hooves. “~Let’s move on to the next question then.~”

“Alright shoot.” Dustan told her, his smile from her reaction now fading now that they were moving on.

“~Tell me a bit about your life, without Sarah in it. I rather get the answer for her after this if possible.~” Not the question Dustan thought was coming but not a bad one.

“Hmm alright. I grew up in a cul-de-sac a closed off kind of loop for a neighborhood. I knew all my neighbors and they all knew me. I have only moved twice before adulthood, both of those I was too young to remember.” The brown haired told her as his eyes started to lose focus. “It was never terribly cold where I lived, having only seen a significant amount of snow only a handful of times. It was hot and humid where I lived for most of the year round. The weather in my world works like the Everfree, except everywhere so we can’t exactly change that like you ponies do. Instead we had to deal with it.” Taking a sip of water though barely even tasting or seeing it, the human continued with a slight smile on his face. “I never really made too many friends in my neighborhood as there were no kids around my age, so I turned out to be kinda a loner for most of my life. In middle school I met two people that would change my life. Patrick, a bully who would turn out to become my best friend, and a girl named Sarah.” It was a bit hard to get those last words out, chocking him up as he remembered the girl so long ago.

“~Take it slow, I am not going anywhere.~” Levitating a cupcake over, Dustan gladly took it for something to put in his stomach as it was now tossing and turning.

“Thanks.” Sipping some more water Dustan continued. “High school wasn’t anything special. I didn’t really make too many close friends, the two I did, one you know about being Patrick, and the other eventually became my girlfriend.” Something wet fell down his face and he knew what it was. The human did nothing about it. “During high school I took some electives for my specialty, which I would tell you, but honestly there isn’t even a close equivalent here so let’s just call myself a designer and artist ok?” Dustan wasn’t even looking for a nod instead continued. “After high school those classes…didn’t really help. None of those classes counted for credits since I had to go to a specialty school, which I promptly dropped out of when I realized that none of it actually helped me. So instead I went out and made contacts, did work with my specialty even if it was minor stuff. Eventually I was getting some pretty good paychecks. Good enough to ask Sarah to move in with me. She was a fashion designer, kinda like Rarity. If we were talking about a few years ago, the two of them would have gotten along so well.”

“~What changed?~” The unicorn was now curious and it seemed like Dustan was off in his own world so she wanted to ask while she could.

“I suppose for that we should go back in the timeline some.” Holding up his hands as if his life was before his eyes and moving them like he was using a touch screen he smiled. “Sarah was always loving and somewhat shy girl in middle school. We grew to be fast friends even though I was being bullied. We both liked to draw, but just liked drawing different things, until we found a common interest in cartoons. Do you know what those are?”

“~Yes, cartoons are hoof drawn pictures flipped over and over in front of a projection in a movie theater. Foals love them.~” She was curious, especially seeing the smile on his face.

“Yes but for us they are on a miniature version of a movie theater called a Television, something you can watch in your home without leaving the house.” That sounded very fascinating and though she didn’t bring one with her, she did wish she had a notepad with her.

One Twilight Sparkle was in the middle of organizing her library, as she put off doing it cause of the Mare-Do-Well event, when suddenly she shivered. Her horn lit up and her parchment and ink well showed up as did her quill.

“Twilight, do you need me to mail something to the Princess?” Spike, the ever loyal assistant to the librarian, asked.

“No I…I am not sure why I brought this out.” Looking at the objects in her magical grasp she soon poofed them away in a teleport. “I just felt the need to have them for some reason.”

Giving a shrug Spike went back over the checklist. “Ok, next on the list is-”

Vinyl waited as Dustan seemed to have gone completely silent as he relived some of his memories. “Anyways.” His voice caught her off guard as it seemed like he picked up where his thoughts left off. “Finding an interest in those we became closer and closer friends. Her parents didn’t like me though, she was from…I wouldn’t call it a well to do family, but they definitely were far from bad off. My family is more of a modest income type of family and has been for a while so her parents didn’t think I would be any different and wanted better for their daughter.” Vinyl could definitely sympathize with that remembering going to meet her future in-laws for the first time when she was a struggling artist. “Time moved on and we grew closer and closer till in my junior year, she was growing more and more restless I suppose with how things were going. Puberty had really hit her well both in body and attitude so gone was the shy girl and out came a more confident woman by the end of it.”

The DJ didn’t want to interrupt but part of her party mare attitude came back. “~So she was stacked?~”

Laughing a tad bit he smiled. “She was curvy that is for sure. Not too large but not tiny in any sorta way. She was really well proportioned with a bust that was just…I am getting off topic.” Dustan said as he shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Her parents still hated me, mine loved her. More and more she found herself at my home, until near the end of the senior year her parents gave her an ultimatum, dump me, or leave. She wasn’t dumb and neither was I by any stretch of the imagination. So she pretended to dump me and get together with Patrick a couple of weeks later. He would drive her over to my place or he would drive me out to meet her, he really stuck his neck out for us.”

“~Were you two never caught?~” That question got a loud laugh from him.

Shaking his head he grinned. “Nope, least not until a few years later. They thought their precious girl finally came to her senses when they gave her that ultimatum. That she finally saw what they saw. Was it a hassle to go about dating that way? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Well, we were in love, so it was at the time and I would happily do it again if I had to.” Sighing, he reached up into the air again, this time as if trying to grab something. “Time moves on though, my work put a tiny bit of a strain on things, and her college work was no different. However when the time came when I was starting to make money, and she was starting to get part time work as well, we moved in together. Her parents thought she was moving in with a friend and was more than happy to give her some independence thinking they had done right.” Another tear fell as he clenched his fists. “Those were the best of times.”

Vinyl was starting to get a bad feeling, something had to be said. “~Something happened didn’t it?~”

All she got for a good solid five minutes was more tears and a nod as Dustan occasionally sipped water. “Yeah.” It was the answer that came out when things calmed down again. “I am a heroic personality, if others are in danger, I can’t help but move. When it’s me though, I rather take the hit then others.” Dustan moved his hands up to his throat feeling it want to clench up. “A robber. I was home she wasn’t. She ran to the store to pick up a few things for dinner that night.” Laughing to himself Dustan found his hands brought to his face now as the tears wouldn’t stop flowing. “I was tied up, gagged, as the guy was loading up a car outside. A car is a kinda of mechanical carriage that uses science to move without being pulled.” Seems he wasn’t as far gone in his thoughts to not notice her look of confusion it seems. “She pulled up and saw it, started to call the cops on a phone, think of it as a device that lets anyone use a kind of communication over long distance. The robber spotted her and reached into our car to grab her and pulling her into the house she complied for a bit till she saw me then started to fight back. That is when he took the butt of the gun, a kind of powerful crossbow that shoots small shaped rounds of metal at high speeds. Anyways he hit her with the end of it against the side of her head and she just crumpled.”

As he said the word crumpled he started to sob and felt the hooves of a pony around of him. Dustan’s sobs never stopped for a good thirty minutes before finally he had to quit and get something to drink as his throat was becoming hoarse. Taking a moment for a snack break as well hoping it would settle his flip flopping stomach, it didn’t.

“~Take your time and continue when you are ready.~” Vinyl hated asking these questions but…she had to know, to make sense of the images in her head. The memories, they weren’t complete by any stretch of the imagination and had been keeping her up at night for what she did know.

“Thanks.” It would be another couple of minutes before he would do so though. “I couldn’t do anything being tied up, so I could only watch her bleed till the cops came and called an ambulance as well as untie me. We rushed her to the hospital but seems there was some swelling in her brain. She went into a coma after that, and only then did her parents find out about us. They cursed me out and more, and me being emotional I didn’t take it too well. I ended up telling them to fuck off essentially and that I would pay for everything, that they didn’t even know their daughter at all and that she was my family and that one day we would be married.” Looking down at the bed and his hands he sighed. “I don’t think I ever saw them after that.” Clenching his hands and closing his eyes he could still hear the sounds of the machines that she was hooked up to. “Six months, several surgeries, procedures, medications and more. She woke up…but by that point the damage had been done.”

The blue maned unicorn’s heart clenched in sympathy at hearing that but she had to know. “What happened?”

“Brain damage.” Releasing his fists, only to see blood where his nails cut into them he solved that with a Cure spell. “The doctors said that it was located in the frontal lobe of the brain. That is the part that deals with personality and such; I was never really all too good with medical knowledge so most of what they said went over my head. What they did say was that she would have mood swings for a good while till her brain essentially learned new pathways and corrected the imbalance if ever. That and medication to help along the way.” Pouring himself a new glass of water and taking another sip Dustan continued. “Being bedbound for six months also means you need physical rehabilitation. It took another six months to recover and by that point since I was paying for everything, I had run through basically all my savings. I didn’t touch hers as I didn’t have access since we kept our accounts separate.”

Slowly Vinyl’s eyes widened more and more during this part of the tale of his past. “~She didn’t just show her true colors, she changed cause she got damaged!~”

“Yeah.” Rubbing the side of his left arm with his right he looked down. “It wasn’t bad at first. For the most part she almost turned back into a shy girl for a good few months before slowly gaining her confidence back. After that I started to notice that she kept giving me compliments, but they were not always good ones. They were ones that were backhanded. I had lost my job taking care of her during this time and when I went to go in for an interview for another and dressed up nicely, she said ‘That new look for you is great, so much better than your old one’ and slowly it grew from there. Never once did she ever physically abuse me or anything, but slowly it became verbal and emotional abuse. I didn’t want to say anything cause part of me always HOPED she would find her way back to being her old self. Another part of me thought I deserved it for letting her get hurt in the first place. This went on for a year and a half.”

“~I am so sorry.~” The wince on her face was visible it seems as he looked over to her and nodded.

Looking her straight in the eyes he spoke. “Yeah…so am I.” swallowing another lump in his throat Dustan proceeded. “I was still paying for the bills, and soon finally finished them. I was working two jobs, doing everything I can to pay for the apartment and everything that we lived in, but I was barely doing anything. Sarah on the other hand found her new mental process working well in the fashion world it seems as she started getting contract after contract for high paying jobs. She was essentially paying for everything as she grew more and more abusive to me. Finally she seemed to have enough and kicked me out. Most of my big possessions I had sold off during the rehabilitation phase so I didn’t really have anything to bring with me beyond some cloths. From there I lived on the streets, trying to do anything to make my way, to do anything to survive till my shattered personality from her abuse just didn’t want to bother anyone anymore. I didn’t want to be a burden on my parents or my best friend like I was for her, so never told them I was living on the street. Eventually it got so bad; the hunger was eating me up so much inside that when I found a razor, I thought about ending my life. Patrick found and saved me.”

She said nothing as she watched him ball up his hands in the sheets of the bed. No words would be enough to comfort him or even be able to sooth him from what the unicorn had heard him going through. Eventually he threw a pillow in a rage at the wall before sighing.

“Pathetic.” Hitting his bed with his fist he yelled out. “I am pathetic!” Ever so slowly did Dustan calm down and look back up to the roof of bedroom as he lay back down. “Patrick gave me a home, he helped me slowly start to come back to who I was and is the only one besides you to now know what she did. Patrick had become a rather savvy investor when he was working as a Graphic Designer. Making some smart or rather lucky calls got him wealthy rather quickly. This let him by a very expensive home, car, everything he wanted. He still worked cause he liked it and he wanted to keep up his lifestyle. I lived there working from small jobs to small jobs as best I could all the while paying back small bits of things here and there that I missed and giving Patrick some money as rent, which he didn’t want to take but eventually would when I would find other ways to spend it if he didn’t take it. Groceries, utilities, small repairs, upgrades for appliances. Anything and everything was fair game when he wasn’t taking it.”

~Did Sarah ever get better?~ She had to ask it even if she already could feel the answer.

“No, least not from the last time I saw her.” Sighing once more, a habit he seemed to have judging from this little therapy session. “Pat let me come to a convention, kinda like a comic one, nearby and I used some of my funds to get me some materials for a costume or paid for parts if I could. While there he got me the coat I wear now all the time and it was there that I came to come to Equestria. See this person called the Merchant, one who uses an accent from overseas, is a kinda urban myth in my world in certain circles. A man who dresses up as a character called the merchant from a type of interactive novel would do something horrible to you and whisk you to a new world. This one didn’t do that, instead, he seemed like he was rather nice…till his twin froze me, slammed me to his stall table, took my wooden sword, turned it metal and then ran me through the chest with it creating my Blood Sword in the process. The nice one pulled it out of me, gave me something and sent me to Equestria while healing me. He saved me and for that I thank him. Plus I have met so many interesting people here and get to do things I couldn’t in my world.”

“~And the rest is history I suppose.~” When Dustan gave a nod, Vinyl sighed and stood. “~Thank you. I think I can rest easier now. I thought that your loved one was naturally liked that. Her being a victim is sad and a tragedy for sure, but it is a shame she ended up the way she did.~”

“Yeah.” Finished up his water with those words, he also stood. “Thank you for coming by. I won’t lie, while it didn’t feel good to remember the bad times…it felt good to remember the good ones. I sometimes forget there were even any good times back then. It’s good to be reminded of them and find those memories once again.”

As she started to light up her horn she paused before looking at him and speaking in her synthetic voice. “~Dustan. I have a question or two more before I leave.~” Her horn would power down at that especially seeing his curious look. “Do you find ponies attractive, or are we too alien for you to see that way?”

This time he shook his head, the first in the session. “I do think you are all adorable and rather sensual at times for sure, do I find you all attractive, in some ways yeah.”

“~Then why have you not tried to date while here? Or does your heart still belong to Sarah, the old one?~” It hurt to ask this question because now that she had those memories and now the knowledge, it felt like she knew the person as well.

“No…my heart doesn’t belong to her.” The look in his eyes told her just how much it hurt to say that. “I came to realize that a long time ago, that I had let her go, mourned the death of who she was. That being said, while my heart doesn’t belong to her, it doesn’t mean that I have moved on either. My heart just isn’t ready to be in a relationship. I still am healing from what the damage Sarah did to me. Till I can absolutely be sure that I am done healing from that, I don’t think I will be ready to start dating or even be able to see others in that way.”

“~Thank you. Those were all of my questions. Though you should know there are so many around you that gives you signals. Maybe its cause we are alien to you, just as how you are alien to us, but if they end up straight out telling you what they would like, try to either let them down easy, or giving it a try, just to see if your heart is more ready then you thought it was.~” Her horn lit up after that and took down the soundproofing spell. “~Thank you again, hopefully next time we meet will be during a fun party.~” With her horn lighting up again, she teleported away with a ‘Wub’.

“So do I.” Taking a look at his watch he saw what time it was. The snacks were gone and so was the water but the human was not ready to do anything. Instead he went to his bed and got lost in the good memories once more, eventually falling asleep to them.

Peaking out of its hiding spot the white creature frowned at what it saw. The creature was large, easily several times its own size and weight in one of its long necks let alone its huge body. Speaking of necks, there were three, and it was the cause of it that factor that the creature could even be in this part of the Everfree.

‘So much has changed too Kupo.’ Looking at some of the trees of the area the creature sighed. ‘The forest wasn’t this wild before the old ones were to cast the seal Kupo. How long were we gone for Kupo? A hundred years Kupo? No, growth wouldn’t be this bad Kupo. Five hundred Kupo? Nope I heard something about two Alicorns moving the sun and moon and have been in control of it for something like almost two thousand years or so Kupo. I last remember that was the job of the Unicorns, so it has been a while it seems. Kupo.’

The creature growled and snapped at something the fluffy white nut loving hybrid couldn’t see. Though it could easily hear the crunching of bones and the tearing of meat soon come after. It seemed like the large thing found a meal.

‘Ok that should buy me some time to sneak away Kupo.’ Hearing the thing growl and snap reminded the Moogle of something. ‘If I am awake, that should mean that the others are waking up as well. It would also explain the other things too Kupo.’ Shuddering at that the Moogle reached up to stroke his pom pom comfortingly. ‘I really hope Ifrit has calmed down during his down time in the seal Kupo.’

The loud noises of all the many of those gathered were easily in an uproar today, as so many reports have been coming in from all over Equestria and even from territories beyond them thanks to some select individuals strategically placed in those territories. Spies, they were spies. Celestia and Luna both hated all the noise but even as their twin gavels rang out to call order to those assembled it took a good long while for silence to reign.

“Thank you my ponies for gathering so quickly for this emergency meeting.” The solar pony greeted all the Canterlot nobles that had arrived in a timely manner. Mostly because if they didn’t come to an emergency meeting such as this their nobility could be called into question and none wanted to lose their power, except for the few whom were actually there out of concern for others. “I wish I could have sent out summons to other nobles but the reports keep coming in at an alarming pace.”

“Indeed, I have reports coming out from the west and east coasts alike about strange phenomena come to pass.” The rather pudgy pony yelled out in a breathless voice. “Fires, floods, bouts of sudden uncontrolled snow flurries to just name a few of the reports I have been hearing about.”

“Thank you for telling us my little pony, for my sister and I have also suddenly been getting reports about such things. We have already sent teams out to check things out, but having all these things happen at once have prompted my sister and I to look into patterns in the past to see if anything like this has happened.” The light colored pastel pony looked to her sister as she stepped back and let Luna take the lead.

Said night pony looked around at the nobles before her and though her face showed nothing, she felt disgust at how the nobles have turned out. “While my sister and I have lived a long time, we have encountered nothing like these phenomena before. So much in the last two years have been happening, even before my return, strange creatures suddenly started to show themselves. At first we thought some were merely either Everfree creatures being encountered for the first time, or migrating species from parts unknown. Yet now my sister and I think there is a different reason, one that is connected to the phenomena happening at present.”

That caused the rabble of ponies to increase tremendously and made Celestia stand up and rap her gavel loudly. “Silence everypony, my sister isn’t done speaking!”

Hearing the normally calm and kind solar ruler speak so seriously and to yell for that matter hushed everyone quickly. “Thank you sister.” Celestia gave a quick nod to her sister then let her continue. With a glow a book was soon teleported into the meeting hall. “This is one of the journals of the legendary Magister Starswirl the Bearded. Inside his journals he detailed many things, for this one, it was his memories and his day to day activities. It was here that I found the answer.” Opening up and quickly flipping through the pages she looked to the assembled ponies. “Forgive me if this is slow, the pages are written in a dialect no longer spoken so some words need to be roughly translated.”

“Take your time sister, what you have to say is important.” Celestia already knew what was in it of course, and the news wasn’t great.

Taking a breath and starting to read her words soon came flowing out. “I am amazed at times of the splendor of the land. The calm nature of many animals, and how the monsters that plague the land are slowly being pushed away from pony settlements are all things of modern wonders. I can only imagine what this land was like a few generations ago. My great grandfather once told me of his great grandfather, as far as I know the last practitioner of the Neutral way. He describes the lands as running fierce with creatures of unspeakable natures and names. Once that could take up arms in their hands like the Diamond Dogs or Minotaurs can. Ones whose breath were so foul that they can alter ponies or even melt them down to nothing but bones. Felines whose power over mysterious magicks could petrify like the mighty Cocktrice could. What is more I remember my ancestor telling me of even more frightening things, things that gave his great grandfather nightmares. He called them by many different names: Espers, Primals, Eidolons, and more. It was these creatures and more that cause him and many other great mages of their time to band together to create a type of seal, one that my great grandfather could barely understand and as such couldn’t relay it properly to me.”

Luna took a moment and looked around before a glass hovered over to her and she smiled. “Take it slow sister, no need to harm your voice to rush your words.” Celestia told her younger sister.

Smiling, the dark blue mare nodded and took a breather before taking the book up a minute later to continue. “The spell he described, it sounded like some type of seal with a timer or a type of time displacement spell that sealed the creatures out of sync with time. The spell was not the most stable and as such not only did it hit these Eidolons, but many other creatures. My great grandfather said my ancestor lamented about the loss of some of these creatures as some were friendly and loving, while others were terrifying. In the end it caused the world to become a lot calmer for sure.” Luna stopped and looked at those assembled as she closed the book. “The book then goes on to Starswirl lamenting that so much knowledge had been lost about such creatures or muddled thanks to Discord’s time that no pony even seems to remember these creatures even existing. Then it goes on about him going to search for the Alicorns of myth that seemed to have shown up.” Looking to those assembled the Princess of the Night called out. “My sister and I think that the seal may have finally given way. It would explain why new species started to show up, why horrific creatures that seem to be nightmares made flesh have shown up. The phenomenon the book describes also seems like what has been occurring around all known territories as well. That is why we have sent investigation teams to these areas both to close off the areas for safety as well as to investigate.”

Standing down and letting Celestia take her place, the older sister stood before those assembled. “There you have it my little ponies. The reason we called you all here, and hopefully this shows we have taken measures to keep the peace. Hopefully these matters will be solved quickly and peacefully, if not then we hope no pony will be injured with its resolve. Now, to open the floor to questions.”

Said questions were either stupid and tedious, like how many ponies were in each time, or ones that were so self serving that Celestia almost outright banned a few ponies for the questions like ‘Will these phenomena affect my stock in this company?’ or ‘Will standard insurance cover the new creatures and possible Eidolon damages?’. To say that Celestia and Luna wanted very much to alter some records to abdicate some noble seats, they could not, least not at the moment.

Honestly the Princess both wished to call Dustan up at the moment to see if he could explain to them or their advisers or anything, however the last time he was there and spoke, from what they have gathered, is that a lot of ponies ignored what he said and either didn’t write it down, or the knowledge he did give was not as widely distributed as they would have liked. True his knowledge was helping others, and over time, though at the cost of lives, the princesses ponies have learned that what he said held value.

Casting a spell Celestia started to speak right to her sister’s mind. ‘Luna, do you think the nobles would listen to Dustan if we brought him here for the meeting? I myself can’t imagine they will as some are still sore that he was given the title of Noble.’

Giving a slight look to her sister, the Princess of the Night started her own spell to communicate back to her. ‘Dustan, while a source of solid information, will likely be ignored or outright dismissed by the nobles. They will not listen to him, mostly because of two reasons. One, some nobles were backing Logistic’s Trail and having a unicorn, a rightful noble removed then having a none pony noble come about right after, one that was deeply connected to his fall. Many resent that. There is also the fact that Dustan’s rise in status came so quick, many believe the human has not put in the time or effort to become a noble. We both have seen the petitions to have him removed as a noble, of which I have often dismissed as there was no basis for the removal.’

‘Indeed sister, many of the names I have found on some of the larger petitions came from ponies either paid to write their name, or from ponies who do not exist. However when the charges are brought up, the pony who had them sign says that was the name a pony gave them, they can’t be at fault for false names given.’ The diarchy found the petitions annoying and rather slanderous at times but always found ways to skirt the laws. Celestia and Luna even had a very small task force now, mostly because the normal channels didn’t have enough to go on, dedicated to snooping out many instances of the flagrant fraud users as a result.

For her part, the blue Alicorn simply sighed. ‘Sister, there is also something else to bring up.’ A inquisitive feeling bubbled up through the communication spell which made Luna smile a bit as always her sister was the ever curious one. ‘It is in regarding the forces at Luminary Castle. From what we understand the training methods of various individuals are helping to strengthen the individuals involved such as a Minotaur Ex-Major General, a rather elder Dragon whose exact age has not been confirmed as of yet as he is going around in his compressed form, a hooded black unicorn, and Dustan himself. I have looked into many of their dreams and found myself sorting through what they go through and it’s rather extensive. As such, I am starting to wonder about the training of our own guard.’

A ‘hmmm’ was transmitted over the link before Celestia ‘spoke’ up. ‘Considering this was some time ago but I heard of when Dustan first came to meet us that two of the new royal guards stationed to guard the castle attacked him but couldn’t land a hit upon him. If the Luminous Guard of his castle is getting to be a fraction of his own strength from that time, plus a bit stronger from the other sources teaching them, it is possible that we might want to hold a competition between the two. We might even get some ideas on different training methods to improve our own guard.’

‘Indeed. In fact I believe we should mention this to one of our Captains after this meeting.’ Luna couldn’t stop her giddy feeling from bubbling up through the link as well. ‘I will admit, I will be happy to have a friendly competition to see which of us is the better upon the field of combat. Maybe we can even get Captain Shining Armor to participate as Team Captain.’

The elder sister of the two rolled her eyes as she smiled. ‘You just wish to see what Dustan’s abilities can do in actual combat. You always have loved a good fight and hearing about a few of his adventures makes you wish to see if they are true doesn’t it?’

Grinning a bit she smiled. ‘There is that, plus he has offered to fight me before, I almost wish to take him up on that offer, but I feel like if the gap is too large then it would not feel fair from his point of view.’ Looking over to her sister she couldn’t help but grin. ‘You would do well from a good work out as well sister; your posterior is becoming rather corpulent.’

‘Maybe, but I have found that stallions like a mare with a sizable backside.’ The sisterly banter started as Celestia grinned. ‘I mean you could do well from gaining a few pounds as well sister.’

Luna not one to be outdone flexed a bit to show off her form. ‘Sorry sister, but my body is highly toned and many find it to be rather attractive. I should know since I have found more than a few subjects dreaming of said form.’

For a moment neither sister spoke before breaking out into laughter and confusing many nobles.

“Kweh!” The pure white Chocobo called out as she spotted him. Following closely after her was a blue Coeurl that gave off a curious sounding purr.

The Moogle merely smiled at the both of them and waved them over. “Hey you two, thanks for showing up again Kupo. Sorry if I was gone for a few hours, I had to go check on something Kupo.”

“Kweh?” The curious sound was simple and to the point for sure, or at least it was to the Moogle.

Shaking his head the white creature just told her. “No I haven’t met him yet, been waiting on it to be fair Kupo. There is just one small problem Kupo; one that I think will get worse if something isn’t done about it Kupo. I can’t ignore it and I am not an offensive type to actually fight it, so I am going to need help Kupo.”

“Mrow?” Seems he piqued the feline’s curiosity, to which he did laugh at as it was really hard to get her to speak to him.

Nodding to her he pointed a thumb back at himself. “Yes I am going to have to talk to your owner soon about it for sure since it concerns him as well Kupo. I am sure he has already felt the effects here at the Castle Kupo. I am just glad that creatures tend to ignore my presence unless they directly see me otherwise I wouldn’t be able to move around like I do Kupo. I mean your owner almost caught me once which surprised me since even when I say Kupo creatures still will ignore me so it was a real surprise when he suddenly stopped and looked around for me Kupo.”

Nodding and ruffling her feathers again, the Chocobo spoke up again. “Kweh.”

That solid sounding note made the Moogle sigh. “Yeah, I think it’s time your master learned about the creature stirring up the forest Kupo. I just really hope that he and his forces will be strong enough to take it out Kupo.”