NOIRE POV

I woke up to the sound of chirping birds and light footsteps. The morning sun burned my eyelids, forcing them open and leaving my tired eyes exposed to the sun's rays. I groaned and tried to go back to sleep but the footsteps grew louder until they reached the bed "Noire you can't spend your entire day in bed. Now get up, lazy bones!" a teasing voice, beckoning me to see who it was. Obviously, it was Cadence, my beautiful marefriend and my 'first'. She was shaking me to get me out of bed but I stuck firmly to my spot.

"Anyone or anypony can stay in bed for the entire day. It's just a matter of perseverance- not laziness," I replied, gaining a 'hmmph' from Cadence. She levitated me in her magic and carried me over to the bathroom where she hovered me over a bath filled with steaming hot water. My eyes widened completely and looked at her beggingly but it was too late. She released the spell around me, dropping me into the water with a loud splash. I remained submerged in the bath for a few seconds before rising out with a scream of pain "JESUS CHRIST CADENCE, THE HELL!" I yelled. Cadence merely replied by sticking her tongue out at me and walked out but not before leaving a blue towel at the door. I took the opportunity to bathe myself and get ready for the day. I brushed my teeth and dried my hair, but left it in it's natural yet intentionally messy state. I left the bathroom and to my surprise, Cadence wasn't there to tease me so I assumed she went down for breakfast. I put on my regular clothes; a red shirt under a leather jacket with cargo trousers and sneakers and left the room.
"That's probably going to be a regular morning for me now," I said as I walked down the halls to the dining room.

"Oh god..." I said. Cadence held up a newspaper to my face and in the corner of my eye, I could see Luna blushing vividly and Celestia looking very confused. I focused back on the title of the newspaper 'Unknown Monster gets Princess Luna in the sack!' with a picture of me under Luna "Wait? When did this one happen?" I said, pointing to the picture of my face buried in Luna's bosom.

"Now is not the time, Noire. We have to organise a whole event and confirm your existence to the public," she said.

"Now that doesn't sound that bad," I said

"As well as explaining our relationship and how you shouldn't be burned at the stake for tainting one of the royal sisters," she added. That shut me up completely. Burned? That sounded like something out of the medieval times, which made sense seeing as they were very lacking in technology... and a lot of common sense. "Don't worry, my love, I will not allow you to get burned but when my cousin finds out, he will definitely want your head,"

"Cousin? One of you had a son?" I asked to the sisters. Both of them shook their head with a disgusted expression. I assumed whoever this guy was didn't fall under Celestia and Luna's definition of 'nice'. I was about to ask another question when two guards entered the room and stamped his spear on the marble.

"Now entering the room; Prince Blueblood," one of them said. They marched to the side, allowing the doors to open and a white unicorn stallion with a pampered, blonde mane. As soon as he entered, I looked to my sides and saw all of the princesses putting on a clearly fake smile. I turned back to the prince who was now looking at me with a disgusted look on his face. I could already tell he was about to unbox a truck full of insults at me.

"What is this thing doing in a room for the priveleged, Aunty?" he said to Celestia. Well, who didn't see this coming I thought to myself. Celestia's smile faltered a bit but was immediately corrected. She was desperately fighting the urge to strangle this snob. I should know seeing as I myslf was about to throttle him but Cadence put her hand on mine to bring me back to my senses "Well? Is somepony going to answer me or should I just have my guards throw him out and burn this chair that is clearly covered with his dirt and germs?" he asked.

"Blueblood, this here is Noire, he is the personal guard to Cadence. He and Cadence will be staying here for a few days because of a changeling attack. Shining Armour has been reported M.I.A and I thought it would be safer for them to be here under my protection," Celestia finally replied.

Blueblood seemed to believe it but he still looked at me with that disgusted face "Well, if he is a guard, and a personal guard at that, he should be standing and in his armour. Don't you agree, Noire?" he said while smirking at me. I could see what he was doing without trying and just decided to comply, just for the moment. I stood up and walked back, allowing Blueblood to take my seat. I used my magic and summoned my armour. Blueblood was surprised at the fact that I could use magic but he killed that surprise the moment it was birthed.

"Noire doesn't have to wear armour around me. In fact him and I are-" Cadence was about to finish her sentence but a firm nudge snapped her out of it and stammered "b-best friends from way back. He had to move back to his home country of America with his family,"

"America? Never heard of it. Where might that be?" he asked me.

"Oh you obviously haven't heard of it. It is a small country far to the east. It isn't exactly a place you would want to visit on holiday; too cold for anyone's liking," I said, convincing him once again. He didn't come across to me as the intelligent type but like everyone else, I wouldn't say it to his face as he seemed happy with his 'high-level' intelligence and honorary status so we let him live the lie.

"Well as much as I would like to stay and chat, I have a dinner party to attend and I don't want to be late" he said.

"It's 7:00 A.M" Cadence said with a deadpan expression.

"Yes, I know. It will take me hours to find a good suit that matches my good looks perfectly," he said. He got up to leave but before he left he looked to me and smiled "You know, if you ever are in need of a job with a better pay, my personal guard is one of the most well paid and respected in Canterlot. Just something to think about," he said, smiling fakely and leaving. As soon as he left, everyone sigh in relief and Cadence groaned.

"Ohhh my god, I forgot about paying. How could I forget about that?" she said.

I put my hand on her shouder "Don't worry about it. If I wanted to be paid then I would've asked to be paid. Protecting you plus the free food and room is enough for me." I said. Cadence shivered under the cold metal of my guantlets and I pulled my hand away. The sisters grinned at us, gaining a blush from both of us and stepping a distance away from each other. "So... about this event... introducing me to the public. I've learned from the Crystal Empire's castle that rumors spread faster than spilled milk and I have had enough of the glares I get from the guards and the sultry ones from the maids. Cadence almost broke one maids' arms. NOT a pretty sight." I said, causing Cadence to blush even harder.

"Yes, we should be organise an public meeting today. You would be surprised how quickly a crowd can gather in Canterlot. There we will expose you to the public and maybe even... about Shining Armour..." Celestia said, fidgeting slightly in her seat and looking directly at Cadence. Cadence's eyes widened at revealing Shining's current state to the public before closing them and looking down at her untouched breakfast "Both of you have tried to subdue Chrysalis and Shining Armour with their current power hae failed. We need to join your militia with our own in order to do anything to them. It's obvious now where Chrysalis and by extension Shining have gained this power from... Grim. He is becoming much bolder with his moves on this world and he will soon show his face if he is bold enough to speak to Noire. There is also our mother, Faust's inclusion in this..." all of us remained silent. Everyone in the room knew who Faust was, including me from my studies with Luna. A blessed pony and the first of the alicorns, she was worshipped as a godess until she unepectedly disappeared thousands of years before even the human race found it's way to Eques. I theorised that she was responsible for sending me here and giving me this power but was confirmed after my first encounter with Grim. Speaking of, Grim told me to go to her for answers but at the time, I didn't know how.

"Yeah, about that, Grim told me if I wanted answers, I should go to her but I don't know how. I mean, she's in between realms; not a place I can just teleport to," I said, sighing stressfully "I've only met her twice and that was only when I was asleep, sometimes, when she needed to talk to me,"

Celestia placed her chin in her hand and thought about what I said for a minute "Well, until she reaches out to you, I suggest we all focus on dealing with Grim and his new lackeys. As for you, Noire, focus on your training and think up a good speech to give to our ponies today," she said finshing her breakfast and rising along with her sister "Well, you know how it is with us, work to do, ponies to pander to,"

"I feel like acknoledging the snobbish ponies' complaints is a waste of time and energy when the fate of the world and possibly the universe is at stake," I said blatantly.

"You are correct but we must show all our ponies we love them. Even if they are..."

"Dicks?" I asked

"Yes, dicks" she replied

Celestia and Luna left the room and Cadence and I left to plan our speeches. "You do know I am terrible at talking to a crowd, right?" I asked. Cadence only nodded her head and giggled "This isn't funny Cadence. I have no idea what to say and if I fuck up, all of Canterlot will know me as the 'Illiterate monkey' for the rest of my life! I have it bad enough already that I get some of the maids calling me 'monkey' but this is too much,"

"You're over-reacting, darling. If you can take a hit from an elite guard like Shining, you can handle a bunch of dick-headed nobles," she said cheerfully. She grabbed hold of my arm and walked close to me "Let's not forget I have an announcement to make about him being 'missing'. We also have to make plans to find Chrysalis, which could be incredibly easy with our recent prisoner," She was right; I wasn't handling all of the burden anymore and with the changeling we captured, it could be even easier to figure out where Chrysalis is "However, there's the problem of how we stop her when we do. She managed to drain the magic of an alicorn and an elite unicorn general in just a couple seconds and her guard is almost just as strong."

"Well, you're stronger now and you have that golden eye-thingy. Just do that and I'm sure we'll get them and have plenty of magic to spare," she said.

I turned to her in confusion "Uh? What golden eye-thingy? My eyes are black. Big difference."

"Well, you know, when you got all serious with Shining and your eyes tuned gold like some kind of dragon. I didn't feel any power increase but you definitely were fighting way better than when you did in any of your spars." I was even more confused then. I was doing some kind of transformation without even knowing? That was something I would have to ask Luna about when I saw her again. In the mean time, I had to focus on my speech. I merely shrugged my shoulder at Cadence and continued our walk back to our room.

The hours flew like the wind and just like that, it was time for my reveal. I was sweating buckets, rehering my lines in my head repeatedly, much to the amusement to everyone who knew the mind reading spell so basically everyone in the room except me. Caence took the time from her giggling to come over and see if I was alright, which I clearly was not. "You okay over here, Noire? I noticed yo've been muttering in your head for the past 3 hours," she asked, trying to maintain some control over her laughter.

"Yeah... yeah, I think I'm gonna be alright. I know my entire speech back to front and even if I fail, I won't care that much as 90% of the audience is a snobby noble that wants an opportunity to brown-nose a princess so nothing can go wrong for me today," Luna looked out of the balcony to the conference room where every seat was filled with aristocratic ponies with suits and dresses along with reporters from several tabloids.

"It looks like everyone has arrived. We should address them now before they start coming up with even more terrible rumors. It always makes their reactions to the truth even more infuriating," she said. Celestia nodded and opened the curtains to the conference room. Cameras started flashing and the ponies' mutters grew even louder until she raised her hand and the room went silent.

"Mares and gentlecolts, there has been news spread about my sister being raped by an unknown creature. I would like to confirm that this news is false and all rumors about this be stopped immediately." This incited confused chatter that was mostly unintelligible until a lone voice shouted from amidst the crowd.

"But there was a picture of a monster groping the princess. That could not have been fabricated." they said.

"You are correct, it was not fabricated but the picture you saw was lacking in the correct context. It was merely an accident involving my sister and a unique creature; a human. Some of you must have heard of the myth but allow me to confirm. Humans are real." The whole room gasped "This very same human will introduce himself and what he will be doing alongside us in the near future"

That was my cue. A walked to the edge of the balcony and took a deep breath before speaking "Hello, my name is Noire and for the past few weeks, I have been serving as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza's personal guard. I have devoted my body and soul to the protection of her and all of the ponies she loves. I know some of you mistrust me or find me disgusting but I hope I can gain all of your trust. I will be Equestria's Sword." silence was present in the crowd before a single stallion with a blue mane and moustache started clapping, causing all of the other ponis to follow. Cadence patted me on the shoulder, congratulating me while the diarchs behind us smiled.

"That sounds like an empty promise, a promise that I will soon prove false..." a voice called out from nowhere. The whole room went silent. I looked around for the source of the voice "If you really want to find me, Noire, look up" I followed it's instructions and saw a shrouded figure floating above me but lacked wings. There was no doubt about it, it was the same voice that called out to me in forest, the one who orchestrated everything up to this point; Grim.

"He's here..." I whispered to myself. Cadence, Celestia and Luna preped themselves ready for a fight "Grim."

"In the holograhic flesh, my good friend , and with good news and unfortunate news for everyone and pony here. The unfortunate news is half of you in this room will perish in 3 weeks. The good news is that the other half that remain will be a part of something bigger, a new world." the ponies below looked around in confusion which Grim noticed "I have watched ponykind grow from a chaotic and disorderly species into a peaceful and harmonious tribe, despite the recent attacks by evil tyrants. However, you have grown weak and ignorant to what your so-called 'gods' are up to behind the scenes. How hypocritical of them to educate the virtues of honesty while proving thmselves to be dishonest, hiding earth-shattering secrets like Nightmare Moon's return, Sombra, Tirek. Heck, I bet none of you knew what a changeling was until Cadence's wedding. Oh yes, Cadence, congrats on the divorce, by the way," that gained an even larger gasp "Oh you didn't tell them about Shining being Chrysalis' and my loyal servant? Why am I not surprised? Look at your saviors, mortals, unable to come up with a suitable defence for what seems to be the truth. The time of false harmony is over; I will crush your blackened country city by city and transform it into an empire fitting a vastly superior race to all others" he removed tthe shroud off of his face revealing a pale white face with a diagonal scar running right through it. Veins crawled up from his neck and to his eyes, a deep black similar to my own. In fact, his face was almost identical to my own.

Before my mind could even comprihend what I was even doing, I summoned my sword and instantly transformed it into the magic claymore. I leaped from the balcony and rocketed towards Grim with my sword held above my head and brought it down on Grim. The impact caused a shockwave that blew everyone of their feet and it looked like Grim had been hit but I saw him, with his pale and scarred had caught the blade before it could touch him "Ah, 'The Power of Unbound'. One of the code's many, unique gifts but ultimately useless in it's incomplete state. Try using magic internally instead of externally in this mode," he gripped the claymore tightly before it shattered into pieces and swatted me away. I landed on the ground with a sizable crater underneath me "That was all I had to say. I hope to see most of you in the new Canterlot. You have been an amzing audience. I bid you all farewell," he said before completely disappearing.

A pregnant silence lingered in the room, feeding off of the negativity radiating from each and every person in the room. Celestia was about to say something but was interrupted by an explosion from the wall in front of us, revealing a horde of deformed monsters like the one from the Everfree. The nobles screamed out in terror as they horde approached "We need to get everypony out of here!" Cadence yelled. The alicorns soared down and formed a barrier around all of us. However, the horde pressed on and walked through the barrier like it wasn't there. The crowd was in even more fear, causing the horde of monsters to scream as they were covered with a white aura. I got up and saw the situation they were in; all three alicorns fired at the monsters only for the magic to be absorbed.

"These things must be updated versions of the one I fought and fear seems to make them stronger" I muttered to myself "CELESTIA! LUNA! CADENCE! GET EVERYONE OUT OF HERE! THEIR FEAR IS ONLY MAKING THEM STRONGER!" I called out to them but it was too late. The monsters had already blocked the exit with their presense. I felt weak and my I could feel the cracks in my bones. I could see Celestia wrapping every pony she could with her wings and Cadence was crying. That tipped me over the edge and I punched the floor in frustration, not caring about the fractures in it. My thoughts were a buzz of angry thoughts but a recent memory put an idea in my head Try using magic internally instead of externally in this mode Grim's voice echoed in my head, telling me exactly what to do. I clasped my hands together as I could feel my magic becoming smaller and denser. I could feel my magic getting strnger until...

SLASH

Author's Note

Writer's Block sucks. What left is there to say instead I hope you enjoyed most of what my miniscule brain was able to grind out.

Stay dizzy. Wuzzy out.