“Applejack I’m so sorry I’m late!” I said, rushing into the Veggie Burger.

“Oh I don’t mind. It’s rare I get to just sit on down for a while”

“Still I feel like such an idiot, I just got caught up reading Robert Feathers Compendium and completely lost track of time.”

“His what now? Are you still on about that old pony?” She asked with a unamused expression and a raised eyebrow.

“Well yes. She could still be out there and we know absolutely nothing about her. She has ridiculous magic prowess and an amazing amount of strength. I don’t know if she’s hostile, friendly, indifferen-” Applejack’s stare cut me off. I politely coughed, “Ermm, yeah. Lunch…”

“Twilight I understand that she could be dangerous but you’ve been holed up in your castle for a *week*. Your research is going from understandable to unhealthy”

“But what if something happens! I can’t just sit around and not try and figure it out.” I pleaded for Applejack to understand my point of view.

“I’m not saying that you have to stop researching, not that I could make you, I’m just saying that too much of it’s bad. You didn’t go to Fluttershy’s picnic, you didn’t go to Pinkie’s party, and you’ve already missed two of our lunches.”

I gave a defeated sigh. “I guess you’re right. I’m stressing over a possibility. If I got this worked up about everything that might happen I would probably go mad. Heh, mad Queen Twilight. Isn’t that a headline.”

Applejack laughed wholeheartedly. That was nice, the last laugh I remember was the hollow one of Joy…

“So what are you getting?”

The rest of the afternoon carried on smoothly save for the waitress pony spilling spaghetti on the floor. Apparently it was her first day on the job, poor thing was nearly as shy as Fluttershy and twice as embarrassed. After an hour or so of casual reading with Spike I did decide it was best to continue researching. Maybe I could try some biographies? Maybe a pony will mention Joy if I get the right time period.

I sat down with a biography on one of the early great metal craftsponies Iron Greeve. I felt off though. There was a chill on the back of my spine and I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was being watched. The feeling vanished though as soon as I got into the book. Iron Greeve was an interesting pony anyways and the combination of expert writing of by Ready Made made it a breeze to read.

Out of the blue a sweet, raspy voice said behind me, “So, Princess Twilight then? Had you said something I would have bowed down to my newest monarch.” To my credit I didn’t jump too high into the air.

“You! What are you doing here!” I shouted instantly recognizing the sickly sweet voice. She had shed the armor somewhere and was now just wearing a long cape, again bearing the crescent moon insignia.

“Making a courtesy call. You saved me from what I realise now was going to be an eternity of dreaming. While I wouldn’t normally mind that my mindscape is rather… finicky.”

“But… what took you so long? It’s been a week!” I said slowly, readying a sleep spell. I didn’t want to use it but I had no idea what to expect.

“Really? A week? Huh, I guess my sense of time is still off.” She said, bashing her head with hoof like she was trying to kickstart a generator. “Really I was just trying to figure out what happened to my town. Waste of more time than I thought apparently. That’s not really that important, what is important is this: a wish.” She teleported onto the table behind, lying in an uncomfortable pose. “Basically you can have me do whatever you want from me. I am a mare of many services which normally cost quite a lot but for you I’ll make an acception.”

I did not like the sound of this. “What kind of ‘services’?”

“Pretty much anything. I can’t exactly grant you immortality, you’ve already got that done, but something within a feasible capacity for a lowly Unicorn. Need a pony offed, want more wealth than you would ever need, want a maid service I’m your gal.” She said, summoning up a… piece of soggy paper. She looked at it with an angry expression. “I guess my barrel broke.”

What? Wait, “A pony offed! You mean like killed!”

She looked at me with a terrifyingly blank expression. Then she answered with an equally terrifying response. “Yes. Assassinations, executions, your ‘dirty work’, whatever you want to call it. Why, you need somepony gone?” The casual way she said it staggered me. I was nearly at a loss for words.

“A wish is anything right?”

Not even letting me finish she said, “Anything but that. Treat me to dinner first at least sheesh.”

“What? Whatever, you said a wish.” This was a terrible idea. Oh this was such a bad idea. I barely thought about it and blurted out, “I want you to stay here with me.” I spoke all at once. This stupid Princess of Friendship title is really going to get me in trouble one day.

She stared at me for a few seconds then finally said, “Fuck, I really need to be more specific. Alright, fine. Do you want me to call you master or something.” She also mumbled something under her breath but I couldn’t hear it.

“No just Twilight is fine.” Or should I flex my princess title. This might be my only chance of figuring her out, I don’t want her to just leave.

“So how exactly do you want this done? Am I like your servant or gardener? Royal Crystal Polisher?” She looked around for a second before saying, “Entire Royal Guard? Seriously, you have nopony guarding this place.”

“I want you to be my… Student. I’m going to teach you the magic of friendship.” I said with my most dramatic voice, and the biggest smile I could muster.

This was such a bad idea.

She just laughed. I deflated a little. “Pfft, lady, listen. I’m definitely way older than you are even without my extended nap. I don’t need a teacher and I definitely don’t need to be taught the “Magic of Friendship.””She finished in a mock tone.

“Well maybe you do? That wasn’t the friendliest thing and something tells me you’ve been a long time without a friend.” I tried to reason. She had to be lonely, three hundred years is a long time for ponies to stick around and I could reasonably figure that she didn’t have anypony.

I watched for the longest moment as the gears in her head span, twisting and turning until finally she responded, “Fine. Twas I who was stupid enough to grant you a wish…” She trailed off.

“Right. Well first things first if I’m going to help you I need to know a little about you.”

She snorted, clearly not liking this idea. “I’m actually a changeling spy sent from the past to devour your gods. I’m Celestia wearing a wig. I’m a troubled teen going way too far to cover up the fact I was getting smashed in a cave. Listen, Princess, I’m just a pony of woes and troubles that are now hundreds of years old. Get on with your life, don’t let me drag it down. Just ask me for a back massage and be done with it.”

She was giving me an out, letting me reconsider. I wanted to instantly say ‘no we're going through with this’ but I was starting to psych myself out. Do I really want this dangerous pony around Spike? She’s not worth the trouble. She’s obviously not a villain so don’t worry about her. But some Applejack sounding part of my brain took notice of the pleading look hidden deep in her eyes. Then beyond that a endless pit of blue sorrow.

She was so very sad. “No. I can tell you need a friend, what kind of princess would I be if I didn’t even live up to my title.” Or maybe this was going to go fine. Oh Celestia I hoped nothing was going to go wrong.

She slumped over defeated. “Fine. What exactly does being a friendship student entail exactly?”

I started to answer but as I opened my mouth the double doors to the library burst open and two of the three flower ponies ran in.

“Princess we need your help!” Rose shouted.

“Woah woah, just calm down. What’s wrong?” I said, trying to sooth Rose.

“It’s Daisy. She’s really sick and none of the Doctors know what to do. We thought you could do something. Maybe magic up a cure?” Lily said in place of Rose who was currently having a panic attack.

“I don’t think I can just ‘magic up’ something. What are the symptoms, maybe I have a book on it.” I said, already starting towards my disease section. This was very bad. If the Ponyville doctors didn’t have a cure than it was something rare. Rare was not good when it came to diseases.

“Well she has these big rings around her eyes and they’re all bloodshot. She’s running a really high temperature and keeps coughing. Oh, and she keeps complaining about her muscles. And it came on really suddenly. She was just pruning some flowers she found in the Everfree and then she was really sick. Please help Twilight, she’s doing really badly.”

“Were the flowers blue?” She shook her head. I quickly skimmed through every disease book that might might match the description but none of them did.

“Okay, don’t worry. I’m going to go get Zecora, she’ll know what to do about this.”

“Oh thank you so much Princess. Thank you thank you thank you thank you.” She said, grappling onto me. I took a second to glance over to Joy and noticed that she was just staring.

Then she shook her head and said, “Alright, you ponies need to leave. Twilight needs to get to her business.”

They quickly said the last of their thanks and left, probably to go comfort their friend.

“Twilight,” Joy said from right behind me. I jumped again, geez she was a quiet pony. “Zecora is a very Zebra name. Aren’t ponies super racist?”

“Racist?” I asked, hurrying towards the door.

“Well, back when I was around everybody hated Zebras. I never really figured out why but as far as I can tell it’s because they had some kind of alternative solar system theory that completely discredited Celestia’s abilities. I also recall the phrase ‘zigger’ making me laugh.”

Her extremely casual slurring made me turn red again but I powered through it and said, “I don’t really know. When Zecora was first around everypony was scared of her but that was because they thought she was a spooky hooded shaman who would turn you into soup.”

“Right. Well, one more thing, why don’t you just teleport us to her house?”

“She lives in the Everfree. The primal magic around there would make it more likely for us to teleport into a tree than not. Besides, I’ve only been there a few times so that could end disastrously.”

She stopped trotting and turned to face me. “Woah woah, Princess. I understand your decision, if you know this Zebra can help than I’m all for it but the Everfree Forest? Even back in the day there’s no way somebody could live there, we could barely get into the damned place.”

Once again with the swearing.“I don’t know the specifics but Zecora mentioned some kind of plant that keeps the beasts away.”

“Princess, I’m just going to say that this is a bad idea. The Everfree Forest is not a place to take a stroll through. Even the edges will eat you alive. We should get a chariot and have a pegasus fly us there.”

“We don’t have time. And besides Zecora made sure that the path there was monster free. We’ll be fine.” I said and immediately wanted to take back my words. Even if Zecora had made sure that the path was safe the sight of the Everfree this close was terrifying.

I glanced over just in time to notice Joy flash. My first thought was that she had left me to do this myself. For some reason the lack of the scary unknown pony made me even more scared of the scary *relatively* unknown forest. But before I could think more on it I noticed that she hadn’t left at all, she just changed.

She was now wearing the armor, shining with a sheen I could see myself in. The crescent moon insignia was adorned across either flank, on both front shoulders, and very prominently on the center her chest piece. She was also levitating a scythe. It’s blade was sharper than anything I had ever seen and looked to be the same crescent shape of the moon. Or maybe I was looking too close.

She turned her head to me and cocked it slightly to the side. “Don’t you have some armor or something?” I shook my head. “At least some enchanted Regalia right?” Again I shook my head. “Okay fine but you have a weapon.” Another shake. She groaned loudly and said, “I’m going to get myself killed. Okay, here are the rules: any creature smaller than three of me you let me take care of. Anything bigger you run and let me distract it. If it’s larger than your castle then… well. Run faster.” That was comforting.

And with that she started boldly into the forest with that predatory walking style that put me on edge. More than I already was walking into the Everfree.

A good five minutes passed with no incident. I tried making some conversation but was immediately shushed. That was another thing, she was walking with all of that heavy, metal armor and still not making a sound. It was a question for another time. As it was we were going “Slow and low. Quiet, quiet, quiet. No time for talk, whatever’s out there might find us.”

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, we made it to Zecora’s hut. I knocked on the door and let Zecora invite us in.

“I see I have visitors so I will be a good listener. Why are you here pony folk, do you require some magic yolk?”

“Magic what?” Joy asked. “No, there’s a sick pony in town and we don’t know what’s the matter. We were wondering if you could help out.”

“Then why are we just standing here, let’s go help the poor dear.” Zecora rhymed, putting a noticeably confused look on Joy’s face.

“Don’t you need some magic herbs or something?” I asked Zecora making sure she didn’t forget anything.

“I have all the potion I need, we must go with speed. Let us make haste, I fear we have no time to waste.”

Once again Joy took point, making us slowly and quietly trodd through the path. I was starting to think that her precautions might be unwarranted. Zecora had made sure that the path was safe. And besides, Zecora should be plenty of deterrent from the beasts within the Everfree. According to her she had been living in the forest for years and spent a better part of that time making a “Connection with the forest creatures.”

Not five minutes out from Zecora’s hut Joy stopped abruptly, making my face smash into her rump. I flushed a bit and looked up to say something but she was completely unfazed and was focused on the surrounding brush, ears going wild. She made a hoof signal to get down so I flattened myself.

And not a moment too soon! Just as I felt the ground connect with my chest a purple monster flew across right where my head was. Joy caught the thing with her hooves and smashed it against the ground with a sicking crack.

I looked around and saw that there had to be fifteen more starting to come out of trees and bushes.

Zecora and Joy both simultaneously shouted, “Run!”

And so I did. I shot off down the path as fast as I could gallop. I sent a couple glances backwards, terrorfied with the things in hot pursuit. Joy was doing something with her horn. I wanted to say that it was pointless but I was terrified to silence buy the thought of one of the purple monsters leaping out of a tree onto me.

There was a great flash and what sounded like the striking of lightning, temporarily blinding and defining me. When I blinked away the white I noticed that I wasn’t in the Everfree anymore. I looked over for Zecora and saw that she was sitting on the floor trying to blink away the haze in her eyes. But I couldn’t find Joy.

“Joy! Where are you?” No response. Oh this is bad bad bad. Then there was another flash and Joy appeared at my side, covered with claw scrapes all across her armor.

“I’m okay! I’m fine, don’t worry. I am perfectly fine.” She said in a shaken tone while she was trying to get her balance.

“What was that? What where those? What!” I shouted.

“Those were called Vuls, nasty pack hunters. They like to go for ambush attacks then overwhelm prey. That was the Heaven’s Low Rider spell. I turned you into energy, sent you a couple miles towards town, then you popped back in. I didn’t have enough juice for myself so it took me a little longer.” She grimaced looking down at a nasty gash in her shoulder that cut through the armor. I started to suggest that we double time it to the hospital but she cast a spell that stopped me short.

Out of thin air she formed a small fluctuating circle of void and reached in with her magic. She pulled a red potion and chugged it. Instantly the wound cleared up. I had so many questions.

But they would have to wait. “We need to get to the hospital.” Joy looked at me, nodded, then suddenly we were there.

I glanced and saw Joy collapsed over. She gave a faint, “I’m alright” and I pratucally dragged a confused Zecora to the hospital. The doctors saw her and immediately started escorting her down into the hallways farther. The look on her face was amusing but I didn’t laugh.

“Thank you so much Princess,” One of the doctors stayed behind to say. “It’s hard to say what might have happened without Zecora here. As it stands I’m positive Lily will be just fine.” He finished with a relieved smile.

I gave my own more casual smile, “It’s fine, it wasn’t any trouble really. Besides I had help.”

“Magic of friendship and all I suppose. Have a nice day Princess, and again thank you.”

I nodded my head then went out to check on Joy. She was just sitting in the grass next to the path doing something with her magic while her eyes were closed. I didn’t really want to bother her but I still needed to let her know it was fine.

“Joy? Are you alright?”

“Yes.” She spoke simpilly without opening her eyes.

“Lily is going to be fine. Thank you, I don’t know if I would have gotten Zecora on time. Or at all.” I finished, remembering the ambush.

There was a second of uncomfortable silence that was suddenly broken by Joy opening her eyes and ecstatically saying, “Alright, I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to be your knight. I think I mentioned before that I was once a knight and I think that I’ll take up that mantle again. I don’t need a teacher but I know that you need somepony keeping you safe.”

I blanked, then stammered out “B-but I have Spike. And my friends.”

“Where they there with the Vuls?”

“That was different, they couldn’t have been. Spike was awa-” I sighed deeply. “Fine. You make a good point.

“Exactly, I always make good points. Even if they don’t make sense. So it’s decided then, I am going to serve you faithfully. To a point at least.” She spoke, looking proud.

zIt really made me feel uncomfortable. “What do you mean to a point.”

“Just another oath I made decades ago. I seriously doubt it will come up though.” She said, gazing off into the distance while we made our way towards my castle.

“I sure hope not. The last thing I need is a indecisive protector.”

“You seem to be taking this well.” She mused.

“To be honest I’m not. But you’ve made up your mind and who am I to stop you?”

“You’re the Princess. All I am is a pony from a bygone era. You could call for my summary execution, though I seriously advise against doing that.”

That made my head swim. I haven’t really thought about the real extremities that came with princess-dom. “I guess.” Was all I could muddle out.

“And then there’s that,” She started, still staring at nothing. “You’re a princess. Act like one. Not all the time, that’s a good way to lose anybody not contractually bound to you, but when you need to. To your servants, to your subjects. You are above them, literally and figuratively.”

“I don’t think It’s that much. I’m really just a unicorn with wings.”

“...wings, a castle, an infinite natural lifespan, the power of a god. Yeah. Nothing spectacular, just your run-of-the-mill alicorn.”

I couldn’t help but blush. Being held in such high regard just because of a title and some benefits gave me a sick kind of joy behind my cheeks.

We remained silent for the remainder of the trip, slowly walking to my castle. Eventually we went into the higher floors and I let her pick out a room.

“You don’t have quarters for servants? Or soldiers?” She asked.

“I think you said it yourself, I don’t have any.”

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have any room for some. Until proper accommodations are found I think I’ll just take up the observatory.”

I couldn’t help giggle a bit. “I used to live in an observatory. Back when Celestia was still privately teaching me she gave me full reign of an unused observatory. It was actually the one my parents used to work in but when they retired so was the place.”

“That was an unnecessarily large chunk of your life explained to a stranger.”

“You’re my friend aren’t you?” I liked to think that the person who just swore to protect me would be my friend. They’re pretty much one in the same anyway.

“If you want me to be Princess. I just think that it might be unwise to tell so much about yourself. The fact you didn’t seem sad when talking about your parents implies that they’re still alive. Your connection to Celestia is obvious. You probably like watching stars. Just with that information somebody could hurt you deeply then when you go do something you like to get your mind off of things.” She stomped on the floor hard enough for a small cracking sound to be heard.

“How do you even think like that?” I said, slightly distressed. That anypony thought like that didn’t sit well with me.

“Years of experience,” Was her short but bitter answer. “The bottom line is, Princess, that I have just sworn to protect you. That includes all levels of protection, not just physical. I’m not flawless, there have been times where I survived just because of dumb luck.” She said harshly. Like she was remembering something painful. “But,” She emphasized. “You are now, for all intents and purposes, my master. I will do practically anything you ask but if you want me to stop trying to help you in that way then I will.” She was taking this very dramatically. I remember Rainbow Dash swearing to protect me but it was nowhere near this serious.

And again she had me blushing madly. Thank Celestia she didn’t seem to pay it any mind. “I-. Er. Thank you Joy.” I really didn’t know what to say.

“No problem Princess. It’s starting to get late and I would like to set myself up. Sweet dreams Princess.”

I watched absently as she walked past me and into her room. There was a light thump and the sound of the door clicking. Then I was alone.

‘What is going on?’ I asked myself. I didn’t know. I didn’t even know how to appropriately respond to my situation. This strange pony from a different time has just forced herself as my protector. Like some kind of knight out of a fantasy novel.

It didn’t help that she was morally ambiguous. All of her talk about using what I said made me think: what if she’s just trying to get close to me. Or my friends? Spike?

Even if I had my suspicions I wouldn't act on them. I was the princess of friendship, and besides, I didn’t have any proof.

Still. Maybe Spike and I should have lunch with the girls.

Author's Note

Second chapter. I hope you like it.

Was listening to this when I finished.

If you actually did like it then there is more to come. If you didn't then tell me what I did wrong. Hell even if you liked it tell me what I did wrong. I'm sure you know way more about this than I do.

Have a good day.