A Man with a Lightning Charged Axe

Having finished the tour of the city and seeing the important locations that Solid wanted to show me as well as some words about the battlemages, Solid begins leading me to our proper destination. The rest of the walk there is mostly silent neither of us had much to say beyond what has been said.

Approaching what actually fits my expectations for a military school, walls surrounding a compound with an obstacle course that is currently being run by a handful of guardsponies in armor, the earth ponies have spears and other supplies strapped to their backs, while the pegasi have some form of front hoof spike and wing weights, and the unicorns seem to be forced to maintain several objects in their levitation at once. I guess it's to improve the natural strengths of each tribe.

Walking past the exercise yard and training field, we pass several buildings, which I'm guessing are the sleeping quarters and mess halls. Arriving at a larger building in the center of the whole complex Solid gives what I figure to be a salute to the two guards standing at the door and he starts through the door while I stoop over to make my way inside.

"Sorry for the size inconvenience, the only other species that work alongside the guard are the occasional griffon and not much else. Some of the areas where minotaurs are more common are probably built for your size, but since we don't have many of them here in Canterlot everything is built for ponies."

"I'll just suck it up until I get out in the field then, besides it's just the doorways that are causing problems, most of the insides are large enough for me to move properly in."

Making our way through the halls and corridors we arrive at a door with a nameplate on it. At least I assume its a nameplate since I can't read it. I'm really going to have to learn to read, or maybe there is a spell that will translate their written language for me. Either way it's starting to become a serious problem especially if I'm going to become an officer in her guard.

Actually didn't she say I could choose something else? That I didn't have to be in the guard? I'll try to come up with other ideas, I don't really think I'll work very well in the established chain of command.

Solid knocks on the door and a short and gruff "Come in," sneaks its way through the cracks.

Entering what has to be an officer's office I see papers strewn about and a few boards covered in what I guess to be reports connected to each other by some string like a detective would have in a Noir film.

Solid stands at attention and does the salute from earlier as he introduces us to the pegasus stallion behind a desk.

"This is Hector, Celestia is ordering his enrollment in the upcoming class. His file will be filled out and sent in a few hours."

The pegasus turns his gaze from Solid to me. As he looks me up and down I do the same to him. Just like all the other guards his coat is part of the spectrum from gray to white, but that's part of his armor's enchantments. I can't see his cutie mark but his eyes seem like they have seen far more combat than I will ever experience. It takes me a tad longer to realize that he is missing his hind leg on the right side, the prosthetic he uses is almost indistinguishable from a normal leg but the fact it has a slight metallic sheen gives it away.

After a few seconds of silence he finally speaks.

"You seem green, how long have you been swinging that axe kid?"

"I've practiced with Axes for a few years, but I've only started using it in combat for less than a week."

He snorts in response and mutters something I don't catch under his breath before he makes eye contact with me.

"When you're enrolled you finish a response to a teacher or tutor with sir. I'll let this one time go cause you're not part of the guard."

He moves from behind his desk and trots closer to me. I don't stop him from getting too close as he walks around me. Even when he starts tapping my armor I try my best to not respond in any way. It doesn't really work out as I still give small flinches and jolts when he does but I'm trying.

"You've got some interesting things about you, what are you anyway, a minotaur? And that book you have tucked there it gives off a vibe similar to a thundercloud."

"I'm a human and it is a bit of a story of how I got here. As for the book, it allows me to cast magic, Sir."

He nods and looks to my dragonstone, "Similar purpose for that then? And the staff?"

"Similar yes, but I'm mostly focused on my axe technique, Sir."

"I see. Well I'll have you run the basics to see how well you hold up to the standard guardsponies and we'll see what to do with you then." He heads back behind his desk and motions for us to leave.

Solid gives a salute and turns to leave and I follow him. Back out in the hall he leads me around the rest of the building showing me several classrooms and other areas for training and magic practice.

Once we leave the compound and start on our way back to the castle I finally work up the courage to ask him who the pegasus stallion is.

"So, I don't know if the princess told you with whatever she did to notify you but I can’t read, so who was that pegasus?"

Solid is taken aback and shakes his head in surprise, "What?! You can't read?"

I scratch the back of my head and give a small smile, "It's not that I don't know how, I just don't know your language."

Still obviously taken aback Solid takes a moment before he answers my question.

"That was the pony in charge of all officer training, his name is Last Wall, he alongside the Elements of Harmony rallied the guard to fend off the changeling invasion during Princess Cadance and Captian Shining Armor's wedding."

"Uhh, I don't know who those people are or what a changeling is. I've met the Elements and I've heard of Captian Shining Armor but I don't have much of a point of reference for anything you just said. I've been lost in the Everfree for a decent while."

Now completely shocked, Solid simply looks at me in disbelief, "You managed to survive in that place? I thought the Princess just wanted to keep an eye on you because you were a new species."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I mutter to myself. "But I'll need a rundown of what exactly happened at this wedding and why changelings are such a big deal. Can't really help with much if I don't know anythin',"

A Few Hours Later

Now that I'm back at the palace and in the room that Celestia had prepared for me I can give some thought to everything I've learned in the past day.

I'm definitely not joining the Academy as a guest professor or teacher, I don't know how to do much of anything they want a teacher to do. Not to mention my lack of literacy.

Joining as a student isn't ideal either since once again I can't write reports they can read. So if I'm joining the Academy in any sense it isn't one that requires writing. Maybe as a special honor student that gives me an exception from paperwork? I have no clue how that would work so it is an idea that I'm likely to shelve for now.

Skipping past the academy doesn't seem wise and neither does not participating in the guard at all since it gives me an official reason to be following the princesses orders and that would likely give a wonderful shield to start working on my promise to Thrud.

This is going nowhere.

Turning my thoughts away from the Academy and everything I'll need to be doing in the future I go over what Solid told me about recent events.

Three major events have happened in the past year that have given rise to increased recruitment and harsher training for the guard. The first was Celestia going missing during the events of Nightmare Moon's return, the second was a creature called Discord breaking free from his imprisonment as a statue in the castle garden, and the most recent is the changeling attack that took place during the wedding of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor.

Turns out that changelings here look like an insect version of a pony with black chitin and holes in their legs. They have the ability to transform into identical copies of ponies or even create a brand new pony as a disguise to harvest love from ponies and other creatures. How something eats love is beyond me but they invaded and their queen captured Cadance so she could take her place and take all of Shining Armor's love which gave her the strength to fight Celestia and win.

At first the nobles didn't support an expansion of the guard. The didn't see any reason to since the return of Nightmare Moon only lasted a single day and many of them didn't even believe that anything happened.

They couldn't keep that attitude when Discord broke free, as he took control of the sun and moon! While his reign of chaos only lasted for a few days it caused enough of an uproar that the nobles relented to the Princesses wishes and agreed to increase the budget for the guard.

Once the wedding fiasco happened it basically made any remaining holdouts for the nobles go out the window. While not going into a full standing army or having recruitment quotas, propaganda and recruitment drives suddenly became far more common. That's how Solid decided to join the guard in the first place.

Right now, everything seems to be fine, but everyone who is in any real position of power knows that something is brewing behind the scenes, and whatever it is isn't going to be peaceful.

Ultimately I decide that I'll sleep on it and face Celestia and give her my answer on what I want to do here in the morning.