Before leaving the hive, I had learned a bunch of new things that I already didn't know about changelings. Apparently, when they feed on love, they prefer foals instead of the adults. Something about the love for their family being greater and all that shit. They even gave me an example by feeding on a pony named Feather Duster. Honestly, it was just a bunch of acting. One of the changelings would transform into the foal's dad and pretend to fight off the changelings, when in reality, they were just pretending to be hurt from the lightest punches I've ever seen be thrown at someone. It was entertaining to watch nonetheless. Moving on, the mission was already set in stone for me to complete. The mission was to infiltrate the castle and look for a book in the royal archives called 'Magical Limit Breaker'. Once I'm in, I must take the book and get out as soon as possible with as little detection as possible. While it is not required of me, they prefer that I don't kill anyone, lest there be an uproar and a castle lockdown. Upon leaving the designated area, I was not to return, else my signature scent be recognized in the room. Apparently when anyone enters the royal archives, it leaves a physical scent or magical signature when someone decides to take a book from one of the shelves. The guards then use that scent to either confirm that the pony was authorized or to track down anyone who wasn't. A neat system that they have, but it shouldn't be hard. I was given 4 days to complete the assignment.

Also, I gave that spell that I activated on Sombra an actual name. I named it [Final Stand] because it makes me damn near invincible. The drawback of using the spell, however, is when it is finished, I am temporarily left with a tenth of my power, but if what Celestia says about my power level is true, then I don't think it would matter too much. That does bring to me a question though.

'What is Discord's power level?' I guess I won't know the answer until I find him. By the way, that is another thing I want to bring up. Where did Discord disappear to? The last time I saw him was before I defeated Sombra. After that, I never saw him. He has to be planning something. Eh, no matter. I guess he will come to me when I'm ready.

I was now in Canterlot, the telepad making things ten times easier to get there. I was about to walk into the castle when I realized how much I stood out to everypony in this country. I stopped myself and turned the other way and rushed into town. It seems that the two groups that fought over me earlier evolved. There were now castles built on each side. They were nowhere near as tall as the castle the royal sisters reside in, but the height of the two structures compared to the rest of the city was very noticeable. Something that was also noticeable was the fact that one side clearly hated me, which I assumed to be the group which called themselves the AHO because I was given glares as I walked past the different buildings. How did I know the name? A flashy-as-fuck flag was at the top of their castle. The other group, the HPP, gave me smiles. I decided that I would deal with AHO at a later time, and went to an inn on the HPP side. Even the buildings were renamed to theme what they represented. I rung the bell and waited patiently. A unicorn mare came from the back of the inn and looked at me.

"How can I help you si-" She gasped, "I can't believe I am actually talking to Axel. It is a pleasure to meet you!" She was actually quite giddy, but I did have a question.

"How do you know my name?" I asked in clear confusion. She paused her excitement for a second to answer my question.

"When you got quite famous, and also infamous at the same time, ponies started to research you. There were many groups over the times where we did that, but the two main ones still stand." Okay, so now I need some information.

"Okay, so what does each side stand for. I know this side is called the HPP and the other side is called the AHO, but I assume those are acronyms." She nods.

"Yes, the HPP's full name is the Human Protection Pact. We strive to try to make life as easy for you as possible while still being able to maintain ourselves. Actually, I would like to thank you. Because of you practically existing, everyone wants to sleep at this inn because it supports you." Wow. I never thought me existing anywhere would have that type of effect.

"I'm not going to say 'your welcome' because I didn't really do anything but exist. Now what does the AHO stand for." She scoffed at the mention of that name.

"That's the group that you do not want to fool with. The Anti-Human Organization want nothing more than to either see you tortured, banished, or killed. They go to even the extreme means of doing so, by studying your weaknesses and working those into their favor. The only good that has come out of it is the fact that any homeless or lower class ponies could easily get a job that had a nobles salary." Am I worth that much money? I know it's normal to fear the unknown, but damn.

"I will be sure to stay away from them then. No reason to fight if it doesn't really warrant it. However I do want to monitor them just in case they decide that they want to get hostile and start a war in their own town. That would look really bad to the other cities, who actually have similar ideals to this one. Also, what is your name?" She contemplates what I said before speak again.

"I can get a guard to monitor information to you. By the way, my name is Mythic Diamond." I gave her a bewildered look.

"What do you mean? How do you know who to trust in the royal guard?"

"Both sides have their own guardsmen. Ours being called the H-Guard, and theirs being called the A-Guard. If there is ever a fight or a betrayal, they are there to take care of it." That must be really convenient.

"Do you mind if you can get me a guard to monitor the activities of this side and the other one and report it to me weekly?" I asked. She nodded.

"I'll get a gua-"

"I can do it for you!" A familiar pegasus walked into the building. She looked familiar...

"Is that you, Snowy?" I asked.

"You two know each other?" Mythic asked. I nodded.

"She invited me to spar with the guard, which kind of ended up with putting Luna in a state where she felt unsafe." Snowy walked up to me and gave me a hug.

"When I heard that there were two groups that practically made up in town, I immediately quit the royal guard and became an H-Guard. I will be the one to monitor both sides for you. Is that alright with you, S-Diamond?"

"S-Diamond?" I looked back to her. She giggled before relieving me of my curiosity.

"Our ranks are determined by the letter you are given. S puts me second in command next to SS-Gust, the leader of the group."

"Do you mind explaining to me about your ranking system?" She nodded and went about explaining all of the rankings and how one goes up in rank. F-Class was completely made up of citizens. They go living day-to-day life unless they decide to betray the group. E-Class was also citizens, the only difference being in a state of emergency. E-Class are the only ones allowed to use a weapon when they have a licence to use them. Also in a situation where something happens that causes the group to split locations, they are trained to lead F-Class citizens to safety. D-Class were allowed to learn magic spells and fighting techniques equivalent to the lowest rank in the royal guard. They focused mainly on protecting those lower than them and making sure that this side of the border is safe from any sort of crime that happens. C-Class is anyone in the H-Guard, so they get their own armor that signifies their rank along with receiving a pay-grade. Their job is to maintain the border for any AHO trespassers, along with monitoring the castle and areas around it. B-Class were Captains of the H-Guard or our spies we use for espionage on the other side. They were paid higher because of something they learned. If anyone was caught over there, they were tortured, but none of the injuries they receive were permanent or resulted in death, but the emotional aspect would leave the victim in quite a state of trauma. A-Class consisted of 10 ponies who are generals and are able to raise someone's rank to B-Class if they choose to. The only way to obtain A-Class were if one of the 10 ponies either gave their position up, ended up being a traitor, or were killed. S-Class was the pony who was second in command, in which case that was Diamond. SS-Class is the leader of this entire group, which is a pony named Winter Gust, an earth pony who thought of the idea for this group. The last class, which I never knew was a thing, was SSS-Class, which was the human that they were protecting.

"That is the entire ranking system." That was a lot to take in. Wait a minute.....

"I have the highest rank?" I asked. They both nodded.

"That is correct, SSS-Axel." Snowy bowed before me. This may actually make my mission a tad easier.

"That must be a mouthful to say, so just call me Triple-S-Axel." She nodded.

"I will have a report for you soon. Give me about a week to check on everything." I nodded and she walked out. I watched the door close and turned back to Diamond.

"What rank is she?" I asked.

"I believe that she is A-Class. She got there after managing to handle 4 captains on her own. We were skeptical at first if she was cheating, but since she isn't a unicorn and no other unicorns were anywhere near the fight, we had to go with the opinion that she played legit." That might have been my doing. After I fought with Snowy that day I traumatized Luna, I decided to train her in my free time, usually the mornings where I don't feel like training with the dummies. She was actually trained well enough to possibly even beat unicorns on their own, despite the cheaty magic advantage. Royal guard training is actually really shit. She told me that Blueblood said the best way to wield a sword is to make sure your sword is able to touch the opponent, which I disagree with. The best way to wield a sword is to force someone into a position and take advantage of it. The sword actually hitting its target is just a bonus. My thoughts came to an end as Diamond cleared her throat. "I believe you wanted a room?" She asked. Oh.. right. I forgot about that.

"How much is it?"

"I would never let the human pay for a room. We actually have one that was specifically made for only you."

"Really?"

"Yes." She made her way towards the stairs, "Follow me." I walked up with her and we made it to the room at the end of the hall to the left, Room 117. "You want to know something interesting about this room?"

"What about it?"

"The room number is based on your first ever power level reading."

"Didn't that only happen a few hours ago?"

"Remember, we have our own government system. With that comes with ways to get information as fast as possible. Even if you were in the Crystal Empire, we would still be able to get information from you in a matter of minutes. That's how thorough we are about your safety in this world." She explained as I walked in. I was honestly a little touched, but of course I wasn't going to show it.

"Okay, thanks for the room. I should be out of your mane by tomorrow." She nodded and closed the door behind me. I looked around and saw that everything was actually human sized, including the bathroom to my left. There was a bed and desk with a human-sized chair. It must've took a lot of trial and error to be able to get the size right, so I was grateful for the effort they put in to make my life more comfortable. I mean, it wasn't like I wasn't already comfortable, but no one has ever given me hospitality before, and I don't know how to go about it. Anyways, the reason I needed a room was because right after turning myself into a pony, my body will go straight to sleep, which is odd because I'm fine when I do it vice versa. I took off all of my clothes so that way I do not mess them up during my transformation. I got under the covers and then activated the spell, going unconscious during the process.

I guess I will know once I've woken up if the spell works or not.

I awoke with a stir and went to hold my head. Last night did not do any favors for me. I guess that spell needed to still be perfected. As I held my head, which actually was more of a punch in the face, I noticed that they seemed a lot shorter. I looked myself over and saw that I still got the results I wanted. I had an orange coat with a red and yellow mane. I looked in the mirror and saw that I looked like the pony version of an anime character. My cutie mark was the picture of a building hammer with two arrows pointing away from it. On one arrow was the picture of a pistol and the other one had the picture of a medical kit. I'm going to be honest, I could get down with this. I was a unicorn too, which makes things all the better. I hopped off the bed and went to trot.... only to fall down. Oh right, I have to relearn to walk again. I got up and attempted to walk again, only to get the same result. A few more times, and I could only stand properly.

'Wait a minute... what if I...' If I have to learn to walk on all fours, then can't I just crawl the same way I do in human form? I tested it out and managed to finally make progress. I can easily walk around doing this, but the problem is running. If I'm in a sticky situation, I don't think that walking away from the enemy would be a valid tactic. I guess I should try to do it outside. As soon as I walked through the door to the main hallway however, I was immediately stopped by Diamond, who gave me a cold glare.

"What are you doing in the human's room?" She pulled out a dagger seemingly from nowhere. Why the hell do you carry that around?

"This is what I look like in pony form." I replied, spooking her as she didn't expect me to have my voice.

"Oh, well breakfast is ready for you." She said nervously.

"Actually for me, eating is not necessarily a need. If I want to eat for an extra energy gain or just to savor the taste of food, then I could, but it isn't required." I replied. She held her head down and thought on what I said for a moment.

"That being said, where is the table at?" I said, walking downstairs. She blinked dumbfoundedly once before running after me. She caught up and walked by my side to the table. On the table were some pancakes, a glass of orange juice, and what looked to be a fruit salad. The food here looks good as hell. I waste no time taking my seat and taking a bite out of the pancakes. That was the best fucking thing I've ever tasted in my life. It beats eating anything I could find in my early life. When you are a criminal and everyone knows your name, you can't just walk inside a store and act like people would treat you normally. I could steal from the store, but security can only be so low. There were times during the day where I even starved myself because I had literally no food. I could've bought some of the food from the black market, but I don't necessarily trust any item that comes from there. I usually go there to sell some weapons or some goods. They pay way higher than if I were to sell these same weapons at a weapons store. Speaking of stealing and selling, how am I going to get that book? I probably should do some espionage of the place to see what is going on. Wait a minute, I forgot where I was. I stared at Mystic and she looked up to me.

"Do you need anything?" She stared at my empty plate before giggling. "You have quite the appetite."

"Its what happens when you only obtain extra energy and don't get hungry, but now I feel as if my energy is at an all time high. I guess I'll use this to train myself to run as a pony."

"I think that would be best. It is a very quick way to burn off energy." I responded with a nod and got back down to business.

"Do you have the layout of the royal castle?" Her face turned serious.

"What do you need with it?" She asked, her fork playing with an apple slice. Gotta love unicorn magic and all its bullshit. Why the fuck do forks here even have a handle?

"It would help me with my mission a lot if you did." She thought about this for a second before speaking again.

"Whats in it for me?" Of fucking course you would say that.

"What do you want from me?" Her face started to turn red. Oh fuck, if she's trying to ask what I think she is going to ask...

"Um....D-Do you mind if I feel your rib cage?" Although it does ease my mind from the idea of fucking a pony, that is still weird. You know what, I need the map, so fuck it.

"Sure." I took off my shirt, revealing my bare skin underneath, and sat down in the chair. The room actually felt quite nice without it on. I looked to her and her blush darkened. She walked around the table to me, and with a trembling hoof, she slowly put her hoof on my chest. I looked down and noticed how toned my body was. I looked like I lifted weights day and night. This must be why I can throw powerful punches and kicks. I must have never paid attention to myself at all back in those days. I was only worried about how many game references I could copy in real life. I never really got an answer to my question either. I stopped at about 57 game references before I got caught in the act of "robbing" the bank. In reality, all that money goes to either charity, my rent bill, or paying off my tabs for weapon material. Its not like I can use that money anywhere. People on the black market usually only use cryptocurrency. I had a bunch of mining rigs set up at home, so I guess if I ever go back to my world, I'm going to be loaded with bitcoin. I put my attention back to what was happening now and realized that she went lower, feeling the spot where my intestines lie. After about half an hour of sitting there being felt up, she retracted her hoof and hovered me a piece of paper.

"The red boxes are where guards are stationed." She said awkwardly, making her way behind the hotel desk.

"I will be back another time. I don't know when, but have Snowy bring the report to the town hall in Ponyville, and do not allow them to open the document." She nodded, staring down with a blush. Did my body feel that good?

For the past hour, I've been running back and fourth between the hotel and the restaurant on the other side of the street. After falling down quite a few times, I had finally gotten the hang of it. It feels weird running on all fours after running on all twos for my entire life. I still managed to get the hang of it though. With that out of the way, I made my way towards the castle grounds and pulled out a map. Despite the amount of times this castle has been raided, the way that these guards are set up should make the place well guarded. I guess that's all they are. Not like they are soldiers, so I can't expect much. I made my way towards the side gate, as there is only one guard patrolled there.

My way there was met with no trouble surprisingly. You think they would have guards actively moving between spots, making sure that they don't miss one. I found the guard I was looking for and realized that I came from his blind spot. That makes this way easier. I walked slowly towards him, trying my best to make as little sound as possible. As I was basically breathing against his neck, he turned around and aimed his spear. Too bad I jumped him and knocked him out using a sedative spell, or that would've been the highlight of his career. Enjoy 8 hours of sleep, buddy. I took his armor off and looked it over. It was honestly the worst armor I've ever seen. This couldn't even protect you from a knife stab. It's like they just took paper and plastic and merged their protection together. I then got rid of the evidence by putting a sound barrier and a visual barrier around him. I put the chestplate on and watched as my entire body transformed into a dull-looking stallion. This makes things a bit easier. As I put on the helmet, I heard clopping sounds behind me and went to pretend that I was a guard. He made it up to be and pointed towards the castle. I assume that means that my shift is over. I nodded and made my way towards the building, the guard that came up to me looked for a brief second before looking away, sitting in that dull stance that they call guarding the entrance. At least I won't have to deal with disguising myself anymore, along with any suspicious behavior.

I walked through the castle, passing by maids and guards alike who didn't even bat an eye at me. I rounded the hall to an empty one. Good, finally some place to get my bearings. I opened the map and saw that I was quite a few ways off from the royal archives. It seems that guards literally line up across the area to make sure that no one gets in. Good thing that this also has the vent system. I looked up and saw a vent door and wasted no time levitating up towards it. Using magic is fairly easy as a pony, and I wasn't complaining. I managed to get the hatch open after some fiddling and climbed in, replacing the hatch right back where it was. I then got some light using my horn. Magic really is cheating, and the fact that only one race can use it like this, you'd think there would be an issue in social class. The vent was actually about 3 inches above my horn if I was standing up. It was a lot spacier than I imagined it being. Anyways, I took another look at the map and went to the spot where the royal archives should be. This map is probably the most helpful thing I've ever had on a mission. It's actually scarily accurate to the direction I was heading. The only sound around me was the clopping of my hooves. I was sweating from the heat that the vent was producing, but I should survive. After a few minutes, I looked out a vent door and saw what looked to be a library that went up about 10 stories. This must be the royal archives. This place doesn't look like it has been touched in quite a while. I opened the vent door and immediately caught myself before I went out. I poked the exit and retracted my hoof as it shocked me. Ooookay, they have way tighter security then I thought. I lit up my horn and shot at the barrier. The blast then reflected off of the barrier and hit a part of the vent, skinning my left cheek. I looked and it ripped a hole through it and showed the brick underneath. While I did achieve my goal in melting the barrier, I almost melted my face too. Fuck yeah for being lucky! I hopped out of the vent and levitated down.

"...and that's why we guard this place." I heard a guard from the archive entrance, a deep male voice, talking about something. I decided to listen in out of curiosity.

"Is there really reason to keep most of that stuff from the public?" A light feminine tole responded.

"This library has secrets that would either freak out the public or destroy Equestria." If that is the case, then why don't the changelings just raid this place for that?

"Wouldn't it be better to burn it then?" Those are my thoughts right now.

"We could, but some spells in there require special types of disposal or can't be disposed at all." So in other words, this library is the definition of OP. I stopped listening to them and let them be, having some info on this place. I looked around before groaning to myself. How am I supposed to find one book in thousands? There has to be a way they sorted them. I walked around to see if there was any obvious order. Nope, not a clue. They aren't in alphabetical order, and aren't sorted by genre. I was starting to think that I had to check out this place by hand... or hoof... instead of searching for a way to find it quickly. I checked the titles of some books, reading more interesting ones, and found nothing. In a book called 'Banned Equestrian Spells: 2017 Edition', there was a spell that controlled age and race. I'm totally taking them with me. I looked on the shelf and saw the 2018 and 2019 editions, taking them off the shelves and to a table for me to pick up later. I guess they haven't made a 2020 version yet, but looking at these books made me figure out the order. These edition books were on the same shelf, but were no where near each other. It must be by book series and date in that case. I found the 2017 edition near the top and found the 2019 edition at the very bottom. I went to test my theory by picking up another book on a totally different shelf. The book was called 'History of King Sombra's return #1'. I forgot how many times the king had returned, but I know that it was more than one. I then checked the same shelf for the second edition, and to my surprise, the second book was also at the very bottom of the shelf. I also figured out something else. The books are alphabetical, only by shelf then. If that's the case, then 'Magical Limit Breaker' should be on the second or third floor on the first few shelves. I counted and made sure that I was correct, also figuring out that there are 26 shelves per floor. That makes my life easier. So that means that the book should be on the first shelf on the second floor. I went to the location and saw 'Magical Limit Breaker' at the very bottom.

"Guards? What is this magical presence that I feel?" Oh shit, that sounds like Shining. I took the book and the other three books I wanted to take and threw them in the vent.

THUD

Oops, I threw them too hard. The guards jumped and started unlocking the door. I quickly levitated myself to the vent and disguised the door with a piece of metal that came from the blast I made earlier so that no one thinks that someone used the vent. I watched as two guards and Shining came in and started searching the place. I took one step away and immediately regretted it when the guards heard the clop sound. Fuck me!

"IN THE VENT!" I saw a unicorn blast the entrance and a pegasus fly up towards it. I made a beeline down a vent, hastily making turns while looking at the map. Fuck, I can't see with all the wind blowing around. I guess I'll have to go with the second plan. I made a turn and immediately stopped. As he came up to me, I used my horn to slice his neck, effectively causing him to scream. I then hid around a corner and looked at the map, seeing things a lot more clearly now that I wasn't being chased around. I saw an exit that led towards waste management and fled towards there. After kicking open the hatch that was there, I made my way out of it. I saw a guard below, guarding one single door that led to who knows where. Perfect. I jumped on him and covered his mouth, effectively stopping most of the sound. I then hoof-chopped his neck and saw as he fell to the ground. I then hid him beside the trash can that was over the hatch and went to "guard" this place. The unicorn and pegasus from earlier came from the hatch, the pegasus holding his wound. Why the fuck do unicorns need magic? Horns are hella sharp. I walked over to the two and faked being surprised.

"Oi, what happened to you?" Fuck you if you think my accent is bad. They both looked to me.

"Did you see anyone come around here?" I pretended to think before nodding my head no.

"I was sitting here and heard some sounds come from the dumpster, but I thought it was just some animals." I said, and went back to "guarding". They seem to have bought it because they pounded their hooves in frustration.

"We have to tell Celestia about this. They went into the one place that only 6 ponies in this world have access to." The wounded pegasus said.

"But first, lets get you to the infirmary." The unicorn said. He nodded and they both walked off. I made my way towards the dumpster and grabbed the four books that I had with me. That could've been really bad if they had caught me. That would've probably been a war if they knew it was me, the person stronger than Celestia and Luna, possibly combined. I made my way towards the entrance and pointed at the castle. The guard nodded and made his way there. I learned that that is the motion they use for when it is time to switch posts. I'm surprised that he didn't question me about the books. Eh, I'm not worried. I then walked out and made my way through the alleys of Canterlot, making it past there and managing to board the train. I was super lucky that it was dawn and not night. It would be super hard to spend the night here, so I'm glad that fortune comes my way. I realize that I was the only one on the train, so I activated the human transformation spell and transformed back instantly. I just don't understand why changing back is instant but changing into anything takes a full night. Doesn't matter now I guess, I got what I wanted, only with slight detection. I teleported the books to my house and went to sleep, completely drained from today's events. I guess magic can only energize you so far.

When I got off the train, I was met with the sight of both of the princesses and the element bearers.

"What's going on?" I asked. They all looked to each other and then back to me.

"We need your help with something. Someone broke into the royal archives and I need you to find out who it is." Celestia said. Working for both sides is going to be challenging.

"What's in it for me?" I asked, playing along with it.

"I will give you access to all of Canterlot's facilities, the only exception being the royal archives, as it is supposed to stay a national secret." Hmm, you know what fine.

"Sure. Anyways, I'll do it in a week when I'm not busy." She frowned.

"Actually, before you go, do you mind if you come to the meeting we are having at Twilight's library?" I thought about it before nodding. Fuck, this is starting to go wrong ways. I walked along with them to the tree house in silence, Applejack staring at me the entire time.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"Nothin'" She replied with, facing forward once more. Does she know I'm lying?

Author's Note

You know what, fuck word count limits. I was trying to keep these at 4k words, but now I'm just going to let these run for as long as they need to.