"Of course. Why would I expect any meat here? They're horses."

After the altication with my new "personal guard" earlier, I decided to take a venture around the castle. It wasn't long until some of the guards spotted me. Strangely enough, they didn't escort me back to my room or tattle to Celestia that I was being a nuisance. No. Instead, they had told me that Celestia had given free reign to walk around the castle by myself, so long as I didn't stray too far without my personal guard.

Celestia was seeming pretty neat so far. Certainly better than her sister and my lackey. Speaking of which, she was currently sat with me at the dining table in the castle's massive dining area. She currently had a hay and lettuce sandwich while I was stuck with...well, the same.

Note to self. Never try to eat hay again.

After my...interesting "meal", I stood up, ready to venture around some more. I was about to leave the dining hall when I felt something touch my back. I turned around to see Moon Dancer staring at me, her hoof retracting from my back and back down to the ground.

"My princess wishes to see you."

I was confused for a second. Wasn't her princess the bitchy one? The not Celestia one?

"Oh, you mean Luna or whatever her name is?"

She narrowed her eyes, growling slightly. "You will refer to her as Princess Luna."

I rolled my eyes, waving her off and walking out of the door. "Yeah yeah. Whatever, Moonie."

Another growl. "I told you about that name!"

I chuckled, closing the door behind us, Moon Dancer following as I walked down the hallway, trying to pretend that I knew where I was going.

It didn't work.

I looked at Moon Dancer, a smirk on her face. "What? What's so funny?"

She scoffed. "You're like a stray kitten. Follow me. My princess's room is this way." She turned around, ushering me to follow. I sped up to walk alongside her rather than behind her. She took a glance when she noticed. I looked forward, despite opening my mouth to speak.

"So, what's your princess's problem with me?"

She shrugged, still walking forward, not taking another glance at me. "I don't know and quite frankly, I do not care. It isn't my buisness what problems my princess has with you. Although, seeing your attitude so far, I can somewhat understand."

I chuckled, ruffling her mane. She responded by snapping at my hand. I recoiled it back, narrowing my eyes. "Do that again and I'll cut your lips off."

She smirked again. "Of course you will. Anyway, we are here."

I took my attention away from Moonie to look at the door that was now in front of us. It was a near pitch black door with stars alligned all over it. I rolled my eyes.

"Gee, she couldn't make it more obvious that this was her room, huh?"

She pushed me forward with a hoof, which made me turn around and shoot her a glare. "Yeah yeah, I'm going."

She grinned. "I'll be outside. Please try to not get lost again. I'm already getting tired of babysitting you."

I grumbled, choosing not to give a proper reply. I knocked a few times before I heard a voice come from the room.

"Come in."

I opened the door and closed it behind me, looking forward to see Luna sat on the bed. The bed cover had all of the night stars alligned perfectly. I scoffed quietly.

"She really loves the night sky, huh?"

She looked towards me and narrowed her eyes. "Ah, you. Come and sit with me. I wish to talk to you about something."

I shot her a confused look, but proceeded to walk forward and sit down next to her. "You want me to sit with you? Thought you hated my guts."

She sighed, looking at me. "I do not hate you, cre..."

I held up my hand, tired of hearing her say that. "Daemon. My name is Daemon."

She glared, but it quickly went away. "Daemon. I do not hate you. There are only a few beings in this world that I truly hate. You are not one of them. I just don't trust you."

I shrugged, positioning myself slightly on the edge of the bed. "I don't trust any of you either. I've only just got here from a completely different world or dimension. The one who's been nicest to me so far is your sister. You just gave me the cold shoulder for no reason as soon as you saw me."

She stood up and went to the window, reminding me a bit of me for a second. She looked down at the streets below, sighing. "I did not mean to come off as rude. I do apologise for that. But you must understand, we have had many, MANY threats to Equestria these past few years. And then all of a sudden, a completely new creature shows up? You must see why I was wary at first and still am."

I sighed as well, nodding. "Yeah, I suppose that makes sense. But as I said to your sister, I don't intend to bring any harm to anyone here at all unless they leave me no choice."

She turned around, snapping her head to me and narrowing her eyes slightly. "What do you mean by no choice?"

"Well, you know, if anyone tries to assault me. That's the only time I'll be forced to defend myself."

She seemed at ease with that answer, turning back around to face the window. "...I see. I guess that I cannot argue with that. Some of the nobles in this city grate on my nerves, I must admit. Their constant whining and racism to other species boils my blood at times. But know this. If any of them try to assault you, let me know. Even if I do not trust you yet, I do not want you harmed. I may be cold at times, but I am not evil. So long as you do not instigate anything, I will not take any action against you. Anyway, that is all I wanted to speak to you about. You may go now."

I nodded, choosing not to reply with anything substantial. I honestly just wanted to get out of there. I walked towards the door and opened it.

"Oh, by the way..."

I stopped and turned around, seeing her shoot a glare at me. "I know that my guard has been...less than friendly towards you. I have told her to straighten up her act. But, I would also appreciate if you didn't threaten one of my best guards. I won't warn you again. Now, be on thy way."

I was about to reply to with something snarky about her using old English all of a sudden, but I decided not to. No point digging myself an even bigger hole. I wasn't sure how powerful these two rulers were and I didn't really have the patience to find out for myself. I walked out, closing the door behind me. I spotted Moonie leaning against the wall opposite of Luna's room. She nodded when she saw me and ushered me to follow. She glanced at me.

"So, how did it go?"

I shrugged. "Went about as well as I expected." I sighed.

"Suppose I should try and get on Moonie's good side. It'll be a pain in the ass if I constantly have to squabble with my own personal bodyguard."

I stopped moving, to which she turned around and raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"

I held out my hand, to which she recoiled slightly for a second, probably expecting me to do something. She just looked at me, confused. I let a small smile spread across my features. She couldn't see it properly due to the mask, but I think she got the gist of what I was asking from her. She smirked and shook my hand with her hoof.

"Not sure how she did that without any fingers, but whatever."

I nodded and started moving again, walking towards my room. She coughed slightly.

"Don't think this makes us friends, bud."

I smirked. "Of course, Moonie."

She rolled her eyes. I was honestly expecting a worse reaction when I used that name again. "Whatever."

It had been a few hours since my conversation with Luna. Me and Moonie had been talking for a bit, getting to know each other more slightly. Honestly, she was a lot more interesting that I had thought at first and she actually seemed pretty sweet once you got past the cold and hard outside shell that she wore. We were currently sat down on my bed. She was reading a book about history. Specifically to do with war. I glanced over.

"So, you're into war history, huh?"

She nodded, smiling. "Yeah. My family have always been bred to be strong. My brother is currently in the Crystal Empire, serving under Prince Shining and Princess Cadance. My father and mother are still at home. They live in Silver Shoals. I haven't seen them in years. Me and my mother...don't really get on. We haven't for a long time."

I nodded slowly. "I see. Why don't you get on?"

She let out a sad sigh, putting the book down as she looked at me. "Honestly, it was really dumb. I was dating a stallion at the time, Star Catcher. He was a nice stallion. Friendly, intelligent and into history. We dated for a while, we got quite intimate. But, my mother did not approve."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why? Did he like beat you up or something?"

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Barely. He couldn't even lift a bottle, poor thing. No, she was racist against unicorns."

I nodded, knowing what it was like to have a racist family member. "Ah, racism. We have it back on my world."

"Really? How bad is it there?"

"Quite bad. There's been entire movements about it."

She sighed. "Sounds like here. It's ridiculous, honestly. It should matter what race somepony is. Should only matter what type of pony they are inside, not on the outside."

I nodded in agreement, finally feeling like me and her agreed on something. "Agreed. Anyway, what happened to him?"

I saw a single tear come from her eye. I looked at her in concern, not wanting to push the subject any further if it was going to make her uncomfortable. "Hey, don't cry. Sorry, I shouldn't have br..."

She raised a hoof, silencing me, before looking away. "No, it's fine. I'm just being a cry baby. If you want to really know, he was mauled by diamond dogs while on an adventure. He loved going on adventures, despite being as weak as a baby. It's something I always admired about him."

I stood up and looked outside the window. Honestly, it had become my favourite passtime to just watch the ponies below while I was in this room. I looked back at her after a minute, her eyes meeting mine. "Sorry to hear that. I'm sure he was a good pony."

She sniffed, trying to calm herself. "Yeah, he was. What about you? Have you lost anyone?"

I stiffened up at that, causing her to walk over to me and look at me. "I'm sorry, it was rude of me to ask."

I shivered slightly, trying to compose myself. When I calmed down, I looked at her and smiled. "Nah, don't worry about it. Just not a topic I usually discuss. Anyway, let's see what Celestia is doing, huh?"

Before she could reply, I walked out of the door. She rushed out with me, walking beside me. "Hey, look. About when we first met. I'm sorry that I was so...harsh. I'm a threstral. We are meant to be aggressive and strong. But it isn't an excuse for my cold behaviour, specially to somepony who doesn't even know how he got here. Truce?"

I smirked, holding my hand out and bumping her hoof. "Truce."

She smiled at that, walking besides me. We made it to Celestia's room fairly quickly. The guards noticed me and walked towards me, saluting. "Good Evening sir. The princess has informed us to let you in whenever she is in her room if you wish to speak with her. She is currently still running her day court, I'm afraid. We shall let her know that you came to see her once she is finished. She shouldn't be much longer."

I nodded in thanks. "Alright, no problem. Thank you for the info."

He saluted, nodding and walking back to his post. I turned around and looked at Moonie. "Well, what do you want to do?"

She tapped a hoof to her chin, before walking off, beckoning me to follow. "Come on, I want to show you something."

Confused, I walked to catch up to her, following without saying a word.

"Woah. This is...really calming."

I was currently sat with Moonie on a really comfy bench. She had taken me to the royal garden. Apparently Celestia had given me access to it, so long as I was with Moonie, so that was pretty cool of her. I'd have to thank her for that later.

The garden was massive. It had a fountain with a statue of what appeared to be a younger version of Celestia what was flowing very clean looking water. It had its own maze at the back, too.

"I'll have to go through that, eventually. Looks like fun."

I turned to Moonie, smiling. "Thanks for bringing me out here, Moonie. This place is beautiful."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "You're never going to stop calling me that, are you?"

I smirked, shaking my head. "Nope."

She chuckled, looking at the fountain with me. Before she could say anything else however, I heard a scream. Not from inside the castle or the garden, but from outside the castle. It came from the streets outside. It was night time, which made it even more concerned. Me and Moonie shared a look before I jolted off towards the wall of the castle and jumped over, surprising myself at how high I just jumped. I landed without any pain, looking at my legs and smirking.

"Heh, guess these babies will come in handy after all."

I heard Moonie flying over the wall and landing next to me. She put her hooves on me, trying to stop me from moving. "What do you think we're doing?! It's night time!"

I looked back at her and glared. "Someone needs help and I'm not about to just leave them on their own, with your help or without it. If you want, stay back. I can handle it." I heard her scoff, but I didn't give her a chance to respond. I dash off at a speed that I didn't know I had and ran into the streets. The streets themselves were fairly empty, the odd pony walking past and staring at me in shock and confusion as I rushed past them. Then, I heard it again.

The exact same scream. It was coming from an alley to my left. I turned around and stood next to the outside wall of the alley. I peaked around the corner and saw what looked to be a bunch of bulky ponies surrounding what appeared to be a young female. I scowled. I knew exactly what was going down and I wasn't about to let it happen.

Not again.

I cloaked, entering the alley and hiding behind a garbage can. I could hear them laughing, taunting the young female. One of them spoke up.

"What have we here? A nice, scrumptious looking mare, all ready for the taking. Right, boys?"

He nodded to his cronies, all of them nodding back. The mare tried to back off, her back hitting the wall of the alley.

"Please don't...if you let me go, you can have all the money in my wallet, I swear!"

They looked at each other and laughed, walking towards her slowly. "Oh, we'll take your money, but not before we've had the main course first."

She cowered and fell on the floor, sobbing. Before they could get any closer, I decloaked behind one of his cronies, tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and gasped. I smirked.

"Boo."

The pony screamed and ran off, leaving his other cronies behind. They all shouted at him to come back, but he was already gone. The main one scoffed and rolled his eyes, facepalming...or should I say, facehoofing.

"Just can't get the ponies nowadays...guys, show this idiot who he's messing with."

They all nodded, smirking as they started to corner me. I took my sword out of my shealth, showing the traditional finger sign of "come get some".

They all growled as they charged me. One of the earth ponies tried to charge into me, only for me to dodge, grab him by the throat and throw him into the wall next to me, a satisfying crunch echoing across the alley as I heard his spinal cord snap. I smirked.

"Damn. Guess this shit also changed my strength and agility. I'm not complaining."

The others gasped as they watched their friend slither down to the floor, eyes closed and mouth wide open. The unicorn of the group tried to cast a spell on me (I had read up about how unicorns can use levitation and other spells while I was at the castle. Gotta thank Celestia for that later on), only for the magic to dissipate as it covered me. The pony looked confused, fear visible in his eyes. "What the hay are you?!"

I grinned behind my mask. "Nothing you would know of."

I rushed towards him at high speed and sliced his horn off, causing him to scream in agony and writhe in pain on the floor. The other ones had already ran off before he fell to the ground, scared that the same might happen to them. The only one left standing now was the leader. He was a bulky pegasus. He was scowling at me, ready to charge. He started to flap his wings and took off into the air.

"I don't know what the buck you are, but you'll pay for this!"

He flew towards me at high speed. Old me would have already been dead.

But I wasn't the old me anymore.

I dodged out of the way, causing him to hit the wall, not expecting me to be able to move so fast. He hit his head and crumped to the ground, crying out in pain. He rubbed his head with his hoof as I threw a shurikin at his face, the star barely missing him as he dodged. He started to sweat, knowing that he narrowly just avoided a spiky, painful demise. He tried to charge at me again, only for me to cloak, causing him to panic and frantically turn his head in every direction, searching for where I could have gone.

"Where have you gone you fre..."

Before he could finish, I uncloaked and dashed towards him, my sword now lodged deep into his stomach. He screamed as he fell to the floor, blood pouring out of his mouth. He eventually ceased every movement, his eyes wide open, not moving an inch. I sighed and cleaned the graffiti off of my sword, the graffiti can attached to my sword now empty. I'd have to put a new one on there. I sheathed my sword and looked towards the mare, who I had honestly forgotten about for a second in the heat of the battle. I rushed over to her, causing her to try and back away. She looked down at the floor, crying. I put my hand on her, trying to calm her. She initially tried to bat me away, but she eventually looked up at me and threw herself on me, causing me to gasp as she crushed me. "I don't know who or what you are, but thank you thank you thank you!"

I smiled, despite feeling like I couldn't breathe. "Hey, happy to help and all, but do you mind getting off of me? You're sorta crushing me..."

She opened her eyes and gasped, letting go, allowing me to breathe. "I'm sorry..."

I shook my head, offering her a hand. She didn't understand at first, so I just picked her up and got her back on her feet. "No problem, miss. You should probably head home now. Probably not a good idea to stick around incase this guy's friends come back."

She nodded, smiling and hugging me once again. "Thank you! I won't forget this!"

She rushed off out of the alley, turning left and out of sight. I sighed, looking at the bodies. The unicorn was still breathing, however, he was knocked out. Probably from the sheer pain of losing his horn. Before I could do anything else, I heard a voice behind me.

"Daemon! What the hell..."

I recognised the voice immediately. Moonie flew up to me, looking around at the chaos. I turned to her, blooding still on my clothes. "This guy's were trying to rape a young mare. I managed to take out one of them and their leader. The unicorn over there had his horn removed, but he's still alive. The others fled. The mare is safe now. She's ran home."

Moonie looked at me and then towards the now unconcious unicorn. She nodded at me, smiling. "I...I appreciate what you've done here. A lot. I'll make sure to tell the princess's about this. I'd usually not condone you hurting anypony, but these cretins had it coming. Probably apart of one of the local gangs, no doubt. They love to prey on young mares, especially around this area at night. I'll take the unicorn to Canterlot's main hospital. Make sure he's stable and then I'll bring him in for questioning. You better get out of here. You know the way back, right?"

I nodded. "You going to be alright on your own with him? What about the bodies?"

She nodded, looking at the two bodies. "I'll get someone to clean them up, don't worry. Just get back and I'll sort this."

I walked off, running back to the castle. I heard Moonie sigh before I left.

"What a mess."

Author's Note

New chapter. Huzzah!