Wish Gone Awry. Enter Equestria! Enter New Life!

"Not quite what I expected when I heard of a colosseum," Julius said as he got off the train and looked up at the grand building, "but it still works."

"What were you expecting?" Rainbow Dash asked as the ponies stepped off the train and started to walk towards the colosseum.

"Well, in my world, we have an ancient building called The Colosseum. It's a giant stone building with a lot of stone archways. I was expecting something like that, but this is more like a modern stadium from my world. I'm not complaining or anything; if anything, I think I'd prefer it over an old stone building. It's just unexpected," Julius explained as the group walked down the roads. "I'm guessing it's, what, about a tenish minute walk from the station to the colosseum?"

"Give or take," Twilight shrugged. "The station was built far enough away so that the sounds from the trains and the station wouldn't interfere with the enjoyment of the stadium while being close enough to be convenient."

"Sounds about right," Julius responded as he looked around. "I know we're still close to the station, but this looks like a pretty upscale neighborhood," he commented as he looked over a few buildings.

"Most of the upscale neighborhoods are built close to the temple district, the market district, or the entertainment district. There's also Canterlot Heights, but that's almost exclusively reserved for the highest of the upper class. Even the cheapest homes there cost several hundred million bits," Twilight explained. "Most ponies who live there live on old family estates, dating back to the founding of Canterlot. Almost all of them are a part of the original nobles who settled here."

"If any Equestrian city would have gated communities, it makes sense that it would be Canterlot," Julius sighed. "How much do you want to bet some dark secrets are in those estates? You don't stay in power that long without some shady dealings."

"Uhhh, Celestia," Twilight swiftly said.

"I stand by my statement," Julius confidently stated. "She probably knows far more about the devious game of politics than any living mortal being. Honestly, a part of me wants to ask Discord to get The Prince and give it to her to read. I wonder how much of it she could relate to?"

"Who's The Prince?" Twilight asked.

"Not a who, a what," Julius responded. "The Prince is a book written by Niccolo Machiavelli several hundred years ago. It's basically his thoughts on how a prince should rule. The book can be summarized by the phrase 'The end justifies the means'. As well as the often misquoted 'it's better to be feared than to be loved.' The actual quote is closer to this 'One should try to be both feared and loved, but if one must choose between the two, it's better to be feared than loved.'"

"Why would a ruler want to be feared instead of loved?" Twilight asked in bewilderment.

"Equestria has been pretty safe and secure for so long it's forgotten," Julius mirthlessly chuckled. "While being feared can set up walls, it also keeps threats and dangers to the country in line. While completely eliminating crime is impossible, lowering it to nearly nothing is possible. If the penalties for crime are too light, they won't really act as a deterrent. Lightwise, if the penalties are too extreme, they'll only serve to foment rebellion against a perceived tyrant. A leader who appears to be too loving puts their people at risk; hostile nations can manipulate them just by kidnapping a few citizens. A leader who's only feared will find it nearly impossible to get international allies, and those that they get will be, at best, fair-weather friends. A balance should be struck," Julius commented as they approached.

"To come up with such thinking. Don't take this the wrong way, but your world sounds pretty harsh," Twilight commented.

"Believe me, I'm very aware. After all, I lived there," Julius commented as the group lined up to enter the colosseum.

"Wait here; I'll go ahead and speak to the security," the lead guardmare told the group as she walked up to the security mare. After a few minutes, the guardmare walked back. "Alright, we'll be going to the royal booth. We'll still have to pay for tickets, but the seating is better."

"How did you get them to give us the royal booth?" Rarity asked in surprise. "That's only for the princesses and their entourage."

"Normally, yes," the guardmare agreed. "However, there are two things at play here. First, while not married, Julius is in a relationship with one of the princesses. As it's going well, he'll likely become a prince consort at some point. Second, I was given a royal seal when I was appointed as the lead guard to his detail. I cannot abuse it, but in situations like this, I can use it," she explained.

"So, you just told them who I was, showed them the seal, and they believed you?" Julius asked.

"You're in a relationship with one of the princesses; that's news in Canterlot," the guardmare explained. "Furthermore, you're a large, furless, bipedal creature with predatory eyes and lots of clothes. Oh yeah, you look like so many other creatures around here," she sarcastically said as multiple earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns passed them.

"Right, yeah, of course, my bad," Julius somewhat sheepishly said as a few ponies looked at him.

"A rather casual attitude considering whom you're guarding," Rarity commented as the group got their tickets.

"Agreed," Twilight said as the group walked up to the royal booth. "Most nobles would be quite angry at that."

"I'm very aware," the lead guardmare said. "But, when assigned to guard a specific being, you're given details about that being. One of those details is a psychological evaluation. Julius's psychological evaluation suggested that he'd be okay with at least some informality. All those assigned to the guard detail are given the details and required to read through them. Both to familiarise yourself with your charge and to better guard them." She explained as the group walked up many stairs.

"Makes sense, but when did they get a psychological eval on me? I don't ever remember them asking me any questions or anything," Julius asked as he scratched the back of his head.

"No idea, beyond my pay grade, I'm not paid to ask questions; I'm paid to follow orders," the lead guardmare flatly said. "If I had to guess, you were being observed from the moment you entered Canterlot, and it was put together from that. What I can tell you is after I got assigned to this detail, a dossier was waiting for me on my desk, and it was about you. It was oddly detailed. Honestly, I'm curious about how they got so much information. I want to say that they got really accurate with their guesses and estimations, but the details about Ponyville baffle me a bit."

"Ponyville, but didn't you say," Julius started to say as he trailed off, "oh. I think I might have an idea. Do you remember a seal on the dossier?" He asked as the group kept on climbing the stairs.

"It was the standard royal seal. Wings and a horn bordered by a laurel reef stamped on red wax. Why do you ask?" The lead guardmare told Julius.

"Just something I was thinking. If it's a standard royal seal, well, it could be what I'm thinking, or it could have just been delivered by an official while you were in a meeting or something," Julius told her as the group reached a rather ornate door. "Don't worry about it; it's probably nothing," he told her as she shrugged. Twilight used her magic to open the door as the group approached it. The door opened to a large, ornately decorated room with amble incidentals.

"Don't worry, everything here is free," the lead guardmare told the group. "Well, not exactly free; it's stocked at the expense of the royal purse. So enjoy yourselves," she told them as two of the guards took up positions by the door.

"Great," Julius said as he took a handful of cashews. "Salted, nice," he commented, eating them and looking out on the arena. Many stage hooves and claws were finishing setting up the arena. "A bit early, but not too early. Considering this won't be televised or anything, I doubt there'll be anything like a pre-show," he commented as he watched the helpers finish setting things up.

"No idea what this 'televised' is, but it might be captured on film," Twilight told Julius.

"Wait, movies exist here? Why didn't any of you tell me?" Julius asked in mild shock.

"You never asked. Besides, most movies are only a few minutes long and used for informational purposes," Twilight told Julius. "Most movies are pretty grainy and low quality; maybe in fifty or so years, movies will have significantly better quality," she offers before enjoying a few snacks.

"I seriously want to have a word with whoever made this world's tech tree," Julius sighed with a joke. "It shouldn't take fifty years. In my world, from the first silent film to the first films of any quality and length, it was only around fifty years. From the sounds of it, you already have movies with sound, and they must be at least several minutes long, so it should only be ten, maybe twenty years."

"Average movie length is about ten minutes," Twilight told Julius. "Some royal commissioned movies can be as long as twenty or even thirty minutes, but those are rare."

"Well, there's The History of the Wonderbolts movie, that's about thirty minutes," Rainbow Dash offered.

"Why do they get such special treatment?" Julius asked as he poured himself a drink.

"They're only the greatest fliers in Equestria!" Rainbow Dash excitedly explained.

"They're the successors to the Earth, Unicorn, Pegasi Guard. They made up the Protective Pony Platoons. Technically, they still exist today, although most don't know this. The Wonderbolts are the most famous of the Protective Pony Platoons, as they put on public shows fairly often and tend to be the most flashy," Twilight explained. "The Earth Pony equivalent is The Rockblasts. The Unicorn equivalent is The Lightning Guard. Neither tend to put on shows though, both tend to stay out of the public eye. From what I've heard at court, The Wonderbolts being so showy has caused some tension between the groups, but Celestia enjoys the shows, so they continue."

"Here's hoping that tension doesn't boil over," Julius said as he went to take a drink. "Hey, wait, what about the Royal Guard? What's their purpose, then?" Julius asked before taking a drink.

"Honestly, mostly show and status symbol. Though they are trained in protective and healing spells, they aren't expected to take on serious threats. It's more expected for the Royal Guard to serve as a delaying force. Holding the line until The Wonderbolts, The Rockblasts, and The Lightning Guard show up. Once they show up, the Royal Guard is expected to take a more supportive role, healing the wounded and filling in gaps if needed," the lead guardmare told Julius.

"Makes sense, I suppose," Julius said with a shrug. "But still, do Celestia and Luna really need guards? I mean, being able to move the sun, the moon, and the stars, it's difficult to believe that anything could threaten them. And if something could, wouldn't anyone guarding them just get in the way or be meat shields if they needed to retreat?"

"The princesses are powerful, but their power isn't infinite. All it'd take would be to send multiple waves of hostiles at them. Eventually, they'd be too exhausted to defend themselves. The cost to the attacker would be extreme, but they would eventually overwhelm the princesses. Or if a threat powerful enough to threaten the princesses by itself appeared, like some of the things that existed in ancient Equestria, then yes, the various guards would be charged with serving as a rear guard while the princesses retreated to get some of the more powerful relics which might be able to deal with the threat," the lead guardmare told Julius. "All the guards know this and agree to it when becoming guards. Fortunately, such a thing has not had to happen in our history. Hopefully, things stay that way."

"Pragmatic and reasonable," Julius said as the seats in the stadium filled up. "Looks like the show's going to start soon," he said as he looked up at a board. "Iron Claw vs. Feathered Storm is the opener; it should be interesting."