He was standing outside the door of Sugarcube Corner and for some reason Twilight and her friends along with Celestia and Luna were hiding behind him, his right hand was on the handle of his sword and his left hand was on the door handle leading to the interior of Sugarcube Corner.

"Mares first." He opened the door, and the mares behind him went first. He walked in behind them and closed the door.

"You might want to hold out your hands." That was all he said to them before he swung his sword with such precision that there was only a nanometer between his sword and the top of the Mares’ head, cutting something that they were unable to react to. Each of the mares felt a plate fall onto their outstretched hands, Apple Jack’s plate had a cupcake and six apple slices with the seeds in a nice little separate pile on the plate, Fluttershy’s plate had two slices of carrot cake on it, Rainbow Dash’s plate had a rainbow cake on it, Rarity’s plate had Creme Brulee, Twilight’s plate had a slice of red velvet cake, Celestia’s plate had two slices of Red Velvet cake on it, and Luna’s plate had multiple mooncakes on it in case she wanted more than one. He caught a plate that had a slice of Lemon Velvet cake with his left hand and just started to slowly munch on it after he put his sword away, the mares looked surprised at what just happened besides the princesses.

“Surprise!!!” Pinkie and all of the town’s residents yelled as the lights flicked and a couple of party cannons went off, the mares that were still stunned at what Avarith did but they were even more surprised that he knew what Pinkie was trying to do.

“You’re an eon too early to surprise me, Giggles.” Avarith commented with a hint of amusement as he continued to eat his lemon velvet cake, Pinkie just giggled at the nickname that Avarith gave her.

“LET’S PARTY!!!” Pinkie pie yelled and then disappeared, leaving a pink cloud outline of herself, and party hats appeared on Celestia, Luna, Twilight, and her friends heads She tried to put on Avarith's head, but he just leaned out of the way each time she tried.

"Pinkie, please stop, I haven't celebrated anything except for my little girls' birthday in years." He only said that to try and get her to stop, which made her stop but also raised many questions for her. Her hair and tail deflated and straightened itself.

"N. . . n. . . not even your birthday? When did you stop celebrating your birthday and why? Also, how old are you?" She asked him despondently.“ How could somepony not celebrate anything? He still celebrates his little girls’ birthdays, but his life must be so grim and dark. No, I can’t be so depressed I need to make sure everyone is happy. But what made his life this depressing?”

“Not even my birthday, why I stopped celebrating them is because of what happened on my two hundred-twentieth birthday and because I’ve been extremely busy afterward. As for how old I am, I am older than Celestia and Luna combined. Celestia is 30,102 years old in human years, and Luna is 30,096 years old in human years.” He informed Giggles (That is his nickname for Pinkie Pie if none of you got that), Celestia and Luna started choking on their sweets when they heard what Avarith said about their age. Twilight’s brain was trying to reboot itself after hearing that information. Meanwhile, Rarity was giving him the death glare again this time for revealing Luna and Celestia’s age.

“It isn’t very nice to reveal a Lady’s age without their permission, sir.” Rarity spat venom at the uncouth man in front of her. She looked ready to smack him with the plate and her desert.

“What you don’t understand is that for long lived people age is just a number, I mean if you remained fixated on your age in imagine how you would feel when you are twenty-two octillion one hundred septillion nine hundred sextillion seven hundred quintillion five hundred quadrillion years old.” He finished off his lemon velvet cake and let out a sigh.

“Ah would say that’s impossible, but then I would be lying.” AppleJack managed to get out while not choking on her apple cupcakes she also pounded her ribcage to try to help the food go down, but I doubt it actually works.

“There’s no way you can be that old!” Rainbow shouted with her raspy voice.

‘If she didn’t shout so much, her voice wouldn’t be raspy, and it would possibly sound lovely.’ Avarith thought to himself, also maybe she should let her hair grow out a bit.

Fluttershy was already off interacting with other animal lovers and the local veterinarian learning anything new about animals and how to take care of them, she doesn’t always stay at home or only take care of the animals at her home.

Once Twilight’s brain managed to fully reboot, it instantly went to work on calculating the number and also trying to figure out how he could possibly live that long and how many years he didn’t celebrate his birthday. That last part was mostly for Pinkie. Then again, they never did bother to confirm if that was his actual age or not.

He spotted a small group of guards that were outside of their kit mingling with civilians, which happened to be ones that didn't evacuate the civilians when Nightmare Moon first showed up. Oh, the fun he was going to have running them into the ground.

"Excuse me, ladies, I have a group of soldiers to go run into the ground." He excused himself from the conversation and walked to the center so that everyone could hear without much problem.

He inhaled before he started yelling. "Alright maggots I want your asses out of this fucking building in full kit in the front leaning rest position by the time I walk out of that fucking door!" Most of the people at the party were not offended but the ones that tried to be proper ladies and gentlemen were offended of course that included the resident Seamstress. The guards instantly knew who he was yelling at, although they hesitated for multiple reasons and looked towards Princess Celestia for what they should do.

"He is an old friend of both Princess Luna and I, also he is our military advisor and has been Knighted by Princess Luna." Princess Celestia calmly informed them and continued to eat her cake, once the guards heard that they hauled ass faster than when they tried to intercept and distract Nightmare Moon which pissed him off even more.

"Scratch that your time limit just decreased to one fucking minute now. . . MOVE!!!" Once they heard that they only had one minute, they moved faster than when Rainbow tried to get a mug of the Apple family apple cider which somewhat impressed the tomboy.

"Goddess I can't wait until I can get my hands on my Dragon's Breath Whiskey, too bad there aren't any Locos Tacos in this realm I could go for some of them right now." Celestia froze up when he mentioned Dragon's Breath Whiskey and mumbled 'Oh dear Faust!' to herself, Luna noticed but decided to ask her dear sister later.

Some of the poofyness returned to Pinkie's hair, she quickly took care of everyone at the party and then disappeared. Avarith just let her do her own thing, he walked out of Sugarcube Corner and saw the guards in the push-up position.

"When I say down you will go down low enough that I can only fit my fist between you chest and the fucking ground and when I say up you will push up, you will give me fifty push ups on my count. If it isn't a proper push up you will start over from zero, if your chest touches the ground start over from zero, lose count and you will start over from zero, if you get out of the push up position start over from zero and I will add fifty more. By the way you can't use your wings to help you in any way, DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I HAVE SAID YOU FUCKING WASTES OF SPACE! DOWN!" He was feeling much better after shouting at them.

"Aye aye sir!" All the guards yelled at once and brought their chest closer to the ground, Avarith stuck his fist between the guard's chest and the ground. One of the guards was not dressed properly, her shirt was loose. He guessed that she was trying to fool him or she wasn't able to get properly dressed.

"WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING NAME?" When he started shouting in her face, she flinched away from him and tried to respond as fast as possible.

"Azure Barricade sir!" She managed to choke out, her mane, tail, wings, ears had azure blue, sky blue, and baby blue. Her voice was soft, gentle and smooth like honey, she sounds like she would be a good singer. Wait, he can't let his thoughts distract him right now.

"PRIVATE WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU NOT PROPERLY DRESSED, DON'T YOU KNOW HOW TO DRESS DO I NEED TO CALL YOUR MOMMY TO TEACH YOU HOW TO PROPERLY DRESS!? UP!" He wasn't asking her to tell him, he was commanding her to tell him why she wasn't properly dressed in her kit.

"Aye aye sir! 1!" They responded and pushed up including Azure.

"Sir no sir! Sir this private was not fast enough sir!" She didn't bother making up an excuse, because she knew she would get chewed out either way.

"Well guess what Private you just lost liberty! Fix your shit right now and give me twenty-five! You can thank Private Azure Barricade for the fifty extra push ups." Azure's squad groaned in response to what he said, he didn't know who they hated more, him or Azure. Azure got up and stood off to the side to fix her kit, she tucked in her shirt enough that it wasn't loose but it also wasn't tight enough to squish her breasts in any way painful. She was upset that she lost liberty, but she had to put up with it because of who the person is that is drilling them. She got into the push up position and gave him twenty-five push ups right there according to his specifications and once she was done with those push ups she rejoined her squad to do the other ninety nine that they needed to do.

"Down!" Avarith was smiling as if he was enjoying their torment which he wasn't, he was just happy to relieve his anger. He heard a door click closed behind him and turned to look to find out it was the Fashionista Rarity. He let out a grunt and simply said. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk with you." Rarity replied with an icy tone.

"Alright." That was his only response.

"You thought my outfit was gaudy earlier, why?" Rarity asked him.

"Up! Because the clothes are gaudy, the clothes are supposed to draw your eyes to the person wearing them, not to the clothes themselves. Like your current clothes they are flashy, you don't need the gems to draw attention. You want the clothes to be subtle but still draw attention to areas of the body that you want attention to be drawn too. Also clothes are made for only specific purposes. They are supposed to be worn everyday, the only time it is supposed to be flash but still draw attention to the wearer is on special occasions like wedding days, when you are going to go to special events like the Grand Galloping Gala. Because if every piece of clothing is flashy then it will make special events like weddings and the Grand Galloping Gala less spectacular because everyone there is wearing flashy eye-catching clothes" He finished explaining why and also gave her his thought process, he let her mind absorb what he just said. He realized more than ten seconds had passed by. "Down!"

"2!" The guards responded to his command and then went back down.

"A. . . a. . . Alright, I. . . I'll give you that, but you shouldn't reveal a lady's age; it is highly inappropriate!" Rarity tried to act intimidating but she was failing hilariously, she kind of looked like an adorable chipmunk. . . which he wanted to wipe that look off of her face.

"Look for ageless beings like the Princesses if they keep focusing on their age they will start driving themselves insane and not only that they will start becoming depressed and that will continue until they would likely drive themselves to commit suicide. The quicker they get over it the better." Avarith calmly explained to her, he saw many people commit suicide because they couldn't handle being ageless and watching their loved ones die around them. "Up!"

"3!" The guards immediately responded and pushed up.

"Alright that is depressing but I can see why you did that. But that doesn't give you the right to cuss to a lady." She chided him like he was a little kid.

"Look ma'am, the day these guardsmen joined the Royal Guards they signed away their rights, therefore their rights are determined by the military laws. The military does not see gender, it does not see race. The military will not stand for bigotry and racism, we all bleed the same color. We all feel the same pain and emotions, I am willing to accept anyone that wants to join. Now I ask you to leave before I have the guards forcefully escort you back to the party." Except he wasn't asking her to leave, he was commanding her to leave with a dangerous edge in his voice and a predatory gleam in his eyes as he just found an easy prey. "Down!"

The guards went down and held there waiting for him to say up.

"I . . . wha. . . ho. . . fine you barbarian!" Rarity was momentarily shocked and was stuttering a bit, she left with a huff as she went back inside her tail was slightly raised and swishing back and forth. Avarith just chuckled and started smiling to himself.

"Up!" He looked slightly happy at the event that had just happened. "Always fucking hated wannabe fancy nobles, even the nobles themselves and I just love pissing them off. Damn too bad Discord got stoned because then we could resume our game of pissing off the nobles and trying to get them to puke up blood."

"4!" The squad that he was drilling was looking extremely nervous.

"God I could really. . . ." He didn't get to finish that sentence before he was interrupted.

"Here you go, Avary three Locos Tacos and a Strawberry milkshake." Giggles was back with a paper bag from Taco Bell and a milkshake from Dairy Queen, his grin turned into a smile that made Pinkie beam happily.

"You dumbasses will continue to exercise until I am done eating this fine meal that Giggles has so generously brought to me and I am going to take my sweet ass time to eat this meal, don't even stop for a split second. Giggles why don't you go get popcorn and watch these people run themselves into the ground." He sat down at one of the tables outside of Sugarcube Corner and began to eat the first Locos Tacos slowly on purpose to torment them, Giggles sat at the other side of the table munching on her popcorn. He reached for the second taco but stopped, he thought for a few seconds before speaking. “Jumping Jacks.”

“So. . . is it true that the military doesn't care about gender or race?" Pinkie Pie finally figured out what to ask Avary.

"Yes, we don't care about what race a person is as long as they are willing to fight and defend their country with their very life if they have to. But they have to watch how they act and talk around civilians, which includes you and your friends although you are technically soldiers because you are the only ones who can wield the elements of Harmony besides the three I wield. All of the guards represent the Royal Guards, meanwhile you and your Friends represent Equestria so if you do something bad it will reflect badly on this country as a whole." Avarith informed Pinkie, while he waited for her reply he took a bite out of the Locos Tacos in his hand.

"So does that mean we will be drilled like these guards if we discriminate against a person?" Pinkie asked Avary, she wasn'tsure if she wanted to hear that answer.

"I will probably put you through worse than what I put my soldiers through. It will not be fun. You will hate me every step of the way, but you will be far stronger for it and you will thank me when it saves your life. And I can guarantee that Rarity will get the worst of it." He informed Pinkie Pie, his eyes and face were dead serious about his statement and that he would follow through with it. Pinkie's Pinkie Sense warned her in a new way that confused her, since this was new to her, she couldn't figure out what it meant so she just pushed the warning to the side.

"So where will you be staying?" She asked curiously, because he had been a statue for a thousand years that his old place of living has been lost, destroyed, or looted over time.

“In the castle with the Princesses, although my home is at my daughters and granddaughter’s side.” He calmly explained to Pinkie, he was already halfway through his second Taco. "Goddess in-between realms I missed these things over the past thousand years, thank you Giggles."

"You are welcome, Avary. Hmm why don't you sing a song to motivate the soldiers while they workout and to provide a little bit of entertainment?" Pinkie asked him, she continued to munch her popcorn while watching the soldiers.

Avarith finished off the taco in his hands and used a napkin to wipe his hands clean, he let out a sharp whistle that caught everyone's attention and a black acoustic guitar appeared in his hands. It had a blue dragon going along the side and a blue crescent moon surrounding the side of the hole.

"What song are you going to play?" Princess Celestia asked him as everyone filed out of Sugarcube Corner, Celestia and Luna sat down next to him.

"I got it, this song is called 'Still Worth Fighting For' by My Darkest Days." He began to play his guitar and stared at the sky while he played, he was thinking about the one he loved.

Once he stopped singing and he stopped strumming the audience started clapping and cheering some were crying about previous failed relationships.

"That was a beautiful song, Avarith." Luna spoke as she wiped away a few tears.

"Thank you Luna, why don't you sing this next song?" He thanked Luna and offered her to sing the next song.

"Why thank you I'll take you up on that offer." Luna fixed her dress and hair, she got herself ready to start singing.

"This song is called 'Legends Never Die.'" He started strumming before he stopped. "Do we have a cello player that wouldn't mind joining us?" He asked no one in general.

"I love to join you and the Princess in a song." Octavia Melody walked out of the crowd then sat down on the other side of princess Luna. "Uh, Vinyl my cello please." She commanded her lover.

"Here you go, Tavi." When Vinyl responded with her scratchy voice and teleported Octavi's cello in front of her, which surprised everyone except for Avarith to hear her speak.

"Thank you, Vinyl." Octavia prepared her cello and began putting Rosin on her new bow strings which strangely resembled Vinyl's tail. "Why are you not surprised that Vinyl can speak, sir Knight?"

"Well, I have seen a lot of stuff in my life but then again I have been a statue for the past one thousand years, plus this is my first time meeting her." He gave Octavia a detailed explanation to her question. "Ladies, are you ready?"

"Sir Knight, I don't know any notes to the song we are about to play." Octavia commented meekly while Vinyl chuckled to herself and Octavia's cheeks flushed red.

Avarith began playing a few random notes to give Octavia some time to calm herself and get herself composed again, after a while he started to slowly ease himself into playing the song 'Legends never die'. "Trust me, you don't need to worry the notes will come to you as you listen and play." Which turns out he was right because she started playing her cello twenty-five seconds into Avarith's playing.

(Sadly they don't have a video of this song being played on guitar and cello in the same video, so yeah. And I'm not going to lick two different videos)

Luna started singing with a soft and solemn voice as she stood and walked around to stand behind Avarith, she placed her hands on his chest. She ran her right hand across a fresh scar that marked the left side of his neck and her left hand traced the edge of an aged scar that ran from the left side of his waist to his right shoulder when she sang the line 'The Scars Collected all of their lives.'

Avarith continued to play while staring at the wooden ring on the ring finger of his right hand.

"Before it all starts, they suffer through harm just to touch a dream Oh, pick yourself up 'cause. . ." Her left hand rested on his right cheek and her right arm was wrapped around his waist. She was resting her head on his left shoulder and kissed his left cheek. She resumed her singing as she was holding out the last note and sat back down next to Avarith and Octavia. Everyone started clapping at the display while except for the guards they were still going through their punishment.

"Encore! Encore! Encore!" The crowd was cheering for another song, he was thinking of what to sing next when he spotted the local resident dragon named Spike.

"This will be the last song for the day before the Princesses and I have to return to Canterlot, this last song is called 'Born For This' by The Score." He told the audience and immediately launched himself into the song without a warmup, he kept his eyes on the wyrmling while he sang and played the song on his guitar.

Once the song ended he reached and grabbed the last taco finishing it off followed by a few sips from his strawberry milkshake, he slung the guitar across his back by the strap and walked over to the guards that were still exercising. "Alright, get the carriage ready for the Princesses return to the castle and I want it done in thirty seconds, now MOVE IT!!!" He shouted the last part at them.

"Aye, aye Sir!!!" They were sluggish but they were hauling ass to get hooked up to the carriage properly within the thirty second time limit, he just stood there and watched them while sipping his milkshake. "Giggles, you are the best for getting me this milkshake."

"Why thank you Avary. Oh!!! I know why don't the seven of us come along with you? Also you could bon. . ." Pinkie's mouth was clamped shut by an invisible force.

'Pinkie don't ruin the surprise because then it would no longer be a surprise. Also that is another 25 bits, you know where to send them.' The Author told Pinkie and let go.

"Alrighty." Pinkie Pie pulled out a small bag filled with 25 bits and tossed it into the void as payment, people were a bit shocked at what just happened.

"I want to come along so I can figure out how sir Avarith manipulated magic with mere words." Twilight informed her friends and the Princesses.

"Um. . . I would like to spend time getting to know the animals in the Royal Gardens. . . that is if you don't mind Princesses." Fluttershy commented meekly to Pinkie's idea to go with them.

"You are always welcome to the Royal Gardens my little pony." Princess Celestia gently replied to what Fluttershy said.

"Oh Darlings and Barbarian, I would love to go to Canterlot to look at fashion and gain inspiration for new clothes." Rarity's eyes gleamed with excitement, although she said barbarian with a bit of venom.

"Of course it's the gaudy fashion that draws you to the capital, I have outfits better than whatever those pompous criminals that have their head shoved so far up their own ass that they need countless surgeries to get their heads out of their ass." Avarith commented with extreme distaste for the pompous nobles, there were a few noble families that he actually didn't mind.

"How rude! What have the nobles done to make you dislike them?" Rarity responded to Avarith's comment with ire.

"Well besides the fact that they try to tear down orphanages, they try to sweet talk the Princesses to give them money for projects that never existed, don't forget black market dealings, assassinations, blackmailing, drug trafficking, trafficking people, slave trading, owning slaves, mind control, altering minds, and mind wiping. Oh I also forgot that they lie through their teeth just to get what they want." He listed off just some of the reasons that made him despise them, that wasn't just confined to nobles in Equus.

"Fancy Pants, Rich Cloth's descendent isn't like that. Also it has been a pain to gather evidence of their wrong doings." Princess Celestia informed the knight.

Rarity's mouth opened and closed multiple times trying to find the words to refute what he said.

"Oooookay. . . whatever, I'm not going to ditch my friends." Rainbow said nonchalantly after a few moments of awkward silence.

"Ah guess Big Mac can do without meh for a while." AppleJack knew that her brother and sister could hold down the farm without her for a while.

Avarith walked over to the carriage and held open the door to the carriage. "Ladies first." He watched the mares pile into the carriage, he was about to get into the carriage when he noticed that Spike hadn't moved from his spot. “What is wrong, young dragon?” He asked the young dragon that hasn’t moved. He let go of the door and walked over to Spike and placed a hand on his shoulder while kneeling down in front of him.

“I feel so useless, so frustrated while my friends ran toward danger to save the world. I was asleep. They were in trouble and got hurt because I did nothing to help them, and it made me angry with myself.” Spike’s fists were clenched so tightly that he started bleeding from where his claws were digging into his palm with tears streaking down his cheeks, his vision slowly gaining a tint of light crimson red as the anger radiate through his eyes and felt an endless source of heat swell up from deep within himself.

Avarith knew what Spike was going through, although on a much worse scale, but he still knew what he was going through. He removed his hand from Spike’s shoulder and gave Spike an understanding nod. “Go ahead, look towards the sky and let out your frustration and anger in a roar, but never forget how this made you feel useless and weak. Your parents would want you to live the life that you want to live.”

Spike leaned his head and let out a mighty roar of pain and anger with a jet of green flames. The flames weren’t dying down anytime soon. The flames rushed down towards Spike and engulfed him. Slowly, the flames started to change colors from green to blue and then from blue to violet. Spike started to change as well; he grew taller, gained more muscles, the spinal ridge scales grew longer and sharper, and the scales on his hands and a portion of his forearms changed into a single piece of metal.

“We need to help him!” Twilight and Rarity shouted together as they rushed to help him but were stopped by the knight.

“This needs to happen. You unicorns should know what happens when you don’t release the built-up magic.” When Avarith said that Twilight was scared that her little brother might die if she stopped what was happening but there was still the possibility that he might die anyways.

Avarith finished off his strawberry milkshake as he watched what was going on with Spike, he burped and the empty cup in his hand turned into a very fine powder that dispersed in the slight breeze that passed through the area.

As the flames started to die down, they got a look at their new Spike. He was more handsome, and he looked more like a Draconic Warrior than a little helpless kid.

“Spike is that you, little brother?” Twilight asked the changed Spike because she didn’t know if he changed mentally or not.

“What happened to my wittle Spikey Wikey?” Rarity asked with immense concern to the barbaric knight.

“Congratulations, you finally graduated from wyrmling to a fine young dragon, Spike. He finally got rid of the magic that was preventing him from growing like he was supposed to. Also, Rarity stopped calling him Spikey Wikey. It's insulting to him. He's not a wyrmling anymore.” He walked up to Spike and patted him on the back to congratulate him for promoting from being a wyrmling to a young dragon.

"Well, what should I call him then?" Rarity retorted to the knight telling her to stop calling the young dragon 'Spikey Wikey'.

"Well, dragons usually have titles by the time they hit the adult stage, which young Spike has another 83 years. But he is considered of age since he isn't in the wyrmling stage anymore, so for a nickname to give him, you will have to find out." Avarith informed Rarity while Twilight wrote down the first part of what the knight said.

"Uh, what do you mean by 83 years?" Twilight asked him curiously.

"Well, dragons enter the adult stage when they are 101 years old." He answered Twilight's question.

"Then wouldn't it be 88 years since Spike is 13 years old?" She asked the man.

"Nope, 83 years Spike is 18 years old." He corrected Twilight's mistake. Twilight's brain shut down, and her mouth fell open. She couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that she somehow missed five of his birthdays.

"He didn't expel the magic that was preventing him from growing properly; his body broke it down into raw magic, then used it to age himself by five years." He explained to Twilight to help her wrap her mind around it.

“You’ll come with us to the Castle so you can begin your training, Spike.” Avarith ushered the two unicorn mares into the carriage, and Spike followed behind him and sat down from across Avarith after closing the door.

“Alright take us to the castle, you maggots!” Avarith shouted out the window to the guards once they heard that they took off to the sky with the carriage trailing after them.

Author's Note

Spike's new look

Avarith's Guitar

Avarith's ring

Azure Barricade, but with blue hair and wings