A Myth Brought to Life

Chapters

Return of a Myth
The Bracelet
To Ponyville

Return of a Myth

It's been three months since the failed changeling invasion of Canterlot castle, and the ponies of the area were finally starting to get their lives back to normal. Meanwhile in a dark corner of the Star Swirl the Bearded wing of the Canterlot library two alicorns were looking over some old scrolls about an old race that once lived in Equestria 1200 years ago.

"Dost thou think this is wise sister? Doesn't thou remember what they did to our county, to us?" spoke the cobalt blue alicorn.

Sighing, looking up from the scroll she was reading, "Now Luna, it's been 1200 years since they were removed from this land. I've forgiven you for what happened 1000 years ago. Can we not forgive them and see if they can return to Equestria peacefully? "

"We guess you are right Celestia." Luna said, returning to the scroll she was reading, "Has thou figured out who we are bringing here?"

"I've been keeping tabs on them over the years and I've found an individual that would work well for a test subject ." Spoke Celestia as she continued to look though some more of the scrolls. "Found it." She smiled as she read over the scroll. "Before I do this sister I need to know if you totally agree with me of not. I would hate for us to be divided again."

Luna thinks on it for a minute, but nods in agreement with if her sister. True, she still had resentment against the creature that they were going to bring back, but she had to learn forgive them as she has been forgiven for the crimes she committed. Maybe, just maybe there were some good ones among them that could live in peace here.

Celestia smiled as she read over the scroll one last time. Concentrating, her horn began to glow a light gold color as the spell began. She began to sweat as the magnitude of the spell started to take effect. Reaching out, she began to search for the creature that she was going to bring here. After a few minutes, of searching she finally found who she was looking for. Concentrating harder the whole room started to glow and then a flash of blight white light.

It was a bright and sunny summer afternoon, and Leo was resting underneath one of his family's apple tress." Nothing beats relaxing in the shade after a long days work." The family farm, at which Leo worked, has been in the family for five generations. He and his twin sister Lisa have been running the farm for the last five years, ever since both of their parents passed away, his mom from cancer and his father in a farming accident. Looking up at the sky he wonders if his parents would be proud of them. It hasn't been the easiest for him between a failed relationship to crop failure it's been rough, but he thanks his lucky stars that his sister has been there. Getting comfortable under an apple tree he starts to feel the fatigue from a long days work and begins to drift off to sleep.

After what seemed to be a couple of hours, Leo began to stir from his nap. "Man, I'm too comfortable in this bed to get up, but if I don't, Lisa will kill me for slacking off. Wait a minute, a bed?" Leo sat up rubbing his eyes. He tried looking around the room, but it was too dark to see anything. After pinching himself to see if he was still dreaming, his mind started to go into panic mode.

Closing his eyes and taking some deep breaths, he began to meditate to calm him down. While in his meditative state, he fails to hear the door open with two figures entering the room. "You didn't tell us that the one you chose was good looking, sister."

Leo's eyes shot open. Looking over to the now open door he all he see's is an open door. Looking around, the room is still dark as if something is blocking the light from entering the room. His heart starts to race as he hears what sounds like hoof steps instead of normal footsteps.

"Yes Luna, yes he is. He is also very strong. Why do you think I've had my eye on him." Came a voice from behind him. Jumping off of the bed he starting to move quickly to the door. As he tried to go through the open door, he was stop by some invisible force blocking his escape.

"Oh look Cele, he trying to escape. Good thing you put up that barrier."

The voice seemed to come from all around him. Leo worked his way over to a corner of the room and took up a defensive stance, if he could not leave he figured he at least try and defend himself. "Who are you? What do you want with me?"

A bright flash came from the opposite side of the room. As the bright light dimmed, he was finally able to see who his captures were. "Cele, things were about to get good" Standing on the opposite side of the room were two unicorns one white, with a picture of a sun on her flank and one dark blue with a what looks like an ink blot with a moon , both with wings. "Wait unicorns but those are a fantasy creatures a myth and wings I don't remember unicorns having wings or that could talk" he thought as he stared at both of them. "This is not possible. Unicorns are a fantasy, a myth and they don't have wings." As Leo closed his eyes, shaking his head and dropping to his knees .

A light laughter came from both of the alicorns. "I understand your shock human, but we are real." Spoke the white winged unicorn as she approached Leo . "And we are alicorns, a winged unicorn. My name is Celestia and this here is my sister Luna" motioning to the dark blue alicorn. "We rule this land to which I have brought you. What is your name young one?"

"Leo." he replied as he slowly starts to get up, still shaken and overwhelmed by what's going on, "But you still haven't answered my question, what do you want with me?"

Celestia smiles, using her magic she deactivates the barrier to the room. As she approaches the door, she motions to Leo to follow. They exit the room into long white corridor with a few windows to the outside world. Following Celestia, Leo, being flanked by Luna, continued to walk down the corridor. Every now and then, Leo would glance through one of the windows to see a few pegasi of different colors flying around. As they continued, he started to wonder what this strange world he was brought to was all about, his sense of fear was now being replaced with a sense of curiosity and adventure. He is broken from his thoughts when Celestia opens a door that leads to a balcony. As he looks over the land his mind is blown away by how beautiful this place is. "Humans once lived here." spoke Luna as she stood next to him. " That is until about 1200 years ago then they disappeared.

"While searching the sky with magic, I found your planet." Celestia cut in, "I was able to, at brief times look in on your planet and I found you to be the best candidate."

"Candidate for what?"

"To see if humans can come back to Equestria. Like my sister said, humans once lived here and even though humans do have violent tendencies we believe that you humans deserve a second chance. I would like to ask you, will you be our test subject to see if humans can live here peacefully? "

Leo stared out at the lush world around him Humans use to live here? She is asking me to be a test subject' to see if my race can come back? This seems all well and good but what about my home, my sister? "What about my sister? We are the only family we have. She is going to be worried about me. "

"When I teleported you here, I left a note on your table saying that you would be going on a trip for about ten days. If at the end of ten days, if you wish to return home I will send you home. Hopefully it will be enough time to see if we can trust your race again."

"I'll do it." His eyes still glued to the landscape and the sun starts to set. Celestia smiles and tells him that she will take him to a guest bedroom of the castle. He and Celestia turn to leave, Leo notices that Luna is no longer there. Celestia explains to Leo, on the way to the guest room, about how she and her sister raise and lower the sun and the moon and it was time for her sister to safeguard the night. Arriving at the guest room Celestia bids him good night and invites him to breakfast in the morning. Leo agrees and bid her good night as well. Entering the room, he walks straight to bed and lies down. He wonders what his sister is doing as he falls asleep.

Back on Earth, Leo's sister Lisa returns home. Unable to locate her brother, she finds a note on the table: Lisa I'm going on a trip for about ten days. See you when I get back. Leo. Lisa crumbles up the note, " He is so getting it when he gets back."

The Bracelet

The next morning, Leo awoke before the sun came up. Rolling out of bed, he walked to the window and gazed out over the land that he was brought to, still amazed at it all. But he still wondered why, why him of all people. His thoughts then turned to his sister and the beating he was bound to get when he got back home. His sister Lisa wasn't normally a violent person, only when it came to Leo slacking off did she have to beat some sense into him.

He sighed as he continued to stare out the window as the sun started to rise. He didn't think that he would, but he missed getting out and working on the farm, the satisfaction of a hard day's work, and the dirt and sweat of working all day in the fields. However, he was here, in a castle to basically be used as an experiment. While he had agreed to it last night, he was starting to have second thoughts.

He was brought out of his thoughts by a knock at the door. He opened it to reveal a white pegasus in golden armor standing outside, "The Princess requests your presence at breakfast." Nodding, Leo noticed the guard showed no emotion about the strange creature that was in the room. Thinking that they were trained that way, he followed the guard down the hall to a set of double doors. Thanking the guard, he opened the door and saw Celestia sitting at a small table reading the morning paper. Remembering that she is one of the rulers of this land, he bows," Good morning Princess."

Setting the paper down, she smiled and motioned Leo to raise and to take a seat. "Did you sleep well?" she asked while letting one of the guards in the room that it was ok to bring in breakfast.

"Yeah..." his words drifting off as the thoughts from earlier this morning replayed in his mind.

Celestia, taking note of his facial and the way he answered, could tell that something was bothering him. "Are you having second thoughts about being here?"

Leo knew he had a horrible poker face and the fact that he had shook one of his life principles, to never go back on your word. Sighing, he was about to answer when a door opened and breakfast was served. It was a fruit spread with orange juice. The sight of food brought a rumble from his stomach, which brought an embarrassing blush on his face. Celestia let out a small laugh, levitating a strawberry," Go ahead and have some, that's why I invited you here." she said with a playful smile.

Thanking her, he grabbed an apple. Taking a bite, his eyes widen on how juicy the apple is. These apples are better than the ones I grow. After taking a few bites, he finally decides to answer her question. "Yes, I was having second thoughts about being here. Mainly, I am worried about my sister back home." The look that the Princess was giving him was one of understanding, which made Leo a little more comfortable. "But, one of the things my father instilled on me was that a man never goes back on his word, he follows through on the promises that he makes. Even though I have had second thoughts, I will follow through with what I agreed to last night."

Celestia was pleased; the character of the one she brought here was strong. She had no doubt the test with him will be successful. With a smile she levitates a small box over to Leo. Opening the box Leo found a silver bracelet, inscribed with symbols that he did not recognize. "That bracelet was found in the ruins of a human settlement. We still haven't figured out what the symbols mean..." spoke Celestia as Leo put the bracelet on his left wrist. As soon Leo put the bracelet on, there was a flash of white light. As the light faded from where Leo once was, there now stood a black unicorn with a short brown mane and tail with an orange shield cutie mark.

To Leo, whatever just happened felt like it scrambled his brains. "What the hell just happened?" He put a hoof to his head to massage his temples. His eyes shoot open, jumping out of his chair as he looked over his body; he was a pony. "What the Hell!"

To say Celestia was shocked was an understatement. She had no idea that the humans had been working on something like this. Sighing, she knew she had some explaining to do about the relationship between humans and unicorns 1300 years ago. "Leo, there is something I need to tell you."

Leo, still in shock, could only nod in response. He knew his that impulsiveness had caused this. Putting on a strange bracelet with strange marking without knowing if there was any history behind it was only asking for trouble. He composed himself and retook his seat so that Celestia could explain.

"About 1300 years ago," Celestia began, "before the unification of Equestria, there was fighting between unicorns and humans. They both had their own types of magic and both wanted to be the dominant species. Both sides fought each other with their respective magic’s, which lead to the devastation of most of the land now called the Hollow Shade. There were heavy losses on both sides and both sides were not above taking prisoners. It seems that the humans were working on a way to turn into unicorns to infiltrate the unicorn cities and ambush them. The unicorns had been working on something similar, but the records of both the unicorn and human experiments have been lost."

Leo raised his left foreleg and stared at the bracelet that he was given. “This was a weapon of war?” He thought. He knew, back in his world, that his kind was prone to war and they used any and all exploits to turn the battle in their favor. He started to understand the reason why he was brought here. "And this bracelet was the result of the human research?" he asked as he continues to look over the bracelet.

Celestia nods, “There wasn’t any reports of this ever being used. It was also during this time Discord showed up and the humans just disappeared.”

After hearing all this, Leo got out of his seat and walked over to a window. All of this new information was weighing on his mind. “Take your time,” Celestia spoke gently, “I know it’s a lot to take in right now. Why don’t you head to the garden? It’s peaceful there and a good place to clear your head and maybe think of a new name for yourself. Leo isn't really a pony name." She said with a slight smile, "When you are ready we will see if you can use unicorn magic, if you can then I can teach you a spell that should be able to change you back.”

Leo thanked her and trotted out of the room. Celestia returned to her chair to also to think things through. She was brought out of her thoughts when a flash of flame deposited a scroll in front of her. As she looked the scroll over, a smile came to the Princess’s face, “Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day indeed.”

After Leo left the room, he slowly made his way to the garden. Every now and then he found himself tripping over his own hooves. "They make it look so easy." He thought to himself as he continued to trot down the corridor towards the garden. Before he exited the castle, he came across a mirror. "So I'm a unicorn." He muttered to himself as he looked himself over. "Black coat, blue eyes, brown mane and tail, and an orange shield on my flank. These pictures on these ponies’ flanks have to mean something. I'll ask Celestia later about that." He mused as he left the mirror and went outside into the garden.

As he entered the garden, he couldn't help but feel more at peace. Meandering around, he found a tree next to a small pond. As he sits down he stares up at the clear blue sky and begins to think about what the Princess had told him along with what just happened to him. "No matter where they are it seems that humans only want to fight and prove that they are better than others, whether it be another race of humans or another species in general. If she has watched us like she said, then why take the chance to bring a violent race back to a peaceful world? Maybe at one time the humans here were peaceful, but what changed it." He sighed as he continued to dwell on it; now that he is here he might as well make the most of it. "And now I'm a unicorn to boot." He could only laugh at himself for that mess he got himself into. His sister always called him a walking Murphy's Law for how he would always act without thinking. "Well if I am going to be in this form I might as come up with an alias like the Princess said. Hmm, maybe something to do with the shield on my flank that would probably be the easiest." He smiled as he looked up into the clear blue sky, while thinking on a name for himself.

After about an hour, he was broken from his thoughts by a bunch of pegasi flying around. From what it looked like to him, it seemed like one pegasus, a powder blue one, was being chased by about 6 others, with the one desperately trying to get away. This made Leo chuckle, remembering how some celebrities would try to get away from the media. The single pegasus, after trying to out fly the ones chasing him, changed direction and flew directly down where Leo was.

Leo could only stare wide eyed as the powder blue pegasus dived into the tree right above him. The six other pegasi tried to follow him but were turned back by the appearance of the royal guard. Chuckling softly, he looked up into tree. "It's safe to come out."

After a few moments, the pegasus fluttered out of the tree and landed right next to him. "Word gets out that you are an eligible bachelor and the mares are all over you." The pegasus sighed as he stuck out his forhoof to Leo, "Name's Soarin."

Leo smiled and gave Soarin a hoof shake, "Ardent Shield." "Let's see if he buys it."

"Ardent Shield, huh. You a new guard?" Soarin asked, getting comfortable.

"Yeah, day off." Ardent replied. "I hate lying, but I think the Princess would appreciate it if I kept a being a human a secret and kept up this alias of being a guard, I’ll have to ask her that later.

The two of them spent the next few hours chatting and getting to know each other. They hit it off rather well, and before long they became friends. "If everyone is like this guy, being an experiment here might now be so bad." Before Soarin left, he let Ardent know how he could be contacted. Saying their goodbyes, Soarin took the skies, leaving Ardent alone again. Smiling, he realized he doesn't really need to worry about what the past humans did; he is here now, even if he is in pony form. He now as a friend here, he hopes when this is all said and done maybe Celestia would allow him to return at times.

Slowly getting up, he heads back inside to go talk to the Princess. She had mentioned that she wanted to see if, with him being a unicorn, he could use magic. He also made a note to ask her about these marks on his and every pony he has met flanks. As he was walking back inside, he met up with the Princess who was on her way to check on him. The Princess then led him to an empty room to see if Ardent can use magic. On the way there, Ardent asked her about the flank pictures. She tells him that the pictures are called cutie marks and that each pony gets his or her cutie mark when they discover a unique characteristic or talent that sets themselves apart from others. This gave Ardent some pause to think about his shield cutie mark. He's a farmer and nothing to do with a shield or protecting anything.

After explaining how unicorn magic works and how to cast spells, Celestia waited to see if the transformed human could in fact cast spells. After a few tries an orange glow stared formed around his horn, signifying that he could. While it shocked Celestia how well the bracelet transformed a human into a copy of a unicorn, it was also working in Ardent's favor. If he could learn the polymorph spell, he could change back into Leo without any help. After teaching him the spell, it took Ardent a few hours to get it down. He could successfully do the spell, but it took a lot of out of him in the process.

After a long day Leo, now back in his human form, decided to turn in for the night. After saying his goodnights, he headed to his room to get some much needed rest. Lying on his bed, he reflects on the day's events, as well as the last thing the Princess told him. "Tomorrow I have a surprise for you." Leo smiled tiredly, "A surprise eh. After today, nothing could be possibly more surprising. Lisa, I hope you are doing ok."

To Ponyville

The next day started out for the same for Leo. Again, he woke up as Celestia was raising the sun. After stretching out to wake himself up, he picks up the bracelet that he was given the previous day. "This is such a strange world with items like this." chuckling to himself. Putting the bracelet on his right wrist, he was transformed back into Ardent Shield, which left him off balance and his mind spinning. "I don't think I'll ever get used to this." he thought as he walked over the mirror. Looking himself over, he still couldn't get use to the fact that he was a unicorn and no longer a human.

As he was about to leave there was a knock at the door. Opening it up, the same, or who he thought was the same, guard from the previous day was at the door. "The Princess requests that you join her for breakfast."

Nodding, Ardent Shield follows the guard down the hall to the same room that he and the Princess had breakfast the previous day. Thanking the guard he enters the room to see roughly the same layout as yesterday; Princess Celestia sitting at a table reading a newspaper, an empty seat across from her, the only difference was that a buffet of fruit was already out. "Good morning, Princess." Ardent Shield said as he bowed his head.

Setting the paper down, Celestia found herself shaking her head at Ardent; she had expected him to still be in his human form. "Ardent, you do not have to be in that form around me." She said, smiling.

"Well, the transformation still causes me uneasiness, plus I still want to get used to being like this. If I’m going to blend in for the time being I'd rather not look like a complete idiot." Ardent sheepishly replied, taking his seat across from the Princess.

The Princess smiled as she poured tea for both her and Ardent. As they exchanged small talk during the meal, Celestia told him that her student would be arriving today and that she would like him to meet her. "It will be a few hours until my student arrives here, please feel free to walk around. I bet you would like to see more than this old castle." Celestia said smiling as the dishes were cleared from the table. Ardent nodded in agreement, but before he could speak Celestia spoke up again, "Don't worry, I'll send one of my guards to find you when the time comes." Nodding again, he got up and bowed to the Princess before leaving the room.

After he left the dining room, Ardent decided to head back out to the castle ground and explore the rest of the garden that he didn't see yesterday. Walking around, he arrives at a statue of a creature had never seen before. It look like it had the body and left foreleg of a griffin, a lion's right foreleg and paw, the head and neck of a pony with an over-sized tooth, a goatee beard, a mismatched antlers and horns of deer and goat, a pair of wings, one bat, one Pegasus, the left hind leg of a goat, the right hind leg of a green lizard, and the tail of a dragon. As he looked over the statue he noticed that the pose made it look afraid, almost as if it was being turned into tone rather than being carved. There was no name plate or anything identifying what this statue was. As he continued to look at the statue, something started to bother him, almost as if the statue was familiar. Putting the feeling aside, Ardent decided to head back to the pond that he rested at the previous day and to leave the statue alone. As he left, however, he couldn't shake the feeling that statue was smiling at him as he left.

After a few hours he was summoned to the throne room. Upon entering, he saw the Princess talking to a purple unicorn. "That must be her student." Ardent thought as he approached the throne. Looking up, Celestia notices Ardent approach and bow, "Ardent Shield, so nice of you to finally make it. And what did I tell you earlier, you do not need to be like that. Please be yourself."

Ardent could tell what she meant by that, but he had to make sure, "Are you sure Princess?" The Princess gave him a reassuring smile and nod.

The purple unicorn was confused by the exchange that was talking place between the Princess and the black unicorn that had just entered. Before the purple could find out, there was a flash of orange light and where the black unicorn was, there was a strange bipedal creature with no fur, a short brown mane of sorts, and wearing some sort of clothing.

"Leo, this here is Twilight Sparkle. Twilight, this is Leo, a human I brought from his world to see if humans can live here again."

Leo gave a small bow and approached Twilight, “It’s a pleasure to meet you."Leo judged by the look on Twilights face that she was in shock.

To say that she was in shock was an understatement. Here was a unicorn that just transformed into a "human". Twilight thought humans were nothing more than a myth. Sure Lyra kept coming by the library for books on them, but she never gave it any real thought that they were actually real and now, one was standing in front of her. She stayed like that for a few minutes, before she slowly advanced toward the human. She circled this strange new being looking him over, making mental notes of Leo's physical structure.

Celestia was amused as she watched her student walk around and examine Leo. She kind of figured that her student would react in this way, that's why she wanted Leo to transform to confirm it. This was the first step in possible reintroduction of the human race to Equestria. "Twilight" Celestia spoke up, "I’m putting Leo in your care for the next eight days."

That brought Twilight out of her stunned state, "Why Princess?"

Leo was about the same thing, but Celestia spoke up first, "I would like him to see first hoofed what Equestrian culture is like and being my faithful student I trust you to do it."

To Leo it made sense, Celestia did say that she wanted him to experience Equestrian culture before it was to be revealed that humans did and still do exist. Plus this was turning out to be a nice vacation from his day to day farm work.

"I understand Princess." replied Twilight with a bit of excitement starting to build. With the eight days that Ardent be spending with her she'll be able to study him and learn about his culture while he experiences theirs.

"One last thing," Celestia spoke up, “Leo, some ponies might ask where you are from and what you do, for that you are going to need a cover story, as much as I hate to deceive my little ponies. If anypony asks, tell them you come from Canterlot and that you are an auxiliary member of the Royal Guard. Twilight, I need to speak to you before you go." They both nod and Leo gives a bow before leaving the Princess and Twilight to talk in private.

Returning to the guest room, the only thing that he had in there was the bracelet that Celestia gave him. Putting it on and changing back into Ardent Shield, he headed back to wait outside the throne room.

Arriving he sees Twilight waiting for him. "Leo, there is a carriage waiting for to take us to Ponyville." Twilight said, looking over Ardent. It amazed her how he was able to transform into a unicorn and nothing seemed off. She made a mental note to ask him how he did it.

"Actually it’s Ardent Shield, at least while I look like this." he replied with a grin,” Got to keep up appearances and Leo doesn't sound very pony like, at least that what Celestia has told me."

Twilight nodded, making another mental note of that. They both headed out of the Castle and into the courtyard where a Pegasus-drawn chariot was waiting for them to take them to Ponyville. As they both boarded the two white pegasi took off into the sky. Looking over the side Ardent admired the landscape and marveled at its beauty. Twilight just smiled at the reaction of her guest. The two of them made small talk on the roughly hour long flight to Ponyville, the conversation mainly consisting of Ardent's time so far in Equestria.

After about an hour the chariot set down on the outskirts of Ponyville. Thanking the pegasi, they slowly make their way to into town. It was midday and the town was full of activity, Ardent took all of this in. The town reminded him of the small town where he lived, at least on farmer's market days. Nearing Twilights home, Ardent was startled when he heard a loud gasp behind him. Turning around, all he saw was a dust cloud. Twilight just faced hoofed knowing full well who it was and what she was about to do. "Come on Ardent, we are almost at there."

Ardent just shrugged and followed Twilight until they stopped in front a giant tree. "Here we are." said Twilight with a chipper tone.

"You live in a tree?" Replied Ardent disbelievingly.

"Yep, it’s also the library. Come on in." As they both enter, Ardent couldn’t believe that Twilight was right. He kept trying put human logic to the whole thing situation. "Spike, I’m back." He heard Twilight call out. As he looked around the room, the main room looked much like a standard living room minus the bookshelves full of books and small dragon dusting the shelves. He shook his head, after everything he has experienced over the last couple of days; a dragon did not surprise him much.

“Welcome back Twilight.” Spike said as he stopped dusting then glanced at the unicorn standing next to Twilight. “Oh I didn’t know we were having guest, I would have cleaned up quicker.”

Twilight and Ardent both chuckled a bit before she spoke up, “I didn’t either ‘til I saw the Princess today. This is Ardent Shield, an auxiliary member of the Royal Guard that the Princess assigned here for a few days.”

Ardent giving the small dragon a smile, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Spike.”

Spike walks over and holds a clawed hand toward Ardent, “Nice to meet you too.” Recognizing the gesture, Ardent shakes Spike’s hand with a fore hoof which felt strange for him not being able to give a firm handshake with hooves.

“Spike, can you show Ardent to the guest room. I have to go find Pinkie.”

"You can count on me Twilight." Spike said giving her a snappy salute. Twilight gave her assistant a smile before turning and walking out the door. Spike then turned to Ardent and motioned for him to follow. Following Spike, he is lead downstairs into the basement of the library. When they reach the bottom, Ardent notices all sorts of machines and science equipment, silently hoping that he wouldn't be Twilights next experiment. Off to the side was a small room that Spike was standing in front of. "Here it is." Spike said proudly.

"Thank you," as Ardent walks over to where Spike was and enters the room. The room was decent size, a pony sized bed, dresser, and a desk. Turning around he notices Spike is gone, he figured that he probably left to continue cleaning or something.

When Ardent came back up stairs, Spike was indeed still dusting around the library. Seeing that Twilight still hadn't returned, he decided to look over the selection of books that the library had to offer. While he glanced over the selection he came across one book that caught his attention, "The History of Equestria." He levitated the book over to a small desk. Taking a seat, he begins to read. He barely made it out of some of the most ancient history when the door to the library opens up. Looking up from the book he cranes his neck toward the door and sees Twilight has returned. "Welcome back, Twilight." He said, closing the book and putting it back on the shelf.

Twilight smiled as she walked over to Ardent, "The Princess asked me, before we left, to study human culture and to find out more about that strange bracelet that she gave you."

Ardent shrugged, "Seems legit. I am a stranger here and even I don't know anything about that weird bracelet besides what it does to me."

Following Twilight, the two of them head back downstairs and for the next three hours the two of them talk culture and history about their respected worlds. Twilight got a little disgusted about humans eating meat, but Ardent assured her that he can keep to a vegetarian diet while he is here. She also got a little worried about the violent tendencies of the humans from his home planet. Again, Ardent reassured her that he was not a violent person as he told her about is life as a farmer, including losing his parents, and the hardships of running the farm with only him and his twin sister. Twilight actually felt sorry for him, losing his parents and being brought here to a strange world while leaving his sister all alone. She also made a mental note to introduce him to Applejack.

After the third hour had passed, a sound, like a cannon going off came from up stairs. "What was that?" Ardent said wide eyed and shaken up.

Twilight on the other hand knew exactly what and who that was. Ignoring his question, Twilight got up and headed for the stairs. "I think it's time for a break, you hungry?" A small rumble came from Ardent's stomach causing him to blush. Twilight giggled and motioned for him to follow as she ran up the stairs.

Ardent slowly got up and followed her. It was pitch black when he got back to the main room of the library. "Uh Twilight, what's going on?" Ardent said as he slowly walked away from the staircase.

"SURPRISE!"

Ardent's jaw dropped as the lights came on. 'Welcome to Ponyville' was on a banner hung up in front of him. It was a welcoming party for him. As he looked around, a pink pony with a big smile on her face appeared.

"I'm Pinkie Pie, I through this welcoming party for you as you are new here and I know everypony here. I'll always throw a great big ginormous super-duper spectacular welcome party and invite everypony in Ponyville. See? And now you have lots and lots of new friends."

Ardent didn't know what to say. He didn't any friends growing up and here was this pony who just threw a party just for showing up. "I don't know what to say." He said, finally able to speak up.

"It's a party silly." Pinkie replied while bouncing around Ardent, “Have fun." With that she bounced over to a music player and turns on the music as Ardent just stood there with a stunned look on his face.

"She can be a handful at times." ®Twilight came up to Ardent with four other ponies joining her.

"I'm just overwhelmed that's all." he replied.

Twilight giggled, she knew from talking to him that he never really had a party thrown for him before. She introduced him to her four friends that were with her. Rainbow Dash, the prismatic pegasus, she seems brash and a little cocky when she talked about her flying skills, but he did agree to come watch her practice when he had some free time. He did enjoy watching pegasus fly. Rarity, the white unicorn, with a high class attitude. She generously offered him a suit that, in her words, would look absolutely marvelous on him. He tried to refuse it but she wouldn't take no for an answer. He would have something to remind himself of his time here. Fluttershy, the shy pegasus, she didn't really speak much. She seemed overly shy and what he did find out about her was from Twilight was the fact that she cared for animals on the outskirts of the town. Then there was Applejack the blonde mane mare with a country accent. Like him she was a farmer just like he was back in his world and the way she carried herself reminded him of a girl he used to know back home. Like Rainbow, he agrees to help her out on her farm when he had time to.

After the introduction, Ardent walked around and introduced himself to everyone he met. He found it strange that virtually everypony here was a mare and on more than one occasion he caught a mare checking him out. He didn't mind though. He was having a good time at the party, the only thing that worried him, was when he walked by Twilight and overheard her being asked by a green unicorn if she got anymore books about human mythology. When word got out that he was a human he could probably figure that, that green unicorn will be the first to come find him.

Meanwhile, outside the library, a red unicorn with a black cloak that covering his entire body was walking by the library only to stop when a symbol on his right forhoof lit up. So Celestia finally brought the masters back to Equestria. He thought as an evil smile crept onto his face. As he neared the library the reaction of the symbol became stronger. Peering into the library, he recognized all of the ponies in the room, except the black unicorn with the orange shield cutie mark. That must be him and it looks like they finished that seal. He continued to think as he started to walk away from the library, the evil smile never leaving his face. And now my plan can finally be put into motion.