Ash was walking around the halls to get his mind off things because of the affect it was having on him, he bumped into someone, thinking it was Celestia because of the white fur and horn the figure had. But, he didn’t remember her being short. At all. “Oh, sorry Sunshine, I didn’t mean.. to bump… into you?” He looked down and saw it was absolutely NOT Celestia, but a white unicorn with blonde hair.

The unicorn looked at Ash in disgust “Sunshine? Who are you and, even,what are you?” Ash only stood feeling embarrassed about mistaking him for someone else but also felt awkward because of how he was acting for no reason.

“My name is Ash and I’m a human.”

The unicorn looked him up and down “An ugly thing you are”, Ash looked down at him with slightly widened eyes.

“Excuse me?” The unicorn looked up at him.

“You are excused, but you know what, I’m just going to leave myself. You’re probably too incompetent to understand me.”

Before Ash could say anything the white unicorn sauntered off down the hall and around the corner. Ash couldn’t just follow him, he had a lunch with the princesses to get to, even if he wanted to at least restore his honor. He continued his trip to the dining halls. The princesses were sitting there waiting for him but Ash still had a light scowl on his face that Luna noticed “What is the matter dear friend?”

Ash turned to Luna with a kind and understanding smile “I’m very aware that you are an intelligent species and you’re very own people. But for the sake of my venting.” Celestia moved closer, intrigued but worried.

“I was just rudely insulted by an animal for accidentally bumping into him!”

Neither of them took offense to the animal comment, taking where he’s from into consideration but Celestia still looked irritated either way “Who did you bump into?”

Ash shook his head “I never caught his name but he was a white unicorn with blonde hair”, Luna let out an exasperated sigh with Celestia having an apologetic look.

“I’m sorry Ash, that’s our nephew Prince Blueblood.”

Ash looked on in shock “You’re related to that guy!? I, personally, find that really hard to believe. Him, Blueblood, is related to the kind, sweet and understanding sisters and rulers of this land.” Luna smiled at his words as well as Celestia but with a light blush to her cheeks.

As if on cue, Blueblood comes prancing through the dining hall doors with an outraged expression “Aunties, I just came across one of the most horrible of things. This disgusting monkey thing bumped into me, me?! And he didn’t address me as I should have been and it was the ugliest of things I’ve ever come across.”

Ash wasn’t going to stand for this, “Have you looked in a mirror lately, your hair looks like melted banana ice cream on a styrofoam box with a white tube in it!” The princesses tried to hold their laughter back but some chuckles escaped.

Blueblood turned to him with a shocked and very red face. “How dare-“

Ash cut him off “You think you can just meet me for two minutes and act like I’m the shittiest thing in the world!? Well you got another thing comin!”

Blueblood turned to the sisters for help but Celestia only shook her head “He has a point Blueblood, how you approached him was rude and unjust.” Blueblood’s mouth laid agape. Luna told him the same thing, this leading Blueblood to let out a huff of air and storm out of the room. Once the doors were closed, Luna and Celestia burst out laughing.

Ash stood in triumph “It’s people like him who need to be put in their place.”

The day went on normally after the incident and Ash was feeling a lot more happy than the last couple of days, he was walking through the gardens when he heard the sound of wood slamming against each other in the distance. Ash turned the corner of a stone wall, and saw multiple ponies sparring and sword fighting with each other. He only watched for about five seconds when he heard a voice behind him “Aren’t you the human the princesses mentioned?”

Ash turned around to find a teal Pegasus with a grey mane. Ash couldn’t get a word in when the Pegasus spoke again “Sorry, if I startled you, my name’s Steel Wind”, Steel Wind put out his hand for a shake to which Ash returned.

“Ash.” A loud shout came from the sparring area but was getting closer with each hoofstep.

“Soldier! Now is not the time to socialize with ponies,” the pony took one look at Ash and stepped back just to speak to his face “Oh, you must be Ash. I’m Captain Shining Armor, pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise, you must be the one to train the guard.”

Shining Armor smirked “Why not try and take on one of my guards, see what stuff you’re made of.”

Ash returned the gesture with a look of determination “Alright, I’ll take on that challenge.”

Shining lead his over to the training grounds and yelled “Private River Dust!”

A few moments later came a navy blue unicorn with a white mane. “Yes, Shining Sir!” River Dust gave Shining a hard salute.

“You, are gonna be sparring Ash here.”

The unicorn and human looked at each other and thought “Well, this is unfair”, though both thought that with two different reasons. River Dust gave a firm nod, Ash tried not to show his nervous and thankfully for him he was hiding it relatively well.

“I can’t hit a girl though, that goes against my parents teaching me to respect women!”

”Why not just go easy on her?”

”Yeah, but if he does that, she’ll kick his ass! She has magic for crying out loud!”

”Yeah but so does Ash.”

Kira yelled at Kori in frustration ”He’s not the best at controlling it! He almost blazed your head trying remember!” Ash soon stood in a small field with River Dust on the other end with a teal aura glowing around her horn.

Shining walked in the middle of the two “Rules are the first one to back down or can no longer fight loses, and I don’t want any fatal injuries, got it?” Ash and River nodded, Shining teleported off the fighting grounds and blew a whistle signaling the start of the fight.

River Dust’s horn glowed and a fireball was summoned. The fireball was directed at Ash’s right leg to which he easily dodged and let out a huff of air. “Smart girl.” River Dust teleports over to him and bucks him in the stomach sending Ash flying. He lands on his back and raises his head to see the unicorn charge towards him. She goes for another fire ball and hits him directly on his chest, Ash let’s put a pained groan but proceeds to stand to his full height. So far, he hasn’t landed a single hit, but thats gonna change. Ash charges and lands a roundhouse kick to her side which leads her slumping, River Dust is quickly knocked to the ground after Ash pulls a low sweep. Ash runs to the unicorn to land another hit but River Dust surprisingly shoots up one of her hind legs high enough to where it hits him square in the jaw making Ash stumble from the impact. A crash of lighting is heard as well as a yowl of pain. The thunder attacked his left leg leaving it temporarily paralyzed. River Dust goes to jump on him to land a punch but he uses it as leverage and launches her backwards of him. Like in that scene from the Lion King when Simba defeats Scar by launching him into the fire.

Before the fight could continue any further, Shining blew his whistle, telling them to stop. River Dust easily jogged back to the captain while Ash had a little bit of trouble, considering his leg. A blue glow encased his body and saw River Dust levitating him over them. Shining looked him dead in the eye “If you ever think about it, come to my office at 4:00, you have a lot of potential rookie, I can feel it.” Ash smiled with small pride, Shining turned to River Dust “Get him to the beds, let him rest off the paralysis and get the burn treated.” River Dust nodded and walked off with Ash still being held by magic.

“Your tough, that was a rank 4 Fireball and still came standing”, Ash returned the complement.

Another voice broke into the conversation “That fight was great!” Both of their heads turned to see Steel Wind running next to them.

River spoke in a tone of annoyance “You shouldn’t be here Private, if the captain catches you off duty then there’s going to be a price to pay.”

Steel Wind waved his wing dismissively “I’ll just say I went against his orders with good intentions.” River shook her head.

As they were rounding a corner they ran into Celestia, she turned and greeted the soldiers with a bow but gasped when she saw Ash “What happened?” Celestia began to chastise Ash about what happened to him when Steel Wind quickly coughed to catch her majesties attention.

"Permission to speak your majesty?" Permission was given and he continued "He, came across Captain Shining Armor, and the captain requested him to spar with Private River Dust", said pony bows her head, Steel went on "The human-"

"Ash.”

"Ash agreed to the Captain's request, but paralyzed his left leg and left a fire burn on his mid chest. River Dust was then asked to take him to the infirmary to treat them."

Celestia nodded,"I will carry out the rest of Shining Armor’s orders for you both, now return back to your duties", both bowed before leaving Ash with the princess, who took him in her own magical aura. "Ash, you must be more careful. I don't know what I'd do if you got seriously hurt", Ash tried waving his hand off, but because magic.

"It's just a burn, the paralysis will wear off.”

Celestia huffed "You still got hurt."

Ash taunted in a baby voice "Aw, the princess cares about me!"

Celestia looked away before turning to face him again "I care about all my little ponies."

The banter only continued with the two as Celestia took him to the nurse's room.

As Celestia was leaving the hospital room she could hear Kori "Captain Armor can sense it.”

Kira shared his worry "Then, were going to have to mask it, he isn't ready yet and its unstable even if he's learning how to use them correctly."

Celestia knew she should ask about it, but this didn't seem like her business but she could also feel it was important. "Ash isn't ready for what?" she asked sounding innocent but it covered up how she was really feeling, she could hear the two in his head come up with a valid excuse but couldn't think of one she'd buy. Ash only turned his head away, the action left a look of hurt in Celestia's eyes but she quickly shook out the emotion and quietly left the room.

The burn was treated and he could walk on his left leg again, so Ash took the opportunity to get some fresh air. As he was walking through a field next to the palace walls he heard the sound of wing flaps behind him. He turned around to see Luna flying down towards, he smiled to her in a greeting "Hello dear Ash, Celestia told me about the sparring incident, are you alright?" Ash replied with the a 'yes', Luna then grew serious "You still must be careful, you're lucky that the only thing bad was a burn to the chest. It could have been much worse if you were more careless."

"The Captain asked me", Luna shook her head.

“Yet, you agreed to the request." Ash was going to say something but shut his mouth thinking better of it. Ending the discussion Ash looked up at the sky and wondered at the beauty above him. It was equivalent to multiple diamonds sparkling in the deadest of black, and the moon only added to the beauty.

Luna brought her gaze to what he was staring at and lightly smiled. "D-Do you like it?" she asked with a shaky voice, everypony never really took notice of her night skies and slept through it all. Ash looked back and saw she waited for his answer with anticipated breath.

"Like it?" Luna's expression started to break but was quickly brought into a bright smile when Ash walked over to her, looked her dead in the eyes, and finished "I love it! The night sky is beautiful!"

"Thank you, I always try my hardest to make it look stunning.”

Ash took a look of surprise "You made this?"

Luna giggled at his reaction "I mean, I am the Princess of the Night, this is one of my duties, it's to create the night sky."

Ash looked on at the sky with admiration "Well, you do a fantastic job Lulu", Luna blushed slightly at the name and compliment but the smile was soon brought to a frown.

"I just wish that everypony else thought the same." Ash saw the frown and thought,

"Now, that won't do."

Luna soon felt that her hooves weren't touching the grass anymore and looked down to see Ash holding her in his arms with a big smile on his face "Then they don't know what they're missing!"

Luna laughed lightly and gave him a hug “Thank you Ash.”

Two weeks have officially passed since Ash has arrived in Equestria and luckily for Ash, he hasn’t had a single nightmare with Shadow Veil appearing or seeing him in the shadows. Though his last words still left him a little paranoid. “I’ll be waiting. Watching. Planning.”

But, thinking about that wasn’t going to get him down, Celestia had asked him if he would like to join her for day court today. She said it would help her pass the time more. He agreed, of course, and was currently making his way to the throne room. Another thing that’s made him happier was a few new friends he’s made when he agreed to Shining’s request of joining the guard. He’s become closer with Steel Wind and River Dust as well a few others. There was Gold Streak, he was a dusty brown colored unicorn with a gold colored mane, Cosmo Wave, she was a bat pony that Ash befriended from the night guard, she was a cerulean blue with a light purple mane, and then there was Cookie Dough, she looked exactly like her name implied. But don’t let her name fool you, she was far more of one of the serious friends out of the group. Her coat was the color of the cookie dough itself while her hair was the color of chocolate.

He honestly couldn’t ask for better friends and they really helped him make it through guard training when it got real tough.

Anyways back to the present, he made it to the throne room and opened it to see Celestia waiting there for him on the throne. She smiled when she saw him come in and greeted him and asked how his day was going so far. “Just reflection that’s all.”

Celestia raised a brow “About what?” Ash waved his hand and sat down on step just below the throne.

“Just about my friends.”

Celestia smiled “What about them?”

“Well, they’ve helped me with guard training for one when it got difficult and be there for me. But, of course,” Ash stood up to face Celestia “I have you and Lulu to thank the most.” Ash didn’t let her speak and embraced her in a strong hug. She was motionless for a second before wrapping her arms around him.

The both of them pulled away and Day Court was finally commenced. Ash stood off to the side as each pony came in and told Celestia about their issues, helping her everyone once and while. The next pony that came in gave Ash a troubling vibe, but he didn’t show it.

The pony bowed and addressed himself as Copper Cavern, doesn’t sound like a name for a rich pony. “Your majesty I request that you take down half of the Rose Orphanage because the founders built it on my property.”

Ash looked at this stallion with shock and absolute disgust “Did this bitch just ask what I think he asked? What the Fuck?!?”

Celestia shook her head “I can’t do the Sir Copper Cavern, that orphanage was bought specifically to be on private property so nopony can try and demolish it. And the orphanage has crossed onto your property because of the overflowing of the resident fillies and colts, so the building continues to build and expand to fill all of the little ponies. Other, orphanages can’t afford to expand.”

Copper Cavern retorted “Is there a way where they can move it?”

Celestia shook her head “Currently there isn’t a land right now that can fit.”

Ash logically advised “For that to work, the mountain would have to be broken but the process for that is hazardous for the whole city and would take too much time, what establishment do possess of wanting to go through with this action?”

Copper Cavern scoffed “I’m the owner of Copper Bar.”

On the inside Ash had a total deadpan expression with a bit of cursing. This guy, wants to take away half of a huge orphanage for a bar that has a little bit of its property taken? ”Someone remind me to never go there.”

Ash is brought back to the real world and sees Copper Cavern arguing with Celestia who was continuing to reason with him of why his offer was something that shouldn’t be done. “Please understand what I’m doing is for the best of my ponies and the little foals, I can get a letter sent to the founders to stop building on your property, but you must see that destroying the orphanage isn’t the best course of action.”

What Copper said next made something snap inside Ash “Then maybe the best course of action is to get a different princess who will help her ponies. If I recall, aren’t you the same princess who banished her own sister to-“

SLAP

A loud resounding slap echoed throughout the throne with gasps from inside and outside the throne room.

Let me give you an insight, Ash was never much of a violent person unless it was needed to be done. So, if his family could see how mad he was now, they would be backing out of the room. Ash spoke to the perpetrator with a voice of malice in a low whisper “Listen here? You snobby ass horse, Celestia is a great princess for starters and is trying to come up with a compromise that will be to both of your selfish ass and the founders of the orphanages liking. But, she is also a sweet, kind and intelligent women who is only looking out for her ponies, including bitches like you. So, you can take her offer and leave, or you can stay while you continue to humiliate yourself. And another thing buster, you are never, and I mean never, going to disrespect and shame her like that ever again. Do. You. Understand?” The pony nodded obediently and left the throne room, with his tail between his legs.

Ash lost the malice and turned to face Celestia with a look of care and worry, like a mother taking care of their hurt child. “Are you okay?” Celestia stared at Ash with a frozen expression. She slowly nodded and called off Day Court for the rest of the day.

Ash turned to hear clopping feet next to him as Celestia walked out of the room, he found Gold Streak and Steel Wind with agape mouthes. “Dude! What was that?!”

Ash thought it over and shook his head at Gold Streak “I-I don’t know myself or where that hostility came from.”

Steel Wind broke in “Well, where ever it came from, you stood up for Princess Celestia and that ought to earn you some respect not just from the guard but also knocking the nobles down a peg, the stallion deserved it. The banishment of her sister is a sensitive topic and you don’t have to be in the guard to know that.”

Ash sighed hoping Celestia was okay. Gold Streak noticed his dad expression and slapped his back “Tell you what? Why don’t we grab the group and go out for drinks to tonight? We’ll have to wait till night though, the others still have their shifts as well as us, and Cosmo Wave.”

Ash smiled “That sounds like a good idea, maybe it could help me think a bit” Ash thought that thought over again thinking it didn’t make much sense.

Thump Thump

The resounding of what ponies call a heartbeat could be heard beating inside the princesses chest. If others could hear they would be asking if she needed medical attention.

Thump Thump

Celestia’s mind was running a mile minute at the mere thought of him. His voice when he stood up to the stallion when he didn’t have to, his touch, his strong grip he had on her when he wrapped his arms around her, his caring nature when he asked if she was okay.

Thump Thump

It was wrong. She was his friend and she was a princess. It’s forbidden, and oh did it make it the sweeter to do it. But she was to court a pony of high stature even though she would out live them. But he wasn’t a pony, and not even from this world.

Thump Thump

She needed to be alone and away from him to think this over.

Ash was walking with his friends down one of the busy Canterlot roads, he looked up at the sky and saw everyone turning a blind eye to it, Ash muttered “Man, they really don’t know what view they’re missing out on.”

Cosmo Wave turned to him “Missing out on what?” Ash pointed up at the sky to gesture to the stars and moon. Cosmo made an ‘oh’ with her mouth, a sad sigh escaped “Truly, Princess Luna works endlessly to make it noticeable and pretty, but the pony population just ignore it.”

The others joined in on the moment feeling sympathy for the Lunar Princess.

Ash turned to Cookie Dough and asked “So, what bar are we going to anyway?” She pointed to the building in front of her and it read…Oh, just great. The illuminated sign said ‘Copper Bar’. Both Gold Streak and Steel Wind cringed and turned to see Ash with a slight frown.

Gold Streak whispered to River Dust “I guess she didn’t get the memo about what happened at Day Court.” She slowly nodded.

The group walked in the bar and were greeted by the manager, he heard the door open “Welcome to the-“ he paused in his sentence when he saw Ash. Copper Cavern visibly gulped and suggested the open seats with a shaky voice.

When they sat down Cookie Dough pointed a thumb to Copper and asked “What was that about? Did something happen?”

Steel Wind laid an elbow on the table “To put it in summary. Mr. Cavern disrespected the princess to her face and in front of Ash. It set him and slapped the dude hard, he said something to him and told him to leave. The Princess and him started fighting because he wanted to knock down half of the orphanage next door.”

Cookie stared but burst out laughing and looked at Ash “How hard did you slap him?”

Gold Streak answered for him “The slap was so hard there was an echo of and a large mark on his eat cheek.” Gold turned his attention to Ash “Remind me to never piss you off, damn.”

Cosmo whistled “It spread around quick, everyone in the night guard was talking about it, maybe to the point where it might’ve reached Princess Luna.”

Ash only rolled his eyes. Steel Wind patted Ash’s back and said jokingly “I think it would be better if I went and got the drinks, don’t you think?” Everyone gave a laugh as Steel walked off.

Steel Wind returned with six drinks. All of them downed the drinks and started to talk about random shit going on in their lives. They talked about training in the guard, hobbies they all do, love life (which was non-existent to them), and going on hating the snobby nobles. They were all drunk, but not to the point of where they couldn’t think.

River Dust laughed with her friends and asked “Hearts and Hooves is coming up soon, got any dates?” They all shook their heads.

Cosmo Wave stars with a matter of fact “Remember River, our love lives are non-existent.” River only shrugged.

Ash makes out of what was called a clock and told them we should Al head back to the castle. The ponies agreed and got, though with a little stumble.

They all made it back to the castle alive and wishes each other good night.

Ash was laying in his bed and Kira and Kori were having a silent conversation to where Ash couldn’t hear them.

”He needs to work onto to controlling his emotions and if he doesn’t he’ll get himself killed because of it.”

”I know, know. It’s something we need to work on and don’t worry we will!”

”I’m just worried he’ll accidentally hurt someone he cares about.”

Kori hugged Kira and gave her a determined look”We’ll make it work, I promise. Besides, have I ever let you down?”

Kira laughed ”No.”

Author's Note

That was chapter three, some things happened, Celestia confused about her feelings and all of Ash’s new friends.

Want to take a guess on which element of harmony Ash’s friends possess?