Prince Sugar Hoof of Equestria

Birch would throw a fit if he knew what I was doing. Out of the caverns, out of the desert, no treants for protection, and I couldn't be happier.

"Oh, this is what I've missed!" My mane was violently blown around by the demented winds surrounding me. The cold snow under my hooves, freezing me to my core. I had no tracks to leave behind up here either, as the snow fell like it was purposefully trying to bury me.

"No guards, no princely duties, no desert. Just a man on the path to discovery!" Not that there was much to discover, at the top of this mountain lied a magical artifact, lost to time, but I couldn't control myself. I have to have it, I have to study it.

Sure, I'm not a very good mountain climber, but with the right application of magic, I can manage. Whenever I came upon a steep incline, I just floated myself up until I could keep walking again.

I told Birch that I had a meeting to attend with Princess Celestia, which wasn't a lie, it just wasn't the whole truth either. The meeting isn't scheduled for another two hours, plenty of time for me to do what I need to do and then, probably stop somewhere for lunch. I didn't pack any warm clothes, but I at least packed a few bits for any expenses, it's not like I was bothered by the cold after my years of combat against thaumaturgists.

Upon reaching the top of the mountain, I took a second to marvel at the sights around me. I hadn't been this high up in... well, ever. It would've been peaceful if the snow would let up for just a moment and allow me to see more than just the mountain, but what of it I could make it, was a small log cabin I passed when I was travelling, making sure that I was missed by anyone who might've been inside, and a cave behind me, guarded by a magical barrier.

Approaching the magic barrier, I began to knock on it carefully. "No runes set on the barrier, no traps surrounding it, and unless it's enchanted by a cloaking spell, there's no traps or runes inside the barrier either."

Sometimes, when you adventure, this type of thing happens, when someone decides that something else is just too important, too powerful, to leave with anyone knowing about it. No guards are posted, they just cast a magic barrier to prevent someone from taking whatever it is the barrier is guarding. But this, is not my first time dealing with such a barrier and I had seen many within my time.

"They didn't reinforce the shield properly." I muttered as I inspected the barrier, noting the small, miniscule cracks in the spell, not in the barrier itself, but the spell used to make the barrier.

I lit my horn and pressed into the spell with ease, and the barrier came undone. As I predicted, there were no runes or traps on the other side, leaving my path unimpeded.

"Truly, no traps, no minions?" I was almost shocked at how lackluster the defenses had been. At the end of the cave, sat a pedestal with my query resting on top of it.

It looked like a box from a distance, with a handle and an eye on the front, but upon approaching, it was truly a bell. A bark bell that judging by the craft, was not designed to attack, but to absorb.

"These runes, this... the craftwork is incredible, judging by the make, this was designed to absorb and bestow magic. A magical transference device!" I pulled out a notebook and began writing down my findings, as well as a sketch of the magical foci of the bell.

This was truly a valuable find that I'd be glad to research later, I grabbed the bell with my hooves, afraid that my magic would activate it, I certainly didn't want the bell to absorb my magic, after all, and I tucked it away into my saddlebags.

"Now then," I pulled out a pocket watch, "Plenty of time left for lunch" Of course, I didn't have any means to travel directly to Canterlot, beyond the teleportation matrix built in the cavern, but I did have a direct method of returning to the caverns. In the flash of a rainbow, I disappeared from the mountain and reappeared in a makeshift plaza underground.

My peace died instantly, as the sounds of treants talking, walking, and toiling returned to my ears.

Upon my arrival, the sounds stopped and I heard a treant shout out, "The King has returned!" In short order, the treants kneeled or bowed, I was unsure of the difference, but I longed to be away from here, so with a fake smile, I trotted away from the plaza and towards the teleportation matrix.

Walking through the halls became more of a chore as treants bowed, praised, or saluted me, depending on their position. Everywhere in my cavern home, treants toiled, working to make my caverns more defended, more beautiful, the makeshift plaza I was so eager to flee from wasn't even makeshift anymore. The treants are building brick roads now, to make the transferring of goods and services quicker in here. They even had a system set up where one lane of the road was for people going in one direction, and another lane was for the opposite direction, nobody explained this to me, of course, but everybody was too busy praising and bowing to care about me walking on the wrong side of the road.

Didn't Birch say there were a few billion of these guys... How in the world am I going to fix this? I don't want to just kill them all...

Arriving at the teleportation matrix, I was happy to see it empty but for the guards protecting the entrance, my matrix only had two, clearly marked teleporters inside of it, one marked 'Canterlot' and the other marked 'Storm Island'. I entered the one for Canterlot and was teleported right outside the city gates at the train station.

Ponies sometimes looked at me, not paying me any mind, and some simply waved at me, despite not knowing who I was. No praising, no bowing, no kneeling, it was like a breath of fresh air. I looked back at my pocket watch, plenty of time for lunch.