Instantly the sky becomes a dark black as the sun is blocked out by the moon. Ignis grabs the Moonblade floating in the air and points the tip into the air as a pillar of moonlight shoots into the air around Luna. Seconds after, the moonlight pillar crashes back into the earth surrounding the paladin. The murmurs and whispers among the crowd are silenced as they stare in awe at the princess and elf currently illuminating half of Canterlot with their two pillars of moonlight.

As quickly as the scene arrived, it ends. The bright blue sky returns as the beams of moonlight narrow and dimly fade away. Everyone gathered continues to sit in stunned silence as Luna turns to the crowd and announces, “Now let us partake in the reception! Food and drinks aplenty!” The crowd offers a short and muted applause before warily rising and moving towards the dining area.

Ignis and Luna had both expected some push back and reserved reactions to the decision of naming him a Paladin, but not to this extent. They exchange some sideways glances at each other as they slightly wonder what they’ve overlooked. It’s only when Celestia steps between the two while radiating an intense heat that they realize they have, in fact, fucked up.

Celestia lowers her head and softly questions Luna, “What have you done sister? I worked very hard to pick apart and abolish the religions towards us while you were gone. It was imperative to do so if we ever wanted to be treated somewhat normally by our subjects.”

“Oh is that all, Tia? Then we can just continue to oppose formal religions in worship of us! If ponies want to offer their prayers privately though, who are we to stop them?”

“No Luna you don’t understand, the cults became so fanatical that they were bringing harm to ponies all over the country! In the end we had to make any form of worship towards alicorns illegal in its entirety. You’ve committed a legitimate crime, Luna!”

Ignis breaks up the two and chimes in, “Wow Celestia, freedom of religion is a basic human, err, pony right! You can’t tell creatures what they can and cannot worship.”

Celestia whips her head around and stares down the elf, “I can when the figure they’re worshiping is me! Just as they have the freedom of religion I have the freedom to not be worshiped!”

“See it’s fine then, they’d be praising Luna, not you.”

“You’re both being unreasonable here. This will not help the Nightmare Moon rumors at all. You’ve just given every newspaper publisher their next headline, “BREAKING: Nightmare Moon establishes religion to gather zealots for her next coup attempt!” oh maker above help me, I might have to have a drink for the first time in several centuries. It’d have been exponentially easier for all of us if you had at least waited until after the summit to pull this stunt.”

Both Ignis and the lunar princess finally start to feel guilty as they look at the ground, Luna’s ears splayed back. For several seconds no one says anything, but Ignis suddenly widens his eyes and looks up before announcing, “I have an idea!”

“Is it a good one this time?” Celestia questions with a scoff.

“Well hang on now, I didn’t say that. Tomorrow let us join Day Court. We can bring out both thrones and have you sit next to each other and I’ll replace one of the guards at the bottom of the steps. We can resolve petitioner complaints the way you always have, but on complaints that you know will have an outcome that would look good for the press you can ask Luna for her inputs and we can garner goodwill by having Her hand out the merciful rulings! If it goes well we can continue to do it for a week or so after the summit as well.”

“Hm, that’s not the worst idea. I would genuinely ask for Luna's input on any of the complaints that have a level of complexity to them, but I’ll make sure to apply emphasis on Luna's involvement in the outcome of cases that are favorable to us. That will definitely help on the PR side of things, but I have no clue where to even begin with this religious nonsense. What do you think about holding court alongside me, sister?”

“It would be a lie if I said I hated it. I actually wanted to do this exact thing before starting my own court again, but was afraid if I asked you’d doubt my abilities in other aspects as well. I must ask though, did you never feel any bolstering or surges to your mana pool when they had churches in your name?” Luna replies as she softly chews on the inside corner of her mouth.

Celestia sighs before answering, “I did. In the beginning it was almost addicting, I was chasing that feeling and appeasing the zealots to continue receiving their reverence. Until, they had me establish a certain holiday on somepony's birthday. After your banishment everytime they held a service, performed a ritual, or even offered prayer en masse, the feeling of power swelling up just brought me disgust. I can never forgive them or myself for that sin, any worship I receive just leaves me with resentment.”

Ignis’ face dawns with realization, “That explains…a lot. It seemed uncharacteristic of her to react so strongly as to ban an entire category of religion. I’ve also never seen her as angry as she was when she initially approached us.” He thinks to himself.

Ignis POV

After receiving the scolding of the century from Celestia I decided to uncover my face and lower my hood and mingle with the ponies, mainly the 6 ponies I remember from the Everfree. “Hey Twilight, glad to see you and your friends could make it. What’d you think of the ceremony?”

“Ah, hello Ignis. The ceremony… was not entirely what I expected. Oh! What was that magic after you finished your vow?! The presence it cast over the entire area felt so different from normal mana. Like, it felt similar but there was something extra in it, I’d love to recreate that and do some tests on the thaumatology output. Unfortunately I didn’t bring most of my lab equipment from the library…. Also who enchanted your uniform?? For an almost entirely cosmetic series of enchantments it's surprisingly complex. Especially around the hood, I’m not even entirely sure what those series of enchantments are doing on the inside, it’s so densely layered. What kind of ru-”

“Woah there friendo. I’m starting to realize you must be much more comfortable now than when we first met, because you never showed this much excitement or socialization. Before you drop another 20 questions on me let me answer the ones you already asked, in order. We theorize that the “extra” bit you feel in the mana is divinity. I had performed a ritual from my homeland and had Princess Luna perform parts that are typically done by my Goddess. During the ritual some type of metaphysical connection was formed and Luna could feel a surge of foreign power whenever I prayed to her or thought of her while performing actions in the ritual. Luna herself did the uniform enchantments, ask her whatever questions you have about it. Next.”

“Sorry, haha. Um, yes, I only have one last question. What are the enchantments on your sword? I got to look through the armory when I was learning enchanting but I’ve never seen anything like that before. Even the runes are completely foreign. Did Princess Luna enchant that as well?”

“No, well…. Kinda? The ritual I was talking about involved this sword. This sword has been in my bloodline for multiple generations and every time it’s passed on to the next generation an enchantment is added through an attunement ritual. The earlier parts of the pattern were done in my homeland, but the most recent rune was established during the ritual with Luna.”

I realize midway through my last answer that ponies have started pointing at Twilight and murmuring, no doubt starting to form rumors, “It was nice meeting you again Twilight, but I should probably retire for the day. This is way past my normal bed time, haha.”

I atleast make sure to not completely lie. That’s not the true reason I’m leaving, but it is still factual. I need to go to bed and prepare for the joint Day Court tomorrow. I can only imagine how much of a shitshow this will end up being.

Once I get into bed I decide to open up the system and double check all the Paladin features I configured today.

Paladin -

Level 1: Divine Sense and Lay on Hands.

Divine Sense - As an action you can open your senses and detect the presence of any Celestial, Fiend, or Undead within 60 feet. You know which type the creature is, but not the exact identity of the creature. (You can detect a celestial is 30 feet away, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that its specifically Princess Celestia.)

Lay on Hands - With your blessed touch you can invoke healing on a target (including yourself.) The amount of hit points you can restore per long rest is equivalent to your paladin level multiplied by 5. (2 * 5 = 10 Hit Points)

Level 2: Fighting Style, Spellcasting, and Divine Smite.

Fighting Style: Blessed Warrior - Learn two cantrips from the Cleric spell list. They are treated as Paladin spells and Charisma is the spellcasting modifier.

• Guidance: Touch a creature and for 1 minute they can add 1-4 onto the next ability check they make.
• Thaumaturgy: You manifest a small wonder, an act of supernatural power. Can have 3 instances of Thaumaturgy active at one time, the spell lasts for 1 minute.

Spellcasting: Learn a number of spells from the Paladin spell list equal to your charisma modifier + half of your Paladin level (1 + 1 = 2 spells.)

• Cure Wounds (Level 1 Spell) - A creature you touch is healed for 1-8 + Charisma modifier Hit Points. When cast using higher level spell slots add an additional d8 for each level above 1st.
• Detect Poison and Disease (Level 1 Spell) - For up to 10 minutes, you can sense the presence and location of poisons, poisonous creatures, and diseases within 30 feet of you. You also identify the kind of poison, poisonous creature, or disease in each case.

Divine Smite: Whenever you land a melee weapon attack you can expend a spell slot to deal 2d8 radiant damage in addition to the weapons damage. For each level above 1st level, add 1d8 to the damage dice up to maximum of 5d8 (4th level spell slot.) The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an undead or fiend, to a maximum of 6d8.

Hit Points: 57/57

All in all this is pretty solid, I can use Guidance to assist with the skills I currently lack. Persuasion for example, I only have a +1 to my rolls for persuasion, as opposed to arcana where I have a +11. Thaumaturgy is just because I love my dramatic and cinematic flares.

Cure wounds should do a pretty good job at keeping me alive between fights and detect poison should be immensely helpful for any public events I attend with Luna. The real star of the show here, the main reason I opted for Paladin is Divine Smite. Divine Smite has no limitation to how many times I can use it per turn, if I hit someone with my sword I can smite. That means that without Haste I can smite 3 times per turn, if I were to use one 4th level spell slot and two 3rd level spell slots, that’s an extra 13d8 radiant damage. 104 potential damage from just smiting, don’t even get me started on if I manage to land a critical.

With damage output like that, I could easily take on something like that hydra alone. Of course I don’t have infinite spell slots so I can’t just let loose a smite everytime I swing my sword, but if worst comes to worst I can at least nuke the hell out of something.

Well, I should enter my trance now, we’ve got a long day tomorrow.

Since night court is canceled in favor of joint court, the night progressed a bit slower than it usually does. Luna decided to do some dream walking early and gave me 3 hours of free time. After bumming around the library for books on dimensional theory and ultimately finding nothing for a few hours I return to the office.

“Knock knock Princess, what’s on the schedule that you needed me to come back for?”

“Well it’s the strangest thing. The next 2 hours are blocked off on the calendar to conduct 3 interviews of solar guards that wished to crossbranch into the Night Watch, but looking through my sorted application piles I don’t have applicants marked for the next step in the decision process. There’s no names written in the calendar block as well.”

“Did you allocate time in the schedule intending to add names once you reviewed the applications and then just never got around to actually reviewing them?”

“I must have…. We have been a bit busier the last 2 days.”

“Well if we have some free time let’s talk about tomorrow. I think I should leave my hood down and mask off tomorrow, at the very least I should keep the mask off. Ponies already show discomfort around me and the uniform must be intimidating for them, I think it’d be a hindrance towards our effort.”

“Your reasoning is sound, I’ll allow it.”

“Perfect, do you need me for anything else tonight? I’ve been waiting for a good opportunity to run an experiment and I should have enough free time tonight.”

“No, you’re dismissed.” Luna closes the folder she’s been flipping through and stands up. I open the door to the office and hold it open for her.

“I hope the dream realm is kind to you tonight, your Grace.”

“Hm? Are we not doing the experiment?”

Oh there’s been a miscommunication here. “Oh no I was intending to do it alone, but you can come if you want. It won’t really look like anything is happening from your point of view though. I’m just going to be meditating. I want to see if I can recover the rest of my memories.”

“In that case come do it in my chambers, I can keep an eye on you while I patrol the dream realm.”

“I think that’s the opposite of what our roles are supposed to be… you just want to watch my memories again don’t you?”

“If you don’t want me to look then I won’t, but yes that is part of the reason. It’s still a good idea to have me present incase something does go wrong though.” Wow she just shamelessly admits that. Ponies really must not have an expectation of privacy.

“I think I would prefer if you didn’t look then, assuming I’m able to even recover them.”

“Very well. Let’s go.”

“Callisid are you nearby?” I think to myself, hoping the bat is within 100 feet.

“Yes master, what is it?”

“Good, you’re aware that I only have memories of my life as a human during the 20 year gap of my illness right?” I ask.

“Roughly, honestly it was quite a shock to discover that.”

“Well, I recovered a single memory after summoning you, so I was wondering if you know of any way to return the rest of my memories?” Please say yes….

“Of course not! I am only a familiar, I can’t perform any magic or manipulate your memories, master.”

I sigh, I was mostly expecting that response but that’s fine I have a backup plan. “I’m going to sleep Luna, don’t wake me up no matter how much I’m tossing or turning.”

“Aye, good luck my paladin.”

I pull the Moonblade from its scabbard and channel my mana into the hilt as I lie down at the foot of Luna’s enormous bed.

Almost instantly I find myself in a beautiful and densely packed forest. Tree’s and brightly colored fauna are scattered about everywhere. Sitting on a boulder a few feet away watching the sky is the original Sword Saint of Eilistraee. She turns around and flashes a big smile at me, “Ah! There you are, you brat! You haven’t slept since I told you to go find me, what’s the big idea huh asshole?!” She suddenly vanishes from the boulder and appears beside me startling me as she slaps me on the back of the head.

“Ow, what the fuck?! You should know the answer to that, ya old witch! Are you going senile or something? We’re elves we don’t fucking sleep.” Ah it feels good to talk like this again, I speak informally around almost all of the ponies, but even with Luna I don’t talk like this. It’s not that I’m uncomfortable or too unfamiliar. I just simply want to maintain a certain level of elegance in her eyes.

The lady suddenly grabs both of my ears and starts yanking them while yelling at me, “WHO ARE YOU CALLIN’ SENILE?! I should go find the eternal dancing grounds and tell Zarra how rude her son is.”

At the mention of Zarra I stop being overly dramatic and settle down, even though she’s still yanking my ears. “That’s actually why I’m here. Apparently when I was originally preparing for the ritual with you I lost my soul for 2 decades.”

She finally lets go of my ears and walks out from behind me to face me, “I do remember hearing something about that, your father was quite distressed.”

“Well, during those 20 years, I believe my soul was in another realm. I was living as a human in a magicless world. The problem is that I only have memories of my life as a human, the only memory I have as Ignis is watching my mothers Last Dance. I was hoping you could maybe restore them, or if you knew of a method to do so.”

“Hm, what day of the week is it on the outside?”

“Uhh, it’s Wednesday night. Why?”

“Come back on Saturday night, and bring Our Lady with you. I need time to prepare.” Before I can even respond to her she waves her hand in front me as if to say “Shoo, shoo” and I find myself staring at the ceiling of Luna's bedroom.

“Did you get your memories?” Luna asks, I look over and see her horn is just barely glowing and her eyes are closed.

“No and how did you know I was awake?”

“I wasn’t peeking inside the dream, but I was keeping an eye on the state of the dream while I worked. I saw the bubble pop.” She explains.

“I was talking to the soul inside the blade, she wants me to return on Saturday and she requested you come along with me.”

“Perfect! Now I don’t have to think of an excuse for next time.” Luna replies with a beaming smile.

“Also, I was hoping we could pivot our training, I’d like to learn equestrian spellcasting.” After thinking it over I decided this would be a good idea, when I get my memories back I’ll likely have my family's swordsmanship training. Which means training my swordsmanship is just redundant.

With this request Luna’s face practically crumples into a large frown. “I’ll talk to my sister and see if I can get some of her training materials she used for the element of magic. I’d hate to teach you some that’s entirely archaic and already improved upon.” I mean her reason for needing to talk to Celestia makes sense, but I’m not sure why she’d make such a pained expression.

I was going to roll insight, but I realized I don’t even need to. Her expression was bad enough that I nailed it with my passive insight of 15. She’s clearly not giving me the real reason she needs to talk to Celestia. I decide to indirectly press her on it. “Perfect! We’ll have a lot of free time on our journey to the badlands, so this’ll be a great way to pass the time. I’ll go read some of those basic magic books like that one I was reading in Ponyville so I can be better prepared.” I get off the bed and start walking towards the door.

For the first time since we entered the room Luna finally opens her eyes, “Wait!”

I pause and turn around, “Yes?”

“.....I’d prefer to have a direct involvement in your foundational training. Foals can afford to have the sloppy foundation that those books provide because they have time to sharpen their basics as they grow, but you’re already an adult. You need foundational training tailored uniquely to you.”

“Okay, I know you’re lying now, but that lie was so believable for something you just made up on the spot that I’m impressed. I won’t press you further, but can you promise me you’ll give me a straight answer after you talk to your sister?”

She sighs and lays her head down on the bed in defeat, “Yes, you have my word. There is truth in my statement though, in the long run you will be better off if you learn everything from one of us instead of that book. Some mana foundation techniques can only be taught to somepony that knows nothing.”

“Really? Alright in that case I won’t go read the books behind your back like I originally intended to do.” Before she can respond I close the door, she should know that I’m joking. I’m not sure if that would break the oath, but it’s something I don’t wanna do even without the oath.

I know one thing I can do though. Instead of turning right out of Luna’s bed chambers towards my room I turn left and start heading to the other side of the castle. After walking for a few minutes I make one final turn and spot 2 guards in the hall making small talk with each other. I wonder what the odds are that they’ll let me in. I mean I’m officially sworn in now so it shouldn’t be a problem for me to go into Celestia’s room. Should I even do this?

On one hand I’m frustrated that there’s clearly some type of order to prevent me from learning, but I need to know the reason before I fly off the handle. Surely it can’t be a trust issue, right? I mean help save the world, you allow me to become a personal guard for your sister. Those aren’t things that indicate a lack of trust, so I’m clearly missing something. Unless…. To them this whole knight business means nothing and it’s the other way around. I’m not guarding Luna, she’s supervising me. No…. I’m being paranoid. Let’s just go get some extra sleep, I need to flip my sleep schedule back to the day shift for the summit next week.

“Invisibilia.” I cast invisibility and sneak into the dining hall, Luna and Celestia are talking and I want to get answers. This should last me an hour, plenty of time to listen and get out. I silently walk past the sisters table and stand off to the side, against a wall, and listen closely.

“Tia, I can’t just lie to him. Why are you still insisting that he cannot be allowed to learn magic? He can already cast plenty of spells!” Luna questions her sister.

“Don’t you “Tia” me, you know exactly why! The spells he casts don’t pull from his own mana, it’s like he just interacts with some external force and commands it to produce his spells. Whatever system he is using has him extremely restricted and limited. He can only cast so many spells in an entire day and the requirements for him to learn and cast spells is excessive. That system is clearly designed to restrict the spellcasters of his homeland.” Celestia responds.

“Exactly! He’s learning so quickly and already so strong even with those limitations! If we taught him how to use his own mana he could be so much more. It’s a complete waste of talent!”

“I refuse to budge on this, Luna. I know he has a good heart, but objectively speaking, we’ve brought a monster into this capital. Even if we ignore the fact that he learned the runic language and cast his first spell several times faster than the most prodigal unicorn to ever exist. Even if we ignore that, just the sheer size of his mana pool is absurd! I have to intentionally reduce my truesight just to clearly look at him!” Truesight??

“Then what would you have me do Celestia?” The alicorn in question widens her eyes at Luna's usage of her full name. “You want me to just continue to make excuses, lie, and avoid his questions about magic for the next TWO THOUSAND YEARS?! No, I refuse. If you won’t allow him to learn magic then you’ll have to tell him yourself.” Luna wipes her mouth with a tablecloth and quickly stands and leaves the dining hall.

“Well Ignis, now you know the truth, why don’t you come sit down.” Shit, so she did see me.

“What did you mean when you said you have to reduce your truesight to look at me?” I stop concentrating on the invisibility spell and sit down across from Luna’s empty seat.

Instead of verbally responding, she just lights her horn. “Look at me. Do you see the golden aura surrounding me?” Wow she can even bestow that true sight onto others? I mean I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, she is a demigod.

“Yes it’s almost like a barrier that is completely surrounding you, there’s several inches between the edge of the aura and you. It’s almost touching the ceiling as well, what is that, 35, no 40 feet?”

“Good, I want you to make note of how inert and calm it is. Now look here.” She conjures a tall and wide mirror and rotates it toward me. “Now look at yourself.”

Celestia looked like she was encased in a solid chunk of golden jello, it barely flickered in it’s natural flow at all. Looking in the mirror I’m dumbfounded. The best way I can describe it is that it looks like someone is holding a giant vacuum cleaner tube several feet over my head, and that vacuum is sucking up a violent blue fire from me.

It looks like jagged blue flames, they start about 4 feet away from me and it looks like the flames are rushing towards me before they enter the range of the vacuum tube and get sucked up into the air. Like a giant blue pyramid, but the lines look more like an exponential curve instead of a straight line.

The aura is slightly obscuring my own reflection, I can only see parts of my face at any given moment. “I can see… your apprehension. I assume the aura’s around both of us are mana? What does it look like when you reduce the truesight, can you see my entire face then?”

Celestia doesn’t respond for a few seconds so I stop staring at the mirror and turn to face her. She’s leaning over the table looking straight into my eyes, “Ignis, this is reduced.” She leans back and softens her expression, “Now don’t get me wrong. Your mana pool is truly absurd, but that’s not to say you have more than me or even Luna for that matter.” As she says this the solid jello aura begins to wobble and vibrate before the solid lines start to flicker and the solid cylinder around her expands to about an 8 foot radius. Unlike mine it maintains its cylinder shape completely filling the area it occupies.

“The problem is that I’ve trained my magic for nearly 4,000 years, and you’ve only been alive for 100. To top it off you’re not even aware of mana it seems. That can only mean you’ve done no training or exercises to expand and solidify your mana's shape. Considering all of those facts, and then confronting the reality that your mana already looks like that? I’m sorry Ignis, I have a respectable level of trust in you, and I will be forever grateful that you assisted Twilight and have befriended my sister, but I cannot allow you to train your mana as it stands. I need more time, I need to see your will and your morals when you’re at your lowest point. That’s when you truly learn what kind of pony someone is.”

I don’t respond, I’m just resting my elbows on the table with my fingers interlocked as they hover right under my nose. I mean I think I can see where she’s coming from, I’d perhaps make the same choices in her shoes. But, I swore on my soul when I took my oath. What more could she possibly need from me? Is she worried I might be susceptible to corruption or control?

“It’s time for court, come.” Celestia apparently got tired of waiting on a response from me. She goes through the open dining hall doors and turns the corner.

I let out a massive sigh. I knew things were going too smoothly. “Callisid.”

“Yes, master?”

“That pony I was just talking to, her name is Celestia. I want you to shadow her from now on until we leave for the global summit on friday. She has truesight so you’ll need to be extremely careful.”

“I can do that, but what are you hoping to gain from this?”

“Inform me anytime she speaks to someone working in this castle about me, I want to know if she has any other standing orders in regards to me.”

“Very well, do you wish for me to inform you as I see it or would you just like a daily report?”

“Inform me in real time, if possible I want to use your senses and listen to the conversation myself.” I order.

“As you command.”

I’m not sure why but something about all this spying and politics is oddly familiar. I know Ignis was a noble, so perhaps he… I had to deal with things like this all the time.

I stroll into the throne room from the side entrance, and it appears I was lost in my own thoughts for too long because they’ve already started. “....your majesty, I implore you it’s only 5 feet over the property line! It’ll cost me a fortune to redo that separation wall.”

“Yes, but you already had the property line adjusted 5 feet in your favor a little over 10 years ago. I have half a mind to say you intentionally did this when it was time to rebuild your wall in an effort to slowly expand your plot of land. The decision stands, next petitioner.” Luna ends the disagreement.

The unicorn stallion ignores the order, “But your majesty-”

“Hey buddy, Her Grace has given her decision on the matter and she will not repeat herself.” The stallion glares at the elf that suddenly appeared next to him and looks like he’s about to say something, but I interrupt him, “I will throw you out of this room. And I don’t mean that metaphorically.”

Intimidation. (Advantage)

3 and 18. 18 + 1 = 19.

“Y-yes of course, thank you for taking time to hear me out your majesty.” He does a quick head bow before turning and speed walking out of the throne room.

I turn around and start walking towards my position at the bottom of the throne steps and look up at both princesses. Celestia looks back with a perfect neutral expression, “Glad you could join us Sir Ignis. I’m afraid we’ve already assigned the positions for court today, it’s unfortunate but you should’ve been on time.” She says quietly enough that it’s likely only Luna, the two guards at the bottom of the stairs, and myself heard her.

I look at the guard standing in my spot and clench my jaw and I slowly walk towards him while maintaining eye contact. I’d prefer if he moves without me needing to say something. I’m about 2 steps away from him and I can tell he isn’t going to move so I whisper the incantation for Misty Step and teleport to the top of the stairs right next to Luna’s throne. I about face so I can properly face the ponies below and stand straight.

I can hear Luna audibly gulp as she looks at me with a pained face. I meet her gaze and offer her a smile, “It’s okay.”

“Ignis this isn’t helping your case, she wants you to display at least a reasonable level of obedience.” Luna telepathically responds to me as we both look forward and pretend nothing is happening.

“That’s okay, I swore my soul to you, not Equestria, and definitely not to Celestia.” I respond.

The rest of court was uneventful, our plan seems to have worked for the most part, the ponies gradually warmed up to Luna as the day went on and none of them protested enough for me to get involved.

It’s about noon when court ends for the day, I was about to make my way out with the guards, but Luna asked me to stay back. Looks like I’m due for another scolding. Great.

“I understand you’re angry right now, so I’m willing to overlook your unwillingness to follow court protocol. However, I do have an unrelated request for you. At some point during the night a dragon took up residence in a mountain about 13 miles from Ponyville, and it’s causing unwanted changes to the surrounding fauna. It’s also creating dark black clouds, likely due to its snoring.”

Celestia continues, “Luckily the element bearers were already here thanks to your ceremony so I had them depart for the mountain first thing this morning, they should be arriving at the cave opening in a few minutes. I’d feel much more comfortable with this if you would be willing to stealthily observe them and step in if the dragon becomes aggressive. This is a request not an order, you’ve made it abundantly clear that you are my sister's paladin and not an equestrian knight. That said, I’d appreciate it very much if you’d keep watch over my student and her friends.”

“You think the timing of this with the summit is a coincidence?” I reply, not answering her request yet.

“Oh it almost assuredly is on purpose. They’re likely fishing for more things they can use against us at the summit based on our response. That’s why it's imperative that you don’t step in unless absolutely necessary and even then try to avoid combat. If you do end up engaging the creature just contact me with your sending spell or have Twilight send an emergency ping, and I’ll go personally and settle the matter.

I almost ask outloud why isn’t she just solving this herself to begin with if she’s capable, but it’s likely she wants the elements to start building up some more real world experience. Still…. A dragon is a bit extreme. “Is the dragon ancient or just an adult?”

“Hm? He’s definitely an adult, but I’m not sure what classifies a dragon as ancient. He’s a formidable opponent though, that much I can say for certain. So, will you do it?”

“Your Grace, what are your thoughts on this?” I turn to Luna.

“I owe a lot to the element bearers, I think this would be a good opportunity to work on that debt.” Luna responds almost instantly.

“Then it’s settled, I’ll do it. Ho-” I was going to ask how much time I had to spare before I needed to leave, but I’m interrupted by a sudden flash of teleportation. I have to pee…..

I look around the area where I landed and realize she teleported me directly to the entrance to the dragons lair. I look around and spot the 6 ponies I’m supposed to be looking after. How did she expect to do this stealthily if she was going to teleport me 15 feet away from them on an exposed mountain cliff with no cover? Did she want me to cast Invisibility, cause I’m not wasting another 2nd level spell slot. After using Invis this morning and Misty Step in court, I’m down to only 1 more 2nd level spell slot remaining.

“Top of the morning ladies.” I decide to turn my uniform back into my regular outfit and call out to the girls. They turn towards me and I offer them a wave.

“Well I’ll be, what are you doin’ out here Ignis? Did Princess Luna send you not realizing we were already here?” Applejack is the first to respond to me.

“Nah, I was requested to come out here and provide any assistance if something unexpected pops up. It’s your first mission as element bearers so they just wanted an extra set of eyes.” I respond.

Rainbow responds this time, “I’m glad you’re here dude, I’m not gunna lie I might have gotten just a tiny, tiny bit nervous when I peeked inside and saw how huge this guy is.”

Before I can ask for clarification on exactly how big he is, the cotton candy one chimes in, “Ooooh why don’t we just throw him a “Please Sleep Somewhere Else Because YourSnoringIsRuiningOurClimate” party?! Then there’s no way he could be grumpy cause I mean who could be grumpy at a party? I’ll have to go get some cupcakes and other supplies from town but I can probably be back lickity split so what do you guys think?!”

Twilight sighs, “I appreciate your enthusiasm Pinkie, but there’s no way we’re throwing him a party.”

“Awww.”

Twilight continues, “Listen I think we just go in there, gently wake him up and explain the harm he’s causing if he continues to sleep here. Dragons are intelligent creatures just like us, so I’m sure he’s reasonable.”

Fluttershy chimes in, “I-If it’s alright with everypony else I’m going to wait out here… if we need to use the elements then I’m sure I’ll be able to go inside, but I really hope I don’t have to…” I cannot imagine being a national hero with a personality like that. This must be a nightmare for her.

“Oh of course Fluttershy, dear. What kind of friends would we be if we forced you to go in there knowing how terrified of dragons you are?” I don’t remember this one's name either, she’s a white unicorn with a stylized purple mane.

I find myself offering a genuine smile as I silently watch them interact with each other. I’m not sure which ones were already friends before the whole Nightmare Moon fiasco, but it’s sweet seeing how close they all are now.

Twilight and the others begin to march in when Rainbow looks back at me, “Aw dude don’t tell me you’re wimping out too?!”

“Nono I’m ready to go at the drop of a hat, but I figured I should stay out here with Fluttershy, if you guys need her for the elements I can teleport her in there for a faster response time.” That’s not the full reason I’m staying out here, but that’s pretty much it.

It’s nice seeing them respect her boundaries, but if she’s going to keep doing this she needs to confront her fears. I won’t make her go in, but she needs to show at least some level of progress. Once the others are out of earshot I turn to Fluttershy and strike up conversation.

“You know if you’re going to be an element bearer you’ll need to eventually be able to confront things like this, right?”

“Ohh, I know, but I when I think about going in there I just start shaking so badly I can’t move. I feel terrible knowing my friends are in there and potentially in danger, yet I’m stuck out here unable to do anything. I know more than anypony that I can’t stay like this forever, but I just don’t know what to do.” Her eyes start to become glassy and she sniffles her nose. Oh fuck, my heart, what have I done?

“Want some help?” I reply.

“W-what did you have in mind?”

“Get on my back and I’ll carry you inside. Not all the way in, but maybe just to end of the entrance tunnel. That way you can get some experience, and you don’t need to move, I’ll be your legs.”

She looks like she’s about to say something but stops and thinks for a few seconds, “Okay. Please turn around if I say I can’t do it anymore though.”

“Of course. Alright hop on.” I squat down and hunch my back so the pegasus can climb up easier. Once she gets most of the way up my back she hangs her forelegs over my shoulders and hangs on. We do some shifting so it’s more comfortable for both of us and I start slowly walking down the entrance tunnel.

We’re about ¾ of the way down the tunnel when I hear panicked whispers up ahead. I can continue until I can make out what they’re saying. “I thought you said he’d be reasonable, Twilight?” I think Rainbow Dash is questioning.

“I don’t understand why he’s being so unreasonable! Nothing he’s doing matches the behavior patterns notated in the interactions ponies in the past had with dragons. What do we do now, I don’t want to summon the princess on our first assignment! That’d be a complete failure.” Twilight replies.

I decide that I’m going to just go ahead and step in. It’s clear this dragon has no intention of leaving peacefully and just wants to cause problems the day before we leave for the summit. “Okay Flutters, I need to go talk to this dragon. Do you want me to drop you off with your friends just up ahead or should I take you back out the entrance?”

“Um, you can just drop me off here. I’m going to try my best to take the steps forward to meet up with my friends.” That is the most adorable display of determination I’ve ever seen or heard.

“Alright, here you go.” I squat again and she climbs off. “Everything is gunna be just fine, alright?”

I can’t resist the urge and I reach out and give the pegasus a head pat. I hope this isn’t demeaning. I quickly remove my hand. “Sorry, I just realized that could be demeaning depending on how you look at it.”

“Some ponies probably wouldn’t appreciate it, but it did give me some comfort. Thank you, Ignis.”

I offer her a salute with my index finger and middle finger against my forehead and start dashing ahead. I quickly reach the other 5 and stop for a second. “Listen, I'm going to go talk to him. This is all just an annoying political move, so I’m just gunna go give him a scolding real quick.”

“A scolding?! Partner, have you lost your damn mind?” Applejack questions me like I’m insane.

“Been a while since I heard that line, haha, thanks for the nostalgia Applejack.” I continue dashing forward and finally reach the expansive cavern inside the mountain.

“I’ve never seen a creature like you before….. Are you with the ponies?” The Red Dragon asks out loud. Holy shit it’s bigger than the hydra.

“I am with the ponies. Listen, this is ridiculous. What kind of stunt are you trying to pull just a few days before the summit, huh? You literally couldn’t be more obvious about your intentions. Why don’t we just call it here and you head on back to wherever you dragons live and I’ll report to Celestia that you were cooperative.”

Wisdom Saving Throw.

4 + 5 = 9.

You are Frightened.

As soon as I finish my sentence a wave of pressure slams into me and I realize this must be Dragon Fear. Even though I’m screaming in anger against the pressure, my body is shaking like Fluttershy’s and I can’t move towards the dragon at all.

The dragon offers a deep guttural laugh, “You cannot even resist my presence, yet you try to order me around? Are you a fool? I could eat you right now and there’s nothing your Sun princess can do.”

“Oh it’s not her you’d have be worried about. I don’t work for Celestia, I’m just here as a favor.”

Repeat Wisdom Saving Throw.

13, +5. 18.

You are Frightened.

The dragon unfurls itself and brings its head within striking distance as it eyes me closely, “Oh you must be what all the news was about. You’re the paladin for that moon bitch right? I was told you’d be wearing all dark clothing with a night sky cloak, so I didn’t recognize you. I heard you’re a bladesinger too, but that must have been exaggerated rumors. No bladesinger would fall to my presence alone.”

“What did you just say?”

Repeat Wisdom Saving Throw.

15, +5. 20.

You are no longer Frightened.

Moonblade. Haste. Now.

I feel a powerful tremor and I can tell the blade is wondering why I haven’t already clobbered this fucking lizard. I grab the hilt of my sword as my hair begins to whip around as if there’s a strong wind in the cave. I feel the burst of speed from Haste. +2 AC. 20 AC.

Activate Bladesong.

The usually calm and serene motes of light that rise out of the ground and surround me are the exact opposite right now. They look like bright red embers aggressively darting throughout the air as a deep chord is struck on a piano. +5 AC. 25 AC.

“Oh did I make you angry? She tried to ruin the world with an eternal night, do you expect the rest of the world to just forgive her and give her a pat on the back and a crown? That whore deserves more than just a banishm-”

Thanks to haste I’m on him in less than an instant, my Moonblade slashing straight towards his skull.

13, +10. 23. Hit

Level 3 Smite.

1d8 + 1d6 Slashing + 1d6 Lightning (Moonblade Enchantment) + 4d8 Radiant + 7

5 + 3 + 4 + 20 + 7 = 39 Variant Damage. The dragon is not resistant to anything I’m hitting him with so no point in differentiating it.

Right before the blade makes contact with the top of the dragon's head a surge of silver light envelopes my body before converging onto the Moonblade. Causing it and my eyes to shine a brilliant silver light.

The blade crashes down onto the top of its head and a loud pop can be heard that sounds like air getting turned into plasma as all the divine light leaves my eyes and the sword and crashes into the beast like a moonbeam the same instant the sword does.

Roll For Initiative.

19, +5. 25.

I’m guessing the dragon thought I was still frozen in fear and had no idea I was capable of launching an attack from that position. Anyways it’s still my turn and I’ve got 3 more attacks to hit him with.

Once time resumes the dragon grabs its head and lets out a roar as it recoils backwards. “You dare?!”

I don’t say anything as I just run at the creature and make a slash at its left leg.

10, +10. 20. Hit.

Level 3 Smite.

42 Damage.

The process with the divine light repeats itself and this time the sword manages to get about ¼ of the way through the leg as scales and blood scatter across the floor.

At this point the dragon feels a small bit of fear for the first time in centuries. What the fuck is this creature? There were no reports indicating this level of strength. The dragon suddenly unable to keep weight on his left foot roars in surprise as his left side buckles and drops to his knee. Now his stomach is close enough for me to hack into without jumping.

This time when I swing the sword behind me to wind up the slash I run my hand over it and cast Booming Blade, adding an additional d8 to the damage.

12, +10. 22. Hit.

Yes, just keep hitting, don’t fail me dice.

Level 3 Smite, last level 3 spell slot.

46 Damage.

With a loud deep thunderous crack the sword slices deep into the dragon's belly, as it proceeds to continue its previous roar.

30 seconds earlier.

Twilight Sparkle 3rd Person POV

Twilight watched with nervousness as Ignis approached the red dragon and after 5 seconds felt an unfathomable pressure on herself. She was completely frozen in fear of the dragon. She can’t make out what they’re saying to each other, but can see they’re talking. Suddenly Ignis just vanishes and half a second later appears standing on top of the dragon's mouth and he just swings his blade into the creature's head.

Twilight feels the pressure lift off of her almost instantly and she begins to panic thinking if she should summon her mentor, but in the 2 seconds it takes her to even begin to process the decision, Ignis has sliced into the creature's leg and is now just about to hit its belly. All the hesitation leaves her and she instantly sends out a ping with her horn. The exact millisecond the ping leaves her horn the sword hacks into the dragon's belly with a sickening thunder sound. She starts to wonder if her hesitation is going to cost this dragon its life, which would be one of the worst case scenarios.

After the strike to its belly the dragon clutches at the wound and finally collapses onto both knees with its head drooping just barely above the ground as it roars. “IGNIS STOP YOU CAN’T DO THIS!”

Twilight and her 4 other friends all turn in shock as Fluttershy comes roaring out of the tunnel and flies past all of them. Barreling straight towards Ignis.

Ignis looks back with a bewildered look as he raises his sword once again, this time aiming for the creature's neck. He shouts “Stay Back!”

Suddenly there’s a loud pop right next to Twilight almost instantly followed by a 2nd pop. All the ponies except Fluttershy shout, “Princess!”

“STOP RIGHT NOW IGNIS!” Celestia shouts with the royal canterlot voice.

Her horn lights up but its too late, the sword once again glows with that strange silver light but it’s so much brighter this time it’s not even comparable.

Ignis 1st Person POV

“STOP RIGHT NOW IGNIS!” I hear Celestia screaming at me, but I refuse. He can take one more attack and I’m still pissed.

Bonus Action, Illusionist's Bracers, Booming Blade once more.

Natural 20. Critical Hit.

Level 4 Divine Smite.

44 + 7 = 51. 51 + 68 (Critical) = 119 Damage.

The sword shines almost as bright as the moon itself as the blade slashes into the dragon's neck and I rip it upwards creating a 3 foot deep dash on the creature's neck as even more scales are thrown onto the floor.

I’m suddenly slammed into by a speeding yellow mass that tackles me to the ground, “HOW DARE YOU?! That dragon does not deserve death and you have no right to do what you’ve done.”

I look up and past Fluttershy at the dragon and see Celestia pointing her horn with a green light at the dragon. Guess that means I didn’t kill it, but I bet I came damn close. Luna is looking at me with an expression I can’t figure out. She must be conflicted right now.

Fluttershy moves her face back into your field of view, “What do you have to say for yourself mister?”

“Get off of me I need to speak to him, you can scold me later.” I don’t wait for her respond, she weighs practically nothing so I just get up and walk over to him.

“Hey you overgrown lizard, wake up.” I pat him on the head a few times. “C’mon I know you’re awake, quit faking it.”

Celestia glares at me and with venom in her voice, “What is wrong with you?”

“Just give me a second. Hey lizard, you know what you have to do now right?” I give my own glare into the dragon's eye.

“You’ve already driven me to the brink of death, what more do you dare ask of me?”

“I want you to tell my Princess what you called her and then I demand an apology.”

“I didn’t call Celestia anything, you whelp!”

“And I told you, I don’t work for her!” I grab his head and pull with all my might to make him look 5 degrees to the left at Luna. “That’s my princess you stupid reptile.”

The dragon closes its eye again as if considering its options before finally opening both eyes. “Princess Luna, your majesty, during our heated disagreement about the location for my slumber, I got lost in the moment and called your majesty a bitch.”

Celestia finally has a look on her face that isn’t anger or contempt, she looks shocked. I look over to Luna and see her glaring at the dragon. “And? C’mon what else did you call her, you know the reason I laid into you.”

“I also called your majesty a whore, and I don’t take it back. Your idiotic plan would’ve doomed the planet and yet you get a 1000 year nap and a warm welcome home with a crown and a title? You deserve much worse and next week I will personally make sure you receive it!”

I feel the temperature in the cavern rise about 10 degrees and I ask out loud, “Celestia can I please ki-”

An overwhelming high pitched screaming sound coming from Celestia's horn interrupts me and I watch in shock as the green light from her horn turns into a bright orange dot that suddenly expands into a beam of pure sun plasma that blasts straight through the dragon's neck, decapitating the beast.

“I apologize, Sir Ignis. I judged the situation too hastily, but in this scenario…” she looks at me with a somewhat satisfied smirk, “You made the right call.”

Twilight and her friends are just staring straight ahead with slack jawed expressions. I don’t think they were ready for Celestia to just instantly deep six that fucker. Shit, even I wasn’t ready for that.

I walk over to Luna and stare at the ground as I stand silently next to her, “I’m sorry, Luna. I held it together for his first insult, but after that second insult I just snapped. I’ll have better self control by the time the summ-”

“Stop. Ignis….. Thank you for getting angry on my behalf. I won’t lie, it gives me immense satisfaction, but it’s as you said. Let’s not make a habit out of this. Now come with me, let’s go back to the castle.”

“As you wish, your Grace.”

“Why do you switch between Grace and Luna, you don’t even refer to me with the Princess title you just flip between the most formal way you can reference me to the 2nd most informal way possible. At this point I don’t particularly care, I consider you a friend, but I have to know why you keep flipping between the 2.” Luna asks with her horn lit but is holding off on teleporting us until I answer her.

“You haven’t figured it out? I call you Your Grace whenever you actually command me or order me like you’re supposed to, and I call you Luna when we’re having casual conversation.”

“You are a strange creature, Ignis.”

In the wake of the dragon incident the sisters decided to bring 50 guards instead of the original 10 and they elected to bring 3 carriages instead of 1. Both of them are still in the same carriage, but the other 2 are empty decoys. I’m currently sitting on top of an empty one and rolling Perception checks every 10 minutes, so far nothing.

I wonder how this summit is going to go….

Author's Note

Decided it was time Celestia got some real meat to her character. She was basically just existing as an exposition sponge, but with this chapter we've got some background lore info and some good ole fashioned drama/conflict. Also got to work on the mane 6 - ignis character relationship/development, so that's good. There was just a bit too much focus on Luna the past few chapters decided it was a good time to pass the spotlight to others

I considered going all in on having Celestia be the straight up villian for the next major arc and have her conspiring with the dragons to kill the bladesinger, but since I'm putting this in the author notes I obviously decided to go a different direction.

I might've made her a slight bit TOO aggressive, but we all know deep down she's just an overprotective teddy bear.

This is the first time I've stopped writing a chapter and come back the next day to finish it so hopefully I didn't lose the plot and somewhere in the middle of the chapter it just stops making sense lmao.

Lastly, before anyone gives me shit for gary stu/overpowered protag does it all because of the mana scene, just think about it for a lil bit. He has a gamer-esque system, what stat is often associated to Mana Points (MP)? Intelligence, which he has maxed out!

Idk I'm pretty sure there are some choices with the plot I made this chapter that might be mistakes, but I just went with what felt right/cool....

Feel free to quote and point out any grammar or word fuckups and as always: Thanks for reading!