The Everfree Knight

It's been at least a week since I made the medicine for Alpine, and I have to say that her recovery is going absolutely great! I guess I was lucky, having caught the signs in time to stop the disease before it got any worse. However, my little invasion didn't have its consequences. Apparently, Celestia wishes to have me as the Frozen Forest clans ambassador and personally requested that I came back with her to Canterlot.

Ode to fucking joy is playing in my head... please note that was sarcasm.

Still, I gotta wonder what she wants. I make it outside of Hollow Sanctuary, having been asked to go through the more well known entrance instead of my usual route. The main gates open and I find a duo of royal guards, one of them holding a sign that said "Frederick" on it.

Really? What is this, the airport? I shook my head with a sigh, and whistled at them. That got their attention, as their eyes widened with a look of fear in said eyes.

Maybe they're one of the guards I beat the shit out of last week... Oh well, makes them not act like jackasses to me, so it makes dealing with them easier, "Yo." I say as I walk over to them.

"Frederick?" They ask.

I raise an eyebrow, "No, the muffin man. Seriously? You gotta ask?" Honestly, do they know Jacob, and are mistaking me for him?

"We will be your escort to Canterlot. The Princess wishes to speak with you." They say professionally. I nodded as I sighed. I get on the carriage and let them do their thing.

The flight was surprisingly pretty quick, a lot quicker than I thought it would be. "Oi!" I call to them. One of them looks back at me.

"How are we going so fast? No offense, but I thought you guys would be slow on the return trip!" I say over the wind blowing past us.

"I understand what you mean! It's the fact that those Carcass hunters left the forest area! Now that they're gone, we can fly over it without fear of getting attacked!" He replies. Huh, guess Jacob and I did a service for all three factions in killing the Patriarch and Matriarch.

"Awesome! Guess Jacob and I did you all a favor!" I say with a grin. The pegasi's eyes widened.

"It was you and the other human that killed the patriarch!?" I simply nodded as he visibly gulped and turned around.

Looks like I put fear in them...SNARF!

With a wry chuckle, I remained silent for the rest of the ride. We arrived in the castle courtyard, I got off the carriage and nodded to the guards, "Thanks for the ride guys." They smiled and nodded. I moved to the gates, they opened, revealing Celestia.

I raised an eyebrow, "Didn't think you'd meet me at the gate..."

Celestia chuckled, "Well, I wanted to help speed this along for you. I'm sure you have other matters to attend to."

Yeah... I'll just let her think I'm busy, 'cuz I honestly have nothing going on... I nodded, "Thanks I guess," I rub the back of my neck, "So what did you need?"

"You see, I have asked you to protect my student, you remember this, correct?" I nodded, prompting her to continue, "Well, I was wondering if you would like to meet your charge? She's studying in her tower right now, trying to look up what you are." She said with a laugh.

I stare at her blankly, then shrugged, "Sure, I guess. You told her my age, right?" She nodded, "And she didn't raise any questions?"

"Well, I wanted to leave that one to you, since you are the only human besides Jacob that I know of. And I already know you." She reasoned. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, but nodded.

"Alright... let's get it over with." I reply and she leads me out of the gates, and walk towards some grand building. "What's this?"

"This is the university all unicorns attend if they're accepted. I paid for her tuition, and I would like to tell you something Frederick." I look at her, "She has a Dragon living with her." My eyes shoot wide open in surprise.

"Da fack!?" I exclaim, but paused, and shook my head, "I'm... I'm just not going to question it. I'l probably give myself a headache." Celestia giggled at my expense, and we walked on in silence, with the occasional pony bowing. We reached a large tower, and Celestia knocked on it. Answering the door, was... the most crazed mare I have ever seen.

"Princess Celestia! You're here!" Well, she sounds nice if that's a consolation... Forget it, it isn't...

"Yes my student." She giggled in response, "I also brought young Frederick with me so you could meet him and ask questions. I will not be able to stay though, as I have my duties." THAT BITCH! SHE'S LEAVING ME ALONE WITH HER!

The lavendar unicorn nodded happily, "Thank you princess! I've had these questions in my head for so long that I couldn't stand it anymore!"

"Twilight, you've only just started thinking about it when the Princess told you." A young voice said. I don't know who that was, but I love the sarcasm.

"Details Spike!" She exclaimed back.

Celestia smiled, and said, "I will leave you three to your questions. Do go easy on him Twilight." That's her name?

Twilight nodded, "I will Princess!" Celestia then vanished in a flash of light, leaving me and crazy mare alone with whoever that other voice was.

I look at the mare, and I only now realize that I have to look up slightly, "So... can I come in?" I ask with as much monotone as I could muster. Thankfully, my monotone check was a Natural twenty.

The unicorn nodded excitedly, "Of course! Please, do come in." She chuckled nervously. She acts like I'm about to attack... Maybe it's the big sword strapped to my back. I shrugged internally, and walked in, climbing the stairs. It was a relatively small climb, and we made it to the top. All around us were books of various topics... hm, maybe I could find a map here so I can go adventuring.

"Yo, I'm Spike." I looked down slightly, and found a rather large purple lizard with green eyes, purple scales, and green spikes on his head and back. Keeping my shock in check, I nodded and held out a hand.

"Frederick. Fire Knight." He grinned, and shook my hand.

"Nice to meet you Frederick!" I smiled, and turned to Twilight.

"So Twilight, you had questions for me?" As soon as I said that, her horn glowed and I was encased in a purple aura. I shouted in surprise, and flailed around. She put me down on some sort of couch thing that you would see at a therapists office, and pulled out a clipboard.

"Okay, first question! Why are you so young?" She asks as she puts on... a pair of glasses. Ugh... I swear, this world likes cliches or something. Whatever, I don't feel like answering truthfully.

I shrugged, "It's a right of passage for my people. We go out at a young age, and try to make a name for ourselves as we travel. Not many come back, whether by choice or otherwise. When it was my turn," I got up and pulled out my sword. The air around it became warmer, "My mother gave this to me to protect myself. It's an artifact of my people, called the Fireseal Sword." A single flame danced in my hands, "It allows my fire magic to be amplified tenfold." Twilight was quickly making notes. She actually buys this?

"Second question, How good are you at magic?" I couldn't help but grin at that.

"Well, at the level I'm at..." I moved anything flammable away from me, and stood dead center in an area I cleared for me, "DRAGON INSTALL!" My from shifted a few times, before coming back to my original and pulsing with a red aura, "I can use this to make my abilities even more powerful, increase my speed, and strength." I quickly turned it off so I don't expend too much energy.

"That was awesome! And you call that "Dragon" Install?" Spike asked excitedly.

I shrugged and grinned, "Well, an idol of mine used that boost, and actually has an attack for it. I can't use it now, other wise I would demolish the room."

"Cool..." He grinned, and offered a fist bump, which I returned.

"Third question, who is your Idol, if you don't mind me asking." She asked.

I paused for a moment, and wondered if I should tell her that... forget it, I may as well.

"Well... Some would say he isn't idol material, but I say otherwise. His name is Sol Badguy."

"Well that isn't a weird name." Spike said sarcastically. I chuckled and shrugged.

"He's a very good role model in my opinion. He was forced to become immortal by a man whose name nobody from my world knows. For this immortality, he became a monster that could end the entire world if he lost control." I explained. I heard the clipboard drop as both of them stared at me in shock. I quickly continued, "You see though, before he became immortal, he was a scientist! He created a headband that would reduce the amount of power he had access to, and he was known as the Guilty Gear."

"What's a gear?" Spike asks, Twilight nods, I guess that would have been a question if he didn't ask.

"A gear is an artificially created being that was made for menial tasks that my people became too lazy to do, like construction, and various other tasks. One day though, they had enough and rebelled against us." I sighed, really getting into my act, "My people nearly went extinct because of them. We started a group called The Knights of the Holy Order to keep them at bay. One of the leaders, named Kliff Undersn, had fought the leader of the gears, Justice, for many years. They would often fight to a standstill, as Kliff couldn't really damage Justice, and Justice could never get the killing blow, or would be pushed back."

Twilight replied, "Your people sound... very determined." She said uneasily. I shrugged.

"When it comes down to it, if it comes to survival, my people would do what needs to be done. Or, if they refuse to lay down, I believe that we could even take down gods."

"That's saying much, don't you think?" She said.

"It's all a matter of opinion. Anyway, After awhile, Kliff recruits a new man to the order, and that man is Sol. You see, when Kliff was a young child, Sol had saved him from getting killed. Kliff didn't remember Sol, but had a very positive feeling about him. Sol was an excellent warrior, not trained in any sword style, but no matter who he would face, he would always win easily." I continued, "It's because he has always been precise and his fire magic made him powerful. He also used a sword of what looked like stone, and still fought even the Megadeath class gears, which could wipe out an entire race of creatures."

"Why would you created things like that!?" Twilight exclaimed. I shook my head.

"We didn't, the gears made more of themselves. They made the Megadeath class to destroy us, but Sol fought them and killed them. You see, he was a gear himself. He's called the guilty gear, because he helped the man that turned him and his lover into gears, and wishes to redeem himself." I explained.

"And this all happened to your Idol? Geez, talk about traumatic and dramatic... this is better than a novel!" Twilight exclaimed happily as she wrote down on her clipboard.

"Over the years, the war seemed like it wouldn't end, and Sol was getting tired of it. He wanted the war to end, and he heard about a weapon that the order has... it was called the Fireseal sword." Spike stared at the sword in my hands. I flourished it, and stabbed it into the ground.

"So your sword was used by your idol?" He asks.

I nodded. Okay, it wasn't, but it's damn close! "Yeah. It gets worse though, as it turns out that his lover, was Justice." That got their attention. "Over the years, he lost his memory in some strange way, and forgot who his lover was. So he fought, and killed Justice with no remorse. Whether he regained his memory or not, I don't know, but his struggles inspire me." I sighed and sat down on the chair, "His story tells me that no matter how bad it gets. you need to do what you've got to do. Even if it's difficult, and everything is stacked against you."

Spiked breathed, "Dude... that's just way too cool." I chuckled, and gestured to the sword.

"Thing about it though, is that it makes me easy to anger. I've been training to better control it" I laid on the couch, "And here I wanted to be a doctor. Help people... that seems like the job for me. Now though, I was tasked with protecting you." I told Twilight.

She was silent for the most part, then sat down next to me and placed a hoof on my shoulder, "If... if it's any consolation, I'm sorry." I shook my head.

"It's not your fault. Just... just some strange circumstances for my life." I think back to all the events that lead up to this, and sighed.

"If you want, we can continue the questions later." She offered with a smile. I nodded, and got up. I grabbed my sword, and strapped it to my back. "You know, now that I look at it, that's kind of a strange design for a sword. I thought the blade was supposed to be pointed at the tip, not a rectangle. Well, that's what the books say anyway."

I laughed, "This one is special. I don't know the exact details, but it still does its job." I looked around, "Do you have any maps of Equestria?" She nodded, and used her magic to levitate a scroll to me. I grab it from the air and unfurl it.

Well shit.

Looks like I have my work cut out for me. I rolled the scroll back up, and nodded in thanks.

"I need to get going. My mother wanted me back for dinner." I replied and left.

"Thank you for coming by!" Twilight shouted after me as I flew off.

As I soared through the air, I was left to my thoughts.

So... I met the supposed Element of Magic. Well, she seems nice enough, not like those xenophobes back in Ponyville. I need to train more though, since Nightmare Moon is coming closer to getting released. If I'm not ready, I'll probably end up dead.

And like hell I'm going out from that Thunderdome reject.