Silvercharger walked slowly towards the Princess, Bloomingstar leaning against his side, clearly not recovered since she healed Twilight and the others.

"Long, treacherous, and boring. The usual." Said Silver as he walked. He quickly glanced at the group of ponies, though more specifically at Spike. Finally in front of Celestia, Bloom smiled and hugged her.

"Oh Princess, it's been far too long. The trip wasn't as bad as Silver said. We got to see lots of pretty sights." Silver took a few steps back as Bloom and the Princess spoke. Once again he looked over at Spike.

"Princess, is that dragon the reason you asked for us to come?" Silver asked. Celestia looked at him, just as she expected, he was quick to get to the point. It's only natural, from where he's from there isn't exactly ample time to spend on small talk.

"Yes, allow me to introduce you. This is Spike, and his caretaker, Twi-"

"We're already acquainted." Silver interrupted. Celestia raised an eyebrow, today was certainly a strange day for her, a lot of things happened outside what she predicted. "Are you now?"

Bloom poked Silver on his side. "It's rude to interrupt ponies, especially a Princess." Silver, with a stoic expression, looks back at the Princess and lowers his head. "My apologies."

Twilight and the gang were at a loss of words.

"Wait wait wait wait!" Shouted out Rainbowdash. "These are the special guests you wanted us to meet?!" Silver looked away, which only irritated her more. Her blue face turned red and opened her mouth to give Silver a taste of her mind but Applejack moved in front of her.

"Might I ask why you seem to hate us so much?" Silver looked straight in her eyes and spoke without any filters.

"Why? Because people like you are idiots who don't know how the world really works." He said in a monotone voice. Even Applejack started to lose her temper at him. How could he say that? He had no idea what hardships she had to go through back home. It was ignorant of him she thought.

"Ahem." Princess Celestia knew things would end badly if it kept going as they were. "How about we have a quick lunch break, then we can discuss about the matters at hand."

"Yes! That's a great idea." Said Twilight, not wanting to have her friends fight Silver yet again. Without fail, something always seemed to go wrong when Applejack and Rainbowdash got competitive. Celestia turned to Bloom who nodded to the suggestion. It was settled, everyone made their way to the outside garden where Celestia instructed for their food to arrive. While they waited everyone was awfully quiet. AJ and RD were glaring at Silver who didn't seem to care they were given him the evil eye.

"So Twilightsparkle was it?" Said Bloom to break the silence. "I hear you're Princess Celestia's apprentice, it must be very difficult."

"Oh not at all...well, some times. Currently she instructed me to study the magic of friendship at Ponyville." To this Silver raised his only visible eyebrow and chuckled softly.

"Have a problem with that?!" Exclaimed Rainbowdash at him.

"Oh not at all, it seems only fitting."

"And what is that suppose to mean?" Asked AJ. Silver looked to his sides, knowing that if she stayed it would only cause more awkwardness, he stood and said,

"I'm not very hungry, I think I'll just go for a stroll if that's alright with you Princess." Celestia smiled and nodded. As if feeling obligated to, the earth and pegasus ponies stood up too.

"I'm not hungry either."

"Yeah, me neither."

"Umm, are you sure girls?" Asked Twilight, feeling a little uneasy about them leaving the table.

"Yeah, we'll go for a walk too."

"If that's okay with you Princess." Again she nodded and they were off, as everyone guessed, in the same direction as Silver walked off.

"So, can you tell me a little about this magic of friendship?" Asked Bloom at Twilight. To this she smiled and began telling her of her misadventures in Ponyville. Celestia smiled and took a sip of her tea.

It didn't take long for Silver to notice the ponies following him. He tried to ignore them as he walked and looked around the castle. It was quite a sight to see, a castle with such poor defenses had very little signs of recent battles, or any battles for that matter. His train of thought was interrupted by Rainbowdash's voice.

"What nerve, just walking around the castle like he owns the place."

It slightly annoyed him, and his face showed it. He kept walking off, and as he predicted, they followed. Silver kept moving through the corridors and he came across some guards. They were white pegasi with gold armoring. He couldn't help but think how bad they were at their job. Armor made of gold is completely impractical, not to mention that standing still and at attention only made them large targets from a long range enemy.

"What is he up to now? Think he wants to learn from some real warriors?" Silver heard from around the corner. It was probably that cowgirl pony. Her remark actually ticked him off a little, to think of these guards as 'warriors' was a joke to him. However, he pushed his feelings aside and kept walking.

"Wow, it seems like you've had quite the adventure." Said Bloomingstar very excitedly. Twilight smiled and looked at her. She was the complete opposite to her guardian, in both personality and color scheme. Which made her realize something.

"Say Bloom, may I ask something about Silvercharger?" Bloom, who was a little distracted by the food finally arriving, looked back at her newly made friend.

"Uh, sure. I hope he didn't come off as a complete brute. He's much sweeter than he appears."

"Actually, I had a question about his cutie mark. I just happened to notice that he has a necklace that looks exactly the same. I mean, usually cutie marks represent what a pony is meant to do in life, but the insignia isn't like anything I had ever seen before." The Princess kept quiet as the food was set infront of them. She already knew this story but she watched carefully as Twilight got her first taste of the cruelty of the world outside Canterlot and Ponyville.

"Oh, I gave him that necklace. It's something I got from my father, it's actually my family's crest."

"So, Silver's cutie mark is your family's crest?"

"Yes, that's how he became my guardian."

Silver could feel Applejack's and Rainbowdash's glares on his back. He finally grew tired of and and stopped.

"If you have something to say, say it." He said without turning to face them. At first they pretended to not be there, but after a second or two Rainbowdash flew out and looked at him.

"Why do you have to be such an grouch?! It's not like we did anything wrong!" Silver slowly turned around to face her.

"Maybe not from where you're from, but back in my hometown, being with a dragon meant death."

"Do you have something against dragons?" Asked Applejack as she came out of hiding too. To this Silver sighed.

"I think you misunderstood what I meant. What I was meaning to say is that dragons are dangerous and being around one meant you were close to being it's midday snack."

"Not all dragon's are like that you know!"

Silver took a step forward.

"You're right, dragons that have migrated away from the nest aren't. But you know why? Because of ponies like me who keep the aggressive and powerful dragons at bay. The reason you get to have simple and comfortable lives is the reason I have to fight for my, and everyone else's life at Dragon's Bane, my hometown!"

Silver was starting to get heated. It wasn't really like him, but the ignorance displayed before him was getting to him. AJ and RD faced off with Silver, who for the first time, actually seem interested with fighting them.

"Let's settle this here and now!" Yelled out Rainbowdash. Silver smirked when he heard her say it. Finally, something that he knew how to handle.

"Alright then, back home we usually settled disputes with duels, are you pampered ponies up for it?" This really angered Applejack, she knew that she was far from having a 'pampered' lifestyle.

"You're on, who do you wanna fight first?"

"Why not both at once? You two could use an extra edge, too bad it probably won't matter." Both sides equally fired up, they walk over to an open field to start their match.

"Silver and I are from a town called Dragon's Bane." Bloom stated, feeling a little awkward about it.

"Is something wrong?" Twilight asked a little worried about her.

"Let me explain a little." Celestia said before taking a drink from her tea. "The Dragon's were outraged with having their elder sacrificed in the process, so they began to attack. However, we had very little resources to combat this new enemy. I spent most of my time and energy with simply fending them off. We couldn't exactly fight back, if more of them died the war would only become stronger and more brutal, so Luna used her magic to bring them all into a deep slumber. While they slept, we tried to come up with ways to fight, or maybe even negotiate with them. None of which really seemed sensible. One day a pegasus thought of establishing a society at the edge of the border of the dragon's territory. They would be the first line of defense against them when they woke up. Ponies from around Equestria volunteered to join the ranks of the Dragon's Bane. They built a castle fortress which would serve as their home until they awoke. When they did, they would fight them off as they approached us."

"Years past and ponies began to think they wouldn't wake up. They stopped training as hard as they should have and got sloppy with their scouting." Bloom added, it was very apparent she was hurting being reminded about her town's past.

"Yes they did. Once the dragons did wake up, they were furious. They attacked Dragon's Bane and the town lost a lot of ponies. One unicorn, however, managed to push them back with a spell he had made over the years they spent asleep. It was indeed very powerful because it used the town itself as a rod to amplify his magic. The dragons were driven back, but at a high price. Not only did they lose a lot of lives, the spell was so powerful it drained the energy out of the user, knocking him unconscious, asleep he wouldn't wake up for months. All the while the rest of the ponies had to fend them off. Over time, more unicorns came to Dragon's Bane and developed another spell to send a dragon back to their home without the use of the Dragon's Bane, but it did not mean that it wasn't used anymore. With increasing attacks and limited 'ammo', they had to be very careful with when to use it and when to just fight. Decades passed and the dragon's attacks lessened. It was a nice break from the constant fighting. The unicorn that created the spell was called Blazingstar."

"He is my ancestor. My family has been the beacon of hope to help keep the dragons at bay, but we've grown weary and tired of all this fighting. We've lost enough friends and family, we want it to stop."

"S-so, Princess, you mentioned something about going back to the altar where you made the elements of harmony." Said Spike hesitant to speak. He felt saddened to learn of what his 'brethren' did to the ponies he's grown to love.

"Ah yes, feeling depressed about being the only one left of the three who made the elements after I was forced to banish my sister, I ventured back to the altar to pay my respects to Turin. When I arrived, I saw your egg there. It was strange, I had gone to the altar every year, but only now did you appear. At first I was afraid dragons had made it out of their territory, but after looking around, I saw no sign of that. I brought you back with me and waited for you to hatch. I even tried using some magic to speed it up, but nothing worked. Somehow, I just knew the egg was a sort of heritage from Turin. I thought perhaps with you we could come to peace with the dragon race." Twilight tilted her head.

"Wait, so why was he my entrance exam to the magic academy?" To this Celestia giggled a little.

"Well, out of all the spells I used on Spike's egg, there was one that made me change the way I was handling the situation. I used a powerful spell that was suppose to link me up with the egg so I might understand it. It was simple in theory, I could better understand what I was supposed to do if I had a sort of mental connection to the egg. However, when I used the spell, instead of resonating with me, it linked up with another pony. I took the egg and used it as a means to find who it decided to link up with, and stumbled across you. At the time you were reading a book out on a bench. From that day on I kept an eye on you. I saw you had talent with magic and placed a means for your parents to help you get an audience to enter the magic academy. I requested that your test was to hatch Spike here."

"So...you planned it all?" asked Spike as Twilight looked in awe. It was strange to know that Princess Celestia had guided her even back when she was a filly. The Princess noticed how shocked Twilight was and simply giggled before taking another sip of her tea.

Next Chapter: Silver and Bloom's Past Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 25 Minutes