It is a dark and foggy night in the royal city of Canterlot. With the inability to see more than a few metres ahead of you before being blinded by darkness, most ponies would I agree it would be impossible to find anypony during a night like this. Unfortunately, on this very night, the call of pursuit has been commanded. Four of the castle guards, each dressed in shiny golden armour and a spear in their hooves or magical grasp, walk down one of the seemingly lonely stone streets together. Each of their eyes study whatever surroundings they can make out, searching for their target.

“Wait,” one of the guards of the group speaks, “can’t we just look tomorrow, we have a pretty clear description of the stallion, it shouldn’t be that hard to locate in the light of day. Morning’s already gonna come in an hour.”

“It was an order from the princess,” the leader replies, “not like any ordinary chain order that’s given to only a hoofful of us. Princess Celestia has addressed this pony as a top-class threat and as we speak, entire royal guard is on patrol throughout the city. This is clearly not some one-shot criminal the police just lost.”

“How dangerous can this pony be? With the four of us, it shouldn’t be that hard.”

“It might not be so easy,” a third guard retorts, “my brother was on patrol on the South end of the city when the pony came from, wherever it came from. He told me that he saw and heard the pony smash through an entire row of buildings along a street.”

“The pony did what?”

“The pony entered one of the seven shops lined up along the street, each made of brick and stone, and came out of the last on onto the adjacent road.”

“Oh…”

“Will you guys be quiet?” The fourth one barks, “The pony we’re looking for probably knows were here and will probably avoid us.”

“Or maybe he might smash us to bits like the rock and brick of the-”

“Don’t be such a coward.”

“All three of you,” the leader demands, “tone it down a notch. We each should be aware of how powerful of a threat this stallion may become, but also keep vigilant.”

“Yes sir.” The three other guards reply. After a minute later of silence and walking down the street, the sound of a window shattering rings breaks the quiet and causes the four guards to snap their attention to it.

“That sounded like it came from the left road ahead!”

“Is it him?” the more nervous guard of the bunch asks.”

“Not sure, you,” The leader points his hoof towards the guard to his left, “come with me to investigate.”

“What about me and this other pony with me?”

“Keep walking, this may just as well be a ruse to lure us away from him.”

“Yes sir…”

“Yes sir.” the nervous one’s now partner responds. The leader and his partner soon take off towards the source of the sound, leaving the last two guards alone to wonder. After passing an intersection a few metres ahead, the duo find themselves confronted by brick walls ahead of them and their sides.

“An alley?”

“Seems so. Best we turn back now, nopony’s hiding here.”

However, the guard’s proven wrong a second later by the gruff, yet young sounding, voice of a stallion coming from right above the sentries’ heads, “Really? If all of her guards have become this incompetent…” Before the mysterious stallion continues however, the cracking of stone can be heard above, soon followed by a loud thumping of hooves at the entrance of the alley. “…then I’m vastly more surprised that this place hasn’t burned down than the fact I escaped.” Turning around, the two sentries come face to face with the pony they’ve been looking for. A large and muscular, yet sleek, Earth pony with a coat of red stands before them. His mane and tail are a frowzy mess of pitch black hair, with the back of his mane sporting a long flowing streak of silver hair, almost touching the stone floor. A black harness can be seen on his chest with five unknown sticklike objects attached to the back of it. With his shallow grey eyes staring deeply into the guards’ eyes, fear begins to build inside the two.

“It’s you.”

“It is. At least that’s what I assume, seeing so many guards out here in the streets tonight. Tia must certainly know I have escaped. I hope at least…”

“We have been sent by the princess to capture you and return you to her custody at once.”

“Can’t she do it herself instead of being a spineless wimp? I seek no quarrels with you, as long as you let me be. This is a matter between me and Tia, and her putting you in trouble’s way instead of her is pathetic.”

“She said that you had a thing for mind games. Well guess what, it isn’t working on me. Either come with us easily, or we’ll have to do things the hard way.”

“What mind games? What I speak is merely in truth and logic. This propaganda she’s feeding you is making you weak to the truth of reality and the future. Stand aside now, and let me fix that.”

“No way. Partner, let’s fight this stallion…”

“Wait.”

“What?”

“You…”

“Me?” The other guard hesitantly asks.

“Yes, you." The mysterious stallion nods. "Do you wish to fight me?”

“What?”

“Do you wish to fight me?”

“Well, I am the princess’ guard so,”

“If you don’t wish to fight me and get injured, I will not fight you. You have a wife and foals to tend with your fatherhood after all. I am a pony of honour and respect.”

“Wait, how did you…”

“There are a lot of things I know about you just by simply looking at you. If you don’t desire to bet your health fighting me, I understand.”

“…I guess…”

“Moron!” The first guard harshly barks, “Don’t be an idiot and fight!” Lifting his spear into its stabbing stance with his magic, the unicorn guard then dashes at the red pony. In an instant’s notice, one of the objects from the pony’s back hovers off and in front of the spear, holding it off in a lock mere centimetres from the red stallion’s stoic face. The object, as well as its four duplicates still attached to the harness, turns out to be long, thin, curved swords of metal. The sparks that emit from the two opposing weapons grinding reveal tiny grooves and patterns in the flat part of the slick blade. The nervous guard standing behind his partner drops his jaw in shock.

“There’s no magic aura, he’s an Earth pony, how is this possible?”

“I don’t know!”

“There’s a reason Tia wanted the entire guard…” The mysterious pony cryptically replies. The spear soon begins to bend and crack down the middle, much to the guard’s surprise.

“He may have some special abilities, but can it outmatch this?” The unicorn guard disappears in a flash of green light before reappearing behind the onlooking partner. The large spear then snaps with two and the pieces fall to the floor. With the flick of his horn, the red stallion and his unveiled sword are enwrapped in a green aura and are lifted several inches from the ground.

“What a cowardly and most pathetic thing to do…”

“Says the one being captured by said ‘coward’.”

“Oh really?” The four swords attached to the stranger’s back lift into the air despite the unicorn’s telepath magic and charge towards the guards. The onlooker holds his spear to his chest with his hooves and closes his eyes in panic as the sharp swords charge at him. However, the blades arc around him at the last second and each wedges itself underneath each of the unicorn guard’s hooves. The swords then flick upwards at a fast pace and wide angle, launching the white stallion into the air a couple of metres. His magical influence breaks, and the red pony drops back down to the ground on all four hooves. The first blade that was unveiled then charges at the falling rival and stabs itself between the guard’s belly and his armour strap underneath. The sword then pierces the brick wall at the back of the ally, pinning the guard to it a metre above.

As the four blades hover upwards and slowly approach the unicorn, the trapped pony soon begins to squeal in terror and cry out, “Please! Don’t hurt me!”

“Coward…” The red stallion’s head then turns to the other guard, still shivering with her weapon at his chest. Gently, the mysterious stallion taps the guard on the shoulder, prompting the sentry to open his eyes towards him. “I respect you sir. Perhaps we can spar sometime in the future to help build your self-security about fighting.”

“T-th-thanks?” he stutters.

“Don’t be scared. After all, I have no reason to hurt you-” The Earth pony’s left ear twitches as he stands there in silence.

“S-sir?”

“You!”  Out of nowhere, the stallion then leaps over the guard and his four free blades rush over and behind him into the darkness. Four loud metal clangs are heard from the shadows, followed by a large white battle axe bursting from the fog and smashing into the rock below. The axe lifts back up by a golden aura surrounding it, causing the guards to smile upon seeing the heavenly glow. Soon, a white alicorn with a flowing fluorescent mane emerges from the fog behind the axe in her hold.

With a very stern look on her face, she gives a long glare at the red pony next to the pegasus sentinel before speaking, “Relv…”

The red pony, now known to the guards as Relv, calls back in a very calm, yet strict tone, “Tia…”

“You’ve aged well…”

“So have you. Quite a lot larger than when we first met, and quite a lot has happened. It’s been a long time since we’ve last seen each other this close, at least a thousand years from when I last counted.  I see that you are still very sloppy with the technique in your axe after all these years though.”

“How did you manage to escape my confinement?”

“You know me better than this. You’ve known sooner or later that I’d best all of your traps and defenses.”

“I’ll rebuild it all from scratch just to keep you away from the innocent lives of my kingdom.”

“Oh Tia, after all this time, you are still too incompetent and senseless to face me. You’ve surrounded your weak temple with weaker subordinates instead of structuring yourself stronger, not preparing yourself for when the earthquake comes and wipes it all out.”

“You’re the earthquake in this cruel analogy I presume?”

“No, I am the one who desires to make the temple stronger, but you see me as the earthquake, and try to remove me. An impossibility you have made for yourself.”

“I almost forgot ponies back then talked like this…”

“I am not the villain you make me out to be, Tia.”

“It’s Celestia now, Princess Celestia. And your ways of ‘making things better’ are completely morally wrong!”

“Ethics you mean, I have no morals, I follow no ethics. All they are hindrances to true progress and survival. Deep inside, you know that I’m right.”

“Relv, you are not! I will not allow you to stand anywhere near my ponies and hurt them.”

“And what’s going to stop me?” Relv’s four blades hover back to him and aim their pointed tips towards Celestia’s head. “Certainly not you. You know how powerful I’ve become.”

“You’re right. You’re too strong…” Slowly, the white alicorn and the red Earth pony approach each other, each growing more and more distaste for each other. With their weapons still primed, it is only until they were a few inches away from each other before stopping. “You’re too much of a weapon for me to handle...”

“So just let me be…”

“I will let you be,” Then, without any hesitation or room to process, Princess Celestia places her horn on Relv’s forehead and encases his body in her golden aura. “…under the care of somepony that can handle you!” One by one, Relv’s blades drop to the ground with a loud clang as their owner twitches uncontrollably from his rival’s magic. His pupils begin to fade away and his body soon stops resisting to the powerful magic. Finally, after a minute of pressing her horn on his head and forcing her magic into him, Celestia steps back and starts to pant, letting the large red Earth pony’s unconscious body gently drop to the cold stone ground. The unicorn guard pinned to the wall then uses his magic to teleport back down, leaving the sword jammed in the alley brick and stone.

“I’m sorry my princess,” he pleas, “I tried to fight him off, but he quickly overcame me. I was too weak to use magic during the time and I couldn’t remove the sword that was holding me in place for some reason.”

“It’s fine. I underestimated how truly strong Relv had become and sending you guards was a mistake.”

“Princess, I should also inform you of this. My partner, the one watching from the back corner of this alley, he refused to fight alongside me against this 'Relv'.”

“He didn’t fight?”

“I’m sorry!” The nervous guard yelps in panic, “I have a wife and foals, Relv left me alone as long as I didn’t fight him. It was the only option I had!”

“Don’t beat yourself over it. Relv’s words have caused many ponies to turn against me at some point. I’m just glad now that we can finally settle this matter.”

“What did you even do to him?”

“Well, while Relv was doing his training in confinement, I did a little of my own in case if he’d ever returned. The spell I have casted onto him is a special mind control, one that can’t be broken by any means to normal ponies.”

“Will it stay for Relv? He was able to levitate those swords of his without any magic, so his mind must be strong or something.”

“True, he has an enhanced mind and many other… quirks… to him. However, the worst thing that could happen is that a little of his old personality and… quirks… will show without command.”

“So, what are you going to do with him?”

“I’m going to give him to a pony that I know for certain can not only keep him from causing damage, but maybe even reform him.”

“Who?” The two guards ask.

“None other than the Element of Kindness herself…”