It is still an early morning in the land of Equestria, yet already the sun’s bright beams begin to wake the neighboring town of Ponyville.  The beige houses sprung to life upon contact of the rays of day as the multicoloured ponies that reside inside them wake up. Unicorns, pegasi, and Earth ponies, all eating or skipping their breakfast, and leaving their homes into the light of a new day to do their normal routines. A smile can be seen on each of their faces as they pass by each other and make new friends nearly every day.

However, it isn’t all rainbows and sunshine on this particular day. At the outskirts of the town, at the edge of the mysterious Everfree Forest, stands a small cottage. Inside that cottage rests a small yellow pegasus mare by the name of Fluttershy. Her large blue eyes are half-open, her wings are loosely folded to her sides, her long pink mane and tail are frizzy and uncombed, and even her fur felt frowzy on the pony’s skin. Not awake, not asleep, just lethargic and deeply entranced in thought at this moment on her bed. A small groan exits the mare’s small mouth as she continues to lie in her bed.

“I’m so…. so…. bored.” She quietly moans. A small tap bumps the back of her head in a rapid succession, prompting the pony to turn her head to whatever’s causing the knocking. It is a small white bunny with an impatient look on his face. “Oh, good morning Angel. Sorry, I’ll get your food ready.” Slowly, the mare pulls off the cyan sheets from her body and crawls out of bed with a small wobble upon landing. She then heads downstairs into the main room with the rabbit in hot pursuit. Fluttershy uses her wings to hover up to a tall shelf with several boxes of various raw food items. She pulls out a large blue box with a carrot labeled on the front and carries it back down. There, she opens the lid and pours the small baby carrots into a ceramic bowl, followed by Angel leaping into the bowl of carrots and quickly eating them.

“Well, this is fairly, dreary…” One of the bunny’s ears perks up upon hearing her comment. “Oh, I don’t mean to complain. I love taking care of you guys. It’s just… I kind of miss having Discord around.” The other ear perks up as well, followed by Angel giving a confused look at Fluttershy. “Sure he was loud, and a bit rude, and broke stuff in his sleep, and made a mess that I had barely idea how to clean up… B-but the point is, he always made every day interesting. I guess with him now living… somewhere, I guess things have gotten slow.” Upon finishing her thoughts, she looks down to see that Angel has stopped listening to the yellow pony and went back to his carrots. “I miss having a companion.”

A loud knocking soon erupts from Fluttershy’s wooden door, prompting her to go and see who it is. “Yes?” Opening the door, Fluttershy is shocked to see who’s on the other side. “P-p-princess Celestia?!”

“Yes,” the tall white alicorn calmly replies, “it is I.”

“What are you doing here? And so early on that matter? Did Rainbow Dash do something?”

“Ho, ho, no Fluttershy, no need to worry yourself,”

“Oh,”

“For now…”

“What was-”

“Anyways, I have come to you for a very special task, one that I am certain you will accomplish.”

“What is that?” Celestia then turns to behind her and calls out to an unseen follower.

“Relv, come by me.” The princess steps aside as the red pony known as Relv steps forward and in front of Fluttershy. The mare is immediately intimidated by his presence and deadpan look and winces back a hoofstep.

“Who’s that?”

“Fluttershy, this is Relv. He is a highly dangerous pony that has a very deep history with Equestria. A long time ago, he threatened the safety of our entire kingdom. He committed many crimes and nearly destroyed any resistance in his path. The lives of many were shattered in his wake, and executing him was impossible. So I had him imprisoned in a super prison I built just for him and it managed to keep him sealed away for many years.”

“What happened then?”

“Last night, he managed to escape my capture and attempted to continue to destroy Equestria. However, by this time, I was able to cast a mind control spell onto him to stop his attempts and control him. He now follows my every command, and soon he will follow yours.”

“Well that seems to have worked. But why do you need me?”

“He is too powerful for me as a ruler to handle. I cannot allow myself to become corrupt and abuse his abilities. This is why I need you. Seeing as how you were able to reform Discord, I’m hoping that not only can you responsible keep a hold of Relv, but also reform him to the good ways of our kingdom.”

“So wait, you’re giving him to me as a servant?”

“In basic terms… But I wouldn’t use that language to describe it.”

“Sounds a bit… invasive…”

“It may seem invasive, but I rest assure you, for this pony, it need to be done.”

“So how long is Relv going to live with me?”

“As long as you see fit, contact me when you believe he’s been reformed.”

“Okay.”

“Any other questions?”

“What did he do before getting captured?”

“Oh… I almost forgot…” A large brown book hovers up from behind Celestia’s back and over Relv, landing in front of Fluttershy with a loud smack. “Here are the entire criminal records of Relv. Run through these if you encounter any problems with Relv and stop him before he causes any damage.”

“This is even bigger than me.”

“Also, I wouldn’t advise reading this at your spare time. A lot of those records contain some very violent crimes that would make you sick.”

“Okay…”

“Anything more?”

“No.”

“So, are you up for the task?” Fluttershy hesitates before answering, lifting her gaze from the large book to the Earth pony in front of her. He hasn’t moved a muscle ever since stepping forward.

“Could this be the pony?”

“So Fluttershy?”

“I guess I can do it.”

“Thank you. It means a lot for me. Relv,”

“Yes Princess Celestia?” The stallion replies sharply, scaring Fluttershy with the intensity of his stern voice.

“Listen to Fluttershy and do as she commands, just as you’ve been following my command. You cannot take orders from me anymore.”

“…”

“So Fluttershy, say hello to him,”

“Um…” Fluttershy nervously speaks to the tall figure, “Hello… Relv…”

“Hello Fluttershy.”

“Okay…”

“Don’t be so nervous,” Celestia replies, “there shouldn’t be a problem. I have faith in you.”

“Okay. Bye Princess Celestia.”

“Oh, and one more thing,”

“What?”

“If he starts to… act out of place, be sure to command for him to stop. Don’t listen to anything you aren’t comfortable with.”

“Okay…”

“Farewell, and good luck.” With a flick of her horn, Celestia disappears in a burst of yellow light, leaving Fluttershy with Relv.

“So, Relv.”

“…”

“Please, come in.” Quickly, Relv marches into the center of the room with Fluttershy, stepping over the book on his way. Fluttershy then closes the door and sits in front of the stallion with Angel still eating his carrots by her flank. “So…”

“…”

“How are you?”

“89% fully set.”

“Uh…” Suddenly, a loud grizzly roar echoes across the entire cottage. The front door swings open with a loud smack as a large brown bear charges into the room, gritting his yellow teeth as he approaches the two ponies. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Relv’s five swords detach from his back and aim themselves at the bear in midair. The bear begins to cowardly whimper and backs up. Angel flees to upstairs, ditching the three carrots remaining in his bowl. Relv, now also gritting his teeth, rapidly turns around and approaches the beast with his hovering swords ahead, ready to strike. “Don’t hurt Harry!!!” Relv and the blades stop and the red pony changes his glare back to his stoic look. “Harry wasn’t going to hurt me! He was just looking for some company.”

“…”

“Apologize.”

“I’m sorry Fluttershy.”

“Not to me, to…” Fluttershy’s wide eyes then catch glimpse of the hovering swords as she now actually notices what’s going on. “How are- You’re an Earth- No magic- What are you doing?”

“Positioning the swords in a countering position.”

“No, no. I mean-I- First put those things away, you might poke an eye out.” Swiftly, the blades hover over Relv’s back and shift themselves in each of the black scabbards on the stallion’s back in unison.

“…”

“Wow... How do you even do that?”

“Electromagnetic Telekinesis.”

“What does that mean?”

“I use electromagnetic waves emitted from my mind to manipulate the swords.”

“I still don’t understand…”

“…”

“So, you control those swords with some sort of magic?”

“No.”

“Anything else?”

“…”

“Oh… This is awkward…” A grizzly shrill ruptures from the corner of the room. “Oh, you Harry. Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you. I hope…”

“…”

“Relv, sit next to me.” The ponies head towards the green soft and sit beside each other. Fluttershy, now even more curious about her new partner, begins to examine him. “So… I can’t really ask him about that, electric thing, I’d lose my mind trying to figure it out. I should start with something simple. Where did you come from?”

“Maria’s Hospital in Canterlot.”

“Where did you live I mean?”

“The prison created by Tia.”

“No, I mean before that.”

“The Barracks of the Royal Guard.”

“The barracks?”

“…”

“Okay, not so great communicating skills…”

“Can you maybe expand on your answers?”

“I can.”

“Okay, so you said you lived in the barracks?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you expand on your answer like I commanded? Commanded sounds so mean…”

“You didn’t command me.”

“Oh well… Relv, expand on your answers, please.”

“…”

“So, you were in the royal guard barracks?”

“Yes, at the age of nine, approximately 583277777 minutes ago, I entered the Barracks of the Royal Guard. There for the first three years, I slept for seven hours from 2300 to 0500, ate breakfast for thirty minutes from 0500 to 0530, trained basic for five hours from 0530 to 1030, ate lunch for thirty minutes-”

“Okay, stop. I’m sorry, I can barely keep track of what you’re saying. Maybe I should have you meet some of my friends. They might be able to help you control your speech.” Fluttershy hops from her seat and heads to the open door. “Relv, come with me.” The red pony hops from his seat from the chair and follows behind Fluttershy as they exit the cottage. “We should also explain some ground rules as well. Follow them.”

“Yes, I-”

“Please don’t continue.”

“…”

“Rex, I’m glad that you’re here.”

“Yes Princess Celestia, it’s been a few years.”

“How’s Manehattan?”

“Great, but I still don’t understand why you called me here.”

“It’s an issue that’s I’ve been dealing with recently.”

“You mean…”

“Yes, that type of issue.”

“Wait, is it something to do with that pony that nearly tore up Canterlot.”

“That one. I have taken care of him, but there’s this underlying feeling that I can’t get rid of.”

“But how does he-”

“It’s a very long story, one that goes very deep into my past.”

“But why didn’t you summon a therapist, and not just an old guard like me?”

“Because Rex, you were one of the closer ponies of my recent life. I couldn’t think of any other pony to consult other than you.”

“I guess. I can try to help.”

“Thank you.”

“So, when did this pony first show up?”

“Relv, that’s his name. Anyways, he started in the guard long before we cross paths…”