It had been a week since Corvo had appeared in Canterlot and he had grown a great deal closer to both Twilight and Spike. Twilight had opened up a lot since he had first arrived. However, she was still rather distant. Thanks to her, though, he had learned so many things about this world. The different species that inhabited it, the different laws, names of towns (which he had to resist the urge to facepalm at many of them), etc.

After getting used to his presence, Spike was ecstatic to have a guy friend. He had told Corvo that, besides Twilight's father, he mostly only knew mares. That was when he learned that her family had adopted him and the two were actually brother and sister. Corvo and Spike hung out every now and then when they weren't doing anything. Spending time with the drake, he learned about a sport called hoofball and was shown an interesting picture book he called a comic.

During his week in the castle, he trained with the guards, mostly Gleaming Shield and Crescent Slash. The training helped all of them. It helped the guards with fighting against enemies that were taller than them, and vice versa for Corvo. Crescent also helped Corvo learn how to control his earth pony magic. He could now control how much strength he put into his attacks and could even feel the magic in the earth.

He also spent some time with Fine Point, helping out with his outfits however he could. He learned a good deal about her job and about fashion in general. He wasn't an expert, but he had some knowledge about it now.

Corvo awoke at the time he normally got up at. He had gotten used to having a body again and all of the things that he had to pay attention to. After taking a shower, as he had been told it was called, and getting dressed, the sound of his door opening caught his attention. Looking over he noticed Princess Celestia entering the room. "Hello Corvo, I finished enchanting something with the spell to help you blend in." She levitated a dark purple bracelet with an onyx gem in the center over to him. "Wear this and you will be able to change from a pony to the form you have now. It will also make anything you are wearing change to fit your form."

Taking the bracelet and slipping it on, he said, "That will be useful for if I have to quickly change from one form to the other. I'll give it a try." Concentrating on the band he focused on changing his appearance. He noticed that he slowly started to shrink and that his posture changed to where he needed to be on all fours rather than on only two. He carefully walked over to the mirror that Fine Point had brought to his room so he could see how he looked in the clothes she made him. He saw that he now looked like a normal earth pony. Although he seemed a bit different than Crescent was.

"Hm, that's interesting. You seem to be slightly leaner than other earth ponies. I think you might be half pegasus," she said.

"Half pegasus?" he questioned.

"Well you didn't think that ponies only dated within their race did you?" she arched a brow at him. "Some ponies do, but it's usually just who they happen to meet. There are a great number of ponies who have all four races in their DNA. As a result of this two earth ponies could have a pegasus, thestral, or unicorn. The same is true for other races," she explained.

"So, what does me being part pegasus mean exactly?"

"You are a great deal more agile and faster than a pony that's more earth pony than anything else. However, you won't have as much stamina as them. Your hearing and sight are slightly sharper as well."

"That's good to know." He walked over to one of his cases and grabbed his mask, "May I ask you for a favor?"

"I suppose. What is it?" she asked.

"Well, it's a few things really. I was wondering if you could have another mask like this made for my pony form. I also hoped that you could enchant this mask to morph to fit anyone's face and to add a way to filter out any hazardous fumes," he requested.

She raised an eyebrow, "I understand the last thing, but why do you want those first two done?"

"The first is because if I'm already in this form I would like to be able to just put it on." Celestia raised her hoof, but Corvo continued, "The other is for if I either want to keep someone's identity secret or if I want to protect them from anything dangerous in the air."

Taking the mask in her magic, she said, "I'm not sure anypony can replicate this, but I'll try to find somepony. The last two requests will be easy enough for me to do and will be done in a day or two."

He bowed, "Thank you Princess."

"It's not a problem Corvo. You should probably come up with a name for this form."

"What do you mean?"

"Corvo isn't exactly a pony name, so you should think of something to call yourself."

Thinking about it, he saw what Princess Celestia meant. All of the ponies he met had very... unique names, her included. He mulled over what he might call himself. Thinking about what he did for others and what one of the meanings of his name was, he grinned, "How's Raven Armor?"

She smiled, "Sounds very good. I'll be sure to let the guards know, so they know how to address you around other ponies. Now you should go. You have lessons with Twilight do you not?"

"I actually have other plans for today," he told her.

"Oh, and what's that?" she asked.

"I'm sure you'll find out," he said, walking out of the room.

He soon reached the library and entered, finding the lavender unicorn reading as she always did. Before he could move, Spike walked up to him.

"Hey who are you?" he questioned.

"Spike, it's me Corvo."

His eyes widened, "Really?"

"You know anypony else that dresses like this?" he asked, gesturing at his clothes, which were a violet version of his old ones.

"Not really, no," he said. "How the hay do you look like a normal pony?"

Holding up the bracelet he explained, "The Princess enchanted this to change my shape whenever I wanted. Also, while I'm in this form and we are around other ponies that don't know me call me Raven Armor."

"Why?" he asked.

"Princess Celestia pointed out how my name isn't very pony like so she suggested I come up with one."

"Oh. I see her point, I suppose. So, should I tell Twilight to get ready?"

"No, in fact, why don't you head back home?"

The drake looked up in confusion, "Home? Why?"

"Because I plan on visiting her home."

"You are?" he asked, shocked.

"Yes I am. She hasn't gone home very often this last week has she?" The dragon shook his head. "I thought so. That's why I'm going to convince her to head home and I'm going to introduce myself, so that they know why she hasn't visited them."

"I see. OK I'll head back. I should tell Twilight I'm going though."

"I'll tell her Spike."

"Thanks," he said, exiting the library.

He walked over to the unicorn, "Hey Twilight."

She glanced over, a slight smile appearing at the sound of the voice, but hesitated at the sight of the unfamiliar stallion. She opened her mouth to say something, but paused, taking a closer look at him. "Corvo!?" she asked in surprise. "Is that you!? You look like a normal earth pony."

He nodded, "Yep, it's me. Thanks to the Princess' help."

"That's amazing! She changed your whole body structure?"

"She enchanted a bracelet, but yes she did."

"That's amazing," she breathed. "Are you ready to continue your lessons?"

"No, in fact I have other plans," he said.

"What? But I have your lessons all planned out. And if you have other plans why did you come here?"

"Because I thought that we would visit your house."

She looked at him in disbelief.

Corvo and Twilight were soon heading to her home. "Do we really need to do this?" she asked.

"Let me ask you this. Do you live in the castle or with your parents?"

"I stay in the castle," she said. "but I do visit my parents practically every day."

"And how often since I arrived here have you seen them?"

She hesitated before answering, "Once."

His eyebrows raised in surprise, "I'll be honest, that's more than I thought, but it still proves my point. You haven't visited them as much as you used too, and I feel like they should know why."

"Are you going to tell them about what you were?" she asked, slightly worried.

"No, at least not yet. I'm just going to tell them that I came here from very far away and that you are teaching me about Equestria. It's pretty much the truth anyway, so you won't have to feel like we are lying to them," he told her. Corvo noticed that she still seemed rather anxious. "Is there something else wrong, Twilight?"

"You know what it usually means when a mare brings a stallion home right?" she asked, a small blush on her face.

Comprehension dawned on him, "You don't have to worry about that Twilight. I plan to head that off before they get too far ahead of themselves. Not that there's anything wrong with you. You are an intelligent, beautiful, and wonderful mare," Corvo missed her blush become more intense at his compliments. "but I don't feel that way towards you."

She looked up in curiosity, "Then how do you feel towards me?"

He paused at this and thought about her question. He wasn't completely sure how he felt about her. He felt that she was more than a friend, but he didn't feel like he was in love her.

Before he could respond, they were both surprised by a blue mare running past them. What really surprised them was that it sounded like she was barking, as well as the fact that an angry mob was chasing her.

"I'm sorry Twilight, but I can't ignore that. That mare needs help and I'm going to," he said. Not waiting for a response he galloped after the mob. He shouted back, "I'll be back as soon as I can!"

"Okay, I'll wait here!" he heard her shout back.

Twilight watched as Corvo raced off to help sompony. She sighed, 'How does he feel about me? I don't really feel hurt that he isn't in love with me, I don't really care about that kind of stuff anyway, but now he has me wondering what he does feel for me.'

Suddenly a voice spoke out, "All alone, are we? This makes things easy."

Whirling around, Twilight tried to see who had spoken, but all she saw was what looked like vines and feathers, before she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. She fell to the ground, slipping into unconsciousness.

As Corvo chased after the ponies, he lost them a couple times when they would turn a corner. Using his Dark Vision he found the mob rather easily. However, something confused Corvo as he used his power. Some of the ponies on the streets or in buildings were pink instead of yellow like the others. Deciding to ask the Princess later, he refocused on the task at hoof. He chased after them until they came to a stop in a dead end alley with the pony they had been chasing trapped in front of them. He quickly pushed his way through the crowd and stood between them and the mare.

Glancing back at her, he noticed that she looked very disheveled. Her silver mane was a mess and she seemed to be whimpering like a dog would. Turning his attention to the crowd, he shouted, "What in the hay is going on!?" A thought suddenly appeared in his mind, 'It's official, I've gone native.'

One of the ponies stepped forward. They were a light gray unicorn stallion with a dark gray mane and tail. He had blue eyes and on the bridge of his snout were a pair of small glasses. He wore a green shirt with a white jacket wrapped around his neck. He rose an accusatory hoof, pointing at the mare behind Corvo and yelled, "That mare built a shoddy orphanage that collapsed right after she declared it open! Do you know how many bits I sunk into that pile of rubble!?"

"Now I'm sure that-" he began, but as what the stallion had said sank in, he scowled deeply. "Are you saying that the only thing you care about is the money you put into it?" he questioned, his voice devoid of all emotion. The mare behind him seemed to notice as she began to whine.

The crowd of ponies, however, seemed oblivious to his sudden change in behavior, as an earth pony mare stepped forward and shouted, "Of course that's what we care about. All of our bits wasted on a building that fell down before it was even used." The mob shouted their agreements as they started to advance forward.

Corvo's anger slowly rose with every word they spoke, finally he stomped the ground and roared, "ENOUGH!!" They all fell silent and a few of the ponies stepped back as they noticed the cracks in the ground he made. He glared at the ponies before him, "You dare to try to harm this mare just because you lost some bits!? I would somewhat understand if you were worried about the children going to live there, but you aren't. All your worried about is the money that, judging by how some of you are dressed, you all have plenty of. If you all want to get to her you'll have to get through me." He moved his hoof to the hilt of his blade. He didn't want to harm them, but he would protect the mare behind him.

They all looked at the pony before them warily, noticing the blade in his belt. Slowly they all began to leave the alley, all mumbling darkly.

Before they could all leave, Corvo called out, "Hold on! You there." He pointed at the first stallion that had spoken out. The unicorn looked over nervously. "This mare looks like she's psychologically unstable, so you will show us where the hospital is, so I can check her in." He walked back to the blue mare and sat next to her.

She flinched and began whimpering.

He petted her mane comfortingly, "It's OK. I'm not going to hurt you." He smiled warmly as the mare gazed up at him. "You don't have to worry, I'm going to take you somewhere that will help."

She looked up at him for a moment before she smiled with her tongue hanging out. She licked his cheek and then lowered herself, wagging her tail.

He stared at her for a moment and then grinned. He stood up and started walking over to the stallion from before. Seeing him, she hesitated and started whining again. He glanced back, "Don't be afraid. He'll behave himself." His gaze hardened as he looked at the stallion, "Right?" He nodded frantically. Corvo smirked, "See? I won't let anypony do anything to you." He continued forward, the mare trotting next to him.

They began walking to the hospital. The stallion in front would occasionally glare at the mare as she walked with them, but when he noticed Corvo's gaze he would quickly turn forward and pick up his pace. They soon reached the hospital.

"Beat it," he said to the unicorn. He was all to happy to oblige, as he was gone in a second. Looking at the mare he whistled, and said, "C'mon girl." He lead her inside and walked up to the counter. "I've brought somepony that needs help."

The receptionist glanced up and asked, "Name?"

"Mine is Raven Armor. I'm not sure what her name is, I just met her." He looked back at the mare and noticed that her cutie mark was a screw. "Is that a screw that's loose?" he asked himself.

"Screw Loose. Alright, I'll get the doctor," he said.

"Wait! I don't know if-" but it was too late. He was gone and the name was down. Looking back at her, he thought, 'Damn it. I honestly hope that's not her name.'

"Hello," said a voice behind him. He turned to see an orange unicorn stallion. He had brown hair and his eyes were blue. Corvo had no idea what his cutie mark was. It was a two colored square with a pointed line going across it. "My name is Doctor Stable. How can I help you?"

Corvo glanced over his shoulder and whistled. The blue mare rushed over and sat next to him, her tongue lolling out of her mouth. "As you can probably tell this mare is rather out of it. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but she was being chased by an angry mob after an orphanage she was apparently building collapsed."

"I see. And she seems to think that she's a dog now?" he questioned.

At that exact moment she licked his cheek, "As you can see." He then said, "Um, the receptionist wrote down that her name was Screw Loose, but I just met her and never got her name."

The doctor nodded, "Thank you for telling me, but we are going to need to call her something, so that will have to do for now."

"*sigh* Alright, I hope you are able to find out if that's actually her name or not." Corvo turned his attention to her, "Screw Loose, you need to go with the nice stallion. He's going to help you."

He stepped forward, holding out his hoof, "Come on. We'll take good care of you."

She didn't move though and instead leaned against Corvo, looking straight at him.

"Uhh." He had no idea what to do at this point.

The doctor, however, seemed to have an idea, "You said that you saved her?" Corvo nodded. "I see. Well I think that she has taken a liking to you because of that, for obvious reasons. Maybe if you visit sometimes, we'll be able to convince her to stay and it might even help with her recovery."

He nodded again, then looked toward the mare, "Screw Loose, I need you to go with Doctor Stable, he will be able to help you. I promise that I will visit as often as I can. Will you go with him?"

She hesitated, but slowly walked over to the doctor. He scratched her under her chin and she immediately smiled, while her hind leg started shaking.

"I'll visit tomorrow, Screw Loose. I promise," he said, as he began to exit the hospital. Before he could leave, he felt something against him. Looking over he saw her next to him. She quickly licked his muzzle, then ran back to the doctor. He stood there frozen, trying to process what had just happened. Shaking himself, he left the building and started heading back to where he had left Twilight. He had only gone a couple blocks when he noticed five stallions surrounding two mares, a short distance ahead of him. He sighed to himself, 'What's going on today?' He galloped toward them as fast as he could. 'Where exactly are the guards?' he wondered. 'If something else happens today, I'm going to have to talk to Gleaming Shield about more guards and spreading them out more.'

The day had been going good for Octavia. She had put on a good concert for the ponies of Canterlot with her ensemble, the weather was nice, and she was spending time with her good, if not somewhat obnoxious, friend Vinyl Scratch. However, as they were walking around, they had suddenly been surrounded by five unicorn stallions. All of them with disgusting sneers on their muzzles.

"You mares really shouldn't walk around by yourself. The city can be a dangerous place. There's no telling what kind of scum is out there," one them jeered.

"You mean like you slobs?" Octavia inquired. She heard Vinyl snort, trying to stifle her laughter.

The stallions scowled at the insult. "Hey, listen lady, we are trying to be nice here and give you some friendly advice," one of them said.

"You should probably work on the way you look then, or mares are going to just going to run in the opposite direction," Vinyl snickered.

"You two didn't," one said, his sneer reappearing.

"Yes, well, I'm rather used to my roommates behavior," Octavia said, smirking slightly.

"Hey!" she yelled.

One of the stallions opened his mouth to interrupt them, but was cut off himself when another stallion walked past him and up to the mares.

"These hoodlums haven't done anything to you ladies have they?" he asked.

The two looked at the newcomer in surprise, as did the unicorn stallions. That somepony would just walk up to five obvious thugs and stand between them and what they were after. He was also dressed rather strangely. They had never seen clothes in such a design before.

Shaking herself of the shock, Vinyl said, "No, dude. They haven't done anything to us, but that was probably going to change soon."

"Hey, this isn't any of your business pal," one stallion said, putting his hoof on the earth pony stallions shoulder.

He looked down at the hoof and said, "I suppose it isn't." He then grabbed his foreleg and, to everypony's surprise, he lifted the unicorn up and slammed him onto the ground. Leaning close to his head, the newcomer said, "But I'm making it my business." Moving faster then they could react, he quickly jumped between two of the stallions and punched them in the head, knocking them out. His ears twitched as he heard the last two standing unicorns charge and fire spells at him, but he jumped to the side. The spells smashed into the ground, he then ran toward them. Reaching into one of the pouches he wore, he pulled out what looked like a miniature crossbow. They heard the twang of what sound like two bowstrings. The two unicorns fell to the ground, unconscious from the sound coming from them. He glanced at the stallion he had flipped, who looked up in complete shock. He quickly got up and tried to run away, but before he could move even five steps he fell to the ground, unconscious from whatever was in the earth ponies bow.

Octavia and Vinyl were utterly speechless over what had just happened. Some random stallion had come to their aid and took out five unicorns with very little trouble.

Finally Vinyl walked forward and, with a huge grin, said, "That was awesome!"

"It was very impressive," Octavia said, regaining her voice.

He turned toward them, "It was no problem." He walked around grabbing the stallions and dragging them together. Once they were close enough he took a rope out of one of his pouches and began to tie their legs together. "They were undoubtedly going to try and do something terrible to you ladies and I was only too happy to deal with them."

"May we ask your name?" Octavia asked.

"Yeah! You got to tell us who the incredible stallion who's able to kick such serious flank!" Vinyl shouted.

Once he finished tying the stallions up, he said, "My name is Raven Armor."

"My name is Raven Armor. What are you names, if I may ask?"

The light gray earth pony with dark gray mane and wearing a pink bow tie, stepped forward, "My name is Octavia Melody and this is-"

"I'm Vinyl Scratch, also known as DJ-Pon3," the white unicorn with electric blue mane introduced. She wore purple sunglasses that completely hid her eyes.

"Well it's nice to meet you both," he said.

He was about to speak again when he suddenly heard, "Hurry."

Corvo looked around trying to discern where the voice had come from. "Did you two hear anything?" he asked.

"No we didn't," Octavia said, Vinyl shaking her head.

"That's odd," he muttered.

Suddenly he heard it again, "She needs help."

Corvo was starting to get a bad feeling deep in his gut. "I hate to just run off, but I left a friend waiting for me and I've made her wait long enough," he said.

"It's fine. You shouldn't make them wait any longer," Octavia said. She then glanced at the unconscious unicorns, "But what do we do with them?"

He raised a hoof to his chin in thought, "Hm, we need the guards." He then got an idea. Reaching for his holster he pulled out his gun. "You might want to cover your ears," he advised. The two looked at each other, but did as he suggested. Holding the gun up, he fired. Octavia and Vinyl both jumped at the loud bang that followed. Corvo looked at his hooves, 'How in the Void did I pull the trigger? For that matter how did I use the crossbows?'

In only a few seconds several guards appeared before them. They all looked at the earth pony stallion, who was smiling at them. They frowned slightly, as one walked forward and asked, "Is there a reason you made such a racket? And what the hay was that anyway?"

"I'll explain later, but the reason is that there weren't any guards around and we needed these lowlifes taken away. They were harassing these mares and were going to do who knows what to them if I hadn't stopped them," he told them.

The guard looked at the unconscious stallions and then to the two mares, who looked somewhat nervous. "Alright, but please don't use whatever you used just to get our attention. We had several ponies freaking out over the sound," he said.

"I'll try not to," Corvo said, as the guards grabbed the unicorns and started to drag them away. Once they were gone, he turned back to the other two. "That's that taken care of. It was a pleasure making your acquaintance, but I need to go." He turned around and started to walk off, but was stopped by Octavia.

"Wait, I wish to repay you for saving us," she said.

"You don't have to. I only did what was the right thing to do, I didn't do it to be rewarded," he said, modestly.

"All the more reason," Vinyl said.

Octavia nodded, "Indeed. I would like to invite you see my recital in a few days. I'll let security know that you can come backstage too."

The unicorn rolled her eyes, or at least Corvo thought she did judging by the gesture she made with her head. The glasses made it impossible to tell. "Boring!" she said. "That's such a snooze fest. Anytime you're in Ponyville come visit my club and we can really have fun."

The earth pony mare frowned, "Yes, well to each their own."

He smiled, "Those both sound great. I'll be sure to take you both up on that offer." He then began to leave, shouting back, "I hope to see you both later!" He saw the two mares waving at him. 'I really do hope that I meet them again. They were a couple intriguing mares and neither one of them were even the tiniest bit intimidated from being surrounded by five unicorns. They seemed like they rather tough mares.'

The two watched as Raven Armor galloped off. When he was gone, Octavia said, "He was an interesting stallion."

"Yeah he was!" Vinyl agreed. "Like what were those things that he had? I mean, one looked like a small more advanced crossbow, but I have no idea what that other thing was that made that loud bang."

"Yes, he is a mystery. Like how he took out both of those stallion with only one crossbow," Octavia wondered. Her ear twitched, at her friends snickering. Frowning, she asked, "What?"

"He didn't use only one, Tavi. He had a bow on his fetlock," she said.

"Really now?"

Vinyl nodded, "Yeah, I saw it when he punched those first two stallions. A small device on his front boot."

"Interesting," Octavia said. The two then returned to enjoying the day, both of them hoping to run into the mysterious stallion again.

Corvo soon returned to where he had left Twilight. Only to find that she was gone. Not really thinking, he activated his Dark Vision. He hadn't expected to find anything, so he was surprised to see hoof prints on the ground. He saw a great deal at the edges of the street, but there was only one set in the middle. They were coming from the direction they had been walking. There was a set of paw and claw prints leading up to where he had last seen Twilight. He saw the same prints walking away, but Twilight's hoofprints hadn't moved. Glancing back he saw that she hadn't head back to the castle.

Corvo started to fear the worst. 'She wasn't kidnapped was she? She is a rather important pony, being the Princess' student.'

He suddenly heard the voice again, "You must hurry or she will be lost forever."

Corvo was really starting to panic. Deactivating his vision, he glanced around and noticed a guard. 'Finally! A guard when I need one.' Raising his voice, he yelled, "Guard!" The guard stood at attention from the sudden shout. He ran over to him, "I think that Twilight has been kidnapped. I need you to go and inform Princess Celestia and Captain Shield."

The guard turned around and said, "Corvo? What do you mean you think Twilight's been foalnapped?"

Corvo recognized his voice, "Crescent, I split up with Twilight here to help a mare being chased by an angry mob. She said that she'd wait for me here and now she's gone. It can't have been more than an hour, so I don't think that she would have left. I also saw some strange tracks leading towards where she was standing and then leaving. There weren't any hoofprints leading away from her, so I can't think of anything else that could have happened." Crescent was about to say something, but Corvo cut him off, "If you're going to suggest she teleported, I know that she didn't. She's been practicing, but she hasn't gotten it down yet. I really wish she had now."

Crescent saw the genuine terror on his face, "*sigh* Fine I'll go inform the Princess and see if she doesn't know where she is." He started to trot off, "You should check her home to see if she isn't there."

'Home. That's right!' In the time spent with Spike and Twilight he had learned that the little drake had magic fire that could send letters to whoever he wanted to. He shouted back, "Crescent, Spike is at their house. Have Princess Celestia send him a letter asking about her. I'm going to follow the tracks that I saw." With that he used his vision and started following the prints. 'The bastard responsible for this is just made the biggest mistake of their lives,' he thought, darkly.