Luna pulls me towards the Castle earning some odd looks from the guards and maids, she shows me around the Castle; the Archives, the Princesses personal gym, a hallway with statues and stain glass windows, the Throne Room, and lastly the offices both Celestia and Luna use when not in the Throne Room.

We walk into the office Celestia is in, she's sitting at a desk and writing on a piece of paper. She hears the door close and looks up at us with a smile.

"So, did you two have fun?" she asks.

"I had a good time, Luna showed me the Archives and a hallway with important parts of your history," I reply.

"I see, so what do you plan to do for the rest of the day?" Celestia asks me.

"Probably go back to the Archives and learn more about this world," I reply.

"We shall speak with thee later," Luna says and yawns.

I leave the Princesses to their work and I make my way to the Archives, I arrive with no trouble and head towards the history section.

I read for a couple of hours and learnt that the carnivorous races see the other races as just another food source. The gryphons especially believe they have the right to hunt anything they want for food or sport while the dragons and diamond dogs just eat anything not their own.

The other herbivore races have created some sort of alliance against the carnivorous races to help protect each other. The minotaurs are a race of strong warriors, the cervine are a deer like Druidic race that can communicate with nature and even control plants, the zebras are a shamanistic culture and can speak to elemental spirits and are quite skilled in alchemy. The earth ponies are physically strong, the pegasi are fast, agile, and can manipulate the weather, and the unicorns can manipulate the magic in the atmosphere with their horns but lack the strength and agility of the other pony types.

The changelings though are neither herbivores nor carnivores, they feed off of emotions, especially love. I don't know how that can be possible... but this isn't my world, I'll just have to expect the impossible to be possible here.

I read up on how magic works here, it seems it's as Twilight described. Each race that can use magic gathers it from the atmosphere and channels it through a specific body part or tool, unicorns and changelings use their horns while the cervine use their antlers or hooves, the minotaurs, diamond dogs, and gryphons can't use magic while the dragons use magic to fuel their fire breathing abilities, the zebras use a system similar to ours where they use staffs and totems to channel theirs.

I put the books away and head out for a bite to eat, I notice another one of those guards in the light blue armour glaring at me from down the hallway, I glare back as I pass him and head towards the dining hall. I enter and head towards what I believe is the kitchens.

I open the side door and see about ten people running around restocking cupboards and other storage areas, one of the women in a white chefs apron spots me and walks up to me. "Can I help you?" she asks.

"Yes, I'm feeling a bit hungry, is it possible to get something to eat or will I have to wait until dinner time?" I ask her.

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait, only the princesses can order anything out of the normal serving times, I recommend going to one of the cafés in the city, or just wait until dinner is served," she tells me.

"I see, thank you anyway," I reply and leave.

I head back to the offices and knock on Celestia's door. "Come in," I hear her say.

I walk inside and see her put a stack of papers into a tray. "Hello, Adrian. Did you learn anything from the Archives?" she asks me.

"Quite a bit actually, I read up on the other races and how magic works here," I tell her.

"I see, and what do you think of the other races?" she asks.

"Why do all the carnivorous races eat the other sentient races?" I ask her.

She sighs and puts her quill pen down. "We believe it's just in their predatory nature, others believe they just have a lust for blood. The gryphons even have a large arena in their capital where they force their warriors against the other races they capture just for entertainment," she tells me.

I frown at that. "Well I also read that all the herbivorous races have formed an alliance, why not just force the gryphons to back off?" I ask her.

She shakes her head. "We all prefer to try and keep peaceful relations with the gryphons, dragons, and diamond dogs, but should they openly attack us, we will all rally against them," she replies.

"Then if you'll just gang up on them, why are they demanding you to send your people to be eaten then? Are they not afraid of such repercussions?"

"Not really, they're twice our size and weight and have a high resistance to our magic, they also have great strength and naturally sharp talons and beaks, it would take five ponies working together just take on one of them," she tells me.

"So what would you do should they decide to attack you directly? Has it happened before?" I ask her.

"They have attacked once before, we suffered heavy losses, but they also lost their King during their invasion. The pony who killed him sacrificed himself in order to do it," she says with a sad smile.

My stomach decides it wants feeding and lets out a loud rumble getting Celestia to softly laugh. "It would seem somepony is hungry," she teases.

"I tried getting something to eat from the kitchens, but they said only you and Luna can order outside of serving times, they suggested I go into the city to find a Café, but I don't think my money is good here," I tell her.

Her horn glows and a small pouch appears in front of her. "Take this and go treat yourself," she says and levitates it over to me.

I take the pouch and look inside, there's different sized gold coins in it with numbers on them. "Are you sure? I can give you the coins I have for them," I offer.

She hums in thought. "I'd like one of each type of coin you might have, I can add them to my collection of oddities, it's not every day you come across the currency of another world," she says. I chuckle and give her one gold, one silver and one copper coin.

She then picks up the silver coin and examines it. "Your coins have a lot more detail put onto them than ours," she says as she puts it down onto her desk.

My stomach rumbles again. "Well then, if you'll excuse me, I'll be off to get something to eat," I tell her.

She smiles at me. "Very well, please don't be gone for more then two hours at most, that's when dinner will be served," she replies.

"By the way, where's Luna?" I ask.

"She has gone to bed, she stayed up later than normal because of your arrival," she says.

I nodded to her. "Alright, I'll be back in an hour," I tell her and head to the Castle's entrance.

On my way out, I notice more and more of the guards in light blue armour around, and each one is glaring at me, I ignore them and head out into the city.

I notice a lot of the people avoiding me, I'm not sure if its my appearance or if it's because of my weapons and armour, perhaps I should have left them at the Castle...

After a good twenty minutes searching, I find a nice little café with tables outside, I walk in and a bell above the door rings.

"Hello! And welcome to the..." a powder blue unicorn woman with blonde hair trails off as she sees me.

I just smile as I walk over to the counter, I look at the food and drinks on a display board above her head. "Hello, may I get an earl grey tea with one of those sandwiches and a slice of that orange cake please?" I ask pointing to a sandwich with cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce.

She snaps out of her daze and makes the cup of tea then places the sandwich and cake on a plate. "T-That'll be fifteen bits please," she says. I pull out two gold coins, one with the number ten on it and the other with a five and hand them over to her. "Thank you, enjoy your meal," she tells me with a smile.

"Thank you," I reply and nodded slightly.

I head outside and sit at an unoccupied table and eat my sandwich and cake. I then pick up my cup of tea and start taking sips while relaxing. I finish off the last of the tea and leave the cup on the table. I start heading back to the Castle, but a scuffle to my right grabs my attention, It appears a dark brown furred man with wings is harassing a mint green unicorn in the back of an alley.

I walk over to see what's going on but the man suddenly hits the woman's left cheek. "AAHHH!" she screams and starts sobbing.

"Ahem!" I cough loudly and get his attention.

"Huh?" he mumbles and turns around, by the red tint on his nose and cheeks, it appears he's drunk. "An what doesh yoooou want huh!?" he says aggressively.

I just stare at him with a neutral expression. "Simple, I want you to leave the lady alone," I tell him.

He then scowls at me. "Oh yeah? And what you gonna do abo... *hic* 'bout it?" he says and pulls out a small pocket knife.

I draw my sword slowly, letting the sound of sliding metal ring out through the alley and glare at him. "I'll cut off your only means at having children," I say coldly as I channel a fire element through the blade giving it a fiery aura and lighting up the dark alley.

His eyes suddenly widen and he drops the knife, he quickly spreads his wings and flies away out of the alley. I watch him leave before I cancel the element and sheath my sword, I walk over and offer a hand to help the woman up. "It's alright now, he's gone," I tell her.

She stares at me with wide eyes, her left cheek looks red and it's swelling slightly. She takes my hand after some hesitation and I pull her up onto her feet. "Hold still," I tell her and point my stave's tip next to her cheek.

I channel a single Life Element through the stave and cast a small beam onto her cheek, she gasps as the swelling disappears and she rubs her cheek. "Feeling better?" I ask her.

She nodded and smiles. "Thank you for helping me," she says.

"It's no trouble at all," I say and hold my hand out again. "My name is Adrian Stormsword," I tell her.

"I'm Lyra Heartstrings," she replies and shakes my hand.

"Do you know who that was?" I ask her.

She sighs. "He's an old classmate of mine, he's had a crush on me since school and has asked me out many times since then, but I'm already in a relationship with somepony else and he still keeps trying," she tells me.

"Hmmmm, I suggest telling the guard and get a restraining order or something along those lines," I tell her.

"Maybe... again, thank you for your help," she says and she starts walking out of the alley. "Oh! Also, if you're ever in Ponyville, come say hi sometime!" she says and walks away.

I smile and start heading back to the Castle.

Next Chapter: Chapter 10: A Day Off Estimated time remaining: 20 Hours, 2 Minutes