I wake up feeling really sticky, I look down and remember what happened last night. Luna is smiling while clinging onto me.

I lay back down and just wait for her to wake up. About half an hour later she yawns and opens her eyes. "Sleep well?" I ask her.

She hums in content. "Very, we feel like a new mare." She sits up and stretches, her chest is exposed as the blanket falls off. She then looks down and sees all the stains. "We think we should go and wash ourselves. There is a river not too far from here we can use," she says standing up.

I join her and we get dressed in our old clothes, no point in dirtying clean ones, I collect a fresh clean set of clothes and follow her out with my sword and stave.

"We thank thee for last night, and apologise if it was sudden. We did not expect our cycle to be so early," she tells me.

"It's alight, I won't lie and say I didn't enjoy it," I reply. She giggles and we keep walking. After five minutes, I hear the sounds of a flowing river.

We arrive and Luna strips down, I also undress and join her in the river. It's not a fast flowing river, but it's flowing at a nice gentle speed.

We laugh and giggle as we scrub each other clean in a teasing manner. After a good ten minutes, we step out and Luna uses her magic to dry us off. We then get dressed in clean clothes and head back to the cave.

Luna opens that bag she brought with her and pulls out a few fruits, bread, butter, a bottle of water, and some tea leaves. I get a couple of tin plates and cups from my pack and hand her one each. We fill our plates with apple, orange, and pear slices, and two pieces of buttered bread. I then boil the water in my pot over a small campfire, once boiled Luna makes us a delicious green tea.

"So what are we doing today?" I ask her and take a bite of my buttered bread.

"We shall try and look for a manticore, we wish to see how thou will do now compared to the one thou fought in Ponyville," she tells me.

"Well, compared to a dragon, this sounds much easier. At least I don't have to go down it's throat to kill it this time," I reply getting a small laugh from her.

We finish our breakfast and put on our armour and weapons, we then head out and begin searching. Luna seems to be following some kind of footprint. "Ah, here we go, manticore tracks," she says and we follow them quietly. Though she has a smile of her face, I think she's having fun with this.

We arrive after two hours of tracking and see a manticore standing outside of a small cave, dropping a carcass of some kind of lizard with a chicken's head inside. It then looks around and spots us. "Alright, Adrian, show us what thou canst do," Luna tells me.

I draw my sword and slowly approach it. The manticore quickly looks at the cave, gives a low growl and then looks back at me. I channel an earth element with two ice elements pulling a fist sized rock off the ground, the floating rock also has four inch long icicles sticking out of it, I release the spell and the manticore jumps to the left. One of the icicles catches its front leg making it roll across the ground.

The manticore gets up and looks at its leg, an icicle broke off and is now embedded in it. It growls at me and flaps it's wings, making it leap at me very quickly. Luna's training kicks in and I teleport behind it, I then channel three lightning elements and spray it at the manticore.

It roars in rage and pain as it spasms from the electricity coursing through it, It quickly shakes it off and pounces at me again. I charge up my mana with no elements and release a large gust of air, lifting the manticore over me and face first into the side of the cave's entrance.

I then spray it with three cold elements to slow its movement, It slowly gets up and I charge up three earth elements, ready to cave its skull in. Just as I'm about to fire, three little manticores look out from inside the cave, frightened and whimpering. I look back at the manticore and flashes of my parents getting killed in front of me make me drop the rock and stumble back.

"Adrian? What art thou doing?" Luna asks me as she walks over.

I frown sadly and turn to her. "I can't do it," I tell her. "It reminds me just how my parents were killed," I say looking back at the young manticores who are now whining next to their injured parent. "Killed in front of me where I was powerless to stop it." The parent has its tail wrapped around it's offspring and glaring at me.

I point my stave at the manticore and cast a healing beam at it, It yelps in surprise but relaxes as the icicle in it's leg gets pushed out and the wound closes, I slowly back away and pull Luna by her arm with me. The manticore keeps watching us as we walk away, once we're a safe distance away, I look back and see it licking it's children affectionately.

"Are thou alright?" Luna asks me.

"I'm fine, but I won't do to others what happened to me, even to wild beasts," I tell her and sit on a fallen tree trunk.

Luna sits beside me and wraps a wing over my shoulders. "Tis okay, we understand. But if it makes thou feel any better. Thou did much better against a manticore this time," she tells me.

I smile and wrap my right arm around her waist. "Thanks," I reply.

We get up and head back to the cave where we do some exercises, sit ups and the like. After two hours pass, we have lunch and get ready for the rest of my training.

---

---

During the last week, I've been fighting all sorts of beasts and monsters in the Everfree Forest. I've fought another manticore, but this one was alone this time, and had darker fur than the first one I fought. I've also fought two packs of timberwolves and something called a cockatrice. Luna warned me not to look it in the eyes, but the fight ended in seconds as I blasted it with an fire beam, roasting it in seconds.

Tasted just like chicken though.

I asked her why she wasn't as squeamish as the others about killing and hunting. She told me that long before she was banished, she and her father used to go hunting all the time. Mostly to get rid of dangerous beasts and monsters from attacking their subjects, and thus developed a liking to hunting. She made it clear it was not for food or sport, but protecting innocent ponies who couldn't protect themselves when they attacked.

She told me over the last one-thousand years of so called peace, the guard have gotten lax in their training. That's why she decided to train me herself and not with the current guards training program.

I tried asking about her parents, but she told me she didn't want to talk about it, so I didn't bring it up again.

Luna has also been sending updates to Celestia via letters about what has been going on.

We've also met a zebra named Zecora who lives nearby in the Forest, though her fondness for rhyming everything she says confused me now and then. She let us in her hut for tea and some company, she's a very nice woman despite how she talks.

Luna told me something called Nightmare Night was approaching in a few weeks. A night where children offer some candy to a statue of Nightmare Moon to appease her from eating them instead. Luna didn't look too happy that that's how she was seen over the millennia she was away. I told her I would stay with her if she would go to it or not, that earned me a smile and a kiss.

I've been thinking about what Luna said about courting Celestia, and that she also has feelings for me. I'm still uncertain about having a relationship with more than one woman, but Celestia is a kind and caring person. She gave me a place to stay and free meals. Heck, I even work for her now, earning a nice amount of bits as her's and Luna's knight. I'll wait until we start to head back before I decide anything.

---

I wake up and yawn while stretching my arms. Luna grumbles as she's splayed out on the mat. Her right leg is over my legs, her left arm is over her head while her right is wrapped around me. Ever since our intimate moment, she's been more of a cuddle bug than she used to be.

Not that I'm complaining.

I lightly shake her awake and she grumbles. "Five more minutes, sister... five more... minutes," she falls back to sleep and I chuckle. She then wraps me with both her arms and legs and sighs. What am I now? A hugging pillow? Again... not complaining.

I lightly kiss her forehead and her eyes slowly open. She yawns and smiles at me. "Good morning, Adrian," she says and stretches like a cat.

"So what's on the agenda today?" I ask her.

"Today we shall make our way to our old Castle. Last time we were there, we were freed from our corruption... we would like to see what has become of our old home," she tells me.

We get dressed and have breakfast. Our supplies are down to half, but there's plenty left to last us another week, although I've been getting a nice supply of meat and fish from the Forest. Once finished, we equip our gear and head into the Everfree Forest. Most of the Creatures have been avoiding us now due to our hunting.

We arrive at an old rope bridge going across a deep chasm, Luna flies over while I slowly make my way across. A couple of the boards break away giving me heart attacks, but I get across safely.

We walk over to a decrepit looking Castle ruin. Chunks of the walls and ceiling are missing and the windows are shattered, plant life has covered a lot of the wall from moss to vines, Luna looks upset at the state of the Castle. We carefully enter and look around, it's definitely smaller than Canterlot's Castle. We walk into the Throne Room where Luna says this is where she was freed. I can see scorch marks on the floor near the back window.

She then leads me through the Castle. The Library looks mostly cleared out, a few books lay scattered and in very bad condition. She walks over to one of the bookshelves and presses a hidden button which makes a small compartment pop open. She pulls an old looking book out from the hidden compartment.

"What's that?" I ask.

"Tis our diary from before our... incident. We hid it here since our sister kept reading it in our room," she says. Her horn glows and it disappears.

She then leads me to the armoury, everything that was left is all rusted or mouldy. I pick up a sword off the floor, only for the blade to just drop off. I place the hilt on a table and look around some more. I notice a faint red glow coming from under a pile of rubble in the back corner. I spend the next three minutes lifting and throwing the rubble out of the way.

Underneath is a shield with similar colours to my armour with the Princesses marks on it. In the top middle inside of the shield is a large ruby, but its cracked all the way through. I pick up the shield and the ruby falls out in pieces, the glow fades away with it.

"Luna, what's this?" I ask her.

She turns her attention from the old gem rod she's hold to the shield. "Where did thou find that?" she asks surprised.

"Under the rubble here," I tell her.

She walks over and examines it. "This is the shield that goes with thy armour. Where is the ruby that was inlaid to it?" she asks me.

I just look down and she follows my gaze. "Oh," she says with a frown.

"Could that amethyst in my pack fit into this?" I ask.

"Mayhap, once it is cut to the correct shape, but we thought thou wanted to use the gem for a staff?" she asks.

"Well, the inside of this shield looks like it was wood, it'll need replacing, but I thought the rose wood could be used to repair this shield. The gem would still act as a focal point, though how much it will amplify my spells will have to be seen. Besides, I've seen mages use shields before. Could work with this as well," I reply.

"If thou art sure. Now then, let us head to the next area of the Castle," she tells me and I hook the shield onto my back.

We head down some unsafe looking stairs into what looks like a basement. A few pieces of ruined furniture litter the floor and a large rusted metal door lies at the end.

"This is the artefact vault, it looks like it has not been opened since our banishment," she says and places her right hand on the door. Her horn glows and the door screeches as it unlocks and it slowly opens, we cover our ears and grit our teeth at the painful noise.

Once opened enough for us to enter, it stops, much to our relief. We step inside and Luna looks confused. "Over half of the artefacts are missing, and the rest seem powerless now," she says.

I pick up a dusty hand mirror from one of the tables and wipe it clean, it has silver embroidery at the base of the mirror. 'I wonder what Celestia is up to right now, she's probably bored out her mind.' I think to myself. I feel my mana being drained as it's surface ripples. I go wide eyed as I can see Celestia on her throne from above, talking to the Nobles and other people seeking help. "Errr, Luna... what's this?" I ask.

She walks over and gasps. "How art thou activating it? We never figured out what this mirror did," she says looking over my shoulder.

I notice Celestia looking around as if she heard something. "Hmmm, hey, Celestia!" I shout to her. Celestia gasps and looks up, her eyes widen as she looks at me. "I wonder if I can make it get closer to her," I think out aloud. As if hearing me, the mirror seems to respond and moves in front of her.

"Adrian?.. How are you doing this?" Celestia asks, she seems to look behind me and gasps. "You're in our old Castle's Vault?" she asks me in surprise.

"Greetings, sister. Yes, we are in the old Vaults, we wish to discuss some important matters with thou when we return," Luna tells her.

I can hear quiet whispering in the Throne Room. I make the mirror turn around and see a line of people just staring back. "Oh, right," I say and turn it back to Celestia. "We'll leave you to your business then, see you later, Celestia," I say and put the mirror back on the table.

"That was very interesting," Luna says and picks it up, but nothing happens. "How did thou get it working?" she asks me.

"I just picked it up, wondered what Celestia was doing, and felt my mana being drained into it," I tell her.

Her horn glows and it sticks to the back of her waist. "Then we shall take it back with us so we can have it looked at," she replies. The rest of the artefacts did nothing and were just useless objects now, whatever magic they once contained must have faded away over the years.

For the next three hours we explore the rest of the Castle. Luna checked her old room to find it bare and empty, the Dining Hall was completely overgrown with vines and moss, and the Servants Quarters was totally destroyed and inaccessible.

We leave the Castle where Luna takes one last look at it. "Let us return to camp, we believe we could have some lunch," she tells me.

My stomach rumbles in agreement, making her laugh. We start to head back when four loud roars makes me look behind us, a giant four headed long necked lizard stares at us with hungry eyes from over the treetops.

"Luna... what is that?" I ask.

"A hydra," she replies wide eyed.

"And how do we kill it," I ask again.

"We don't, RUN!" she says as the hydra charges at us.

Next Chapter: Chapter 20: Fuck the Nobility Estimated time remaining: 18 Hours, 2 Minutes