---

---

I head to my sister's office quickly, my cheeks feel like they're burning and my heart is beating faster than normal, in my long life have I never felt like this before.

I arrive at Tia's office and I quickly open the door and enter, Tia looks up with a surprised expression. "Lulu? Is something the matter?" she asks with a concerned tone.

"We are not sure sister, we feel, strange. There's a feeling in our chest we have never felt before!" I tell her.

"A feeling? Can you describe it?" she asks me with a raised brow.

"Our chest feels tight like it's hard to breath, our heart beats as fast as a humming birds wings, and our cheeks feel like they art burning," I tell her.

Her other eyebrow raises slowly and a smile forms on her lips. "Oh, Luna, you're perfectly fine," she tells me sweetly.

"How art we fine sister! We have never felt this way before!" I say.

"Because my dear sister... you have a crush."

---

---

Shining Armour and I arrive at a fence with targets down a range.

"So what kind of spells do you have?" he asks me.

"Well from what I've been told, they're classed as illegal unless you're a guard," I reply.

"So you know combat spells?" he asks as I point my stave at the closest target.

"Yes, a lot of combat spells," I say and channel an arcane and lightning element at the tip of my stave.

"What's that?" he asks pointing at the orbiting orbs.

"My kind of magic, I can combine elements to create an effect. These are arcane and lightning elements," I reply and cast the spell, a small beam of Lightning impacts the target instantly, I hold it for five seconds and cancel it. The target is scorched slightly black.

Shining's eyes widen with a surprised expression, a wave of whispering amongst the guards can be heard nearby as they start to crowd around us.

Shining shakes his head. "That was rather impressive, what else can you do?" he asks intrigued.

I then cast a fire beam, water beam, cold beam, and an arcane beam. "These are beam spells, I have other types of spells as well," I tell him.

"So when you said elements earlier, you meant the actual elements?" he asks.

"Yes and no. The Elements are just different aspects for a spell, for instance," I reply and channel a shield and earth element into my stave. I cast the stone armour spell and stone from under the ground covers me, it's twice as thick now than when I cast it without my stave.

More hushed whispers spread throughout the gathered guards. "This spell uses a shield and earth element. The shield element dictates that the spell will be a defensive type spell. The earth element gives the spell a physical attribute, I can then cast it in one of four ways, on my self, which is what I just did, in front of me creating a wall of stone, in an area as a wall all around me or through a weapon." I explain to him.

"Fascinating," he says making me chuckle. "What's so funny?" he asks with a raised brow.

"Sorry, you remind me of Twilight when you said that," I reply.

"Twilight? As in Twilight Sparkle?" he asks with his right brow raised.

"Yes, do you know her?" I reply and ask.

"Yeah, she's my little sister," he replies with a chuckle. "How do you know her?" he asks.

"I was injured by a manticore when I first arrived here earlier this morning, I stumbled into Ponyville and passed out from the poison. Woke up in a hospital where I... knocked a few guards out in self defence," I tell him with a chuckle.

"So you're the one I got a report about in Ponyville," he says with a slight frown.

"Yeah, but I'm not sorry about it, they attacked me and I defended myself. Anyway, Twilight showed up and stopped the first fight," I tell him.

"First fight? You mean to tell me you got into another fight with the guard?" he asks unamused.

"Yeah, I went with Twilight to at least get my clothes back from the Barracks and then went to her Library. She was interested in my kind of magic so I showed her some, just like I did for you, seems like someone reported it to the guards. I healed Rainbow Dash's wing after she crashed through the Library's window a few minutes later. I took a nap, then the guards burst through the door demanding my arrest for illegal spell casting after some time reading," I say and sigh. "I then jumped through the shattered window where I was then surrounded, I froze their legs to the floor where Twilight broke it up again. After that, the Princesses arrived and questioned me, now, here I am," I finish.

"I see, well at least you're here now where we can keep an eye on you, no offence, but with your kind of magic, you could be quite a threat," he tells me.

"None taken, I just hope to prove I'm friendly while I'm here. I still don't know what kind of spell brought me to this world," I tell him.

"Wait, world? You're from another world?" he asks shocked.

"That's what Twilight believes, and I have to agree with her. She's never heard of my country before as well as I've never heard of Equestria before," I reply.

"So you're stuck here?"

"As far as I know, yes," I say with a sigh.

Shining pats me on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it, you're alive and safe, that's what matters for now right?.. Or did you leave somepony behind?" he asks.

"No, I was alone, I was heading to the City to learn more magic when I was sent here," I reply.

"Ah, well, I hope you enjoy your stay here, and as to you using the facilities, you can use them as much as you want. If there is no way to send you back, I suggest joining the guard, you'd make an excellent addition," he tells me before looking around. "What are you all staring at? GET BACK TO TRAINING!" he yells out at the other guards who scramble back to their areas.

"You also said you wanted to practice your swordsponyship?" he asks me.

"Yes, I'm a battle-mage, I fight with both blade and spell," I reply.

"Care to have a friendly match with me?" he asks pointing over to a circular ring on the ground.

"Sure, sounds fun," I reply and walk over to the weapon rack with wooden swords, spears, maces and shields. I place my sword and stave next to the rack and pick up a wooden longsword an inch shorter than mine, Shining also picks the same kind of sword.

"Here's the rules; first to hit the other three times with solid blows wins, glancing blows don't count, no aiming for the head or below the belt and no magic, agreed?" he says and I nodded in reply. "Okay, en garde!" he says and takes a swing at my left arm. I parry the strike and thrust at his chest, he sidesteps the thrust and flicks his wrist, swinging at my extended right arm, I duck and bring my arm down.

His swing goes over my arm and I swipe at his left shin, he yelps and hops on the spot with his right leg while rubbing his left shin, some of the other guards watching chuckle at Shining. "Ow, not bad, not bad. Time to step it up a bit," he says with a chuckle. Wait... he was just playing with me before?

He swaps his longsword for a wooden rapier and changes his stance, he holds his sword, pointing it at me with his right arm as his left is behind his waist.

I frown and hold my sword in front of me, I don't recognise that stance. He quickly thrusts repeatedly and I parry as best as I can, on his sixth thrust, he hits my right thigh. "AH BUGGER!" I yell out and start rubbing my leg, he chuckles and gets back into his stance, I can hear more chuckling from the guards.

I hold my sword to the right and get ready, I act first this time and swing for his stomach, he steps back, just avoiding the tip of the blade. He then thrusts at my right shoulder and I lean away and rotate my body around, I swing for his left hip and barely hit him with the tip, a glancing blow.

He chuckles. "Glancing blows don't count, you need to hit me with a solid blow," he tells me. I get back onto my feet and we resume.

He swipes at my upper left arm which I block with my sword, I try swinging at his right forearm, but he pulls his arm back into a vertical stance with his sword pointing up, I thrust at him and he again steps aside with grace and thrusts back, he hits me in the gap of my chest plate under my left armpit.

"GAH!" I yelp. Damn that stings!

"Two to one, pick up the pace, Mr Stormsword," he taunts me.

I frown with a smirk, he's good. I get ready again and was about to strike when a voice calls out. "Mr Stormsword! The Princesses have requested your presence for lunch!" a guard tells me.

As I turn to him, Shining thrusts his sword right onto my tail bone. "OW! MOTHER FUCKER!" I yell and drop my sword as I rub the bruised area, a few of the guards laugh at my misfortune.

"You shouldn't let yourself get distracted," Shining says to me.

I glare at him but chuckle all the same, I place the wooden sword back on the rack and retrieve my weapons. "Yeah, yeah. I expect a rematch later!" I tell him as I walk over to the guard.

"Sure, but it'll just end up the same either way," he replies with a chuckle.

Shining puts his sword back, gives me a handshake, says farewell and heads into the Barracks. The guard leads me to a large Dining Hall where both Celestia and Luna are sitting, drinking tea and chatting with each other.

They then spot me entering. "Hello, Adrian. We were getting worried when you weren't in your room," Celestia greets me.

"Oh, sorry about that, I went down to the Training Grounds for some practice," I tell them.

"They let thee on the grounds?" Luna asks, her cheeks are again tinted a darker shade.

"Well, one of the guards tried to shoo me away, but someone by the name of Shining Armour let me stay and has granted me permission to use it when I want," I reply and sit to Celestia's left and across from Luna.

"Oh? He must have taken a liking to you then, it's rare he lets anypony not a guard use the Training Grounds," Celestia tells me.

"Huh, well he even suggested I join the guard," I tell her as waiters walk in with platters of food.

The silver trays are covered with fruits, vegetables, eggs, cheeses and breads. Some bowls of sauces are placed down and pitchers of water as well. A plate is placed in front of me, Celestia, and Luna, another plate is also placed next to Luna.

"Who's that plate for?" I ask.

Before they could answer, the halls doors open up.

A guard next to the door starts shouting. "Announcing his royal highness, Prince Blueblood!"

Next Chapter: Chapter 7: A Royal Pain Estimated time remaining: 20 Hours, 24 Minutes