The light died down and I felt a little light-headed once we arrived in a strange building. Celestia placed a hand on my shoulder to try and help me regain my balance. “Art thou okay, Vash?”

I turned to her with a bit of a goofy smile on my face. “I’m perfectly fine, but why didn’t you tell me that you were triplets?”

Celestia and Luna just rolled their eyes at that. “Thou art always ready with a joke of some kind it seems.” Luna stated while seeming unimpressed.

“Heh, I like to think that it helps keep things interesting.”

“Thou art hopeless, aren’t thee Vash?” Celestia asked with a chuckle.

“Ahh, but if my silly little jokes and antics can make you laugh, then it’s all worthwhile,” I replied with a grin.

“Thou certainly hast a strange way of seeing things,” Luna said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Though it is oddly refreshing,” Celestia continued.

“My princesses, I am glad to see that thou art safe.”

I turned to the source of this voice and had to fight back my laughter. Alright, let me paint a picture for you. Imagine a wizard. Now imagine a wizard through the lens of a Saturday morning show meant for toddlers. That would still be less ridiculous than the outfit this guy was wearing. It was a big, blue hat and cape that had stars and moons on it, and bells. The hat and cape had enough bells on them to sound like a few dozen Santa’s sleighs. Other than that he appeared to be a unicorn with gray fur and a very long, white beard and yellow eyes.

“Starswirl tis good to see thee old friend,” Celestia called out as she walked over to the older stallion.

He gave her a parental smile before turning to me. “And who is this strange creature?”

“This is Vash, he saved us from Discord,” Luna answered.

“Is that true?” someone asked in a small voice as two more ponies walked into the room. One was a young mare (thank you Celestia and Luna for the explanation on terminology) who had greenish gray fur, a grass green mane and tail, and amethyst colored eyes. The other was a brown stallion with a black mane and brown eyes. I couldn’t tell much about the mare’s figure because she was wearing a robe that hid quite a bit, but if I had to guess, I’d say she had a very thin and trim sort of body. The stallion on the other hand I could instantly tell that he was buff, and if the marks on his hands were anything to go by then I’d say that he did some pretty hard work with them. Actually, I get similar marks on my hands when I do my metalworking. Still, the mare’s question was the perfect opportunity for me to take action.

“That is correct,” I told her as I slid onto one knee in front of her and enveloped one of her hands with both of mine. “I am a hunter of peace and I search for the elusive mayfly of love,” I proclaimed with as much dramatic weight as a high school production of a Shakespeare play. “I am a man that is always willing to risk his life for the sake of beautiful maidens. Maidens such as yourself,” I finished with a wink.

My actions caused a scarlet blush to form over her entire face and she started to stammer in a pretty adorable way. “Umm, I-I,” she got out before I was enveloped in a strange, blue light. I was then lifted off of the ground and I reacted by making swimming motions in the air in a vain attempt of escaping. I was then brought to hover in front of an irritated looking Luna.

“Vash, dost thou know how to behave thyself, or dost thou need us to teach you?” She asked as an oppressive air started to surround her.

‘Oh man, I could totally make a joke here about that sounding kinky. But I like my internal organs staying internal, so I think I’ll just keep my mouth shut for now.’

“I’m sorry, I’ll be a good little boy from now on,” I answered adopting a pathetic face and posture.

Luna rolled her eyes as she let her magical hold on me go causing me to fall onto the floor right on my face. “We doubt that thou art telling the truth but shall hold thee to it for now.”

“It seems thou art quite the lech,” Celestia said with a disapproving look.

I peeled my head from the floor and gave her my best smile. “I disapprove of such words to describe me. I prefer to say that I appreciate the beautiful ladies of the world in an enthusiastic way.”

“That doesn’t sound very different to me,” Luna replied with a frown.

“Well, lech has this negative connotation and some certain implications that do not fit me at all. I may be many things, but at the end of the day I truly do respect mares and would never act in a way that goes against their wishes.” I explained seriously.

My sudden change of attitude seemed to take everyone else by surprise because there was a silence that seemed to hang in the air for a while. Starswirl was the first to recover though and turned his attention towards Celestia and Luna. “My princesses, perhaps it is best if thee bathe and allow us to dress thine wounds. We should not let those fester.”

“Thou dost have a point,” Celestia said as she smiled at the older stallion. “Plus it shall be nice to get out of this broken armor.”

“Do not worry milady, I shall have new armor prepared for thee as quickly as I can,” The muscular stallion declared with a slight bow.

“We do not doubt that for a moment, Hammerfall,” Luna said with the first smile I had seen from her. “Thou art the greatest blacksmith we have ever known.”

“Thou does me too much honor milady.” With that the two princesses turned and walked out of the room. I was tempted to offer to wash their backs for them (as a joke of course) but I figured that I should stay quiet to avoid ruining any of the potential goodwill I had just earned. Once the princesses were out of earshot all three of the other ponies turned to me. The two stallions wore glares on their face while the mare still seemed to be nervous.

“Umm, hello I still don’t know all of your names so maybe we should introduce ourselves. I’m Vash.”

“I’m Starswirl the Bearded. I have been the princesses’ advisor and teacher for quite some time,” The unicorn wizard said.

“I am Hammerfall, I am a blacksmith,” the muscular stallion continued with his arms crossed over his chest, possibly in an attempt to intimidate me with his bulk.

“A-and I am Clover. I am Starswirl’s apprentice.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet the three of you,” I said with a grin.

“What art thine intentions with the two princesses?” Starswirl asked me suddenly.

“What do you mean?”

“We hath seen the way you behave around mares, dost thou plan on using the princesses for some cheap thrill? Or worse, for their power?” Hammerfall demanded as he got into my face. I kept my head and let out a sigh as I tried to think of something to say.

“I suppose that I’ve earned some skepticism. I mean, your two beloved princesses suddenly bring a creature with them that you’ve never seen before and he acts in a strange way. But please trust me when I say that I bear no ill will or nefarious intentions towards those two. In fact, for as long as I am in this world I promise that I will help you all defend Equestria. As I have said before I believe in peace and I will help you defend just that.”

“Hmm, well I hath practically raised those two mares, and I will not see any harm come to them.” I tensed as he said that and started to subtly look for an exit, thankful for my glasses hiding that. “But, they art my princesses and if they trust thee then I shall trust their decision.” I let out a large breath and slumped over in relief when he said that.

“Thank you for that, I will do my best to earn all of your trust.” I replied with a massive grin. “In fact, I might be able to help do that right now. Hammerfall, could you show me your forge?”

Everyone quirked an eyebrow at that, but they did as I asked and showed me to the forge. I placed a hand on my chin and looked over the forge for a few minutes. “Hmm, this is a pretty good setup here, but it could be better.”

“What dost thou know about forges?”

“I actually do a bit of metalworking myself so this is something I know about.”

I then explained a few changes that could be made to help heat circulation and increase the quality of the stuff forged in there. It took some time to convince Hammerfall of the changes, but in the end we had started with them when Celestia and Luna came back into the room. I turned away from the work to greet them and nearly had my breath taken away.

Now, I wasn’t into the anthropomorphic animal scene back on Earth, but something about Celestia and Luna was different. Maybe it was because I was seeing something real in front of me as opposed to something on a screen. They were both in simple dresses that hid a majority of their wounds and for the first time allowed me to gauge their figure since their bulky armor was gone. Celestia was the curvier of the two with a large chest, wide hips, and what seemed to be quite the bootylicious posterior. Luna certainly wasn’t a slouch in those areas either, but her figure just seemed trimmer and more toned. And both of them would make any model back on Earth seethe with jealously. Another thing that took me by surprise were their manes. They were both moving as if there was a breeze in the room. Luna just seemed to let hers billow off one side of her head while Celestia kept one of her magenta colored eyes covered with hers. I then turned back to the forge with tears streaming down my eyes.

“Vash, is something wrong?” Hammerfall asked me.

“Nothing, just realizing how lucky I was to have found two benevolent princesses like Celestia and Luna. Hammerfall turned his head slightly and noticed what I had just looked at and started to glare at me. “What? Don’t you think they’re attractive?” Hammerfall flinched at that and returned to his work with slightly darkened cheeks.

“Vash what art thou doing?” Celestia asked.

“I’m helping Hammerfall here with his work so we can make you even better armor,” I replied with a grin. “By the way, I’m glad to see that you two are looking much better.”

“Thank thee Vash, we feel much better. By the way, Starswirl has some things he wishes to discuss with all of us. Now, please come along. Thou can finish thine work later.

Celestia and Luna then led Hammerfall and I to a study of their little hideout and had us crowd around Starswirl as he was looking over a map. “It is good to see all of you. Clover and I hath been working on something for quite some time now. It seems that there is a large source of Harmony magic is radiating from this forest,” he explained as he pointed at a spot on the map. “We hath reason to believe that if we can harness this source of magic then we could be able to finally defeat Discord.”

“And what is the source of this magic?” Luna asked.

“We do not know for sure, but this may be the best hope we have.”

“Well then, let’s get going,” I said as I turned to walk out the door.

“Agreed, the sooner we can defeat Discord, the sooner my citizens can live in peace,” Celestia declared with determination in her eyes. Celestia, Luna and the others walked over to my side as we were swept up in the flash of white light signifying the teleportation spell that had brought me to that room earlier.

When the light died down we appeared in front of a very familiar looking forest. I looked it over and slumped over when I scanned the area a bit and realized that it was in fact the same forest. Starswirl then took to the front of the group and looked over his shoulder at the rest of us. “Come now, the source of the magic is not too far.”

We all nodded and set off into the forest. I had my hand on my gun the entire time. The first time I was in the place I was taken by surprise by a monster and I wasn’t going to let the same thing happen twice. I wasn’t going to actually kill anything, but the noise and smoke from the gun would probably be enough to scare a lot of the things that could come after us. Fortunately, we were able to make it to some cave that Starswirl told us was the source of the magic.

We all walked into the cave and I felt my jaw drop when I saw what Starswirl told us was the source of the Harmony magic. It was a giant, crystalline, shining tree. I couldn’t feel the magic coming off of it like Starswirl or the princesses could, but one look could tell me everything I needed to know. This thing held power. It wasn’t an oppressive kind of power, it was more like a stream. It was a gentle yet constant force. Being in front of it was akin to a religious or spiritual experience. Looking at it closer showed me that there were three symbols on the trunk. One was a sun, another a moon and the final symbol was a strange star.

“Tis beautiful,” Luna said as she approached the tree.

“We agree, tis very beautiful,” Celestia agreed as she looked at the branches and lit up her horn with a golden aura that spread to the branches of the tree. “And if thine words are anything to go by Starswirl, then these should prove most helpful.”

“W-wait, should we really take those?” Clover asked as she stepped forward. “What if taking those hurts or worse, kills the tree?”

“That’s a good point,” I said. “I say for now we use these but what if Celestia and Luna build their castle close by here in order to protect and keep an eye on this tree?” I suggested as I looked over the group.

“That plan makes much sense,” Luna said with a nod. “We think we will do just that, sister?”

“Yes, we like this plan as well,” Celestia answered with a smile as she brought the multicolored jewels into her hands. When she did a sudden look of shock appeared on her face. “Oh my, Luna come over her and tell us if thee feels something. Luna walked over to her sister and took the pink jewel from her sister causing her own eyes to widen.

“Thou art right, sister. We feel… warmth and kindness emanating from this jewel.”

“The same rings true for the others,” Celestia explained. “Each of them gives us a different feeling. Perhaps these are the very essence of harmony?” She wondered aloud.

“That seems as good of a hypothesis as anything. Perhaps we should call them the Elements of Harmony.” Starswirl suggested.

“We like it, tis a fitting name for these. Now, let us go and take on Discord with these.”

“But milady, I am not finished with thine armor,” Hammerfall said.

“We appreciate the sentiment, but our armor did not last long against Discord in our last battle. We would hate to see thine work ruined so quickly once more. Besides we have a feeling that this will be our last battle with Discord, in one way or another.”

“Well then let’s get going Celestia and Luna! We’ve got a spirit of chaos to defeat!” I cheered before the weight of Celestia’s words could sink in.

“What art thou talking about, Vash?” Luna asked as she tilted her head.

“Remember what I said Luna, this isn’t over until we draw our last breath. I’m coming with you. I don’t know if I’ll be of any help, but I’m going to try.”

This actually caused both of the princesses to smile at me. “Very well, Vash. Thou shall come with us,” Luna said.