Twilight sighed as yet another day passed without any sign of the monster that she had unleashed upon the world. After Celestia had left she had posted several elite guards around her library in case the creature returned. One of these Elite guards unfortunately had been pestered by a certain prismatic pegasus. A captain Spitfire of the wonderbolts had been assigned as Twilight’s personal body guard until the creature was either captured or killed.

Over the past two weeks they had combed much of the everfree on their side of the border, but unfortunately they had no luck. At this point the creature had either found an extremely well hidden spot to lay low, or had crossed the border into minotaur territory, and they weren’t about to risk war over some escaped accident.

“Hey Twilight, are you doing ok?” Spike asked his sister.

“I’m as fine as I can be. What have I done Spike? That thing could be anywhere by now, and Celestia only knows what it is capable of.” She said as she stared out her window.

“Don’t worry Twilight, I’m sure whatever and wherever it is, it couldn’t do that much harm. After all if a few guards could take it down then I’m sure the royal guard could handle it no problem.” Spike tried to ease her mind.

“But what if that wasn’t it? What if it was simply holding back? For all we know it has the destructive capability of an alicorn!” Twilight said.

“Twilight, if it was that strong don’t you think it would have been able to fight off a few guards?” Spike deadpanned

“Well we have no idea what it could do. Who knows what kind havoc it could cause.” Twilight argued.

“You needn’t worry lady sparkle. If it dares to show it’s ugly mug again I’ll be more than enough to take it down.” Spitfire said from the corner of the room.

“Thanks captain.” Twilight said gratefully.

“No need to thank me ma’am.” Spitfire saluted.

“You know you don’t have to salute me right?” Twilight said exasperated.

“Sorry, I’m just a bit nervous to be guarding a the future head of house Twilight.” she chuckled sheepishly. In truth, Spitfire was absolutely terrified. Not only was Twilight sparkle next in line to be the matriarch of house Twilight, but she was Princess Celestia’s personal student! Not to mention the strongest and smartest unicorn since Starswirl The Bearded! Not surprising considering she could trace her lineage back to Starswirl.

“You don’t have to worry, I’m not bonkers like the rest of my family.” Twilight Reassured the nervous wonderbolt.

“Thanks, and I never thought anything like that about your family.” Spitfire said slightly panicked.

“You don’t need to, everypony knows that there is only a grand total of five sane members of house Twilight. Twilight, her brother, her father, and…. Ok make that three.” spike said as he couldn’t think of another that wasn’t totally bonkers. He used to think that Twilight’s mother was sane, until he saw her vacuuming a tree…

“Spike! That isn’t polite!” Twilight said offended.

“Oh come on, you know it’s true.” Spike said. Twilight tried to argue, but couldn’t as she thought of the time her mother painted a neighbor pink for buying an orange she was going to buy.

“Hey spitfire, I think Spike might need some alone time with Sweetie Belle.” Twilight smirked plotting her revenge and making Spike go wide eyed before running down stairs.

“He can run, but he can’t hide.” Spitfire chuckled.

Nick jumped from rock to rock up the mountain he was currently scaling. He had finally made it out of that god forsaken forest a few days ago only to find himself in some highlands. Thankfully he didn't need to worry about food or water as he could easily survive of the stone indefinitely.

He jumped onto the top of the mountain as was greeted with an amazing sight. For hundreds of miles as far as the eye could see there were highlands with a few villages dotting the area. There were three structures that drew his attention though. Off in the distance was a massive city with high walls.

To the right in the side of a mountain were a set of grand gates with a wide stone road stretching and meeting another one that led to the big city in the distance. Finally the smallest of the three was a city that had an arena in the side of it. He wondered where exactly he was. He certainly wasn’t on earth anymore.

He wished he had studied martial arts. With his learning capabilities it would only take maybe a few months to master any martial art, maybe a year at most. If he had, or at the very least if he hadn’t of panicked he might have been able to fend off those creatures from before. For whatever reason his magic had been on the fritz lately. He still had access to the abilities the philosopher's stone granted, but he could barely convert any of the stones energy into magic

It was like he was missing something, but what?! He had never needed anything but his own will power, the stone, and the spell formula before. There were several magic foci he had learned of from the books he got from Bill, but he had never actually needed them before, but now he might just need one as some sort of mark on the back of his right hand had been keeping him from making any magic.

He had no idea what the mark was, but whatever it was he could not get rid of it. Everytime he tried severing the arm and replacing it, the mark would appear elsewhere and move back to his hand when he regrew it. He was running low on magic to, he normally kept a reserve in case he needed it, but now it was running dangerously low.

At this point he could barely cast attribute magnifiers to aid with his reflexes, speed, intelligence and strength. He was down to philosopher's stone abilities and a few basic spells at this point. Without a magic focuser he would be wasting much more magic than he could spare at the moment.

Fortunately whatever the mark was didn’t prevent him from using his stone abilities. He optimized his body as best he could with the stone. He had made his bones dense and put in a heavy weave of carbon fibers.

He tripled his muscle mass and gave himself a heavy muscle weave and density. He did the same with his skin, but in key areas he grew thick armored plates from Ironclad beetle DNA. He completely covered his feet with the thick chitian, he couldn’t really feel much with them now, but they were now essentially armored boots.

The armored parts of his body would be more than able to take anything that was sent their way, unless it was a heated industrial drill of course. But given that these creatures were attacking him with spears, he highly doubted they had that level of technology yet.

These changes helped him tremendously, but at the cost of being too heavy to fly or swim. If He had to get past a body of water he would have to walk slowly at the bottom, thankfully the fish DNA he possessed allowed him to breath under water. He replaced his fingers with sharp claws made from the same chitian as his armor, this allowed him to scale mountainsides easier. He looked down at the city below. He couldn’t stay away from civilization forever, well he could, but he didn’t want to.

He opened up holes in the armor on his back and grew a set of extra large wings. He couldn’t fly, but he could glide! Once the wings were at a good enough size he tilted off the size of the cliff and glided towards the left for the smaller city with the Arena. He glided at a shallow angle to keep from building up to much speed, but unfortunately this prevented him from landing right away.

He circled the city from a high altitude for several minutes until several creatures flew up along side him. They had sharp beaks, large eagle like wings, and their hands looked like a bird's feet. One of the group presumably the leader flew close to him and spoke.

“What are you doing here creature? This is forbidden airspace. You need to land now.” he said sternly.

“Umm, sorry i didn’t know. And I can’t, I can only glide, I’ve been going lower so I could land, but it’s going to take a while!” Nick responded.

“Well I’m going to have to ask you to leave this air space, we can escort you out if you would like.” The creature said.

“Alright lead the way.” Nick said and followed the creatures until he was a good few thousand feet from the city, Well within walking distance. When they reached the edge of the forbidden airspace he was only a few hundred feet off the ground.

“Alright, this should be good. We’re heading back to Kevil.” the creature said and headed off back to the city now dubbed Kevil.

“Wait!” Nick said gaining their attention.

“What is it?” the guard asked impatiently.

“What exactly are you guys anyway? I’m kind of new around here.” Nick asked.

“Seriously? We’re griffins. Now goodbye sir.” The guard said and flew off with the others.

“Griffins!? Well I guess if there’s anthro horse people, why not anthro griffins?” Nick thought before he went to land, he was only about a hundred feet up at this point so he could afford to dive and us his wings to slow him down at the end. He flew down and was going to land next to a bush when he heard someone screaming.

Nick looked over to see what appeared to be minotaurs with rediculously large upper bodies and comically small lower bodies. The minotaurs were attacking what appeared to be one of the horse people from before. He contemplated getting involved, but threw out all thinking of not when one of the minotaurs ripped off the poor mare’s shirt and bra leaving her exposed to the leering bandits.

Nick dive bombed for the one that had ripped off her shirt and was reaching for her, he tackled the brute and heard crunching. Thanks to the armor he had on coupled with his dense body, even though he was only about half their size, he had at least three times their mass underneath his thick chitin. When he came into contact he heard sickening crunches as he likely shattered some of the minotaur's bones.

When he land he rolled and felt something hit his back, he turned around to see one of the one he tackled’s friends standing their with a broken sword. He looked down to see the minotaur launch a punch towards him and got hit in an unprotected part of his face causing him to stagger back clutching his face.

He he quickly dodged under the creature and launched a punch of his own but the minotaur effortlessly dodged it and sent another at Nick who just barely managed to block it but wasn’t able to block the punch that came from his left as the last one jumped in to help the second.

Nick used his tail which he had weaponized by heavily armoring it and gave it a deadly scorpion barb filled with venom, and tripped up the second one. He dodged under another swing from third one and sent his tail into the third and pumped venom into it. Unfortunately this was cut short as the second one tackled him and started delivering repeated punches to his face dazing him. Suddenly the punches stopped and he looked up to see an arrow sticking out of the minotaur’s chest. The last thing that Nick saw before he blacked out was an azure blur over him.

Trixie looked at the strange creature that had saved her from the bandits that were moments away from having their way with her. It was an odd looking creature, it looked like a mix between a monkey, pegasus, and scorpion with the heavy chitian plates and large barbed tail. The one who had torn her upper clothing off was likely going to die from the impact, and the second one certainly wouldn’t live from whatever venom that had been pumped into him.

The third definitely was dead as she had placed an arrow right in his heart. But now she had a new problem on her hands. The creature had blacked out from the beating it had taken to the face. She couldn’t just leave it here in the open, and she was now indebted to it. But what if it wasn’t saving her and just went for larger prey than her?

It was a bipedal, so it was more than likely sapient, very few bipeds weren’t. What if it attacked her when it woke up? She contemplated just leaving it here and making for the city for safety, but her heart told her that just leaving it behind would make her no better than the bandits that attacked her. She sighed when she decided on taking it with her to Kevil, or until it woke up.

“Why does bad stuff always happen to me? First I had to get a new cart after the ursa incident in ponyville, then I got corrupted by a stupid amulet, and now this.” She groaned. She levitated the minotaur off of him and attempted to do so with the creature, but he was so heavy she couldn’t pick him up with her magic. He had to at least weigh half a ton or more! He weighed more than the five hundred pound minotaur.

She gave up and went to her cuart to get a new shirt and bra, unfortunately this was her last set of clean clothes until she could reach Kevil, so she had to throw on some clothes from yesterday. She sighed and put on the shirt and bra. She tried to think of a way to get him into her cart. She was worried on if she could actually carry him in it. The cart was certainly an upgrade from her last one. After the whole Ursa minor incident she had gotten one that was made from enchanted iron wood with a steel frame.

But she wasn’t sure if it would hold him. Last she checked it’s maximum weight was about two tons. But minus herself and her things which all together had to weigh at least one. She was only left with one ton worth of carrying capacity. The hard part would be getting him into it in the first place, the most she could lift with her magic was about six hundred pounds, and he was more than double that! Suddenly it hit her like a sack of hammers. Though he may not like it, it would be better than simply leaving him here.

Using a length of rope she tied it around his legs and attached the other end to the back of her cart. When he was fastened tightly to her cart she started up the magic engine and started making her way to the city. That was the last time she tried sleeping under the stars. Her journey down the stone road was much longer than it should have been thanks to the added weight slowing down her cart. Little did she know a dark spector was watching her as it looked over it’s creator.

Zangetsu cringed as he watched Nick get dragged behind the cart along the ground. Nick knew that rushing in was dangerous, but was not about to stand by and let those monsters have their way with the poor girl. She seemed to have rather strong magic being able to lift the minotaur off of Nick, but wasn’t strong enough to lift Nick himself.

He wished he had some magic of his own, but unfortunately the only magic he could use was Nick’s when he was awake, and with their scarce magic reserves and inability to make more for now, the most he could do was activate and deactivate passive spells such as attribute spells during combat to conserve magic.

The journey to town didn’t take too long, about an hour or so before they reached the city gates. The city itself was a fairly decent size. It had tall stone walls and was at the top of a large hill. The road snaked up the hill making several sharp U-turns until they finally reached the top where the road straightened out towards the gates. On either side of the road were large boulders for some reason.

The mare seemed to know the guard as she called out his name. They were going to let her in, but when they saw Nick they asked her what he was and why she was dragging him with her cart. She explained what had happened with the bandits, and that Nick had rescued her.

They asked why she was dragging her supposed savior behind her cart, to which she told him and the other guard to try to pick nick up. She giggled as she watched the well built guards struggle to even lift Nick off of the ground. Zangetsu and everyone else cringed when one of the guards accidentally dropped Nick onto the ground.

“Well Trixie, you certainly caught yourself a tough one that’s for sure.” The guard said as he looked at the crack in the road that Nick had left when they dropped him.

“What is it exactly? Some sort of monkey, pegasus, changeling hybrid?” The other guard asked.

“I honestly haven't a clue. All I know is that it saved my flank and I couldn’t just leave him out there.” The newly dubbed Trixie stated.

“Take him to old man Iron Fist, he should be expecting you soon.” The first guard said making Trixie sigh.

“This is going to be a loong day…” Trixie groaned.

“Tell the old man Iron Sights says high!” The first guard, now dubbed Iron Sights said as they opened the gates and let them in. The gates opened and Trixie drove her cart in waving goodbye to Iron Sights and the other guard. The city was busy with many different creature, the most prominent being minotaurs as this seemed to be their country.

Many of the town folk greeted Trixie happily as she drove past them. There were several different variations of the horse people, Griffins, of course MInotaur, that appeared to be some zebra people. A few bug like horse people, and even a werewolf.

They continued until they stopped next to a large building with a forge next to it. Trixie seemed a bit hesitant to get out of her cart, but did so anyway and made her way around to the back where Nick was laying on the cobblestone ground. She was about to turn around and head to the door when she heard a deep voice greet her happily as it picked her up in a bone crushing hug.

“There’s my little munchkin!!” The large grizzled minotaur said.

“Nice to see you too dad.” Trixie said as she tried to breath.

“Well how has my little girl been? Haven't been getting into anymore trouble I hope.” The minotaur chuckled.

“I’ve been.. Doing good.. Need.. air..” She said as her face was turning a darker blue.

“Oops! Sorry about that!” He said and set her down causing her to gulp down air greedily.

“Now that I can breath, it’s nice to see you too dad. Have things around the shop been ok?” Trixie asked the Bull. he was a a large and muscular minotaur bull likely in his late forties to early fifties. His fur was an ash grey and his horns being bleach white with one of them being broken off at the curve. He had a large scruffy white beard and long thinning hair. He wore a blacksmith's apron and wore a pair of thick denim blue jeans with a black tee shirt.

“Ood, they aren't the same species, yet she calls him dad. Adopted maybe?” Zangetsu thought and heard Nick groan as he began to stir.

“Ugh… my head…” Nick said ass he held a hand up to his head.

“And who might this be!? Trixie when i said you needed a male in your life I didn’t mean drag him here.” The minotaur said causing Trixie to blush madly.

“Daad! It’s nothing like that!” Trixie said embarrassed with her father’s antics.

“Now now there’s no need to be embarrassed. Can’t say I understand you're taste in males, but so long as he treats you right he has my blessing.” The minotaur chuckled causing her blush to deepen until you would think her natural fur color was red.

“Umm, can someone please fill me in on what’s going on?” Nick said as he tried to get up but found his legs bound. “Ugh.. not this again.” NIck said and was about to slash the ropes off but stopped when they glowed a pale purple and untied themselves from his legs.

“Sorry about that. I couldn’t lift you up to put you in the cart, so I had to drag you along.” Trixie said sheepishly.

“So what is the name of my little girls future husband” The minotaur said and stretched his hand to shake Nick’s.

“Daad!” Trixie said as he blush returned full force along with nick developing one of his own and sputter for a response.

“Well, come on, out with it!” The minotaur encouraged.

“Umm, my names Nick, and I’m sorry but we don’t even know eachother. I just save her from some bandits. Thanks to the save with that last one by the way.” Nick said.

“Well shoot. And here I thought I was finally going to get to see some grandcalves.” The old man said snapping his fingers and causing the both of them to shuffle uncomfortably while blushing madly. Meanwhile a certain dark spector was thanking every deity known to man, and several known to dolphins that he didn’t have actual sides, otherwise he would have laughed them off by now.

“Oh I give up, you're impossible.” Trixie said throwing her hands in the air.

“Oh but where are my manners. My name is Iron Fist and this little beauty here is my Daughter Trixie.” The minotaur introduced themselves.

“Nice to meet you. But umm, how is she your daughter? You don’t even seem to be the same species.” Nick said making them give him an ‘are you serious’ look.

“Your powers of observation are just astounding..” Iron Fist said bluntly.

“Gee thanks.” Nick said sarcastically.

“Well now, seeing as you saved my daughter from those worthless bandits, I believe we are in your debt, and the Iron family always pays it’s debts. How can we help you my boy.” Iron said clapping his hands.

“Umm…” Nick mumbled as he couldn’t come up with a response.

“Out of all the ones you could have gotten indebted to it had to be this guy?” Iron whispered to his daughter.

“Well well well. If it isn’t my future bride, miss Trixie Iron sparks.” a new and snobbish voice said from the side making the mood suddenly go from cheery, to tense in an instant.

“How many times do I have to say it Steel Hands. I have no interest in you, and I never will be.” Trixie fumed at the newcomer.

“Oh come now, you know you want me.” Steel Hands said as he reached for her face. He stopped however when Iron Fist grabbed his arm tightly and spoke in an intimidating fashion.

“Keep your filthy hands off my daughter.” Iron growled.

“And take your filthy hand off me peasant.” Steel Hands sneered taking his hand away.

“What do you want steel Hands, my daughter just got back. So she couldn’t be the only reason you're wasting my time.” Iron Fist said.

“Ah yes, I can take her later. For now you and I have business to discuss. As you know I have been trying to buy you out for years now and yet you have refused my more than generous offers.” Steel said.

“And as you should know by now, I am not selling you my smithy. If that’s all you have come to discuss than don’t bother, my answer is the same as the last three dozen times you tried.” Iron said and turned from the younger bull.

“That may be true, but this time it’s different. As you know you're disgrace of a son Iron Will’s banishment will last for another five years, and since you will be turning fifty in seven months, your business will be up for grabs when that time comes. When that time comes I will be challenging you to a death match and we both know who will win that fight old man.” Steel Hands laughed.

“What! No you can’t!” Iron said.

“I can and I am. You know the law. If you want your business to go into the next generation, my generation, you have to give it to your first born son. And seeing as he isn’t here, you will have to fight to keep what is rightfully mine.” Steel Hands chuckle evilly.

“It also says that I can have a champion to fight in my place since i am a senior citizen!” Iron Fist protested.

“And who would fight for you? Anybull that would dare would face financial ruin from me.” Steel Hands said.

“He will.” Iron Fist said grabbing Nick.

“Wait what!?” Nick said as he was pulled into this.

“This here boy saved my daughter from bandits, so he has the right to her hand in marriage for saving her life and I have already gave him my blessing. He can fight as my champion.” Iron Fist said causing Steel Hand go from a smirk to a scowl.

“Well if that’s the case then not only will I be getting you're smithy, but you're daughter as well.” Steel Hands chuckled and walked away.

“Dad are you insane!?!” Trixie said as she fumed at her dad for putting her in this situation. As much as she hated Steel Hands he was a capable fighter, and from what she saw Nick was anything but.

“I’m sorry Trixie, but I couldn’t think of anything so i panicked and used some old laws.” Iron fist apologized to his Daughter.

“What if I just don’t fight?” Nick asked.

“Then it would be considered a forfeit and he could take both the smithy and me.” Trixie slumped against the wall.

“Why? It’s not like he has any proof of this other than his word.” NIck said.

“He’s a noble. They would listen to him first, and I already told the guards at the gate about you and the bandits, he has all the proof he needs. I’m doomed.” Trixie lamented.

“Well then I’ll just have to beat him.” Nick said earning a thankful smile from Iron fist.

“Thanks, I was afraid you would just leave us with this mess to be honest.” Iron fist said.

“And how are you supposed to do that? You couldn’t even hold your own against those bandits! They would have been child’s play to Steel Hands. How are you going to take him on?!” Trixie said as tears started falling down her face.

“Wait if he couldn’t hold his own against the bandits then how did he save you?” Iron Fist asked.

“He took the first one out by flying into it realy fast. His weight and chitin killed it on impact. The second one he tripped and poisoned with his tail. The last one was beating him senseless when i was able to get my bow and shoot it.” Trixie explained.

“Then I’ll just have to learn how to fight better then him.” Nick said punching his fist into his palm.

“How? You would have to train for years to catch up to him, the most we have is until dad's birthday.” Trixie said.

“Simple, I have an ace up my sleeve. I have the ability to memorize and learn anything far faster than normal. Two months of training for me would be the equivalent of a year for most others, and if I train really hard I can cut that time in half. All I need is a master willing to teach me.” Nick said.

“Then I will.” Iron Fist said.

“You will? Are you good?” Nick asked.

“Of course! I wasn’t the grand champion of the arena for twenty years running for nothing you know!” Iron Fist boasted.