Canterlot was as Reman remembered it, though it held no truly fond memories for him. He immediately noticed the guards watching him, noticing none of them even looked at Glade when she jumped off him. Rolling his eyes, he lifted his helmet and shook his head, sending droplets of water over his pauldrons and the surrounding ground. Some of them recognized Reman from his stint in the dungeon; others only recalled seeing him in Ponyville or shortly before leaving for Nirn. Regardless, they weren't exactly thrilled to see him; in there defense, trouble seemed to follow him.

“What do you think the princess is talking to Renoir about?” Glade asked looking over at the two. The princess didn't look to happy, but also not anger. Reman remembered being the subject of such at some point.

“Probably has something to do with the vampires Equestria used to have.” Reman had a vague memory of Celestia mentioning them before they started planning for the battle against Hircine. Thinking of the Daedra, he had no idea where he was; he was supposed to be here to oversee everyone's return. That, and Reman wanted to give him a piece of his mind, with his fists. “Do you see Hircine anywhere?”

“Come to think of it, no, I haven't.” Glade herself was a little confused, as well. She didn't particularly like the Huntsman, but she noticed his absence. A gentle cough alerted told them somepony wanted their attention.

“I believe I can answer that for you,” The newcomer said, and it took a moment for Reman to realize there was a pony with slitted, yellow eyes talking to him. The mare was dressed in purple armor with a blue gemstone that looked similar to her eyes, and it took Glade only a moment to recognize who she was.

“Springs! You got transferred?” She asked her friend, happy to see a familiar face. Personally, Reman could only tell stallion guardsponies from the mares; there just weren't that many defining features that stuck out to him. Glade, he would recognize, but only because he knew her .

“Yeah; ever since the Festival, Celestia figured the Night Guard was understaffed, so she moved a bunch of us around.” For a moment, Reman wondered if Springs knew who he was, but quickly dismissed the question; she wouldn't have been here if she was going to overreact. “But I'm more concerned about you, Glade. After the Festival, you dropped off the map, then show up again out of nowhere, then you leave through that portal for a month. What gives?”

“It has a lot to do with Reman,” She answered, motioning to the Imperial in question. He halfheartedly lifted a hand in acknowledgment, but kept looking around in search of any sign of Hircine. In part, he recalled the name from somewhere, perhaps Glade mentioned her at some point, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Springs gave an odd look as she appraised him.

“This is Reman?” She asked flatly. She didn’t seem too happy when Glade nodded. However, it wasn't for any reason he could guess. “Damn, I lost a bet.”

“I don't even want to know.” Glade had some ideas, and none of them were good. She realized she hadn't introduced Reman and Springs to one another, which was probably very impolite, not to mention a little strange. Bitter Springs had been her friend since she joined the guard, and one of the few ponies she trusted without question. “Oh, where are my manners? Springs, this is Reman Tullius; Reman, this is Bitter Springs.”

“You know, Reman, I always figured Glade's special somepony was a griffin, if her dad's reaction was anything to go by.” Springs smiled up at him, and revealed she had some rather impressive teeth. Being raised around horses, he knew they sometimes had canine teeth, but those seemed a bit more practical than the ones sported by war steeds back home.

“Whoa now, you have the wrong idea,” Glade hissed at her, keeping her voice low to avoid alerting the other guardsponies. Reman's smirk turned into a barely suppressed laugh, and Springs looked a bit like a grinning cat.

“Trust me, Glade; a stallion can tell these things.” Reman's mind pulled a blank at that. Bitter Springs appeared to be female, not that he really payed much attention. Taking a slightly deeper breath through his nose, her, or rather, his scent finally broke through the layer of perfume he wore. Memories sparked through his mind for a moment, and he very distinctly remembered a stallion by the name of Springs. “If you're not dating, then you're hiding something serious.”

“How about we just go find Hircine?” Glade asked, failing to keep a straight face. Her friend gave her a look of slight amusement, and looked up at Reman, and saw a face about as expressive as his helmet. The effeminate stallion laughed to himself, then used his horn to point toward the gardens.

“Something... strange happened about three days ago; we're not quite sure why.”

@#@#@#@#@#@#

“Well, that's quite the death threat, though I'm sure it's more of a promise than anything.” Renoir smiled at Celestia, who only looked at him like he was insane. She had apparently failed to take into account that he was cursed with eternal life, and did not know he had spent a lifetime as a vampire. The thought of being thrown into the sun was not entirely unpleasant, to be honest. He probably wouldn't suffer long, and it would be a rather interesting break from the norm, if nothing else. His eyes briefly flickered from Celestia to the smaller, yellow pony who had walked up behind her. “Oh, hello, Fluttershy.”

She must have heard most of what had been said, and it showed on her face. Renoir was unaffected; she, however, was not. Her mouth hung slightly open and her eyes darted between the two, like she was trying to figure out what could have possibly brought on such talk. Celestia realized vampires were mostly forgotten in Equestria, regarded as tales to keep foals from wandering away from home at night, much like Nightmare Moon. She herself wasn't sure if the similarities ended there or not, but she held out hope that she had killed the last of them many centuries ago.

“Understand I only said what I did to keep everypony safe.” The princess had gone from bitterness and bile to sweetness and smiles in under five seconds, a record in most of Tamriel. From the rather sparse information Renoir had on Equestria's old vampires, her worries were well founded and her threats easily excusable, but part of him felt rather insulted; spreading his curse was far from anything he wanted to do, perhaps the only thing directly opposing his goal of avenging his family. Of course, Reman was the same way, and it only took one night of lost control to infect Glade, and raving vampires were stealthier than berserk lycans. He could be very fruitful in a single night, especially in winter.

“She hardly offended me, so relax.” Renoir regarded Fluttershy as a friend; she was, in many ways, his opposite, and served as a nice metric to gauge his choices. It wasn't often he had contact with someone so radically different, especially one so unaccustomed to his methods. He realized he was putting way too much thought into this. “Really, no harm done.”

“As terrible as it sounds, he is correct.” Celestia tried to be a good ruler, a leader her little ponies could look up to, but that seemed to become more difficult as the years went on. With Reman showing up and adding an entire world full of cultures, laws, and peoples previously unknown, Equestria's political and social climate was rather difficult to foresee. The public was largely ignorant of Nirn's existence, and would remain so until an alliance could be negotiated. They would not miss a vampire they did not know ever stepped foot in Canterlot. “Now, perhaps it would be best if you went to a guest suite, Renoir.”

“And those would be where, exactly?” He asked, quirking a brow. Castles weren't exactly his specialty; he only managed to sneak out of the Blue Palace because he was familiar with its layout. Canterlot Castle, however, was a completely alien environment, and he easily get lost in its corridors.

“I can show you, if you want.” Fluttershy's voice was tiny, as always, but seemed to hold a sliver of confidence previously unknown to any but herself, or so it would seem. Celestia, however, wasn't so sure.

“Don't you have animals to care for?” She asked, knowing the answer. Really, she was just trying to keep her subjects out of danger, something she had regrettably failed in the past. The absolute last thing anypony needed was a second Summer Glade running around.

“Carrot Top volunteered to look after them until I get back, so another day shouldn't matter.”

@#@#@#@#@#@#

“That's Hircine?” Reman was angry, with good reason. He knew in the back of his mind that Hircine was responsible for Glade's pregnancy, though it remained to be seen if he was a direct influence or not. However, he would not have the chance to ask now.

“Afraid so; he just climbed onto the plinth, took a pose, and turned to stone.” Springs was remaining calm, possibly because he couldn't detect the aggression that permeated the Imperial's very being at the moment. Glade looked a bit miffed at the entire situation, not because she hadn't expected Hircine to become a glorified lawn ornament; she had come to expect the unexpected when it came to the Daedra as a whole.

“I've always wondered why the statue of Discord was right next to an empty plinth.” She made the observation in a casual manner, but internally, she pondered the oversight. Perhaps Hircine would still be flesh and blood had there been no empty space, or perhaps this was just something that happened to Daedric Aspects after a certain period of time. “Interesting pose, though; it's like he's ready to pounce.”

The newly formed statue was slightly crouched, spear in hand. Its headdress was on, and everything obscured by shadows was solid stone, though his eyes were easy to follow. Across the paved garden path stood Discord's prison, frozen in a state of shock from when the Elements of Harmony forced him back into his slumber. Were the two of them living, it would have been god fighting god, though the Aspect of Guile stood no chance against someone so powerful. Was there some reason for this, or was it mere coincidence Hircine was facing the greatest threat ponykind had ever known?

“I have a bad feeling about that chimera over there.” Reman didn't know the proper term do describe the strange creature, though he knew enough to know no artist would ever sculpt something so ugly, which meant it may have been in the same boat as Hircine, and that was something he did not want to deal with. He had no way of really knowing who Discord was, or what his chaotic magic was capable of, but his gut told him something was off about it. Still, he had the right first impression for only having seen him encased in magical stone.

“That's Discord, the draconequus. He's stronger than Celestia and Luna; only the Elements of Harmony can stop him once he gets going.” Glade took it upon herself to elaborate, seeing no need for Springs to bother. Both guardsponies had been in Canterlot during his revival, but had thankfully escaped the brunt of his fun. It had taken her days to get her fur clean after everything was said and done. “Thankfully, as long as there isn't much chaos in Equestria, he should stay frozen.”

“You mean like a civil war and enough political strife to choke on?” Reman asked with a groan. Nirn was chaotic and alive, a trait inherent to all of nature. This was close to the last thing he needed, and the fact he was only now hearing about this was unbelievable. If Celestia was wanting an alliance with the Empire, things like this needed to be known before anything was signed.

“Sounds about right, yeah.” Springs looked a bit pale, which shouldn't have been possible through fur.

@#@#@#@#@#@#

“I'm really surprised the princess let you escort me,” Renoir said, unused to being escorted anywhere, though he could see why such a thing was needed. The castle's corridors were labyrinthine, designed to disorient attackers and keep foreign diplomats where they could be observed. Though it had been many years since he last saw it, he remembered his childhood home being the same way, for all the good it did when it mattered most. “She seemed rather adamant about having a guard do it instead.”

“Her heart's in the right place,” Fluttershy replied. “She's just not used to everypony from Reman's world.” Renoir still had trouble adjusting to them calling Nirn something like that; one would think they would adapt its proper name once it became known. Though, perhaps it served as an identifier rather than a real title, a code word of sorts used to prevent information leaks. Renoir doubted that was the case, but he pondered what he could when he had the chance. “She was alive when vampires were around, so she probably has some bad memories about them.”

“Why is this the first I've heard of them?”