Celestia sighed contentedly as she read through a fiction book on her posh bed. It was an interesting, if somewhat odd, tale depicting the lives of those who lived in the distant future of the 100,000th year of Equestria's reign. Such an interesting read it was that she almost didn't notice when tiny hooves began to bang on the doors to her chambers.

"Princess!" a voice on the other side said.

The Princess put down the book and made her way to the door before opening it. When the door opened, however, a small purple shape fell over as she was leaning on it. Celestia gasped when she saw that Twilight was leaving a small stream of tears where she galloped. The tiny pony recovered and made her way to Celestia's foreleg before nuzzling into her alabaster fur.

"Princess there's something scary in my room!" the filly cried from the fluff of Celestia's appendage.

Celestia leaned her head down to gently nuzzle Twilight's mane before speaking softly.

"Twilight, you're safe here," she assured her student.

The Princess waited a few moments for Twilight to calm down before gently picking her up with her foreleg, cradling Twilight as she carried her over to the large bed.

"Just stay calm and tell me what happened," Celestia said quietly.

She tucked Twilight into her covers as the filly stated what happened.

"W-well, I was reading up on how inactive carbon could explain how the story of 'Snowy White' is actually false, when I heard the window upstairs creaking open. I-I went to check on what it was, because I thought that maybe it was a bird that opened it, b-but... It was something really really scary instead," she said before cowering her muzzle underneath the soft quilt.

"It might simply be a rat or bird, Twilight."

"I saw it, Princess, it was... big. Bigger than me."

"Was it a pony?" she asked, praying that a drunken pegasus had not crashed into the palace again.

"No... no, I'm sure that it stood up on two legs, and it had weird claws, and-"

"Stay here, Twilight. I'll handle this."

Celestia pulled her regalia from the ponnequin in the closet before gently shutting the doors behind her. When she was in the hall, she approached the closest two Royal Guards. Before they could bow in respect to her, she spoke.

"No formalities, we have an intruder in the Castle."

That got them to freeze.

"I don't want to cause a panic, as I don't know what exactly it is, but Twilight was very adamant about it not being a pony. It's likely in the lower East wing in Twilight's library. Storm Front," she said to the pony on the left, "you stay here and make sure that nothing gets into this room. Longfeathers," she said to the other one, "gather a team and secure the entrances to the library. I'll go in to confront the intruder myself. We have no idea who or what it is, but make sure that everypony is ready to secure it if it tries to escape."

With that, the Princess ignited her horn before disappearing in a flash of gold.

\\\\\\//////

The light of her teleportation faded away, and Princess Celestia examined the state of the library. Everything looked as though it were relatively untouched, as the mess looked like a standard Sparkle Saturday. The books were all stacked up evenly, a few of them forming small walls with a familiar doll sitting atop one of the corners. Something else that Celestia noted was that there was a plate on the table covered in crumbs and flakes from what smelled like an apple turnover. It was gone from the plate, but its scent lingered about in the air.

'Twilight didn't have any crumbs on her muzzle,' Celestia noted.

Celestia slowly walked forth, gazing over everything in the library for any sign that an intruder could be present.

thunk

The alicorn whipped her head around, horn aglow, as she zeroed in on the source of the sound. In one instant, she could see a shadowy silhouette of something small and thin standing on two legs, and eyes filled with fear. The next instant, it was gone, as though it were merely a shadow or a trick of her mind.

Celestia lessened the glow around her horn as she tried to process what she had just seen. Such a strange thing to have happened, definitely, but she was still trying to figure out what had happened at all.

Just as she started to question if what she saw was real, she heard something collide with the desk behind her.

The alicorn turned around on the spot to see the same figure stumble back from a book it had knocked over. Able to see it clearly now, Celestia saw that the creature was indeed a strange one. It looked like a somewhat disfigured Minotaur with backwards legs and odd platforms where its hooves should have been. It didn't have a single spec of fur on its entire body (though she couldn't say for certain as it wore torn up sacks over itself), save for a messy mop of platinum blonde hair atop its round head, its peach skin all bare to see. The face of the odd creature was flat with a pointed nose. Its mouth had noticeable traces, she saw, of an apple turnover.

Celestia peered into its green eyes once more.

Looking over its form at this time, she had the idea to immediately seize it in her magic. A golden aura surrounded the creature and kept it in place as she examined the strange creature. Celestia could feel it tremble in her grasp, and its eyes spoke of its deathly fear of her. It stood barely tall enough to reach underneath her chin, but she could tell from its soft features that this was merely a child.

Then something even stranger happened.

Celestia felt her instincts flare up as something in her mind screamed for her to weave out of the way.

Quickly ducking her head to the left, Celestia recoiled as she felt something blunt strike her cheek hard and fast enough to pierce her skin.

The Princess stumbled back a bit as she felt the hot sting of blood rushing out of her new wound, hissing as she felt the air meet the cut flesh. She cast her eyes over to the strange creature again and noticed that her magic over it was expanding. In a few seconds, the field over it expanded nearly three times larger than the young creature before Celestia applied more force to it. There was no give underneath even her magic, and she felt as though she were trying to push against some kind of immovable object.

This was beyond what she had expected when she came down here. This creature managed to, while completely immobile and imprisoned in her magic, take the Solar Princess by surprise and draw her blood for the first time in nearly three hundred years. And now something was pushing back.

The child did not move, it did not make a sound, it didn't even blink as it stared into Celestia's eyes with nothing but pure fear. There was no magic in the air aside from her own and there was no force that the child was exerting, yet something was pushing her back. Something managed to attack her, and she couldn't see, hear, smell or even magically sense what it was.

Lacking any other method of a viable outcome, she resorted to her most practical method of problem solving: diplomacy.

"Please, calm down," she urged while lessening the power of her magic. "I'm not going to hurt you, I was only startled by your presence."

Her words seemed to reach its ears as it loosened its stance while the force against her magic lessened. Hopeful that it wouldn't use the opportunity to attack, Celestia stopped her flow of magic. Thankfully, the child didn't try to attack her, but only chose to stare. Celestia managed to smile at it before slowly sitting on her haunches.

"Thank you. I'm sorry if I scared you, but please understand, I was only looking out for my student. You did scare her when you came in here."

"I'm sorry," the child replied quietly.

Celestia was grateful that this creature was intelligent. It sounded like a colt, too, she presumed.

"It's quite fine," she assured. "No harm was done, and if you truly are sorry, I hope that you'd apologize to her."

Silence permeated the air for a few moments before the child nodded.

"O-okay."

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you," she said. "Nopony's going to hurt you here. I promise."

The child slowly nodded before approaching her. The Princess tensed for a moment before he spoke.

"So... h-how are we going to find her? This place looks big."

"Just follow me," Celestia said, rising to her hooves. "But stay here for a moment, I have to inform somepony of this."

Celestia turned away from the child for a moment, igniting her magic to heal the wound he had inflicted on her. The flesh sealed up evenly as she evaporated the blood on her cheek. With her wound healed, she turned back to the doors.

\\\\\\//////

Platinum shook in place as he watched the large white pony approach the doors. He watched as she stopped before them, wrapping them in a golden flow that matched the one on her horn before they slowly drifted open.

"Longfeathers," she spoke to someone outside, "have your team stand down. It's only a misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding, your majesty?" he heard another voice say. "Pardon me, ma'am, but your student, Twilight Sparkle, came to you crying about an inequine monster."

"I understand, but I assure you, he meant nopony any harm. He was likely hungry."

"He, your majesty?"

"Yes."

She turned to Platinum before nodding.

"Don't be afraid, nopony will hurt you."

Platinum slowly started to make his way over to the door. He slowly leaned towards the white pony, feeling an oddly familiar heat radiating off of her, and looked out the door.

There were at least ten smaller white ponies, all dressed in golden armor with blue plumes on their helmets, and they stared at him in a way that made him uncomfortable. One of them took a step back and shouted.

"Monster! Get back!"

The ponies were quick to draw out spears and swords, the ones with horns levitating the sharp weapons towards Platinum as he cowered into Celestia's side.

"Enough!" the tall mare said.

The armored ponies flinched as they held their weapons, the one in front looking to the tall mare.

"P-Princess?" he said.

"This child is lost, hungry and alone in our home, Sergeant," she chided. "It wouldn't be very prudent to treat a colt as such, would it?"

He looked between Platinum and the 'Princess' before speaking.

"I apologize, your majesty," he said as he lowered a wing that held a spear. "I merely saw an unknown, and-"

"As long as no harm was inflicted, there is no trouble."

She looked back at Platinum before a wing extended across his back. Platinum flinched from the motion, crouching a bit underneath it but paused as he felt warmth flood his body. He closed his eyes and eased into the embrace as he unconsciously reached his arms towards the Princess. She smiled at him as he wrapped his arms around her midsection.

"There there, nopony's going to hurt you," she assured.

Platinum eased far too much into the warmth, and passed out into her fur.

\\\\\\//////

Celestia flexed her wing a bit as she felt the child lean into her side, falling asleep where he stood. She slowly lifted him onto her back before using her wings to conceal him. The Princess turned to the Guards before speaking.

"I don't know what he is, where he came from nor even his name," she said, "but I assure you that he's more terrified of us than we could be of him."

"Princess," one Guard started, "are you sure it's a good idea to keep an unknown creature in the castle? What if it has a disease of some kind?"

"'He', Private," Celestia corrected. "He's definitely a colt. And if he was carrying anything harmful to us, I would have noticed by now. For the moment, however, I want somepony to find me any doctors and magi willing to... examine, our guest. And start a patrol on the streets for anypony that might know of who or what he is. Try and be discreet about it, though. I don't want to cause a panic anytime soon."

The Guards saluted and went off to check staff listings and post notes of the Princess' orders. While they did, Celestia looked back at the sleeping form of the child and sighed.

"What a mystery you are, young one," she said quietly.

Her horn lit up once more and Celestia and the child were gone in a flash.

\\\\\\//////

Celestia sighed to herself as she watched a team of ponies clean and examine the child. Just as the ponies began to wipe a cloth at his forehead, a Guard came up to her and saluted.

"Your majesty," he said.

"At ease. Report."

"The Lower Canterlot Orphanage does indeed have several ponies who recognize the child. Apparently, he went by the name, 'Platinum' due to his mane color. At the moment, he has a small but thankfully detailed medical record from the orphanage after having been found there eight years ago."

Celestia nodded as she watched the maids scrub his arms.

"I see. So then, he does have a history in Canterlot. Why did they hide him?"

"Apparently, ma'am, he ran away some time after his sixth birthday due to... an evil spirit haunting him."

Celestia hummed as she recalled what happened only a few short moments ago.

"Bring me any paperwork necessary to go through with relocating him here. I think I've found a new student."

Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tdu4uKSZ3M&t=40s