The gates of Canterlot had been open during the sunrise like they had ever since the Princess had decided upon the opening hours of the city. A pair of ponies are standing on top of the large Main Gatehouse of the city, having the incredibly important, not to mention dead boring, duty of guarding the city gates.

One of them, a pegasus with yellow pelt and green mane with blue stripes, was looking out from the gatehouse, trying peer his eyes as much as possible to look into the distance."Hey Far Sight."

A big, and slightly overweight, unicorn with lavender pelt and a short cut orange mane and tail, answered his partner while looking out through a spyglass in the same direction. "Aye?"

"Are ye seeing what We be seeing?"

"Aye."

"So that dere giant group of new ponies not be our imagination?"

"Aye."

"Thank ye fer dat... We probably should signal da horn, right?"

"Aye."

"Well... We better be doing that then."

"Aye."

And thus the silence of the day was broken when the pegasus walked over to the wagon sized hollowed out dragon horn, grasped it firmly by the tip, took a deep breath. Before blowing into it so hard that his hind quarters sprung up into the air and floated there while his hind legs were spread out like wings, while his wings were spread out as well. The horn shook as the air circulated through it and rumbling BRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH sounded out over the city.

After stopping his body rested down on the ground, he took a second deep breath, before repeating it.

While the day was beautiful and the weather fine, were all of the city in a sense of mourning. The Equestrian Army had failed in its Crusade against Maleficus and the fact that Princess Celestia was severely injured, and then healed by the enemy, made them feel even worse.

Most of the foals were unaware of the adults' plight and depression, just enjoying their lives in the city, playing and laughing together. Some of the foals knew of the adults' negative mood however, some more then others because of how the adults 'handled' their emotions.

Sufficient to say had a lot of issues sprung up among the population since the return of the army. Many of the soldiers had gone down a dark path of drinking away their humiliation, others were focusing so much on training that they were ignoring their friends and loved ones. While a few, had deserted the army and the nation completely.

In her throne room was Celestia sitting on her throne with a vacant look on her face as she looked out on the sunrise, she had been almost unable to lower the moon and raise the sun, the pain in her horn had been excruciatingly painful but she had managed to raise it properly. The pain had been even worse when she had to lower the sun and raise the moon last evening.

She could not use anything outside of the basic of telekinesis to lift small objects as she currently was and her healers told her she would have to refrain from doing any larger bits of magic outside of lowering and raising the sun and moon for up to two months. Her horn was repaired but it was still very tender and would require a lot of time for the nerves inside it to be completely restored. if it was not for the fact that she needed to lower and raise the sun she would have recovered within a week but since she had to do so, was the time extended quite a bit.

But that did little to stop her internal struggle as she tried to figure out why her ponies had abandoned their home, their nation, their princess. *We hath thought Our subjects loyal and true to Our cause. When were We deceived? Where did We fail? Why wouldst they betray us like thus?* She sighed deeply while looking out through the open doorway to the balcony, her throne room was barren of guards and no petitions had come all day, she had wanted to be left alone.

Although she doubted that even then there would be anyone coming to put forth a petition. With how depressed her city was at the moment she doubted they wanted to have anything to do with her. It made her feel guilty and shameful that she had lost, it also made her sad and furious, she wanted revenge for her sister and she would have it. Why did her subjects not realize that the effort would be worth it? Why did they not see that one failure would not mean their defeat?

Her thoughts were broken by the sound of a horn being sounded in the distance. It was coming from the main gate of the city and it was a signal from her guards stationed at the Gate House. If she remembered correctly were they signalling something about... approaching ponies?

She had yet to memorize the meaning behind each different horn signal, but she was certain that they were signalling about approaching ponies. Which was a very strange signal because it had never been done before. *This be odd, there hath not been any reason to signal newcomers before.* The alicorn pondered before getting off her throne and walking over to the doorway to the balcony, once outside she looked at the land outside of her city. With the central keep of her city being taller then the walls and gatehouse around the city she could see clearly why her guards were signalling.

There was a literal army's worth of ponies, many of them pulling wagons, approaching from the southern road. It was a ridiculous amount of ponies, the largest number of arriving newcomers she had ever seen. Well over one or two thousand if what she was seeing was correct. "We need to greet these newcomers, perhaps this shalt brighten up the spirit of Our subjects." She said with a thoughtful look on her face before smiling a little before leaving the the balcony, she did not need to dress up to greet the newcomers, but she still wanted to make a good impression so a quick bath was probably in order.

Maleficus Victoria, currently in the disguise of Golden Cross, stopped his wagon in front of the large stone bridge leading towards the large gatehouse of the city the ponies had constructed. One big thing that rang through his head when eh saw the city was kind of... criticizing however. *Why did they make a moat but not build a fucking drawbridge instead of a solid stone bridge?*

The rest of the city, the large stone walls, the tall towers and the even larger keep in the center of the city, was far more impressive. But that eyesore of a FREAKING, SOLID, STONE, BRIDGE, BUILT, OVER, A, FUCKING, MOAT, was making his internal Gamer punch the nerves inside of his skull to make his left eye twitch madly. *Why did they build such a stupid thing on their fucking MAIN GATE!*

"...I am honestly kind of underwhelmed. And disappointed." He said out loud before walking over the insanely badly placed stone bridge and towards the open gates of the Gatehouse.

Behind him the wagons were putting up a camp outside the city, considering they probably knew that they were too many to properly fit in all of their wagons into the city streets. Well he alone would fit in quite easily, and he was only interested in staying around for a while before leaving again.

Passing the massive wooden gates he found himself standing at a large wide street, more like a very long rectangular shaped square. There were a large amount of ponies mingling, all of them looking very depressed or solemn. He had an... idea why they might be so depressed but he was not going to say anything, no reason to give himself away because of stupidly babbling about things he should not know.

Walking a bit further into the wide road he tried to spot some of the guards to ask for them to meet the nomads and the ponies when a group of ponies bearing bronze armour marched down the road in a pretty good looking formation. They were in two groups, lined up to five by ten, a total of one hundred soldiers. And between them was Princess Celestia, not in armour but with a pretty crown slash tiara with a large gold necklace with jewels around her neck. But the most notable thing was the gentle look on her face and the warm smile on her lips, which were painted in golden lipstick of all things.

For a second he found himself staring at her a bit more intensely then he wanted to and had to shake his head a bit. *Oookay. She is a lot prettier when she is not frowning, glaring or crying. That's... good to know I guess?* He was not sure WHY he was even thinking about it, but he had to admit that even if she was his enemy, was she still attractive, she reminded him of her mother's pony form, well what he could remember of her. *Gods I hope Laura won't hurt me too much for what I have done and what I will do in the future. But I'd rather she blamed me then herself, even if she is just as guilty as I am of this mess.*

Princess Celestia broke his thoughts when she spoke up in a kind and warm voice, making him curious if this is what she normally acts like or if she was just hiding her temper behind a nice act. "Greetings stranger, We art Princess Celestia of Equestria. May We ask thy name and purpose?"

He responded by giving a short bow with his head before speaking. "I am Golden Cross, Knight of the Lawbringer Order, the Last of the Lawbringers am I afraid. And my purpose here is only to guide the ponies outside of your city gates to reach your city. The original group was a nomadic clan named the Blue Grass Clan and I aided them during a raid of bandits pillaging and ravaging them. When they asked for me to help them the final rout towards Canterlot, I agreed. For it is one of the duties of my order to Protect the Innocent." Celestia's guards seemed a bit uneasy by his accents, he guessed it was because he did not speak the 'olden english' way like they did. But screw them, he was not going to try and change himself for others, he had already been changed enough as it was.

"That be a most virtuous duty Ser Golden Cross. We wonder, what manner of duties dost thy Order hath?" Celestia's curiosity was clearly peeked, she had not heard of anything called a Lawbringer before. But if this old earth pony was one, then he might be part of one of the lost Knight Orders that went missing during the Reign of Discord.

Golden Cross raised a hoof and began to speak up again, moving his hoof against his chest into a form of salute. "It is a group of rather simple guidelines which a Lawbringer is to follow at his own leisure. They are as following. Duty to the People. Which means protect the innocent and avenge the fallen. Duty to the Law, which means that we are to act as the protectors of right and persecutors of wrong, we judge the guilty and bring down the lawless. Duty to the Gods, we are not required to follow the Gods' will or orders. But, we act in their stead to bring judgement upon those would break the laws of reality with wicked intent. Duty of the Path, a Lawbringer will almost never be with another Lawbringer unless married, related or gathered. We act in solitude, wandering the land, bringing weapon and law in our hooves for those who need it, and those who flee it."

Sanding up on his hind legs he unsheathed his pole axe before kneeling down on one of his hind legs as he pressed the pommel of his weapon against the ground and rested both of his hooves against the shaft of the weapon, while speaking out a prayer. "I am Judge, I am Jury, I am Justice, I am Lawbringer. Where the Law is Broken, I Shall Come, Where the Innocent are Hurt, I Shall Come, Where the World is Tainted, I Shall Come. And thus I shall act. As the Scale of Judgement. As the Blade against the Wicked. As the Shield for the Innocent. In the Name of the Gods. In the Name of Justice. In the Name of the Innocent. Amen."

A heavy atmosphere could be felt in the air as Golden Cross stood up from his prayer and put his poleaxe back onto his back before returning to stand on all four legs once more. Celestia looked upon him with scrutiny. The Lawbringers sounded almost fanatically zealous in their believes of judging and protecting. It made her feel a bit uneasy but she knew she could not just blindly demand his order to change its ways, even if he was the last of it.

"We see. Thee act as a Bringer of Order, an Agent Against Chaos and Disorder?" She finally asked as she managed to get past the uneasy feeling in the air.

But Golden Cross shook his head. "No. I am not an agent of a higher power. We Lawbringers were founded by a group of Knights, that is true. But all were welcome into our ranks, be it mare, stallion, pegasus, earth pony, unicorn and non-ponies. Social rankings held no meaning to us. All that we ask is that you wish to act against the wicked and cruel on your own volition. We do not ask for worship, we do not ask for kindness, we do not ask for tribute nor do we ask for payment. Lawbringers bring judgement upon those who would use the state of the world to spread their dark intentions like plague in the fields. We may not be seen as heroes, we are not always wanted, but we were what was once necessary."

Looking at the bronze soldiers Golden Cross seemed to correct himself at the final part. "And I fear that we STILL are what is necessary. With no one to bring judgement, we acted on our own will and intentions. I cannot say that all of our numbers were good, decent or even neutral people. Some were zealous in their duties, some were corrupted during their duties and would be judged for their own crimes, while others would remain indifferent. No one is perfect. But in a world were chaos and depravity reigned, were the innocent suffered. We were a necessary evil. And I am sad to say, that we still are. Even if I am the last one, I will still do my duty, for it is all that I have left since the fall of my order."

The silence that came and Celestia seemed to look at the Lawbringer with a hint of respect and concern. She was clearly suspicious, yet his words, they hit deep even if she did not want to admit it. The old earth pony then shook his head towards the large gates and spoke up again. "But enough about me and my dying order. The ponies outside wish to speak to you Princess. I will not take part of it however, my duty to them is over now that they are safe and sound. So I shall take a bit of a rest before leaving the city to travel once more."

He then walked past the dumbfound guards. But the voice of the princess made him pause in his strides. "Thou spoke of bandits which thou judged. May we inquire, what was the punishment?"

Stopping in mid step the old earth pony did not even turn around as he answered the princess' question. "Out of the forty or so raiders I judged were all except one of them given the same punishment for their crimes." He stated in a calm and cool voice, while internally he was trying to not break out into a nervous twitch. *I sure as fuck hope she won't over react. I do not need more stress on myself.*

"As we asked, what be the punishment of those thou judged?" Celestia inquired once more and the old earth pony just closed his eyes and sighed softly.

"For the crimes of thievery, destruction of private property, severe physical abuse, rape, murder and desecration of the dead. I judged all but One with the punishment of Death by Execution, in Battle." The guards around the princess physically flinched at those words, while Celestia's eyes grew sorrowful and haunted, making him feel rather guilty for causing it, even if he knew there was nothing to be done about it. He would not lie about it, it would not be a good idea. The truth hurt, but it was better to get it out now and keep it straight, rather then letting the lies pile up more then he had already done so far.

"As for the final bandit I judged. He was a unicorn in golden armour, the apparent leader of the band. And he deserved more then a quick death in battle for his acts. Not only did he lead the bandits, he personally raped four of the mares. And he did not even try to fight, ordering those around him to fight while he enjoyed his victims. He covered behind his group of scum through it all, still raping a mare until the bandits started dying." A few of the guards retched in the background, and a scent of decomposing food matter could be smelt as stomach acid and soldier rations were poured out onto the cobblestone of the square,

Yet the stallion was not done, and kept talking, his voice unmoved and his eyes calm and quivering as he turned his head around and looked Celestia in the eyes as he told her of his judgement upon the bandit leader. She was not making any outward reactions, but he could see it in her eyes, she was sad and angry at the same time, and it was confusing her. "But when the last of his band fell he tried to bribe me to let him go. And thus I punished him severely. I gave him the punishment of Mutilation and Humiliation, I broke off and burned his horn into ash before putting him in chains to show others of his ilk what would happen to those who sought to harm the innocent. Ignorance is not bliss when it makes others ignorant of the consequences of their actions."

As if the gods had been listening was a soft rattling of metal links heard beyond the gate as a group of ponies entered through the gateway. One of them was the Elder of the Blue Grass Clan, Tall Sprout, the others were strangers Golden Cross had not meet before. And behind them, with all four hooves chained to one another, was the still unconscious Silver Feed being dragged by a pair of large earth ponies.

The princess looked slightly ill when she saw the broken bloody stump on the unconscious unicorn's forehead, and absentmindedly touched her own horn as if feeling a similar pain. Her soldiers reacted far more violently, the entire row of soldiers took a hasty step backwards, making it seem like it was made through discipline, yet Golden Cross knew the truth. The fear in their eyes revealed it, they had all backed away in fear of not the mutilated unicorn, but in fear of him who had dealt the punishment.

"A word of advise princess. When you judge someone, let not someone else deal the punishment. Those who give the verdict, should be the ones to deal it out. I will take my leave for now. This is my first time in a city in several decades." No pony made a move to stop the old warrior as he left the square, the crowd which had gathered to see what the commotion on the square was all about, let him pass by splitting apart like the red sea did for Moses. And he disappeared into the streets, only the sight of his wagon made it possible to discern his position. But it soon, had also disappeared from sight.

Celestia stared upon the prisoner the nomads had brought before her on the square. Silver Feed had been part of her Sun Guard, the highest privileged military unit in the nation. And yet his greed was apparently strong enough that he would preform desertion, murder and rape to get what he wanted. She felt anger and shame, not only at the Sun Guard, not only at Maleficus, but at herself as well. And she felt incredibly infuriated that the old earth pony had lectured her while telling her that he had killed some of her subjects in battle... well... perhaps former subjects was the more fitting term for them. Did not make her feel better however.

"Sergeant!" She barked out at her soldiers, making all of them jerk in surprise at the loud shouting from the princess. One of them, bearing a white mantle and a red comb on his helmet, stepped forward with a salute. "Aye milady!"

"Take him to the Dungeons. Tend to his wounds, but do not heal or repair his horn. He will face Our judgement with his crime fresh in mind." With a wordless salute the Sergeant pointed at four of his soldiers who stepped forward and took the prisoner's chains from the Nomad guards who nodded silently to them as they began to drag Silver Feed towards the Castle Dungeons. *Thy art a pony with the greed of dragons Silver Feed. And the manners of beasts. How far did it take for thee to fall We wonder, or were thou already such a pony and just covering thou depravity?*

Her thoughts were broken when she started hearing one of the newcomers speak to her. The old unicorn of the group had bowed deeply to the Princess and begun to speak out in a almost tearful manner, the old unicorn was so happy that his emotions were starting to spill over. "Thank ye Madame Celestia, We are Tall Sprout, Chief and Elder of the Blue Grass Clan. We are a clan of well traveled nomads who have wandered the lands fer a century since yer disappearance during the Fall of the Green Star. We hath thought ye lost to the Star until we heard about yer return. We are most relieved for yer return."

Feeling slightly less depressed Celestia smiled at the old unicorn, he reminded her a bit of how her old Mentor once acted like, how she missed those days. "We art not leaving again if We can help it Elder Tall Sprout. We hath faced a century of isolation in the Everfree Forest. And thus We art most ignorant of the dealings of the world of the present. We would be most grateful if thou told Us what thou know."

"We shalt do Our best to indulge whatever information we might have to yer people Madame Celestia. But first We have others here whom might be of aid to yer people." Tall Sprout straightened himself, his spine popping and cranking like a rusty crane before he moved over to the other newcomers, except for his two guards, who stood like a formal sign of protection by the Elder's sides.

While the Princess was introduced to the newly arriving leaders of the ponies who would be joining her kingdom, was the old earth pony Golden Cross elsewhere. She still wanted to confront him, but it would have to wait for later, for now, she wanted to bring some warmth and joy to not only the newcomers but all of her subjects.

"Here seems like a good spot to park my wagon." He said as he looked around, he had wandered through the streets until he came to a park located on the inside of the city next to what looked like a large training field. From what he could tell was there no rules against parking his wagon on the grass of the park, the 'Don't Step On The Grass' law had not been invented yet.

Unstrapping himself her pushed his wagon beneath a young but well grown tree that looked a bit like a peach tree. He was not sure but the sweet scent from the tree was soothing. Pulling out a chain and padlock he linked the chain between his wagon's front wheels, over and around the wooden frame holing the straps, before tightening it a it before putting the padlock into place.

Feeling quite a bit tired from his day he climbed into his wagon and locked the door and windows on the inside. He did not want to be disturbed, he had not had a peaceful sleep for a long, long time. Carefully cleaning his teeth, even if it was not necessary with his teeth now being metallic, he made sure to secure his wagon from those who might try to magically searching or scrying for his true self. The runic array he engraved into the wood would block out magical sensory and keep the magic inside his wagon undetected, so if he was having night terrors, he would not make anyone notice unless he destroyed his wagon. Hopefully it would not come to that.

Golden Cross finished carving the final rune into place as the sun was settling, he had been exhausted through it all but he was able to complete the runic array- But now he needed sleep, his eyes were warm, heavy and stinging with exhaustion. Laying down the knife he had used to carve the runes into the wood he stumbled into the sleeping quarters of his wagon. Yawning loudly he smacked his lips before pulling back the cover on his sot hay filled mattress, he made sure to blow out the candle in the lantern on his bed stand before laying down on the soft bed. He would take the rest of the day off and just rest in a soft and warm bed, for the first time in two centuries. His head had barely hit the soft surface of his pillow before he was out like a light.

In the dark shadows of the Equestria were many a twisted fellows moving through the land. Words were being whispered, messages were being written, and a call was being made. And for the first time in centuries, roamed the cutthroats, cut pursers and bandits as one, like a mass of gold starving locust through the night. From beyond the borders of Equestra were mysterious sinister beings following the call as well.

The masterminds behind the gathering were gleefully watching as their plans were being prepared from their camp beneath the dark shadow of the mountain. Within the following weeks there would be no trace of the once numerous criminals on the land. It was a cheering thought for many. But of those less ignorant of the workings of the darker side of the world, was this a dark omen.

Evil forces were at work within the land of Equestria. But for what purpose would not be discovered until it was too late to prevent it.

Celestia looked up at the moon of the evening sky, the image of her sister remained upon its surface reminded her of Maleficus being free and roaming the lands on his own. It made her so frustrated and angry that she was still too injured to go after him. Even if the repair of her horn was done would it take two moons for her magical nerves to recover because of the repairs he had done to it.

*If he hath done this intentionally, he be a more fearsome foe then We anticipated.* She thought to herself as she walked inside of her room to lay down for some sleep. The newly arrived nomads and wanderers would become part of her city tomorrow once proper living areas had been prepared, there were a lot of empty buildings but they would still need to be examined for errors and make certain that the new ponies had a decent area to open their own businesses. She was just thankful that she had ordered the city to be designed so large and easily changeable, it would make things easier for her and her subjects.

Maleficus Victoria woke up within his dream realm once more. But this time, he was alone. Luna was nowhere to be seen and he was not sure if he even could find her. He had no real experience in looking for someone else within his own dream outside of when he just tried to make her more present when she was trying to contact him.

Feeling that it was for the best to not bother the, possibly still upset, princess he just imagined a warm summer day by a field of grass, a hammock and one of his favourite pass times, watching cartoons. He had not seen any kind of cartoon for years, and even if he was just using what he had already seen to rerunning the episodes in his dreams, was the episodes of several cartoons and Japanese anime worth re-watching in his opinion.

He spent the entire night watching several of his favourite animes and cartoons. Overlord, One Piece, Berserk, HarmonQuest, Phineas and Firb, Murphey's Law and some other ones. It was hard keeping track of it all but he found it to be most enjoyable even if he mixed up the episodes a bit from time to time before realizing it.

Maleficus was enjoying watching the final battle between Momonga, aka Ainz Ooal Gown the Overlord, and Shaltear Bloodfallen, the mind controlled Elder Vampire, when he felt the dream realm shift. He was waking up, he sighed a bit, he had hoped to enjoy the episode to its completion. But he had, had fun, so it was enough for now.

As he faded away from the dream realm, he never noticed the blue pony princess who entered it. She looked around in confusion until she spotted the strange contraption floating next to a hammock. Curiously she walked over to it, and gasped when she saw the epic battle between two strange humanoid beings, one clearly undead, and the other a form of twisted divine being!

Luna kept watching, and even as the final battle ended she wondered how the story had started. That's when she noticed a strange thing inside the hammock, a rectangular black block with strange round soft things on it that you could press. Pressing one of the buttons, she saw how the screen shifted, revealing a list of names. She could interact with the screen through the strange device, and soon, she found something called 'Overlord Episode 1'. That had been mentioned in the final battle, that word, Overlord.

Trying she pressed a few of the solid bubbles, and had to backtrack a few times to get back to the list after pressing the wrong soft thing. This kept going for a bit until she pressed a round button with the word OK on it. And the screen started playing. The princess pulled herself up into the hammock and rested her forelegs over the edge, while resting her head between them to watch the screen. She was intrigue by this moving and talking picture book and wanted to find out more.

Yawning softly Golden Cross stretched his hind legs as he stepped out of his bed, by the look of the sun it was almost noon. He had not slept for so long in a long, long time. It made him feel nostalgic. *How much I miss those days. Things were so much easier back then. Mother. Father. I am... I am sorry.*

Shaking his head clear of his depressing thoughts he went into the bathroom of the wagon and brushed his teeth and emptied his bladder into the toilet he had designed. It was a seat shaped for a pony, he could both poop and pee into it without discomfort. It was lined with runes which would transmute his body waste into a powder based fertilizer, which would be released into the wind to spread across a large area as to not over fertilize anything.

It was probably a bit overly complicated but he had not come up with a better solution for what to do with his body waste so this was the best he could think of. Plus it gave him something to do.

After brushing his teeth he moved out of the wagon to check that everything was in order, as he did so could he see a group of foals standing around his wagon, looking at it with curiosity on their muzzles. Chuckling a bit he tapped his left hoof against the frame of his temporary home. “Is this wagon of mine very interesting to you little ones? Are there not other wagons within the city?”

“It be weird looking! In a funny way!” A little earth pony filly said with a grin, a pegasus colt nodded and spoke up in a chipper voice. “Aye! It looks shoddy and funny!”

“Art thou a minstrel?” A little pegasus filly asked with a curious look on her face. “No! We said he be jester fer sure!” A unicorn colt said with a glare at the pegasus filly who stuck out her tongue at him as a response. “No way!”

Chuckling softly the old earth pony rested his hoof on one of the wheels of his wagon. “Hehe. Well it will be easy to explain it. This wagon was built by me, I am no carpenter, this was my first attempt at working wood. It looks shoddy because of my lack of knowledge and experience in the field. Yet I let it retain this look even after I have improved upon its stability. I like how it looks.”

“And no, sorry children. I am neither a minstrel nor a jester. I am something far different then that. I am a Lawbringer. Someone who wanders the world, bringing justice against the wicked while defending the innocent.” He reached into the wagon and pulled out the helmet he had been wearing yesterday, the little ones gasped in delight at the sight of the helmet with its sharp horn on the forehead, the eye holes of the visor, and the neck plates. It was a far different helmet then the ones worn by the guards and the soldiers.

“Awesome!” One of the children said and the old earth pony laughed heartily at the naive wide grin on the foal's face.

“Yes. Indeed, that is one way to describe how I felt when I first started out as a Lawbringer. The brightest, warmest sensation within my chest, the wide grin on my lips, as I journeyed out for the first time. Ah... memories.”Putting his helmet back into the wagon the old earth pony motioned with his left hoof at the children. “Now you lot better go back to your parents, you would not want to miss lunch now would you?”

The foals gasped at the possibility of missing lunch and disappeared with a blur which was replaced by a dust cloud shaped like the foals, making the old pony laugh at the silliness of the cartoon like physics he had just witnessed. Smiling a bit he entered his wagon once more and began to look inside his pantry for some food.

He was just about to take a big bite out of the apple he had pulled out of his stocks when a familiar voice called out to him. "Mister Golden Cross!" Pausing for a moment he looked out the window and saw the sight of Happy Meal approaching, carrying a cooked dish on her back with a wide grin on her face.

Smiling softly he put down the apple onto the bowl on his table and walked over to the doorway to let the smiling child into his wagon. *This kid. She is not going to let me finish my own food is she?*

"Are you not with your mother today?" He asked while slowly slicing the chestnut pie the filly had been carrying into six slices. The little filly shook her head with a grin. "Mama wanted Us to find ye and ask for ye to join Our clan tonight! We art going to celebrate Our arrival at Canterlot at Our new home! We wanted to do so yesterday, but old Bean Sprout told Us We had to wait until proper living quarters were prepared fer us!"

"I see. I am glad that things are going well for you." The old earth pony chuckled softly and gave the little filly a plate with a piece of pie, the filly eagerly chomped down on the slice while he took another plat and ate a piece himself. The filly eagerly asked him with food in her mouth.

"Sho whut yuh sway? Yuh whull choume rhught?" Gently booping the foal on her nose with his hoof Golden Cross spoke up with a smirk. "Swallow your food before speaking Happy Meal, you might choke on your food and that is not pleasant."

Blushing a bit the filly lowered her face and quietly chewed her food. Golden Cross chuckled again and finished his second piece of piece before speaking up as he swallowed the final piece of the pastry. "But yes, I will come to the event. I have not experienced such a thing for almost a century. Tell your mother that I will be happy to attend."

The filly swallowed her third piece of piece after snarfing it down like a dog in a bowl, her face covered in crumbs and chestnut paste as she grinned and cheered. "Yay! Ye will have a good time fer sure Mister Cross!" Her muzzle was then covered by a piece of cloth held by a hoof that began to clean off the remains of the piece on her face.

"I am sure I will, but try not to make a mess little one. Having sticky fur is not pleasant." Once more the filly blushed in embarrassment but still she grinned and jumped off her chair and ran out of the wagon and out of the park to inform her mother of the great news. Golden Cross just smiled and took the final piece of pie onto his plate and began to eat it, humming softly as the rays of the sun warmed him as he ate. *I do not know how it will go, I have not been to a party in a long time. But perhaps it is a good thing to go. There is no harm in having a bit of fun. Besides, if there is food like this at the party, I am definitely coming.*

Finishing his pie he exited his wagon, locked the door and walked through the park towards the city wall located near its edge. As he walked he focused his magic through his limbs, down into the ground, and began to try and get a proper 'echo' from his magic. He got the idea from the seismic sense used by a cartoon character named Toph, a blind girl with the power to bend the earthly elements, which she used to negate her blindness by sensing things through the earth with vibrations.

Trying to mimic this power was difficult, at first was all he got a white and black blur in his head that gave him a headache. But soon the image began to become clearer, and as he refined the energies in his limbs and shaped the intent of the magic, he increased not just the details of what he was sensing, but also the radius of what he could sense.

He walked down the park and onto the street, the difference in density and mass made it clear that solid materials carried the vibrations better, allowing him to sense the vibrations in more detail and size then on the soft earth. It allowed him to not only increase his search radius and speed, but also made him able to feel the flow of magic in his body, and control it better, since the soft dirt muffled the sensations in his limbs. *After I master this, I am going to try Wall Walking. Heh, considering I can turn into a living shadow and my flesh burns in green flames when it regenerates severe injuries, does that make me the first Hokage? Hehehehe.*

For the rest of the day Golden Cross wandered the city streets, walking around and watching and listening to the city life of the recently constructed citadel of Canterlot. All the while he was examining the secret passages of the city by using his internal magic to sense the internal structure of the walls and the tunnels beneath the earth. And while sensing the different passages and entrances hidden within the stone he had his small Interface Screen, he was keeping on him, act as a connection to the Interface to load up the mapping he was making of the city and its secret tunnels and chambers. It was a rather progressive day for him, even if he was only able to map around one tenth of the city.

'Then the sun began to lower itself as the Princess of the Sun lowered it, and he moved towards the newly prepared area of the city for the newly arrived ponies. It was easy to find the festivities when bright lights and music could be seen and heard from the southern part of the city.

The spirit of the night was bright and warm as ponies danced and sang together by the large camp fires they had set up in the newly established park by their new home within the walls of Canterlot. As the festivities started had it just been the newcomers, but in just a single hour had the crowd grown even larger as the earlier settlers of Canterlot began to join the party.

Several dozens of guards had gathered by the edge of park to keep watch as to maintain order, but several of them had joined in the festivities themselves. It was first party of its kind within Canterlot and it was giving their tired spirits a lot of joy to enjoy themselves.

Old Tall Sprout smiled as old, young and adult ponies joined together in the celebration. His old joins felt like they were twenty years younger from the bright smiles of his clan and their fellow nomads. It felt like the start of something glorious for not just his kin but all of pony kind.

Then he spotted the large shape of Golden Cross approaching from the edge of the park, not wearing his armour the elderly earth pony's many years of battle could be seen upon his pelt. It made tall Sprout slightly envious of the other old pony that he was so nimble and strong in his old age. But he himself had earned his aches and pains and knew that the earth pony probably experienced worse pains then he did if the locations of his many scars were to judge.

The old unicorn walked over to the approaching earth pony and bowed extravagantly to his clan's savior and spoke up in a excited voice. "Welcome to Our festivities Ser Golden Cross, We hope ye will enjoy Our hospitality."

Golden Cross just gave him a small smile and a nod before a small blur leaped out from the dancing crowds and a small filly latched onto the startled knight's forleg. "Yay! Ye came!" Came the adorable squeal of Happy Meal as she hugged Golden Cross' left foreleg with all of her mighty strong filly sized legs.

Raising his left foreleg into the air Golden Cross looked at the giggling filly latching into him like an octopus, only far more adorable. "...I promised that I would attend and so I have. Now for the more important question... where is the food cooked by you and your mother?" He gave the smiling filly a smirk and she laughed before jumping onto his back and climbed up onto his head and pointed her hoof towards a group of large tables next to a large set up kitchen.

"Mama be over there! She be making the best pies ever!" Chuckling the elderly pony walked towards the catering tables, leaving old Tall Sprout to smile at the view, only for the old unicorn to get a frown when he spotted a black spot on the left hind leg of the earth pony. *Could that be... if so... he doest not hath long... and he probably knows...* He looked upon the old earth pony with a sad frown on his muzzle before walking back to the festivities, he would not prattle out the condition of the knight, it was not something he would want someone to tell others without his permission after all.

Grand Feast put a bowl of her newly cooked cabbage casserole onto the large wooden table her clan had put together for the festivities. There was an array of pies, stews, salads, bread loafs, beverages, cheeses and pastries made out of various types of fruits, vegetables, roots, herbs and flowers. It was the largest and most diverse amount of food she had ever made before, and it felt really good to do it.

As she put the bowl down came the deep voice of her clan's saviour from a short distance away and she turned to see the elderly earth pony approach with her little filly riding on his back with a wide grin on her tiny muzzle. "Hello Miss Grand Feast, I must say, your name is very fitting."

"We beg your pardon?" Grand Feast asked in confusion at the stallion's words. He just chuckled and pointed at the tables of food, drinks and snacks.

"Your name. Grand Feast. It is a fitting name for you, since you are such a capable chef that could cook such a large amount of food for so many people. Not to mention, the great food, the smiles, the laughters, the festivities, does it not give you a warm feeling? That makes this, a Grand Feast in my eyes." As he said this the old pony took a plate and took himself a piece of blueberry pie and took a bite out of it after finishing speaking.

Grand Feast was stunned silent, she was not sure what to say. That her name, would be such a fitting name for her because of her enjoyment of cooking for many, had never been something she had considered. And as she was having this revelation, she felt a soft tingling sensation through her body, and she instinctively knew that something had changed. Her daughter would help her realize just what was different.

"Mama! Ye got yer cutie mark!" And just as her little foal had said, or rather shouted, was there a mark upon her once bare flank. A table with a white table cloth and a wide variability of food and beverages with a twinkling crescent moon above the table. She felt her breath hitch as her lips trembled, her eyes began to water and even as her girl jumped off Golden Cross and hugged her neck, she could not help but let tears of joy run down her cheeks as she started crying like a little filly as she clutched her daughter to her. She had been fearing she would never have a cutie mark, she was thirty five winters old, that she would always be a blank flank, oh the relief and joy she was feeling was wonderful.

Meanwhile, Golden Cross just silently ate his pie while watching the pair with a slight smile on his muzzle while their clan members walked over to congratulate the mother. *Sometimes, I envy how they are able to discover and realize their talents, would have been wonderful if I could have found something I was good at as a human. But then again, I would not trade away my experiences for anything.*

The rest of the evening and into the early morning hours, was festivities and songs, the Clans celebrated their new home and the recently obtained cutie mark of Grand Feast. Well past an hour into the celebrations, went Golden Cross home, leaving the ponies to party to their hearts' contents.

Entering and locking his wagon he made sure to take care of his teeth and laid down to sleep, unlike the earlier two nights, he had no dreams this time, just a dreamless content sleep.

Celestia looked down at the bonfires surrounded by dancing ponies from her tower, the music was carrying through out the entire city and the jolly tunes, songs and dances, warmed her hearth deeply to hear such sounds after so many disasters. She actually wanted to join in on the festivities. But she was tired after working for most of the day in improving her guards' training and researching on some of the runic arrays of her troops to possibly improve them.

So while she wanted nothing else but to go down, gorge herself of good food and dance wildly, was she too tired to do any of that and just went to sleep. Her dreams were uneasy and disturbing, the pain of her aching horn making it difficult for her to get a proper night's sleep.

A week had gone by since Golden Cross had arrived at Canterlot with the nomadic clans and pony settlers seeking to join the city's steadily growing population. He had managed to map down the entire city thus far and had found himself wandering the streets and watching the different ponies as they went through their daily lives. He was... extremely bored. While he was not all that.... active in his old life was he down right itching for something to do other then walking around the same street ten times a day, it was growing tedious.

When he walked past a food stand he noticed something in an alleyway. A small shape lying beneath a wooden box covered by dirty linen. Curious, Golden Cross walked over to the box and looked down, only to see a small foal, so thin that its ribs could be seen. Gently he gripped the foal by the skin of its neck and carried it out of the alley.

A guard was standing just a few meters away and Golden Cross walked over and gently cradled the foal with his right foreleg before speaking up. "I found this child, it is half dead from starvation."

The guard looked at him and spoke up. "We art unable to act or aid the homeless by order. We art only to act if them urchins and thieves break the laws. No fur off Our neck though, the world hath no need for more street rats." A swift hoof flew straight into the guard's chin and sent him with a loud crack into the wall of the building behind him. The unicorn guard fell down to the street, unconscious.

The street turned dead silent as the ponies stopped their activities to stare at the unconscious guard and the furious earth pony who had just knocked him out cold with a single blow. Gently lifting the foal by the neck with his teeth again Golden Cross glared at the downed guard. After snorting in disgust the old earth pony walked away from the now silent market and carried the foal down the street towards where he knew there would be ponies he knew he could get help from.

The little foal, a colt as it was proven to be, was sleeping even as his pelt and mane was being washed by soap and warm water in a large wooden bucket. Grand Feast looked down at the little with sad eyes as she washed the grime and dirt off his coat, revealing a white pelt and a red mane and tail. It was a miracle that the child was still alive. The Blue Grass Clan lived in the southern district to the west of the great gates of the city, and even if they were no longer Nomads were they still a clan and thus still family.

Some of her friends had cleaned the many wounds on the foal's body, it looked like he had been beaten and probably ran away. She did not want to believe that a parent could do such a thing, but she knew, sadly enough, that there were ponies with wicked hearts and intents who would not care of the consequences of their own actions.

When she had been outside her new bakery slash restaurant, hanging up newly washed table cloth with her fellow mare friends of the clan they had gasped when they saw Golden Cross gently carrying a small half dead foal. She had confronted him as of why he had not asked a guard for help, turns out that he had, but the guard was unable to help him since apparently the guards had been ordered to not act upon the homeless of the city unless they broke any laws.

She felt that there was more to it, but she did not ask, since she could tell that the old stallion was in a bad mood at the treatment of the foal. And she felt that she would not be very happy herself should he tell her the rest, nor did she want to be the one to explain to her little girl why the guards would not help a foal. Grand Feast just hoped that the Princess was told of this as soon as possible, the white alicorn did not strike her as someone who would let children be harmed or mistreated like this.

The little colt in her hooves let out a snort as he slowly blinked awake as she washed his mane and he blinked in confusion at where he was. Before he could panic Grand Feast gently scooped him out of the now dirty water and warped him up in a towel. "Hello there little one, We art Grand Feast and We art going to care for ye until ye get better."

The little colt looked at her with teary happy eyes and buried his muzzle into her fur and cried, and her heart throbbed in sorrow at the thought of such a sweet little one being hurt. If this did not reach the Princess' ears she would personally marsh into that castle and tell her, herself.

As it turned out, she had no need to worry, for said princess was just getting words about the incident on the square.

Princess Celestia was feeling a migraine building up in her skull as she tried to keep her composure and serene smile in check as she received the report from her guard captain of the Gate District, as her subjects had come to call it. Her left eye twitched a little and her smile looked a little forced, as she responded to her guard's report. "So tell Us if We hath heard thee correct Captain Straight Line. Thy guard was, and we quote, 'brutally struck down by an elderly earth pony stallion for not helping a useless street rat'? Did We recount thou tale correct?"

A dark orange pelted pony with lavender coloured mane and tail with the cutie mark of a white stripe lined over a graph paper, bearing the helmet and markings of a captain, spoke up. "Aye milady! We shalt have the cur punished most seve-" A magical aura surrounded the captain's mouth as he was about to rant and he found his mouth force shut as the princess' horn glowed and her forced smile twitched a little while her serene face looked like it was trying to not make a frown. The captain thought it was from the pain of the magic she was using, but some of Celestia's older servants knew that it was more of a frown of anger rather then pain.

"Oh do not bother speaking dear Straight Line. We art most certainly going to punish, somepony, for this most brutish and vile behaviour to Our little ponies." The word vile was practically vibrating with sweet burning venom as the princess looked upon the pony who looked smug even as his mouth was being forced shut. The surrounding Sun Guards and servants all noticed something that Straight Line had missed, she had to spoken to him, with his title of Captain. It would seem that the doctrines and behaviours of the City Guard would be given a very intense investigation and conversation in the future.

"Oh but do not worry any more about this matter Out dear Straight Line. We shalt tell thee everything once thou hath awakened." The armoured pony blinked a bit in confusion as those words were registered in his head. *Wait, what doest-* A white foreleg with a hoof decorated with a golden horseshoe slammed into his jawline and he was sent to the floor out cold with a broken jawbone. Celestia glared viciously at the unconscious pony in her throne room before, as if switching a light, she went into wide and calm smile. "Hmm that felt oddly satisfying."

A shiver went down the spines of those within the throne room as the princess turned towards then with that same wide smile and spoke up in an unnervingly serene voice. "Oh pardon Us, wouldst thee be willing to take Former Captain Straight Line to a nice and comfy stay in the dungeons?" Needless to say, the order was followed with much haste and much vigor.

Golden Cross looked up at the ceiling from his bed as he laid on it, the little colt he had found earlier was still severely malnutritioned and weak but apparently he had woken up and was being cared for by Grand Feast, at least that's what Happy Meal told him a few hours ago. But one thing was clear, the colt could not speak, he was mute. It was uncertain if he was mute from birth or through some other means, but until a proper medical expert could examine him was he being cared for and feed by Grand Feast and her clan.

*Great... now I feel guilty for leaving for my home so soon. I guess I will make up for it by visiting when he starts to feel better.* Looking out his window he could see the afternoon soon slowly settle down towards the horizon. He was kind of bothered by another matter, he had not been visited by Luna in his dreams for a week now. It was concerning, but hopefully had nothing wrong happened. Plus, he wanted to watch more of his cartoons.

So he laid there, trying to sleep, pondering a of what he should do tomorrow after visiting Grand Feast, Happy Meal and the mute colt. Perhaps visiting the training grounds of the guards, he felt like he needed some proper exercise.

"Why we not attack them ponies yet!? It been week since ye started yer silly planning!" A large shadowy shape shouted out from one side of a table, a large fist smashing into the battle map.

One of the non-large sized shapes tsked at his behaviour and spoke back. "Tch! Brutish fool! We need to act subtly! Celestia may be unable to wield her magic but she still art dangerous!"

The large shape just roared back in anger at the smaller shape. Pointing a fat finger at the location of Canterlot on the map. "So!? Just send one of ye little rats an deal with her! Even if ye little squirmy rodents no kill her, ye still can weaken her further ye git!"

One of the other small forms, who was just about to speak up, paused, rubbed its chin, before speaking up. "...That... that actually art a rather devious idea. Did not realize thou had it in thee."

The big shape went from mad to happy at the compliment. "Oh thank ye huhuh! Me go get some munchies!" The big shape then left the room.

The one who had been shouting at the larger shape looked around the table beore speaking up."...Well this hath been an interesting meeting."

"Yeah truly, who knew that lump hath a brain?" The third pony sized shape spoke up to the second large shape sitting next to it.

"Humph." Grunted the other large shape as he stroked a large object on his lap.

Two days went by and Golden Cross explored more of the city, he did not want to visit the colt until he felt comfortable doing so. Grand Feast had told him about the colt being shy and scared of strangers, he had told her that he would visit the colt when he was ready and not any sooner. She seemed a bit relieved by that, he was not sure why but he felt that she was growing rather attached to the colt.

And now the start of another day started when the morning sun shone upon Equestria and in the city of Canterlot were things becoming active as its inhabitants began to do their morning routines. St the edge of a park was a strange looking wagon resting as its owner kept on sleeping inside its walls. Well until a soft knocking on his door woke him up.

Snorting softly the elderly earth pony pulled himself out of his bed and cleaned his face with some of the water he had on a bowl on his nightstand. Feeling a bit more awake he moved over to the doorway and unlocked the door before opening the door. He blinked as he was greeted by a smiling Happy Meal and Grand Feast, with a small familiar looking shy colt hiding behind Grand Feast's hind leg.

"Ah good morning Lady Grand Feast and Lady Happy Meal." As he made a short formal bow the little filly giggled while her mother let out a soft chuckle at the over extravagant voice of the old warrior. As he straightened up he spoke up again. "How may I help you?"

"Well We hath a little one whom wishes to see thee." Grand Feast said with a smile and gently looked down at the colt hiding behind her hind leg. "It be okay dear, Ser Golden Cross art a kind soul. It be him who brought thee to Us,"

Slowly the little colt moved out from behind the hind leg of the mare and slowly walked forward and looked at the ground. As he looked ready to bolt in fear a hood gently rubbed his head and a warm kind voice spoke up. "It is okay lad. I am not going to hurt you, I will never intentionally hurt a child."

The foal seemed to relax and leaned into the hoof before pulling back his head and then hugged the other foreleg tightly, his entire body shivering as tears streaked down his little cheeks. Rubbing the colt's back Golden Cross looked at Grand Feast who looked a the scene with a sad smile. "I take it no one has come to claim him?"

"Nay, We art not certain We would want to let him go back to such bad ponies though." Grand Feast stated with a smile while Happy Meal, innocently ignorant of her parent's sadness, jumped over to the cold and hugged him from behind and laughed a bit as Golden Cross' large hoof rubbed both her and the colt's heads.

"Good. I will see if I cannot speak to the Princess or petition someone to send her a notice. Hopefully she will be able to make sure something like this won't happen again. I am sadly enough doubting it will ever disappear from society, but one can hope and dream." The old pony said with a sad smile of his own before he scooped up the two foals and put them on his back. The colt gripped his mane and looked around a little scared before seeing the kind smile on Golden Cross' muzzle and smiled a little while Happy Meal cheered in joy as the large old earth pony walked down the street next to her mother with the two of them riding his back.

"We art glad thou were the one to find the colt Ser Golden Cross." Grand Feast said with a smile as she saw the mute colt smile for the first time. "Thou hath a manner of saving others, even those most ponies would ignore."

Golden Cross just chuckled and walked towards the training field he had been interested in going to, he needed to get some exercise, plus, it would hopefully entertain the children. As they entered the sandy field there were lines of guards and soldiers going through stances and formations. There were no more then a hundred in the field, which felt a bit odd considering the field looked like it was made for for more then that. But then again, it could just be that the soldiers and the guards had shifts as to not leave the city undefended.

As they stopped to look at a line of soldiers hold shields and thrust their spears, Golden Cross felt that they had gotten a bit better since he first saw them. But they were far from decent and it was making his eye twitch at the sight of one of them fumbling with gripping the spear.

*Okay, let's not be too hasty. They could be just having a bad day.* As he said that came the drill sergeant and shouted out at the group of soldiers. "If thou lousy runts were not Our current best greenhorns We would have, had thee clean the latrines!" Golden Cross' face meet his hoof and he muttered and grumbled while the two children on his back looked at one another in confusion while Grand Feast tried to hold back a giggle as the old stallion started grumbling.

Taking a deep breath Golden Cross walked over to the edge of the field and put down the children from his back and down on a bench. He then walked over to a pile of training weapons, not even properly sorted, grabbed a golden staff of some kind and moved over to the Drill Sergeant and gently tapped him on the side.

"What doest thee want Civilian!?" The Sergeant shouted straight into his face, but after his, many, many, misfortunes in life, Golden Cross, was NOT taking any kind of bullshit and shouted straight back at the Sergeant's face. "I want, to teach you useless sacks of manures how to properly wield a weapon you misconceived pile of waste!"

The sergeant went stock still and silent, Golden Cross waited five seconds before pushing him aside, making the stiff pony fall on his side like a statue. The recruits, grew suddenly very nervous as the large earth pony walked towards them, tapping his weapon against the ground with every step.

"I am Golden Cross, I am not part of your military, but I am a Lawbringer, a Knight Order former during the Age of Chaos and I know how to wield a weapon. Unlike you sorry excuses for soldiers. So listen, and listen well, for I am not going to sugar coat just how much you guys suck at wielding a weapon properly." While most of them were uncertain what suck meant, they could get the idea that it was an insult.

"But I am going to keep this simple, if you people want to wield a weapon, you need to know HOW. I am not going to make you go through the same training I did, I doubt you would handle an hour before collapsing. So We are going to start off with the basics." Shifting his stance Golden Cross moved so he was standing sideways to the soldiers.

"Now, watch what I do, do not do anything yet. Just watch." He gripped his staff and then he shifted his hind legs so he was standing up right, making man of the ponies feel uneasy at the sight. "I can do this because of years of hard training, it was worth the effort for while we ponies are strong, are we not all that good at handling weapons with us being four legged."

He made a thrust with the staff, like it was a spear, first while on his hind legs, and then he lowered himself onto all four and made a similar thrust again, the speed and strength he used while on two legs was far better then when he was on all four. Golden Cross then began to show the soldiers the different ways to use a shafted weapon while standing on hind legs and on all four. This he repeated for an hour, the soldiers and his three companions watching in fascination.

Finishing the old warrior spun his staff and looked at the soldiers. "Now that I have shown you. Let's see how well you can do it yourselves. Repeat what I just did, to no stand too close to one another or you might hit each other."

Fidgeting and moving around a bit the soldiers got into a more spread out and loose formation before they began to try and repeat his stances. They could only managed the hind leg stances around ten times before it became too painful for their spines and they were forced to do it on all four for the rest of their practice.

Golden Cross nodded as he felt they were ready to keep on practicing on their own, and so he walked over to the Sergeant, who had woken up thirty minutes ago and just been staring, tapped him on the head and pointed at his now practicing troops before putting back the staff he had been borrowing in the piles of practice weapons on the field. The officer just rubbed his helmet, trying to rub his forehead to relieve his piercing headache, before sighing and just walked over to join his troops with the practice, he would make a report later.

Golden Cross walked over to Grand Feast and the two foals who were watching the soldiers practice, Grand Feast looked both amazed and amused while the two foals were looking on the training troops with silly grins on their faces. "I hope that was entertaining for you." The colt nodded shyly while Happy mean cheered about how cool it all had looked.

"How come them soldiers ain't as good as ye?" She wondered with curiosity glowing from he large eyes. He just chuckled and rubbed her head before answering her. "I have spent years training my body to handle the strain of standing on my hind legs, They have not gone through my training so it will take them a while, but for now will they at least not be as bad as they were before. Practice makes you better, not perfect however, there is always room for improvements."

Looking around the training court the earth pony stallion figured he had done what he wanted to do, as well as something he had NOT wanted to do, but just felt like he had to. So he hunched down on his four knees and smirked at the foals. "Come on, let's get something to eat. Practice is a decent way to build up an appetite."

Happy meal cheerfully jumped up onto his back while the little colt carefully climbed up. Standing up again Golden Cross looked at Grand Feast, who was smiling in a strange way, and spoke up. "Food for thoughts?"

Blinking Grand Feast got a confused look on her as she tried to discern what he was saying, then she figured out the meaning and spoke up with a sad little smile. "Thou remind Us of Our husband, he too was a kind soul. We just feel... nostalgic, watching thou cheer up the little ones."

"Heh, I will take that as a compliment, he sounds like he was a great person. I am happy to be compared to him. Come on, let's get something to eat." The elderly stallion said with a grin before walking away from the training grounds with Grand feast and the two foals.

"Say, do you have any pies left at your place? I could go for some pie." There was a bit of silence before Grand Feast's laughter broke out as the group walked back towards the Blue Grass Clan's living area.

A while later were the group back at Grand Feast's eatery and sitting on one of the tables enjoying a wonderful meal. Golden Cross was eating his own large blueberry pie with enjoyment while Happy Meal was trying her best to keep up with her new found friend the mute colt, who was currently making a rather good impression of a starving wolf. The little colt was eating like a raving beast, his muzzle buried in a pie and gorging on it like a predator tearing into a carcass.

Golden Cross just chuckled and swallowed his mouthful of food before speaking to Grand Feast who was trying, and failing, to make the two foals eat less savagely. "You know. We should give him a name, he has yet to write anything down so I do not know if he knows how to read. But it is probably for the best that he has a proper name."

Grand feast, currently trying to shield herself with a towel while at the same time trying to calm down the two foals, looked at him in surprise before nodding. "Aye. We thought so as well. We art not certain what manner of name though. We hath never heard of somepony being named by anypony except the parents."

The foal almost seemed to flinch at the word 'parents' but nobody except for Golden Cross seemed to have taken notice, the old earth pony pondered a bit while stroking his chin. "Well. There is always a first time for something." He then turned towards the colt who was looking up in confusion, his entire muzzle covered in blueberries and pie crust. "So kid, how would you like a name?"

The child looked concerned and a bit worried for a moment before his eyes narrowed and he nodded purposely to the old earth pony who smiled at his fierce expression. "That is a good face to have lad, and I am not sure if it fits you. But let us get back to the subject at hoof. I figured, if anything, it will be ironic and amusing to name you after something that is both grand and musical, for even if you are mute, will music always be something that you can create and play. It is a magic in itself you know. So how about it? Would Grand Music be a name for you?" The foal looked into the eyes of Golden Cross, a twinkle seemed to shine in the old pony's eyes and then the foal's fierce expression seemed to turn slightly tear but he quickly wiped his eyes and just nodded.

"Grand Music it is then, now try not to eat too much or you will get sick and throw up. And then you will not be able to eat properly for a while." The foal's ears folded and he looked a bit ashamed, but Grand Feast just wiped his muzzle clean with her towel and smiled at him. "It be a wonderful name, but tell Us Ser Golden Cross, why name him after Us?"

Golden Cross just grinned and chewed on a piece of pie before swallowing. "I thought that was obvious, why would I not name a lost child after his new mother?"

There was a silence as Grand Feast dropped her towel and she as well as the newly named Grand Music stared at him in shock. "W-what? But. We art not-"

He interrupted her swiftly and pointed a spoon at her. "Did you aid him?"

Looking startled she nodded and tried to respond, stammering while doing so. "Well yes, but only after thee brou-"

Interrupted again she could only gape as Golden Cross spoke up more "Did you feed, wash and nurse him?"

Blushing a little at the last words, but she had admittedly, done that since he had not been able to eat properly. And she was still lactating because of her body not stopping after Happy Meal's birth. How did he even know!? "Y-yes. But anypony would-"

Again Golden Cross broke her dialogue. "Did you, or did you not, let your daughter befriend him, as well as care for him? While keeping him safe and comfortable away from strangers?"

Looking very uncomfortable she rubbed her foreleg awkwardly. "B-b-but that be just sensib-"

Finally Golden Cross smiled at her, put down his spoon at his empty plate and rested his head on his two hooves, while the two foals looked at Grand Feast with wide big wondrous eyes. "Do you, or do you not, already care and love him, like he is your own?"

Startled, blushing and stammering Grand Feast tried to respond ,but she was finding it difficult to speak. Even if she had only known the foal for three days had she almost instantly wanted to care for him, he was so sweet and shy, he was wounded in both body and soul, just like she was. He was just as much as victim as she was and she knew that she needed to help him to get past it, just as much as she needed him just as much.

But she had not really realized just how much she had grown to care for the child and had not wanted to be selfish and claim him when he could have a better home. Failing to realize that she had already practically marked him as her own when she nursed him. She opened her mouth and tried, and failed, to speak a few times. Until she finally let out a small croaked, almost tear choked, response. "W-we. W-well... We... Eh.... O-ou....... yes."

Chuckling Golden Cross stepped away from the table and walked towards the doorway. "If that is not something that makes you worthy of being his mother, then the world needs to recheck its values. Now take care you three, I will be at the park if you need me." He then left the awkwardly silent eatery were Grand Feast was blushing up a storm while trying and failing to speak up to the little colt who looked at her with big teary eyes.

"We-we... Oh by Queen Faust just Buck IT!" The mare screamed out, throwing her forelegs upwards in a 'buck it' motion before reaching out and hugging the startled foal to her body and nuzzled his head. "If none want thee, We will gladly have thee. As Our Child." The little colt tried and failed to keep back his tears and he hugged the mare back while Happy Meal joined the hug, cheerfully proclaiming to the world. "Yay! We got a little brother!"

Outside Golden Cross heard the cheerful shouting of Happy Meal and he just smiled a bit sadly, thinking of his own parents, and how much he missed both of them, before venturing through the alleys back towards his home.

But unknown to him, were several dark shapes following him through the pathways in between the streets, the sun standing tall and bright in the twilight zone.

The disguised Alicorn noticed something was off when he heard unsheathed metal, a sound he had heard many times in movies, games and even in his new life on this strange new world. He tapped the earth and with his vibration sonar managed to spot his stalkers. Eight ponies, all of them unicorns wearing dark robes and leather harnesses, wielding daggers, throwing darts, crossbows and what seemed to be some kind of short rapier with a thicker blade at the base of the handle.

Looking around the alley he could see some crates, some barrels and a pile of worn down pieces of cloth. His assailants, not realizing that he had spotted them, began their next move. He heart the whistling of a dart in the air, he made a show of looking down at something behind a crate, making the dart miss him and hit a barrel ahead of him. He made another show of looking up startled at the barrel before shrugging and keeping on walking, each time he stepped her used his sensory.

A crossbow bolt was fired at his side and he made a show of walking around the pile of cloth, making the bolt hit the pile instead. His attackers were gritting their teeth in anger and he knew they would be getting reckless, so he walked over to the large stack of barrels and he made a show of inspecting the dart sticking out of it. When the eight attackers leaped out from behind the crates they had been hiding on and charged him, he pushed the closest barrel.

Silent Shadow had been an assassin for ten summers, and she as good at what she did, being a unicorn with mediocre power made her make up for that with finesse and physical skill rather then magical power. But when the political situation in the town by the Castle of the Two Royal Princesses went bonkers when Princess Luna went... well bonkers, things had gone slightly downhill for her profession. No one wanted to hire an assassin while on the run from a creepy forest and moon bound demi gods creating green slash back burning monster flames on the moon after giving the entire pony civilization the evil eye.

But now they had reestablished themselves a power base in the newly made city of Canterlot and managed to sabotage, steal and murder once again. Things were looking up and then a big golden opportunity had arrived. A cloaked stallion, a messenger most likely, carried a contract as well as payment. An elderly earth pony by the name of Golden Cross was to be killed and his corpse made into a message for the mare Grand Feast of the Blue Grass Clan while also demanding she abandoned the colt Golden Cross had given to her. If she did not comply, both her and her daughter's lives were forfeit. And it would be better for Silent shadow if they did not comply, she would get extra payment if they refused.

It had been an easy plant, an easy target. The old Earth Pony was walking through the alleys of the city without a care. And now it was the time to enact it. She signaled her fellow assassins to get ready, and then she saw an opening and threw a toxic dart straight at his head. Only for him to lower his head to inspect something. *Oh but for buck's sake!*

The assassins' breaths hitched as the dart impacted a barrel further down the alley, the old pony looked up for a moment before shrugging and moving forward once more. Growing slightly uneasy, and very irritated, Silent Shadow gave the signal for Bloody Wound to shoot him with his barbed crossbow bolt, the pain would be enough to paralyze the old pony for them to finish him. *We got thee now old oaf!*

The old pony turned around a pile of discarded cloth to inspect the barrel the dart had impacted just as Bloody Wound fired and the arrow flew straight into the mess of cloth. Two perfect shoots, two misses by chance. Finally having enough Silent Shadow gave the signal for them all to charge and just kill him. *Buck it! Let Us just kill him already!*

With silenced hooves they rushed forward, weapons drawn or levitating, when the old stallion suddenly gave the barrel he was looking at a push and the entire stack of barrels began to roll down towards her and her team like an avalanche of wood and metal. Unable to cry out in surprise with their voices silenced the assassins tried to avoid or stop the onslaught of wooden iron bound objects. But too many of the barrels rolled towards them and soon Silent Shadow felt her legs give away as a barrel struck them and she yelped noiselessly as she lost her balance and began to fall.

Another assassin tried to jump to freedom but ended up riding a barrel straight into a wall when he was unable to stop moving his legs. Two got buried beneath a pile of the wooden objects. Bloody Wound got one barrel stuck on his head and was unable to removed it as another impacted his legs and knocked him unconscious as his head, still stuck in the barrel, struck the ground. Then another found themselves assaulted by five repeated blows to the head by small barrels, they had barely the time to clutch their aching skulls when a big barrel slammed into them and knocked them to the ground.

She had barely enough time to see the rest of her team lose their balance and fall over or getting buried by barrels, when one struck her head and everything went dark. Her last thought being how she should have investigated the target before attempting to kill him.

After the humorous scene had been complete Golden Cross took a bigger barrel and pushed everyone of his would be attackers into it, making sure to remove their weapons. He then began to roll out the barrel from the alley and notified a guard. The mare whom he notified looked at the barrel of crooks in confusion, he handed her the weapons he had confiscated from them.

"These thugs tried to attack me in the alley, not rob but to murder considering they tried to shoot me first rather then threatening me for my money. I have rendered them harmless and leave them and their equipment for the City Guard to handle. Good day." Not giving the gaping Guard mare a glance he just kept on walking. The immortal in disguise was not too concerned about the attackers, he had probably made someone upset when he punched that guard or when he dehorned that bandit leader, not unlikely that he was being targeted for either of those reasons.

Unknown to him, were it neither of those incidents the reason for his unexpected afternoon assault. And it would be a while before the truth of the matter was revealed.

It had gone about six days since Golden Cross visited the training grounds, for the most part had he been trying to read the books he had gathered from the old shack. He had to be rather careful since the old papers were not very well maintained and would crumble apart if he was not careful. Luckily had he had the foresight of scanning each page with the Interface Screen he had with him, it was a slow process but he managed to copy every single page into fresh pages.

He would have to keep the fresh pages secret however since he did not want to make other wonder how he managed to reprint a book without magic or a printer. But he had managed to obtain a lot of information. The books did not contain the information about how to make the strange bronze alloy his new armour was made of, but it did give him plenty of details on how to make other things.

There were instructions on how to make a magical smithy from the ground up. How to create various types of crystals by forging base type gemstones in a magical fire. There was even some references on how to make Golden Alloy, something similar to the bronze he was using, yet different in some manner. It was all rather fascinating and was giving him plenty of ideas. But one page that made him, VERY, intrigued was the instructions on how to melt down Moon Sand to create Moon Glass. By the inscriptions was it simply like melting regular sand into glass, only that the resulting glass was as hard as diamonds and not as brittle.

There were several notes on locations were Moon Sand was said to be available. The Crystal Empire, the Southern Deserts and other strange locations. Apparently the moon shed a slight amount of sand every time it moved and it sprinkled upon the surface of the planet, carried into specific area were the wind moved. But he had no need for the small supplies of Moon Sand on the planet's surface since he had plenty on the moon itself.

He still had not managed to enter his dream realm, which was making him rather concerned, why would he be unable to enter his own dreams cape? Was something wrong with it because of the Elements of Harmony keeping him on the planet for a month? He could not figure it out and had to occupy his mind with reading.

But he did not spend all of this time just reading. He left his little wagon from time to time to visit Grand Feast and her children, enjoying a good meal and decent conversation from time to time. The little colt now named Grand Music was warming up to not just him, Grand Feast and Happy Meal, the rest of the Blue Grass Clan treated him with kindness and warmth and the little foal truly enjoyed it all.

Grand Music was having a hard time communicating with others but with some help from his new mother he was starting to learn how to read and write. It was a work in progress and Golden Cross was more then willing to give aid when the child wanted some support.

At the moment was the day bright and warm, the sun slowly turning into its afternoon position, sending its warm rays over the parts of Canterlot that had been shadowy or dark during the morning hours. Currently was Golden Cross sitting on a bench near the training grounds, watching the, now much more improved, soldiers go through their stances. He did not know that ever since his little training interference had all of the soldiers started to shift and adjust their stances to like that of the first group he taught.

It was like a domino effect and the officers and veterans were all baffled at the sudden improvement that one elderly earth pony had caused just by showing the troops some stances for an hour before letting them try and go through them by themselves. Truly it had all been a mess for them to figure out. But in truth was it a rather simple reason, motivation. The fact that an old earth pony showed such physical prowls and martial skill without the slightest use of magic motivated all of the soldiers to improve themselves, it had shown them that it did not matter if you used magic or not, with enough practice you could be someone great. And what better motivation for the young and the eager is there but the concept of fame and glory?

But that was all lost to Golden Cross who was just sitting on the bench and watching from a distance, next to him was Happy Meal and Grand Music, both of them grinning widely as the soldiers moved around in formation and going through their stances. He had intended to get some exercise himself, but Grand Feast had asked him if he could keep the children entertained while she worked, apparently her eatery had gotten rather popular, and he had not the heart to refuse.

He was rather curious as of why they never seemed to grow tired of watching the soldiers practice, had he been at their age he would have found it dirt boring."You two seem to enjoy watching them practice, any particular reason why? I mean, I am just glad they've improved from the mess they were a week ago, but why do you like to watch them?"

Happy Meal looked at him with a grin. "We think it looks cool! When We grow up We will be just as cool!" Grand Music just gave a shy grin and some nods in agreement, Golden Cross chuckled and rubbed the heads of the two foals who soaked up the attention like a pair of adorable sponged.

"Perhaps you will be, one day. But you're both already more special then any soldier could ever be." They looked a bit confused at what he meant but he just grinned and rubbed their heads again, making them forget his words for the moment.

Then the mood turned sour when an aggravating and obnoxious, male, voice broke the serene atmosphere. "Hmph as if such common born foals could ever stand up to the might of Our ancestral blood is laughable." Golden Cross did not bother to look at the direction of the voice and just kept petting the children, not wanting them to get sad. "Do not listen to the voices of ignorance and bigotry, there are no one born with more rights then others. All are equal in life, it is just the restrictions others would try to place on others and those you place on yourself, that limits you. All obstacles can be overcome, and no matter what you or others believe, there is never a limit nor an end, only a line that you need to cross."

The voice did, apparently, not enjoy being ignored like such and tried to rebuke Golden Cross' words with a scoff and snarky words. "Hah! Dreams art not part of real life. No matter those plain peasants want, they can never reach Our grand standard."

Finally Golden Cross decided that he was having enough, the two children did not seem to take the strangers' words well, in fact Grand Music almost seemed to want to hide behind him when he heard the voice a second time. Yet still not looking towards the strange he just spoke up again. "I would appreciate it if you took your stuffy attitude and left. Speaking ill of others, especially children, does not make you out as a decent or respectable person. If anything would I rather compare you a bully with a dictionary then a noble."

The stranger sputtered and spat like an angry llama and the old earth pony got off the bench and the two foals followed him, Grand Music keeping himself out of sight of the stranger as much as possible. "Come on children, let us leave." Golden Cross said before leading the pair away from the red, and still unseen, stranger, who apparently still could not find his voice, too angry to properly respond.

"Let's get you two home, Grand Feast has probably some of her goodies left from lunch." The sputtering voice snapped silent as the trio disappeared from the training field. As they walked towards the eatery, now named the Happy Eatery, they did not notice the stranger's reaction as he watched them leave. Not strange since they never took as much as a glance at his direction.

A unicorn stallion with a blue pelt and white mane and tail, dressed in a finely golden weaved decorated military uniform, watched the trio leave, he had almost not recognized the foal but now that he was looking more properly he could see the white pelt and red mane. On his flank was the mark of a golden medal with seven gold coins surrounding it in a circle. Frowning he walked away from the training grounds to a luxurious house near the central keep of the city. Once past the door he snarled and stomped up to an officer with bookshelves, paintings and a large ornate desk.

"Those stupid assassins failed! We though that accursed freak dead already!" Glaring at a large painting of another unicorn, this one an older looking unicorn, dressed in a golden armour, and snarled. "If thou hath not written off thy fortune to that little freak We would not hath to do what we hath to do father. It falls to Us to clear Our family of the cursed foal before he come of age! Nothing shalt stand between Us and Our rightful heritage!"

The noble then got a wicked glint in his eyes and with a burst of telekinesis he pulled out a book and began to check through until he slammed his hoof onto one of the lines in the tome and cried out in triumph. "Aha! Yes! We hath thee now freak! We shalt see thou cursed existence buried!"

Pulling out a parchment he began to write down a message and after rolling it together he sealed it with wax before stamping his family sigil onto the melted blue wax on the form he rang a bell and a servant, a mare dressed like a maid, came. "Hath this delivered to the Royal Adviser's Office post haste!" She quickly took the letter and scampered off to deliver the letter, the chuckling pony pressing his hooves together with an evil smirk.

The following day as Princess Celestia was going through her personal messages in her personal office, she was NOT going through paperwork in her throne room. Currently was she reading through a letter from a group of soldiers out on a scouting mission reporting the finding of a large beautiful waterfall to the north east of Canterlot, it was the source of the river filling the freshwater lake next to Canterlot Mountain.

There were some petitions on what to name the waterfalls from the patron, with them being the finders. She was not sure if someone would be visiting a spot named Neighagra Falls, but it was the better option of the list of suggestions the scouts had sent her, why someone would make the suggestions Big Butt Fall and Big Leak Fall baffled her.

She was pondering if they could construct a form of water guidance system for better fresh water, the water of the lake was not entirely clean to drink. And while most adult ponies had developed proper digestive tracks to handle the dirt in the water, but foals and elderly were more likely to succumb to water that had not been boiled or filtered clean.

As she was pondering what manner of delivery system they would use she heard a rapid knock on her door. Looking up from her paperwork the monarch spoke up in a absent voice before looking back at the report. "Thou may enter."

The door opened and a well dressed unicorn servant with a most frivolous mustache, pink pelt and lavender mane. It was a beautiful looking middle aged mare by the name of Solid Pink, her cutie mark being that of a pair pink throwing daggers on an open parchment. A former member of her Sun Guard's Scout and Infiltration Unit , now her personal Adviser and bodyguard. Giving the princess a salute the former Guard spoke up. "There hath come a message for thee Princess Celestia, it be from Lord Mighty Rich."

Rolling her eyes the Princess accepted the letter and muttered to herself as she broke the seal open and unfurled the scroll. "Oh what doest the Lord of Muck Talk want this time? We swear ever since We made him, Commander of the Bronze Soldiers, after his father, Commander Mighty Strong, unfortunately passed away ten days ago, he hath been insufferable!" Solid Pink made no outward reaction to the Princess' disdain but a hint of amusement could be seen within her blue eyes. Celestia read the message and her eyes widened as she read more and more and finally she rolled to scroll together, pressed her head into her hooves, and groaned out in despair. "Ooooooh why didst it hath to be legal! Curses! We should hath known that law would come back to bite Us in the flank!"

Thumping her muzzle into her desk, as to not hurt her still recovering horn, she waved the now opened letter at Solid Pink. The Royal Adviser read the scroll and her normally stoic and neutral face grew into a face of shock and outrage until she suddenly blurted out some rude words. "What in the name of the Gods' holy dung piles art he thinking!?"

The white pelted alicorn princess groaned from her desk ad bemoaned the stupidity on letter. "We doest not know!" After bemoaning and grumbling Celestia sighed and straightened herself up again and flicked her momentarily slackened mane back into its ethereal form. "Uuuugh, nothing We can do except to deliver the message. Lord Mighty is just going to have to find out how much of a pit he hath dug, for We art not telling him."

Solid Pink gave a short bow before leaving the Princess in her office with the now opened scroll. The Royal Adviser's face was back into its disciplined stoic and calm demeanor again, but there was a slight glare in her eyes. It was obvious to those who had served with her that she was in a bad mood and every one of the Sun Guards just stayed out of her way as she walked through the halls of the keep, not willing to get her attention on them.

Unwilling to bring an escort the Royal Adviser opened the doors of the keep with a toss of her head and a flash of magic before leaving for the open streets of the city. Not that she needed anyone to guard her with how she was the former top scout and spy of the Sun Guard. Why would someone need a spy in their own guard? It had become necessary to scout out the edges of the Everfree Forest to the best of one's ability to not get noticed by its dangerous occupants. And Solid Pink was one of the few who had managed to scout out an area in the forest and return alive, it had not been easy but it had allowed her to aid her fellow ponies when they fled the Everfree Forest almost a year ago.

Moving through the alleys she seemingly shifted through like a noiseless blur of pink, it took her barely an hour to travel through the city to reach her destination. The Sun Park located next to the Military Training Field, were the wagon of the one she was looking for was residing. She stopped when she caught sight of the wagon, it looked a lot more shabby then she had thought, it looked far from what you would imagine the home of a wandering knight would look like. But then again, reality is far more different then fairy tales, she knew it more then most.

Stepping forward she swiftly rapped her hoof against the doorway a few times before waiting. As the seconds went by she felt bit concerned that he might not be home. And she was about to know a second time when a voice spoke up behind her, making her jump up with a squeak as she had, never, been sneaked up upon before. "Good morning, can I help you?"

Turning around, clutching her chest, she saw a tall, very strong looking, earth pony looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "Wow... you seem awfully tense."

Shaking her head, Solid Pink regained her demeanor and coughed into her hoof to remove the awkwardness she was feeling. She had a job to do. She presented him with the scroll containing the matter of why she had come to him. "Pardon Us, We were startled by thy voice. Ahem. We art Solid Pink, Royal Adviser of Princess Celestia. We bring to thee, Ser Golden Cross, a Message of Challenge from Lord Mighty Rich, whom hath invoked an Official Duel with thee for besmirching his honour as a noblepony. if thou doest not accept this Challenge hath Lord Mighty Rich declared that thou shalt be Exiled from Canterlot for a year."

The old earth pony just blinked and looked at her. She felt a bit awkward, fearing that the old knight, had, had a heart attack, when the old warrior just sighed and unfurled the message and began to read it. She heard him mutter a bit beneath his breath before he rolled up the message and returned it to her.

"Tell that stuck up pile of a dung beetle's treasure cove that I accept his challenge, he can challenge me today if he is up for it. He has yet to voice the deciding factors of the duel, but I, as the challenged party, may pick the weapons. And I say, Free For All. Let him come armed to his asshole if he wants to, won't make any difference to me." He then opened the door to his wagon and entered it, leaving the stunned Solid Pink behind. She had been certain that the old knight would have accepted the challenge, he seemed like a proper warrior. But, he was far more... 'brutal' about this matter then she had imagined him.

Silently she left the park, glancing a little at the wagon as she left, curious as of why the earth pony was so confident in facing the Lord. Even if he was much older was an earth pony not often capable of handling the magic of a unicorn, and he had even left the Lord free to pick anything for the fight. It was very intriguing and she found herself pondering all this even as she started writing a response to Lord Mighty Rich, leaving out the less kind words. Although she was tempted to let the message remain unedited.

Golden Cross, aka Maleficus Victoria, was not happy. He had been coming home after enjoying a nice breakfast with Grand Feast and the children when he saw the strange mare knocking at his door. And after she recovered from the care he gave her, she gave him the news, the bad and the worse news.

Apparently there was a law about nobles taking insults to their statures to far and challenging others to duels to clean up the dirt on their good names. He was getting a migraine, he should have been expecting there to be such things though, this was not modern times of the human realm, these were the bloody middle ages.

Thankfully was he certain that he could handle a prissy golden spoon fed noble. But he felt like there was more to it then was being told, but he was quite certain that the Adviser had no knowledge of it. So that meant it was something not even Celestia knew.

He was going to have a bit of an investigation into this Lord Mighty Rich's personal area. There was something going on here and he was not willing to let it remain hidden from him, he did NOT want a fucking Red Wedding incident.

Locking his wagon from the inside he let his disguise as Golden Cross melt away into his black pelted and mangy maned alicorn form. Focusing his magic over his body he melted into a shadow and slithered out of the wagon. He would have to scour for information about the Lord before he approached his home. But hopefully it would not take too long, he would just have to make some less then noticeable inquiries to the locals, gossiping is, after all, common in all manners of societies and the ponies were no different.

Sliding into the shadow of a pair of gossiping housewives in the market he waited for a proper moment before making the voice of a young female appear as if in the distance, making it sound like a pair of mares talking while walking off in the distance. "Oh, what strange things be going on! Lord Mighty Rich hath been acting strange nowadays," "Indeed! We swear We saw him trying to enter the wrong house!" "May hap he not be of rightful mind?" It was cringe worthy making those voices and that olden speech dialect but he got the mares' attention on the topic of Lord Mighty Rich.

It took a bit of enduring the nagging of the two gossiping females, he enjoyed some talking but boy were those two taking it to another level, it would not amaze him if their words broke the stratosphere of the planet by the end of the day. But he managed to discern that Lord Mighty Rich lived in a large fancy mansion near the Military Training Grounds, close to his own home's current location. *Huh... fancy that, I am neighbor with stuck up nobles with skulduggery dealings. Can't say I saw that one coming.*

From there it was a relatively easy for him to 'Shadow Walk' through the streets until he came upon a large fancy looking house, out of a dozen other large fancy houses, not much of a mansion but it was to be expected since the insides of a city does limit property sizes.

How he knew it was Mighty Rich's house? The big sign on the golden gate of the fence with the words 'Mighty Mansion' tipped him off.

He shifted beneath the doorway and through the halls of the house. It looked freshly made but there were several furniture and objects that looked ancient in comparison. Made him wonder what poor sod was force to carry all that through the Everfree Forest during that horrible dark night.

As he shifted past a pair of ornate pine doors he came upon an office with a lot of extravagant decorations and expensive looking things. *Now then, let's see what you are hiding.* Exiting his shadow form Maleficus tapped the floor to sense the vibrations of the room, now with his senses enhanced by magic. It took less then ten seconds for him to feel and see the hidden latch in the wall behind one of the portraits. Not bothering to figure out how to open it he shifted into a shadow and slithered into the hidden compartment through the paper thin gap.

Once inside he looked around. It was a small space but he could make out a pile of papers, most likely letters, and some kind of locket and a parchment sealed with a wax seal like that which he had seen on the challenge note. By the amount of dust inside had no one opened this place for days, or weeks even. Engulfing everything inside Maleficus transported himself and his new found loot to his wagon through a rapid shadow transition.

Placing everything upon his table he made sure to transform himself back into Golden Cross before exiting the shadows himself. From there he began to read through the letters, but left the sealed scroll and the locket alone for the most part. Once he had read through everything was his eyes narrowed and glaring. He looked at the locket and lifted it up before opening it, revealing a picture of an elderly looking unicorn, a pegasus mare and a small bundle containing a white pelted and red maned unicorn foal.

"...Oh you are going to regret your actions Mister Mighty Rich, you are severely going to regret them." He muttered to himself before closing the locket. Marching into his armoury he began to put on his armour and strapped his poleaxe to his back. He then took a satchel and put the letters, the scroll and the locket inside before leaving his wagon. Slamming the door shut with his rear leg he locked it before stomping off, the ponies of the streets spread apart as the large armoured pony marched towards the keep of the city, even beneath his helmet they could feel the burning glare of his eyes.

The guards at the front of the gates crossed their spears as they saw him approach when his murderous rage filled eyes glared at them and made them freeze up. He walked up towards them and stared the two guards in the eyes before his voice rumbled out from beneath his helmet like a mechanical growl. "Open. The. Gate."

Wordlessly the two guards opened the doors and let him through, they would later deny having soiled the stairs by the gate of the central keep, not that their superiors believed them. They were grateful to only be forced to clean up their own mess rather then facing time in the dungeon for letting an armed stranger into the keep.

Celestia had just seated herself on her throne and about to call in the first petitioner when a loud ruckus could be heard from behind the great doors leading to her throne room. She could hear her guards and servants protest and scramble, only to be pushed aside, or tossed, she was not sure. Then the tow doors were kicked open and the two guards on either side of the doors got slammed into the walls behind each door, leaving them imprinted into the marble walls like a pair of hieroglyphs.

Out of the door came Golden Cross, dressed in his armour with his weapon strapped to his back. His heavy hoofsteps slammed down like the strikes of a church bell and his glaring eyes could be felt even beneath his visor. The lrge earth pony stallion stopped in front of her throne and gave her a bow before speaking up in a rumbling, angry, voice. "Princess Celestia, I, Golden Cross, Lawbringer, has come to bring judgement upon one of your subjects for crimes against not just the laws of society but the laws of kin and family."

She felt a migraine grow as the old stallion looked at her and she sighed before motioning for her scrambling guards to stop, she knew the old pony was a powerful warrior, he had proved it when she heard about him lecturing her soldiers and giving them instructions. As much as she would love to have faith in her guards, was she quite certain they did not have the skills to handle such a strong opponent, yet.

"We wouldst hath preferred being told beforehoof before thou barged into Our keep. But very well, what art the crimes and who hath committed them?" The old pony straightened himself and took out a satchel he had, had strapped to his side and offered it to Solid Pink who had been standing by Celestia's side.

As the her aid opened the satchel and began to read through the letters and broke up the rolled scrolls, her eyes widened as she read further and further, Golden Cross spoke, his voice cracking like thunder through the large throne room. "The crimes are as following. Blackmail, Forgery of Documents, Falsifying Legal Documents, Theft of the Grandest Order, Inheritance Fraud, Bribery, and finally the Mistreatment, Abuse and Attempted Murder of a Minor and Relative, to be more specific, the attempted murder of a Half Brother. As for the one who has committed these crimes, it would be the self proclaimed Lord, Mighty Rich, who has been trying to murder his own half brother, who was to be given his father's title and the majority of his holdings upon his death."

Dead silence. The entire throne room was as silent as a graveyard at night. Celestia wanted to react, she truly wanted to, but she had to admit that she was too much in shock to properly react. She had never dared to think such thoughts about her subjects, sure Mighty Rich was a braggart and a stuck up mule, no offense meant, but she would never had picked him for a murderer of his own half brother!

But she had to accept it when Solid Pink handed her the letters, letters written by Lord Mighty Strong to his Mistress, about his wasteful son and his lack of proper handling of military matters. The, now opened, will of the Lord, naming his Mistress' son as his inheritor rather then his son, who was still given a large amount of bits to support himself. and the locket containing the small painting of the lord and the mistress and the foal.

As the shock settled she felt a burning shame and anger inside of her and she shook her head before looking at the knight who had been silently watching her, she then spoke up to him. "What wouldst thou wish to do? We know thy order act in matters of Law, and We art willing to let thee act upon Lo-, Mighty Rich's crimes. But We art not going to let thee kill him in cold murder."

But the old pony shook his head at her word. "As I said. I am here to bring judgement. And since the prat was good enough to challenge me to a duel, I think we can put both matters to rest. One way or another." The old knight then pointed at the window, straight out at the courtyard beneath the grand balcony and spoke one final line. "Call him here."

Golden Cross then turned around and walked out of the throne room, Celestia felt her body slump as she felt a great depression rise inside of her. She had not wanted things to turn out this way, but she was not willing to just overrule the laws, that would only cause misery to her and her ponies. Even if Ser Golden Cross lost, she would bring judgement upon Mighty Rich, but she would let the old Earth Pony have his chance, after all, he had far more years of experience of such matters then she. There were few murderers or even attempted murders in her and her sister's kingdom, that she knew of at least.

Turning towards Solid Pink she gave the order. "Call in Mighty Rich, tell him his challenge starts today, if he should refuse it. tell him that then he shalt be the one to be exiled." She then stood up and left for the balcony, she did not feel like speaking to petitioners today. Even if she felt a bit shameful about it, did she want to watch the duel, she had not seen a proper duel since her childhood when her mother challenged would be suitors of her and her sister during the Age of Chaos.

Golden Cross stood in silence at the courtyard, a crowd was gathering, he knew that the word had been spread but it had been less then an hour and already had over a hundred civilians gathered. It was quite fascinating if anything, since it probed that gossip traveled faster then news. He did not move as much as an inch and kept silently standing there upon the smooth marble stone pavement of the courtyard.

He took a while to admire the beautiful courtyard and its surrounding garden. It was decorated with flower beds, two fountains, several dozens of columns, some of them holding statues of ponies. There were benches, sculptures and even a pond. Seeing the pond he felt a craving for bird meat and pondered if he should go hunting for some bird meat later.

That's when that aggravating voice he had heard yesterday spoke up and he saw the form of Mighty Rich for the first time, dressed in the golden plate mail of the Sun Guard, five weapons were sheathed on a leather strap on the right side of the pony's armour. Each of the weapons was a form of blade, yet each one was different from the other. "Hah! We hath figured thou a coward! Now We know thou art a fool instead! None could dare to oppose Our superior skill and gear!"

"Actions speaks louder then words. And your actions, makes you not a Lord, but a common criminal. And it is my duty to judge criminals." The noble glared at the earth pony, who had the audacity to insult him.

"Watch thy words peasant! We art Lord Mighty Rich and We shalt not take thy insults lightly!" Golden Cross just gave him a flat stare, the gathering crowd looking on at the two ponies, the tension growing.

Then he spoke up again. "As I said, actions speaks louder then words. And your attempt to not only destroy the Will of your father because of your wasteful ways speaks lowly of you. But the way you brought your half brother's near death by starvation and abuse speaks the loudest, and makes you less worth then the dirt in the ground, in my eyes." The gathering crowd gasped in horror.

Mighty Rich's nostril flare and he snorted angrily and reared up before stomping his forelegs into the ground. "We hath no brother! Even if We hath, We wouldst not waste a single bit upon caring for those born broken!"

Not rising up to the riled noble's words the old earth pony kept calm and spoke up again. "As I said, actions, speaks, louder, then, words. Now pick yours very carefully young one, for it might be your last chance. Now start it, so that I can end it."

His temper made way for his arrogance and vanity and Mighty Rich tossed his mane back and gave a laugh at his opponent. "Hah! We shalt not take thine mockery lightly fool! This duel is to the death, unless thee art coward enough to leave like a sensible dirt pony, i say thou art finished!" Once more, the crowd gasped in horror, things were starting to get ugly and the nervous twitching of the guards showed that they were feeling it too.

Sighing Golden Cross just shook his head, this fool had brought it all upon himself, now it was up to him, to bring him down as well. "And I say, you have acted, foolishly. For now this not your world of bribery, words, back deals, blackmail, privileges and forgeries little false lord. This is this is the world of the warrior, and here, I am the one who brings the law to the wicked and the guilty."

The noble just snorted and unsheathed his five blades, and started spinning them before rotating them around his body like a wall of rotating saws. And Golden Cross, pulled his poleaxe free and began his own preparations.

Spinning his polearm in his hoof the old knight slammed the pommel into the sand of the field beneath his hooves. His visor staring straight at the arrogant lord who was floating his five enchanted elemental weapons around him like a rotating shield of blades. The pony noble was totally confident in his strategy and it was making Golden Cross rather annoyed that he thought just standing there and rotating his weapons was going to go anywhere.

And then he spoke. "I, Golden Cross, judge you guilty of Blackmail, Forgery of Documents, Falsifying Legal Documents, Theft of the Grandest Order, Inheritance Fraud, Bribery, and Mistreatment, Abuse and Attempted Murder of a Minor and Relative. I dub you Kinslayer, I name you Child Beater, I declare you Fool. And so I shall bring Judgement upon you i naccordance to your crimes. In the Name of Justice, In the Name of the Gods and in the Name of the Innocent. Amen."

Standing up on his hind legs he turned his head left and right, shifting his bones into their proper order and then he took a deep breath before letting out slowly. Then as he finished exhaling he sprang forward like a gazelle, his body moving five meters in an instance as his left hind leg slammed into the ground and he spun his entire body, swinging his weapon in a large arc with the momentum, gripping it with both of his forelegs' hooves.

The axe head of the weapon slammed into the swirling weapons and sent two of them flying into a wall, the sharpened ends striking through the rock and embedding the enchanted weapons into it. While startled at the earth pony's strength was Mighty Rich still confident and he sent two of his blades at him while pulling out the two blades free from the stone wall.

And then music started sounding through the courtyard, and voiceless whispers began to echo through the courtyard as Golden Cross began to humm.

The Sun Guards had seen the rising danger to the crowd and quickly put up some barriers to keep anything from hitting anyone not part of the duel, it also gave them the option to shield the view of the foals trying to get a look by making the barriers darker in colour at the bottom.

"Hah! Thou strength might be mighty, but no dirt pony shalt overcome the power of magic!" The Lord shouted out tauntingly as Golden Cross shifted his poleaxe and deflected the blows of the enchanted golden blades with the shaft and blade of the weapon.

But the old earth pony did not give into the noble's taunts. Instead he reached out with his free hoof, grabbed hold of one of the blades, and pressed its tip into the ground at angle. The noble seemed about to gleefully taunt him further, but before he could, stomped Golden Cross down with his hoof upon the weapon's bade, causing it to bend like tinfoil. And with its shape destroyed, the weapon could no longer house the magic within it and stopped functioning.

"No! Mine ancestral blade!" The noble cried out in despair as his weapon broke. A blade that had predated the Age of Chaos, now broken by the hooves of a common dirt pony!

He then glared at the filthy commoner who had destroyed his heirloom and his four remaining blades started spinning faster and faster. His rage boiled to a steaming point as he screamed out in spiteful fury. "Thou shalt suffer for that thou dirt born mongrel!"

Golden Cross just spun his poleaxe and with powerful steady steps he began to move forward. His large armoured shape felt to be twice as large as in reality to the ponies watching, yet Mighty Rich did not seem to have such a perceptive.

With a wordless roar charged Mighty Rich at his hated foe, each of his spinning magical weapons aiming for the joints of his armour. The noble may be arrogant, self righteous, greedy, twisted and depraved, but he knew how to fight. But his opponent was far better. The old earth pony slapped aside the first two weapons with a swipe of his poleaxe before he spun his entire body, rotating himself as he moved forward, and dodged the other two weapons.

Then Mighty Rich's vision was slightly disoriented by the sudden blurry movement of the earth pony in front of him He had no time to react when a powerful hoof was sung forward and slammed straight into his breast plate. There was a loud resounding clang as the metal buckled inwards and the force of the blow made the false Lord lose his breathe before the power of the strike sent his body flying backwards into the air.

He slammed into a stone column with a loud clang as his armour softened his impact, but he could feel several of his bones creak in protest at the impact and the stone he struck was cracked with a cobweb like pattern from his impact. But he was sturdier then he looked and he was soon back up on his hooves and Golden Cross had to leap aside as the four weapons came flying at him from behind as Mighty Rich took gold of them with his telekinesis once more.

The unicorn charged his horn with magic before firing a lance of energy at the earth pony who just stepped aside, the energy beam impacted one of the shields and the guards managed to hold back the attack from getting past them, although it was fairly exhausting. This left the noble wide open and Golden Cross took the opening with a vigorous charge.

His hooves cracked the stone as he stomped forward like a charging bull, his head lowered, his halberd strapped to his side as he lowered himself on all four earlier. The large pony rushed forward and with the power of a runaway train he tackled the momentarily exhausted noble straight in the front.

He pushed the pony into the stone pillar a second time, this time pressing him into it with his entire body weight and momentum, cuing the noble to cry out in pain as some of his ribs cracked from the impact. This time the column broke apart and Mighty Rich flew a good five meters through the dust cloud as the column collapsed. While he coughed up blood and started to try and recover, was golden Cross moving out of the dust and debris.

Scrambling upright Mighty Rich launched two of his swords, which had been dropped when he was thrown through the column, and Golden Cross had to jump back as they buzzed past his head and neck. This let Mighty Rich recover and the noble pony took the time to plan a better strategy against the earth pony.

Seeing a bench he jumped up onto it and with his better altitude he began to coordinate his blades against the approaching earth pony. And as Golden Cross came closer he began to jump up onto benches, stone fences and some of the sturdier sculptures to get the higher ground and away from the powerful warrior.

The earth pony was undeterred and he moved after the noble with finesse and dexterity one would not have expected from someone wearing such heavy armour. The spinning enchanted blades kept his at bay as Mighty Rich got himself some distance from his foe. Golden Cross had to lean back to avoid it when the blades were aimed, or duck beneath them ,or move to the side, but he had yet to be hit by them.

By now was he getting fed up with the spinning blades, they had been buzzing around him like large angry bees and keeping him from reaching the noble. With a quick reflect Golden Cross reached out and grasped one of the blades as it tried to piercing his helmet. The noble pony tried to get it out of his grip but the physical hold of the weapon was too strong to break and the noble had no time to protest as the earth pony flipped the blade so it was pointing down and then brutally slammed it into the ground, impaling it to the hilt. No matter how much Mighty Rich tried to pull it out, it remained buried in the stone pavement.

Getting his momentum back the old earth pony rushed forward with powerful strides. Even as Mighty Rich desperately launched spell after spell at him, blowing up some columns and one statue, the old earth pony moved with swiftness and evade each shoot.

Then the three remaining swords flew at him from all directions, he deflected the first, dodged the second and buried the third into the ground like he had done to the fourth. Mighty Rich was getting fairly desperate as his most powerful advantage was slowly being weakened by the old earth pony. In his desperation he launched a smoke screen to get some visual cover, only for Golden Cross to erupt out of the smoke cloud like a demon for him to scream out in pain as the horn part of Golden Cross' helmet, slammed into his breast plate and cut deeply into his flesh.

Rearing his head back the Lawbringer tossed the screaming noble into a boulder, an apparent work in progress. The noble scrambled back, feeling his wound, while spinning his blades at the still approaching knight. His arrogance was gone and so was his confident, he was now desperately trying to figure out an advantage to win.

Then Mighty Rich ran away form his pursuer, he needed to get some distance and he launched spell after spell behind himself while constantly sending his swords back and forth like a shield to keep that monstrous earth pony at bay. Then as he approached the edge of the courtyard he saw a familiar looking unicorn foal, watching the fight along with a pegasus filly and an earth pony mare. And then, in his twisted mind, he decided to take the child down with him.

Golden Cross had kept a steady pace, not slowing down in the least. The attacks from the noble had not slowed him down and the swirling blades had gotten a lot less dangerous with how the twisted unicorn was not focusing a lot of effort into wielding them against, it made the pattern of their movements much more predictable and they were not as dangerous with how they were no longer aimed at his vital points. So when that rotten weasel suddenly made a beeline for the crowd, he instantly saw it. And without hesitation, he raised his poleaxe, and threw it.

Mighty Rich smirked with glee as the unicorn foal grew frightened at his approaching form. It reminded him of when he had beaten him up before throwing him out onto the street after his father's death. Oh revenge would be sweet, even if he would lose it all today, was he going to enjoy it to the bitter end.

That's when the spear end of the pole axe impacted his side and he collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air as his lungs were pierced by the speartip. The crowd screamed as blood erupted and several foals had their eyes covered. Which was a good thing, for Golden Cross came forward, his entire form darkened by the mid day sun. He grasped the handle of his weapon and jerked it out of the noble's body. And even as the noble struggled to ignite his horn with magic, he raised his axe, and swung it down.

The head of Mighty Rich rolled down the pavement before stopping in front of the crowd, his face twisted in a grimace of rage and insanity. There was panic and chaos from that point on and the guards had to moved out to calm down the riled up crowds.

Golden Cross just silently moved past them, cleaning his weapon, before seeing Grand Feast, Happy Meal and Grand Music, all of them cheering at him, with Grand Music's smiling face crying tears of joy. He pulled off his helmet and walked over to the trio and put the helmet on Grand Music's head, the horn cleaned, and chuckled as the foal tried to keep the helmet from sliding over his eyes.

Meanwhile up at the balcony, a sadly smiling Celestia looked down at the corpse of the former Lord. Pondering if she had been blind to the corruption of her own ponies or if it was something that had come up recently. Both of those possibilities, frightened her deeply.

A lone shadow moved along the moat of Canterlot, wearing a dark cloak, which did little to hie the long fluffy red tail sticking out beneath it. As the figure reached the stone bridge to the gate house it moved up to the edge and watched as two guards spoke to one another. Then a wagon approached, as the guards moved to inspect the wagon the figure moved, not past the gates, but up along the shadowy part of the left side of the gate house.

With clawed fingers the figure climbed up to the roof top of the gatehouse before leaping off the roof and landing on another, before moving from roof to roof, keeping out of sight from anyone on the walls or in the sky. The figure then entered a dark shady looking tavern named the Green Goblet by a roof window.

Past the window was a room with a large table, several hammocks and more dark robed figures. As the figure entered they all drew wicked blades and crossbows before relaxing when seeing the figure was one of them. Then one of them pulled out a large scroll and unfurled it on the table ,revealing a blue print of the Central Keep.

"We all here now. We all know the mission. We all know the plan, yes?" Some nodded some did not as the figure who unfurled the map spoke in a squeaky voice.

"Week from now there be big party planned, We enter big castle, two by two. Then We gather at specific points at inside roof. Then, We shoot pegacorn Princess Sunny with painful poison arrows." As the figure spoke it pointed with a clawed red furred finger at the areas of the blueprint an each of the figures watched intensely, they knew the price for failure to their leader. And they'd rather kill themselves then end up fed to the pigs.

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: Well then, Happy New Year and Merry Christmas. This was a tough nut to crack. I had to cut out the unfinished bloody battle sincei t was taking up too much time for me to finish the chapter. So hopefully you guys will accept a bloody duel at the end of this chapter instead.

Pinkie Pie: *Sniffle* Why must all these ponies get hurt!

Staadnauthursil: This story is about bloodshed, war and other negative consequences caused by your foolish actions, even if they were made drunk are they far too severe for it to be an excuse.

Pinkie Pie: But why all the suffering and pain! Why not laughter and happiness!?

Staadnauthursil: It is not all blood and gore, but it is a very important part of the story. Besides, even if my inserted self's actions may be down right idiotic or random at times, do some of them bring out good things. Like for example Grand Music getting the proper family he deserves rather then his abusive and murderous brother Mighty Rich, who gets a proper punishment.

Pinkie Pie: Okay... still not enjoying the bloody business though.

Staadnauthursil: I don't expect you to, but it is an important part of my story and I am not going to alter it to please those who cannot handle it. If someone does not enjoy how I write this grim dark and bloody story of medieval pony land then they are welcome to their opinions and they always have the option to not read it.