My oath had been spoken three weeks ago; during that time I had made it a point to continue my training regimen. Shining had proven himself to be a fair leader and I could honestly say that I enjoyed working with him. His version of leadership was something that I hadn’t really experienced before. It was refreshing, to say the least. He encouraged his troops to improve, yelling when it was necessary but never in excess.

I ended up seeing Shining almost every day on the practice fields. Conversely, I only managed to interact with Celestia a few times. Mostly at meals where she would ask any question about me that she could think of. I met Luna a few times, but it seemed like she was somewhat shy. She also had a slightly strange speech pattern that was quite archaic.

With Celestia I found myself entranced with anything that she wanted to talk about. I understand that she is the ruler of this land, but she never treated me as if I were beneath her. Whenever we spoke it was as equals, friends even. It got to the point that I became able to notice that she liked to play jokes on ponies reasonably often. I had to admit that it was quite humorous to see the varying reactions to her little pranks.

Now, three weeks later she called me to the throne room. As I entered, I took note of the construction that was slowly changing the room from a single sun focused design to one that added moons and the night sky. A second Throne had been added to the right of Celestia’s. It was presently occupied by the lunar princess herself. Understanding that this was an official summons, I made it a point to where my new armor; well it was my old armor with fresh paint; I will take work of Lord Hephaestus’ children over any other smith. The cause for the new coat of paint stemmed from when I had given my oath, Celestia had added me to her guard. Due to my new status as a guard, most of the time that I had spent in Canterlot so far, had been spent going through the standard guard training.

As I approached the throne, Celestia gave me a nod to indicate that I was meant to stop. As I came to a complete stop, Celestia addressed me. “First Lieutenant Mágos Schmidt, We have your deployment.” I snapped to attention, waiting for her to continue. This time Luna spoke “You shalt be sent to yonder Ponyville. Your task there will be of utmost importance.”

Celestia nodded then continued “Your assignment is to be the guard of my personal student Twilight Sparkle.”

To say that I was a little confused was as much of an oversimplification as saying that Cerberus was a large breed dog. How is going to a small town to play babysitter supposed to be a military deployment? I almost commented on that before I took a few moments to remind myself that they were both goddesses. They knew what they were doing. “Of course you’re Majesties. I will make my way there with haste. If I may ask” receiving the nod of approval, I continued “Is Miss. Sparkle expecting me?”

Celestia smiled with a hint of mischievousness in her eyes “Now where would be the fun in that. Everypony loves a good surprise. But do not worry lieutenant; her assistant Spike is aware of your arrival. He will make sure that you have a place set aside.”

I was a bit dumbfounded; she was using me to troll her student “permission to speak candidly your Highness.” She nodded with a smirk “You Celestia are a troll.” Many of the guard in the room tensed up at my comment. Celestia’s reaction broke the tension, as she burst out laughing. Her laughter was infectious as I too began to lose it, quickly followed by Luna, then the remaining guards in the room.

After we had recovered from Trollestia’s fun, Luna spoke up “Travel with safety Lieutenant.” I bowed and turned to leave; she quickly added: “And beware of the pink one.” I looked back with confusion on my face to find that both princesses had disappeared.

“Gods damned trolls the both of them.” I chuckled to myself as I left the throne room.

Making my way through the halls back to my room, I reflecte on the last few weeks. I had made a few good friends here. I would count Shining among them, even if he is my commanding officer. His assistant Silver Lining was a good guy as well. Silver was a cool guy in his own right, I mean it’s not every day in Equestria that you get a chance to meet and even befriend a Drony.

Most wouldn’t even be able to tell that he was different from a distance. Once you got close though, It became rather obvious. His coat was a light Teal color with his mane being a darker shade of the same. The edges of his primary feathers were highlighted with silver. The top of his wings were covered with bright copper scales rather than more fur. He also had slitted pupils, much like that of a dragon and rather impressive fangs.

His father must have been quite the stud. Seeing as his mother was the dragon. Personally, my experiences with dragons had never lead me to believe that they would be interested in anything other than another dragon, once again I was faced with another difference between Earth and Equis.

I had been a little upset that I hadn’t managed to meet up with Shining or Silver before I had to leave. But I figured that he had better things to do than see some grunt off to an easy assignment to guard some unicorn in a little village. Upon arriving at the train station, I was questioning whether or not to get on. The train looked like it had been made from those old pink frosted animal crackers I used to eat as a kid. (you know because I totally didn’t have a massive bag of them in my trunk)

Sucking it up and trying not to let my manliness get too bruised, I got onto the train. Four hours later I found myself stepping off the train with my trunk already having been offloaded from the baggage car.

I took a deep breath and was about to start walking to my destination when the sobering thought hit me. I began to mutter to myself “Of course you dumb ass, you didn’t ask where this mare is supposed to live, and of course Princess Trollestia didn’t give me the info. She probably did that on purpose too.” I started to walk off the platform when I bumped into a blob of bright pink; before I could apologize, I heard a loud gasp. I now found myself looking at what appeared to be pink clouds in the shape of a pony dissipate into thin air.

It took a few seconds before my brain rebooted I stated aloud “well that was strange.”

A voice to my right spoke up “yea, Pinks will do that do ya.” The scratchy yet feminine voice came from higher in the air. Turning to find the source I found myself looking at another mare. Her cyan coat matched rather well with her rainbow-colored hair, and her rose-colored eyes looked like she could be a descendant of Celestia. Much like most of the female population that I had run into, which for some reason happens more often than running into stallions, she was quite attractive in her own way, a slender athletic build… Okay so I’m full of shit, she’s knockout. She held herself with confidence, she seemed to exude an air of ‘I will challenge you to anything and beat you at it.’

I turned my eyes up from her modest chest ‘back off, I may be a gentleman but she is flying, and it’s hard not to notice considering she was only wearing a sports bra as a shirt. That shit draws your eyes’ to her face. “Yes… She seems to be full of energy Miss.?”

She laughed and provided her name “the name is Rainbow Dash, Fastest flier in Equestria.”

I smirked “Really? The fastest flier in Equestria?”

She grinned “Yep that’s me. And forget that Miss stuff. Just call me Rainbow. So what are you doing here?”

I cleared my throat “I am here on behalf of Princess Celestia; I have been assigned to be the personal guard of a Miss Twilight Sparkle. Do you by chance know this mare or where she resides?”
Rainbow looked at me with suspicion “I don’t know if I should, Twi never mentioned anything like this.”

I sighed with exasperation “She doesn’t know about it. Apparently, in all of Princess Celestia’s tolling wisdom, she decided it would be funnier to have me show up without telling Miss. Sparkle about it. She did, however, tell me that she notified Miss. Sparkle’s assistant, a young colt by the name of Spike apparently.”

Rainbow smirked at my response “Well I guess I can see her doing something like that if the ticket incident is anything to go on. And for your information, Spike is a baby dragon, not a colt. And speaking of the wrong species, what are you some kind of hairless monkey?”

I sighed, I was still getting used to ponies thinking I was some kind of hairless ape “No, I am a human. As far as I know, I am the only human in Equestria. I had no idea that Spike was a dragon, I meant no insult to him for the misunderstanding. Now if you would be so kind, could you direct me to Miss. Twilight Sparkle’s home?” She nodded.

I bent down to pick up my trunk, and she asked: “you need any help with that thing?”

I shook my head “it’s not necessary, I’ll just rent a cart to use for a bit.” She was about to protest when I added: “I could possibly manage to get it there without a cart, but no reason to tire myself out needlessly carrying it.” She rolled her eyes and stooped down to try to lift the trunk.

“I wouldn’t do that,” I commented

She scoffed and tried to lift the trunk. She managed to get one side about an inch off the ground before she had to let go “Holy buck, what is in that thing? Lead?”

I laughed and walked to the office. After getting a cart, I leaned down to heft the trunk off the ground onto the cart. Rainbow watched with wide eyes as I did so. “Okay, how is it that you can lift that thing? You're not all that bigger than me, and that thing must weigh a ton.”

I thought about it for a moment before answering “nowhere near that much. But I would likely place it at around 300 kilos. It does have all my training equipment in it.”

She gave me a blunt stare “what is a Kilo?”
I rolled my eyes. “A Kilo is just over two pounds. So that would put this at around…” I scratched my chin for a moment, doing the math in my head “about 660 pounds give or take. Like I said, heavy enough to want the cart for the distance.”

I started down the ramp as Rainbow flew up next to me “So...uh why are you looking for Twi again?”

“As I had said before, Princess Celestia assigned me to be her guard. I have the idea that she wants me to teach her some stuff as well.”

I didn’t notice the double entendre until Rainbow jumped on it, completely missing the comment about my being Twilight’s personal guard. “Ohhhh, I get you. You like the egghead types. You have good taste, if Twi were a bit more into sports, I would see if she was interested in a date.”

I stopped dead in my tracks “that’s….THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT. I MEANT TEACH HER MAGIC YOU PERV.”

Rainbow was rolling on the ground laughing; furiously blushing I keep walking down the street. “Fine if you’re not going to help I will find her home on my own.”

I was still muttering to myself a few moment later when Rainbow zipped up next to me “s-sorry about that.” She wiped a tear from her eye “you just made it too easy. Besides, it will still be faster if I show you the way. She lives in the town Library, perfect place for an egghead.”

Her comments about being an egghead were beginning to get to me “you know it isn’t very nice to call your friends eggheads. It’s rather rude.”

She burst out laughing again “Cool it Roameo. I’m just yanking your reins, and Twi is cool with it. It’s like if she teases me about being a jock. It’s all in good fun. Come one, I will show you where she lives.” She took off into the air and began to fly backwards as if she were swimming in water. Having no other options at this point, I followed. To be honest with myself I was rather impressed that she managed to get all the way to the library without hitting anything. As she flew through the air, my eyes were drawn again to her physique.

Her light build had signs of tone, while I didn’t notice a defined six pack; she did have a light tone in her stomach that hinted at one just beneath her coat. I attempted to keep my eyes focused on where we were walking, well at least where I was walking as she flew. Every so often I would look up to make sure I was still following her. Each glance up for some reason always left me staring at her toned a perky ass. I was almost like she was taunting me with it.

About halfway there she must have gotten bored and wanted to show off a bit. She began to loop through the air, twisting into different positions and shapes as she left a rainbow contrail behind her. I have no idea how she did that, but in a world of colorful talking ponies, I have learned not to question stuff like that.

It was somewhat distracting when she would show off how flexible she could be. Growing up around Dryads and Nymphs tends to broaden your horizons on what is attractive. Again, I would be lying if I said the rainbow-maned pegasus wasn’t beautiful. She had a confidence in her that was intoxicating. But at this point, I am only drawing conclusions based on what little of her I had seen.

It would be interesting to see what she was actually like behind the face that she portrayed to the public. We had been walking for about ten minutes when we arrived at the Library tree. Rainbow had been attempting some new move that she had come up with, but at the last second she must have hit some kind of turbulence and shot right toward a window. Seeing what was about to happen, I tugged on the myst to try to form some sort of soft barrier between her and the window.

I managed it, but only just. She still managed to hit the window rather hard. It didn’t break, but it did make a rather loud sound. I rushed up to her to check if she was alright. “Holy shit, are you okay, you hit that wall kinda hard?”

She stood up slightly dazed and looked over at me and shook her head “Naw I do that the the time” She grinned.

The door to the library slammed open as a purple unicorn mare came out with a fire in her eyes “DASH IF I HAVE TOLD YOU ONCE I HAVE TOLD YOU 1251 TIMES. DO NOT PRACTICE YOUR STUNTS RIGHT NEXT TO MY LIBRARY!!!!” Looking over at us, her face lit up with a blush now realizing that it wasn't just Rainbow outside.

“Twilight it’s been 1252 times, and this makes 1253. What’s going on?” the voice of a young male was closely followed by a small green...thing.

I could only imagine that this must be the baby dragon that Rainbow was talking about, drawing that conclusion I introduced myself. “Hello, my name is Mágos Schmidt, I would like to apologize for not catching Miss. Rainbow Dash sooner. I had not realized where she was going to hit until it became too late.”

The purple mare who I could only assume was Twilight Sparkle remained quiet “I am guessing that Spike kept his directions and didn’t tell you about my arrival.” At this comment, Twilight’s head turned to glare daggers at the small green dragon.

“come on Twilight, don’t be mad at me. Princess Celestia told me to keep it a secret. I still have the letter if you don’t believe me. She said she wanted it to be a surprise.” He dropped his gaze.

Sighing to myself all I could think was, Gods that kid looks depressed, I couldn’t take it “Please don’t be mad at him, I’m sure Princesse Celestia had her reasons. I believe that I know your name, but it would be rude to presume. If I may have your name as well?” I knew I was being a bit formal at this point, but she was kind of my boss at this point.

Blushing she responded “My name is Twilight Sparkle. Um...is there a reason that the princess sent you here?”

I nodded and added “Yes in fact there is a very specific reason that I was sent here Miss. Sparkle.”

She held her hand up “Please feel free to call me Twilight. I’m not old enough to be a Miss.”

I smiled “Of course Twilight, Princess Celestia asked me to come here to be your personal guard.”

Her smile vanished, and her face paled “S-s-she asked you to be my what?!”

My smile faltered “Um. She asked me to be your personal guard. Is there a problem with that?” I was beginning to feel a little unsure about this, I was going to stay until Celestia told me to leave, but it would be a lot easier if I didn’t have to fight Twilight on this the whole way.

Her voice wavered a bit "of course not. uh...where are you going to be staying?” I could swear I saw her mouth the words ‘please not here’.

“I was informed that Young Spike was preparing a spare room for me.” Her head once again locked on the young drake.

“What room is he talking about Spike?”

Spike shrugged, he seemed to have forgotten about his depression before “The princess told me about an extra room in the basement behind a bookcase that we could use. It had a bed in there and everything. the sheets need to be changed still, and it has a bit of a weird smell, but Princess Celestia told me it would be the best room for him.”

I wasn’t sure why but Twilight’s face seemed to flush at the mention of the sent of the room. “um, how much cleaning up in there have you done so far?” her voice seemed almost panicked.

“Well, she only sent me the letter a few minutes ago. I’m not really sure how he got here so fast, to be honest.” Spike looked over at me.

I was confused “Wait a few minutes ago? I’ve been on the train for four hours now. if you need help with the room, I am happy to lend a helping hand.”

“NO!!! ‘cough’ um. No thank you. I will go take care of it myself” She turned to Spike “don’t worry about it Spike I will take care of the room, just help Mágos bring his luggage inside. I will be up from the basement when the room is cleaned out.” Twilight shot into the tree and seemingly down the stairs.

“well that was interesting” I turned to Rainbow “Are you going to be okay after that crash?”

Rainbow grinned and shook it off “Naw man I’m fine, Listen I’ll catch you later, I’ve got practice to be doing.” She shot off into the air, and I couldn’t help but catch another glance at her magnificent ass.

Turning back I muttered to myself ‘girls got an ass like an onion. So fine it makes you cry’ I looked to see Spike trying to push the cart to the door and failing to make it roll. “Cool it, little man, I’ve got it." Walking over I grunted and got the cart moving up to the tree. Once there I squatted down to lift the trunk through the door. I may have been bluffing a bit when I made it seem like I could have carried this thing all the way here. This shit is heavy. I maybe could have made it three-quarters of the way here, but I would have been forced to stop at least once to rest a bit.

Spike watched with amazement in his eyes “wow… how much does that thing weigh?”

“about 300 Kilos.”

Spikes jaw dropped “No way that thing weighs that much, I don’t think Big Mac can lift that much, and he is a huge earth pony.”

I smirked “good on you for recognizing how much a Kilo is. That Rainbow Dash had no idea, but I’m not joking. This thing really does weigh that much. Technically at least it does.”

Spikes eyebrow hitched up at this, but I just waved it off. “Don’t worry about it. So should I just put this thing in the main room until Twilight finishes doing whatever it is that she is doing down there?”

Spike shrugged “I guess. No idea why she wanted to clean that room out herself. She always makes me do that kind of thing most of the time. I didn’t even know about that room. Not sure how she did.”

I decided not to dwell on it. Placing my trunk in the room next to the door that Spike had indicated lead to the basement I decided to browse the books on the shelves. After looking through them for a few minutes I found an interesting one that stated that it was in fact written by the resident Unicorn. It was a dissertation about magic and its function in the world.

She made some excellent points. Others I didn’t really understand or agree with, but I took her information with a grain of salt considering that magic was inherently different here than it was back on earth.

A few hours passed before Twilight made an appearance back upstairs. I had finished the first few papers in this bound copy and was beginning another when she came into the room. I hadn’t noticed at first that she had come back into the room, that was until she spoke.

“I-I’m finished with the room down… what are you reading?!”

She sounded a little panicked “I’m just taking some time to read up on the magic of this world. I have to say, if you don’t mind some constructive criticism. ‘she nodded’ your writing can be somewhat dry and technical, I fully understand that these are a collection of formal dissertations. But unless you add some whimsy only the most focused of readers would be able to make it through the content that you have managed to shove into this. I would also change your font to be more substantial. This first paper is at a page count of 50, when if written in an easier to read font it would likely be over 100 pages. I am guessing that you were given a cap of 50 pages and decided to shrink the font so that you would be able to fix it. Am I right?”

I looked up and noticed that she was blushing “yes. Princess Celestia told me that my paper couldn’t be over 50 pages. But it wasn’t enough to get my point across.” She sounded almost mad at me for making the observation.

“I can understand wanting to make sure that you get your point across. But frankly, you made an excellent point after your first 10 pages. I can understand wanting to be thorough, but at the same time you have to understand that most people aren’t going to be as intelligent as you are, and due to that needless reinforcement to be convinced when presented with a solid argument.” I kept my eyes on her as I gave my argument for a shorter paper. I noticed when I made mention of her level of intelligence she seemed to grow with pride but at the same time shrink away, almost like she was ashamed of her intelligence while at the same time enjoying the praise.

“Now I could be wrong as well. At least for me, it was fine to stop after the first 10 pages. At least your handwriting is better than mine. If I had written this, it would be completely illegible. I tend to write rather quickly, and it makes my handwriting rather messy. But from the first 4 papers, you have here you have an excellent grasp of magic. There are some sections that I would disagree with. However, that could be influenced on whether or not magic is the same here as it is where I’m from.”

It must have been at this point that I managed to snap her out of her stupor because it was only at this point that she seemed to notice that I wasn’t a stallion. “Wait a minute, what do you mean where you are from? You don’t look like any pony that I have ever seen before. You’re obviously not a dog, minatory, naga, or griffin. So… what are you?”

I smiled “I am what is called a Human. I was brought here a little over a month ago. I’ve been in Canterlot up to today. Princess Celestia assigned me to be your personal guard, and likely she wants to see if you would be capable of learning my kind of magic.”

As soon as I mentioned a new kind of magic her eyes lit up again “what kind of magic?” I swear it was like looking at a child right after you told them that they were getting a present.

Adding a little flare to my actions, I summoned a glass of water “this kind of magic.” Her eyes shot open.

“You didn’t charge any kind of spell, how did you do that?!”

I smirked “my magic is not my own. I use raw magic.” Her pupils shrank.

“That isn’t possible. Magic can only be used after it is refined through a catalyst, something like a unicorn’s horn.” I gave her a deadpan look.

“With that line of logic, how did I just summon this glass of water? As you can see, I don’t have a horn, and I don’t have any other kind of catalyst that I channel magic though. Now to be honest with you, it can be easier to do it with a catalyst. However, by not using one, you have far more options on how to use it.” Her eyes seemed to brighten; I could tell that she wanted to learn.

“do…do you think you would be able to teach me how?” She sounded hopeful. Again I draw a comparison to a child that had been shown a plate of cookies.

I nodded “I think that is one of the reasons that Princess Celestia sent me here in fact.” It will be some time before I can begin though. I think the first area that we are going to want start with is having you experience what it is to not be surrounded with ambient magic first. Once you get used to not feeling magic around you at all times. It will be easier to feel it once you’re flooded with it again.”

Her eyes sparkled with joy “yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!” As she repeated herself, she danced around in place, and I once again got to observe a rather attractive Mare bounce around. Gods these mares are attractive. Where Rainbow was lean and toned, her bust seemed to be a pleasant handful; Twilight had some rather lovely curves. She wasn’t even close to voluptuous, but she did have a beautiful figure eight figure going for her. Nice hips, a pleasant rack and a nice looking ass. I had to shake my head, ‘stop ogling all the mares in this town you perv. You already yelled at Rainbow for this. Fuck I just know that Celestia knew about this. Now our dinner conversations about what I found attractive were for. Queen of the trolls and her sister is no better.’

Bringing myself out of my perverse thoughts I decided to ask “So why was it that you didn't ask Spike to clean that room down there? From what he said, he didn’t even know about that room till after the Princess told him about it?”

Twilight seemingly lost in her joy at the thought of learning new magic answered without thinking “Oh that was the room that I would use for private study and for waiting out my estrus each year.” Right after the words left her lips, she realized what it was that she just told me and her face lit up like a Christmas tree.

Now I had heard of the term estrus before, but there was no way that it meant the same thing here. I mean ponies are fully sentient beings on this world. That kind of thing would have been phased out a long time ago, right.

“I’m sorry about taking your private study room. If it’s too much of a bother, I can look for other lodgings in a few days. You know to minimize the impact on your life.”

Her face was still beet red. “n-no that’s fine. If the princess wants you to live here, I will just adapt.”

She showed me down to the basement as well as the bookshelf that covered the door. I have to admit that I was kind of excited to be living behind a secret door. I loved this James Bond kind of shit when I was a kid. After setting the trunk at the end of my bed, I decided to lie back and meditate for a while.

After sitting for around 30 minutes or so I noticed that this room had some spells placed on it. “That’s curious, let’s see here” probing out I began to try to decipher them “let’s see here, there is an ambient temperature spell, likely to keep the room comfortable, a cleaning spell on the floor, and a soundproofing spell.” Thinking to myself again “that is a strange combination of spell for a room guess she wants her privacy when studying.”

It was during this meditation that I noticed a delightful aroma it seemed to be a mixture of lavender, paper, ink and a fourth sent I couldn’t place. It was almost musky but not unpleasant. “I wonder if she scented the room with something. Meh, guess I’ll ask her about it before I leave to go get an evening meal.”

At this point, I had been downstairs for a few hours, and it was beginning to get late. Kicking back I decided to go back upstairs and hunt for a sandwich or something, as I got to the top of the stairs I observed Twilight sitting at her desk in the corner of the room. “Hello Twilight, just wanted to let you know that the room is great. I’m sure the floor scrubbing spell took a lot of time to perfect. I have to say good work on that. I’m going to head out for a little to get some food, would you like me to pick something up for you?”

She seemed to beam at the praise for the spell “if you don’t mind I would enjoy an FLT.”I looked at her with confusion for a moment before she realized that I didn’t know what that was. “Oh sorry, an FLT is a flower lettuce and tomato sandwich. I like daisies.”

I smirked and turned to the exit. Turning back to her right as I left the room I commented “Sure I will grab a sandwich for you. Funny I thought you would have been more of a lavender mare. Thanks for adding the sent to the room. It smells great.” With that, I left the tree and ventured out into the village to find food.

Back in the library tree Twilight sat there with confusion on her face “Lavender? I never sent……. OH, MY GODDESS HE COULD SMELL IT!”