My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty Four: The Best and the Brightest.

“I demand an explanation for this farce!” The well dressed mare said as she was being taken away by the guards out of the building that become the training hall. “Surely this can’t be the stallion that Celestia put in charge of the largest estate in Equestrian history?!”

Dustan sighed as he leaned against a wall. This had not been the first of those types of nobles surprised that a none-pony had risen up to high in the ranks of their society. Many had come to the castle thinking that maybe it was an oversight or some kind of typo in the decree but in the end had all nearly acted the same. They had come there to hobnob with suddenly the largest landowner and get in his good graces, and some mares into his bed, only to find that the letters had been right. The worst were the ones that didn’t even read the full thing before coming there.

It had been almost a week since he returned and he had found out that a few of those that normally always resided in the castle were missing. Sturdy had been called away to a job from Allure and Eden went with him. Zecora had gone on one of her herb gathering ventures meaning she had to take a train to go someplace where the herbs grew. Tremor had vanished leaving a note saying that a kin of his requested his presence. That left only a handful in charge and Dustan found them…slacking. When they were asked about it, besides the aspect of a break many of those not in charge said that without him there before and the lack of guidance as well no goals they felt unmotivated.

“Here is my amount of the scavenger hunt!” A mare’s voice called out as she dumped her supplies onto the table. “I still can’t believe it, FINALLY!”

Of course she would be motivated after all she was practically his biggest fan. It was the weird feathery mare, which he assumed was part parrot or something and pony, that had gathered the requested supplies first. In order for Dustan to get them all motivated he finally decided to give them a task that wasn’t training and something that was kind of promised so long ago when they started to show up. He sent them out to gather the requested herbs and such for a particular poultice one only he could make.

He was going to try to teach them how to make the Squire ability, or item that it seemed to be in this world, Salve. The instant every recruit heard that and what was needed, they all zipped off to the forest. He had warned them that if they brought back the wrong items that they wouldn’t participate at all as it was bad to rip out other plants needlessly, so he hoped that would deter over eagerness. The time limit to get enough for at least one batch was one hour and as of the moment only fifteen minutes had passed and only the one mare had passed though that would change rapidly from moment to moment as the minutes passed so did the recruits with the proper ingredients.

When the hour had passed by Dustan was rather proud to announce only five participants had failed, and not for ripping out the proper plants but because they couldn’t find all the ingredients. “Here you five go, from my personal supply.” He had never intended anyone to be barred from trying to learn this today except if they pulled the wrong plants. When the five saw him bring those supplies out and give hand them out, to them they seemed like it was a drink of water for a man dying of thirst with how they praised him for his generosity.

The whole time Mystic was taking notes, after securing his portion of supplies that was, about what was to be going on today. “It seems like we are all ready Lord Warner.”

This was likely one of the ONLY times he would allow the dapple patterned mini-horse to call him by title since he was acting in official duty as teacher. “Alright everyone I am going to pass out the script for the mixing, you will follow the instructions on that to the letter however you will not start that just yet, for now just read it over and get it as close to memorized as possible.”

“Can I copy the notes to review later?” A purple hoof from the back called out that confused the human to no end.

When he rounded the corner to look he found, not just one extra student but a few. “Um Twilight when did you arrive, as well as with the others?”

Twilight looked a bit sheepish while the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked excited to try something new for their marks. “Well yesterday when you came in asking where to get a good supply of paper to write on as well as things to write with I figured something good was about to happen so I may have popped in every now and then to check and then I heard your announcement about teaching and may have went out to gather the items you requested.”

“Then we saw Twilight in the forest talking to herself and thought this would be a perfect chance for our cutie marks.” The little winged pegasus that was Scootaloo said with her wings buzzing in excitement.

Sighing to himself and shrugging. “Sure why not, in fact it actually may be good that you four are here.” He had a bit of a bet going with himself on why it was that no pony seemed to be able to do Neutral magic anymore and could only do Harmonic. Waiting for about fifteen minutes he watched as each of his ‘students’ read over the instructions. Some like Twilight even went about mimicking the actions needed to take for the recipe, not a bad idea in fact.

“Sir?” Turning around it was the cloaked magical teaching pony Violet Glow, someone Dustan had been wanting to talk to but didn’t ever seem to find the time. “Though I am not participating may I oversee the use of new magic, or would it be the rediscovery of old magic.”

“Sure and hell if I know.” Dustan told her simply before turning back to the rest after handing her a copy of the instructions if she wanted to go over them later. “Alright everyone, you have the instructions in your head now comes the second part of the lesson: Magic.” A distant squeal came from a certain treebary horse as that word was spoken. “Most of you are familiar with magic intimately because you use it in your everyday activities even for just holding things. You use your magic through your hooves, your wings, your horns and more all to mix with the environments and to produce effects, which is the basis of Harmonic magic more or less.” There were several scribbling notes among the pegasi and the earth ponies as well as some of the extra species that were part of the guard as likely most of them minus the unicorns had never learned this before. “Problem is that is not the magic I use.”

Many called out at that point, least the ones who didn’t know, which considering was most of them. “But we see you use magic all the time sir!”

Holding up a hand and having a bit of fire come into existence above it Dustan smiled. “Yeah, you are right. Except mine isn’t Harmonic, nor is it Chaotic magic. Mine is the middle ground of Neutral magic. Harmonic you use your magic and mix it with the environment to produce the effects you want. Chaotic is the opposite in that you use your magic to take control of the magic and forcefully shape it to your will. Neutral as I said is the middle ground in that you do neither. You use JUST your magic to produce the effect. From what I am told it means your wellsprings of magic need to be a lot higher to produce effects, but I don’t think that is the case. Or at least it’s my theory that isn’t the case.” Moving over to Twilight he smiled. “Mind making a flame like this with your magic?”

“Oh sure.” Happy to use her magic in a demonstration like this her glow came up then a fire above her horn sparked into life.

“Now statistically that should use less magic then what I am doing right now since it is mixing with the natural magic of the world right?” Many nodded their heads at that. “I think that is mostly correct too. However the part about needing much higher wellsprings THAT is the part I think is incorrect. I think by nature all ponies, or at least all ponies today, are more aligned with Harmonic magic in general so it’s easier for them to use magic that way. I have been reading up on some books about magical nature when it comes down to the elements on how some unicorns find fire or water magic easier but other types harder.”

Violet came over and seemed to be in thought under her hooded robe. “So you think that is a nature problem in that because we are fighting against our inclined nature that we subconsciously use more magic or that we don’t use what we send out as efficiently.”

Blinking for a moment before smiling he pointed to her and nodded. “That is exactly right.”

For a moment the hooded unicorn’s teeth could be seen in the dark of her cloak as she smiled before she suddenly looked to the guests. “I see, that does make sense now on why they are here.”

Grinning brighter, Dustan smiled. “Right.” Twilight and the Crusaders though were confused. “Twilight you are an established mage, a Magister in fact.” When she gave a nod to that he continued. “I suspect you will likely have the hardest time in this lesson. While the Crusaders will have the easiest time.”

Ms. Bookhorse suddenly looked upset at that and came to her hooves. “What why?”

“It is simply for the fact that you are over-trained.” Looking confused Dustan continued. “Every unicorn, and to the lesser extent other pony races, were all taught to do certain things via training, whether that be levitation, cloud moving, or what not. Because of that going against your training is rather hard. You will literally have to be breaking your habits in order to do this exercise correctly and likely every bit of you will say some of this is wrong on instinct.”

Sitting back down Twilight had a hoof to her chin. “Except those who haven’t had it trained into them like these fillies.”

“Exactly.” Moving back to his area to oversee things Dustan went back to the start of his explanation. “So that brings us here on how to use Neutral magic. Truth is, I use it naturally this way, but if I had to tell you how to use it, just push your magic out without trying to mix it. When you are crushing the herbs, mixing the water, whatever you do, let out a small bit of your magic into everything you do. I am not sure if you use any Harmonic magic if it will corrupt the results but we will see won’t we. So for those that want to go straight into hard mode, don’t use any Harmonic magic; that would mean even holding items with your hooves.”

Many started to complain at that as he waved and wished them luck. “Wait does that mean you aren’t supervising us?”

Surprisingly that came from Apple Bloom. “Nope, some of you might get too nervous if I am overlooking every tiny thing, meaning you might push out too much magic or try to do harmonic magic subconsciously so for pure results I am going to go into another room and have a cup of hot cocoa. Make as many batches as you can with the ingredients you have though after each batch make sure to write down what you did or what you felt that way when I come back and it turns out one method of yours actually worked then hopefully we can reproduce that.”

While Dustan sipped his cocoa and nommed on some of the marshmallows that came with it he was rather enjoying today, minus the noble at the start. Truthfully while he was hoping to teach them eventually, he had little to no hopes for it to happen in one sitting maybe not even a month. Sadly that meant a lot of those ingredients would go to waste because of that but it was in the name of progress right? There was also the fact he had not told any of them that Zecora and Eden had managed a good little farm for growing every bit of the ingredients for Salve already so they had plenty of extra. However it was good experience for them to find the stuff in the wild.

“KWEH!” Chuckling at the excited noise his growing Chocobo was making as she had finished her lunch he gave her a good scratch. Boko was getting to be huge. Already she was almost as tall as him now and try as she might to flop into his lap like before, he just couldn’t handle the weight as well, so now she had to settle for doing as she did now and placing her head on his lap.

Sighing and standing up he told her. “As nice as a nap against you would be right now I have stuff to do girl. Maybe afterwards we can go for a run or something.”

Hearing that the Chocobo pranced around making happy noises making the human laugh and give her a hug before he started to head back to the dining hall, or what would be said hall in the future, where the students were currently trying to make the Salve. While on the way back Dustan contemplated one of the jobs he had unlocked when he went to the Classroom, Orator. It was basically a job that used talking to do its magic and while it was a great class in the game, here he had some problems with it. One, if it worked like in the game he could basically subvert free will whenever he pleased, he hated that idea with a passion. There was also the other fact that it came into play form the classroom MASTERED. That honestly scared him but in a way he could understand why it was that it did. It was just talking and adding a bit of magic to your words, honestly if he had tried he likely could have done so before without the job, but now that his understanding of it came from the armor stand he could see how easy it was.

Putting it in the back of his mind for now he came down the stairs into the dining room and looked to find most either finishing up or having already done so. “Alright everyone, if you are completely done raise your hand when I ask for the next person and I will come check your progress.” Using his Tactical Eye he found so far no trace of a single one making a successful Salve of the ones that had finished. Of the ones left were Twilight, the Crusaders, Mystic, Summer Breeze the weird feather pony, and Fading Dawn the deer pony. “Take your time and finish up I am not going anywhere.”

“Sir, did none of the guards really not make any of the item?” Glow asked him as he found a chair to sit down in with Boko making herself comfortable within petting range.

Giving a scratch to his loyal Chocobo’s head he shook his head. “’Fraid not. Though I honestly don’t expect anyone to make it their first try nor second. This lesson might take a month or more to produce results if it ever does.”

Violet looked at him with her eyes widening under her hood. “Are you saying you aren’t sure if we can even learn your magic?”

“No use in wondering what might or might not be, because if you don’t try you will never know.” Deciding to relax for the remainder of the time he pulled out his music box and let it start to play. He could already feel himself sinking into that relaxed frame of mind as he spoke with his eyes closed. “Sometimes it’s about the journey to discover then what you actually discover at the end.”

“Maybe, but still, done they have a right to know?” Violet made a good point but he still shook his head.

“Sometimes giving someone the impression they will fail from the start makes it predetermined to happen because that is what they expect. I want them to expect success and be daunted when they don’t get it. To steel them to keep trying in pursuit of that victory that eludes them.”

Twenty more minutes passed before he heard anything though he heard Glow tell him. “Sir the last one has finished now.”

“Good.” He said opening his eyes. Almost instantly his grip on the armrests of the chair tightened as he caught sight of the Classroom fade from his vision. ‘Ok I didn’t imagine it that time. The stands and the checkerboard pattern were there and I clearly wasn’t asleep. Is it a mind setting thing? Do I have to be in a certain frame of mind?’ Looking down at his music box as it slowed to a stop he made a mental note of things before putting it away.

The closest one to him to be checked was Fading Dawn, she looked sheepish but when he shook his head she looked like she was about to cry. “Sorry I couldn’t do it.”

Giving her a pat on the head he smiled “Hey its fine, I am sure you will get it in time.”

Next was Mystic Quandary who looked excited to be judged though with a hint of nervousness with how he shuffled his feet. “Well did I make any?”

“Sorry, but no.” The human told him after checking his results. The earth pony gave a sigh but didn’t look defeated. “Alright Twilight you are next.”

Twilight proudly presented all her results with detailed notes on how she made each of them, while it was nice the bowl that was on fire concerned him. “This is just like cooking in a way.”

As she said that the other bowls somehow caught fire. “Umm Twilight that isn’t supposed to happen.”

“Oh then does that mean I did something even more rare and new?” The mare acted like a filly who had just presented their parent with a drawing of their favorite animal not knowing just how bad it was.

“Blizzard.” The ice magic quickly flowed out to extinguish the fires…except after a second they flared back up. “I don’t even know how you did this Twilight. Also no, that isn’t a good thing as far as I can tell so can you put the fires out please?”

“Oh.” Suddenly all that mirth turned into a sheepish apologetic grin before her horn lit up and extinguished all the fires at once. “Sorry about that.”

“Its fine…I think.” He didn’t like how the mush in the bowls were now purple and bubbling. “Can you perhaps seal those in something so no one can get to them before we have someone examine them. They look dangerous.”

She did so with a blush on her face from the embarrassment sealing them into glass mason jars. “Sorry.”

Hearing that last sorry, Dustan went over to the Crusaders next. “Ok you three show me what you go.” When he made that statement all three proudly displayed what they had gotten. The early batches were somehow made of pine sap, he didn’t question it considering who made them, but as the batches progressed it was clear to see they were making progress. At least till near the end as the last few batches it seems like they either reverted or were getting frustrated.

“Let me guess, we didn’t make it.” Scootaloo asked as she sighed and looked at her flank. “I kinda figured it out when we didn’t get our Cutie marks.”

“Sorry Mr. Dustan.” Sweetie Belle told him as she looked like she was about to cry.

“Guess that just means we have to try harder next time right girls?” As Apple Bloom rallied her friends slowly the noise was coming from Dustan grew louder and louder.

“Are you laughing Dustan?” Twilight asked him suddenly as he had his hands at his sides holding his middle.

Hearing that question Dustan let loose without regards for anyone hearing it. “This is just great!” All eyes were on him as he wiped his tears away. He held out the papers they had written out for what was about the third or fourth from last batches they made. “About at this point you girls were losing energy and enthusiasm for doing this and honestly weren’t putting much effort into it. Stirring with your hooves and mouths as best as you could, what more was that you had the idea to wrap ribbons around your hooves to help hold your utensils in place. Very crafty I must say. But in the end your efforts were rewarded.”

He heard chairs and stools shuffling at that. “Wait you don’t mean-”

Chuckling again he smiled. “Congratulations you three, you managed to recreate my Salve.” Dustan pulled the bowls with the Salve forward away from the rest and let the others look at it before going to the last one whom…he was honestly surprised more with. “Seems like they aren’t the only ones.” Reading some of the notes Summer Breeze had written seems a bit surprising as the same results came from her. “Seems like you are all trying too hard, got to relax and barely put anything into it. Congratulations Breeze, you also did it.”

The bird pony took to the air and started to fly around happily yelling excitedly as well. The Crusaders were jumping around happily as they were surrounded suddenly by adults wanting advice on how to get their Salves made properly. To say they ate up the attention put it lightly. The Crusaders never got their marks for this but they did learn a valuable lesson for sure.

Taking moment he studied them with his Tactical Eye to see what it was, if any, their jobs were. The results were about what he expected, under each of their names: Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, was one title they shared, likely a unique job class all to their own: Cutie Mark Crusader.

“So exactly why are we out here again?” Mystic asked of Dustan the next day. Near the start Dustan had dragged the magister in training out hoping to get him to take readings if possible to see if there were any lingering Chaotic magic residue signatures from where Discord had appeared. “The Elements purged this place with a high powered blast. I would expect like under the castle Harmonium would start to be found if we dug down from the spot where it was used.”

When he got out of the hospital he had come to discover that some of the metals under the castle had been turned to harmonium likely from the blast that changed Nightmare Moon back to Luna. That being said, he pretty much spent a couple of days helping to haul the stuff up as the only ones who could even move it were himself or the elements in town and most of them were pretty busy so they couldn’t help, true there were ways around it, but it was a pain so for the most part specifically digging the stuff out was avoided. Speaking of Harmonium he had been spending about an hour or two each day repairing the rusted weapons that had been gathered from the armory, just because they couldn’t use it didn’t mean that eventually he wouldn’t find a use for such things.

“’Better safe than sorry’ they say and I trust your device there to help discover if there are.” Dustan had asked how the earth pony had done magical readings before and when Mystic had shown him the device saying it could pick up on ALL types of magic, Dustan instantly thought of this idea. “If there are wouldn’t you like to know about it and somehow treat it now before it got worse?”

Mystic opened his mouth to say something only to stop and grab the equipment again. “Alright you made a good point there.”

As they were going through the town they came upon a sight that made Dustan’s heart flutter, one of the most heartwarming of episodes, also one that was slightly sad in some way. The Mane Six were out and about with Rainbow Dash wearing a whistle and a baseball cap, or whatever the equivalent was in Equestria, while speaking to a group of five pets.

“-A race against me!” The sports-wearing pegasus said as she zoomed to all the pets minus a certain tortoise. “As for where, well you will have to follow me to find out.” She started to slowly fly away with all the pets following, as well as her friends.

Fluttershy had to stop to pick up the slow moving shelled one though that did let her spot Dustan and Mystic causing her to change her course from regrouping with her friends. “Oh Dustan, I am sorry to ask but could you stop by my home tomorrow, it’s SUPER important.”

Not able to suppress a chuckle as this had happened before usually when the care-taker wanted to check on Boko. “Sure, not sure when but I will aim for around noon and I will bring Boko.”

“Oh thank you, but I got to go catch up with my friends, sorry.” Fluttershy started to leave but had to stop to answer a question.

It was a question from Mystic. “Where are you all heading to in such a hurry?”

Stopping and turning the yellow mare quickly tried to answer. “Oh Rainbow Dash is having a competition to find her perfect pet and we are going to the last event now. I have to go bye!”

Mystic rubbed his chin with one hoof while giving a ‘hmm’ sound. “Now that I think about it, all of her friends she is close to have pets, huh. Guess they talked her into getting one. I wonder what she will choose. Knowing her, something fast and that can fly.”

As he stepped forward to continue their expedition he smiled. “I am sure whatever pet she gets will be the perfect match for her.” Rolling his shoulders and groaning. “Anyways come on, we have more places to take readings from.”

Giving a sigh Mystic nodded. “Right, right.”

The next day Dustan found himself awake much earlier than normal, not by choice but because he had to get up to run the troops through their early morning drills. Boko, he could tell, was not happy to be up this early either but still went with him regardless. A loyal Chocobo through and through without a doubt and today she would be in her element as would Dustan as today was an endurance run for the troops. Dustan wanted to teach them about pacing themselves for the long haul and to work out their muscles for longer durations at lower outputs.

There was another reason for this of course, since his harsh training and fight against Discord, he had gone up by quite a few levels making his mana pool higher as well as his health pool for sure of which both were expected. What wasn’t expected though was how his stats raised as well as he remembered stats in Final Fantasy Tactics weren’t outrageous or anything nothing like the hundreds that other Final Fantasy’s sported. However looking at his stats now it was like the conservative approach of numbers of Tactics, but more willing to go higher and higher then what they had. Maybe it had to do with him being in Equestria? Truthfully numbers were numbers and at the end of the day only really worked when you measured them and gave them a relatable correlation to something, which is what he was doing now.

Turns out, while he wasn’t sure what number was associated with stamina, he did find out that he was still leading the pack when it came to the subject. In fact he wasn’t really even winded, sweaty sure, but not winded. Putting the troops to free study and patrol rotation for the rest of the day he went to the spring to clean up then to grab Boko and head to Fluttershy’s cottage as he had promised her yesterday. On the way to the cottage Dustan tried an experiment, pulling out his music box he wound it up and held it as they walked. One hand contently petting and scratching at his companion while the other held the box to be listened.

There was a point where he couldn’t help but grin, a faint checkerboard had appeared for a moment till he got excited and it vanished. “So it is connected to state of mind.” He felt was now a step closer to being able to visit whenever he wished instead of just when he slept, which was even now a rare thing. ‘If I can go there whenever, I can start to do experiments to see what is the most effective forms of training for certain classes. Sure it might be min max-y in a world that…shouldn’t really have it applied to it, but if it might save someone then it is worth the grind. Plus I kinda want to see what Summoner will do.’ Truth was he had already unlocked Summoner…just…he also hadn’t. It was like before, one of the stands that refused to release its power for some reason meaning there was a hidden condition for it. ‘I also REALLY need to grind up Thief and Archer as I want to be a NINJA!’

His experiment and inner monologue lasted long enough to reach the cottage of the animal lover where he knocked and could hear a scramble of hooves and various animals before Quiet Yellow appeared and smiled “Oh you are here. Come on in, I will get some tea ready.”

“Sure no problem. Boko be careful ok? You are getting very tall and you don’t want to break anything.” The large bird gave an understanding ‘kweh’ and headed inside making sure to be careful as Dustan went to find a cushion to sit on.

Relaxing for a moment Dustan would let those two have their fun and enjoy each other’s company while he caught a nap. Closing his eyes he started to calm his breathing while thinking of the training the troops were going to be given this week, possibly two weeks since he wasn’t exactly sure how long Tremor would be away for. The Squire felt one of the resident animals moved its way under his arm, likely looking for attention of which he had no problem giving. The fur of the large animal was rather soft and as Dustan found the creature’s ears to give it some scratches he felt it start to give a very deep purr sound.

‘Huh, didn’t think Flutters had any other large animals here besides Harry.’ Letting that thought go for now he went back to planning for the troops.

The human was never sure on how long he was like that but eventually the owner of the house came in and gave a gasp of happiness. “I see you two are getting along quite nicely.”

By this point the large cat had put its head on Dustan’s lap while he gave it attention. “Guess so. I didn’t realize you had any large cats at your place Fluttershy, new I take it?”

“Yes, she appeared soon after Discord came and went from what my other cute critters tell me.” The winged mare told him.

As he continued the petting he could feel the cat’s tail swishing lightly back and forth against his hips, he could feel the purrs it gave rumbling through its body, the way it was slightly kneading his leg lightly without hurting, the way its large whisker flowed down the length of his arm, how soft her fur w-

Blinking his eyes open he looked down to see the light blue fur of a creature he recognized as well as its waving tentacle like whiskers. “The Coeurl.”

“Oh is that what her species is called?” The pegasus quickly trotted over and smiled giving the feline a pet as well. “She came here and was looking for something, I couldn’t really tell as I don’t know her very well yet, but it was someone. She was also very hungry so I helped feed her and bath her getting her all nice and fluffy and soft.”

Truth be told, part of Dustan was panicking right now, but it was a small part. The kind pegasus before him wasn’t panicking and the large cat had been close enough to him when he was unaware to do whatever she wanted with him, only to just want affection. It honestly had him more curious then panicked to be fair.

“You said she was looking for something?” Looking down at the Coeurl he could see that she still didn’t have a name, maybe she was looking for that?

“Mhm.” The Element of Kindness came up and poked his chest. “It was you.” Blinking slowly for a moment it was clear he wanted her to explain a bit more, which thankfully she did. “For a while I couldn’t figure out what she wanted except that she was looking for somepony. Eventually when I came home from visiting you while you were in the hospital I was talking about you and she seemed very interested. So I put two and two together at that point and asked her if she was looking for the human that lives around here. She didn’t seem sure till I described you so that is when I knew.”

Looking down at the cat he saw her vivid green eyes looking back up into his at this point. “So you wanted to find me huh, well here I am.” He said with a chuckle.

That got the Coeurl to purr even louder. “She is very happy about that. The reason I called you here today was because of her, I would like you to adopt her as that is what she wants. It would mean ever so much to me if you said yes.”

‘Huh, is this because I saved it when it was hurt? I thought it paid me back by throwing the race.’ Of all the Final Fantasy creatures he wouldn’t mind having as a pet or friend, to be fair a Coeurl was never one that crossed his mind, mostly because of how terrifying it could be in an encounter. That being said since coming here many things have changed so why not his thoughts on the matter. “Sure, why not.”

The caretaker soon shot into the air at hearing that. “REALLY?!” When he nodded she flew around giving her trademarked ‘yay!’ before zipping off and coming back with a list. “I have noticed some of her eating habits and such so I have wrote them down here. She is primarily a meat eater but seeing as you do get shipments of fish and such from all over that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Yeah we get shipments from all over the place and what are you talking about?” Suddenly confused he looked at her as if she grew another head.

“Oh, guess that was after you went into your coma.” Giving a cough she soon started to explain how Merlene and Tremor made a deal with various Griffon, Dragon, Minotaur, and even some extra species like cats and parrots, traders for shipments of fish and other meats to be shipped to the castle since there were other creatures that had diets that required that and with it growing so large over fishing was starting to be a problem. A good plan no doubt and one he would have to examine to its fullest when he got back for sure.

‘Huh, while that is good, I will have to look for other things I missed while I was out.’ Looking down at the purring Coeurl a thought came to mind. “You still need a name. Let’s see.” Thinking back through all the games he had played through he couldn’t remember a single notable Coeurl name or similar species name at all. However the name he finally thought of came as he was rubbing through her fur. “I think I will name you Maya. Your fur is the same color as that and it sounds like a good girl’s name. Sorry if I am not the best at naming things, but I hope you like it.”

The newly named Maya leaned up and licked his face over and over again purring all the while making him laugh as well as Fluttershy. “I think she likes it. Oh that reminds me.” The overly kind pegasus soon flapped away quickly before coming back with two collars and tags. “Here, I got these while you were unconscious and after Maya showed up, since I didn’t know what you would name her I haven’t gone to get hers engraved but Boko has hers engraved as well as on the back her home location and owner. Maya’s will need hers engraved with her name but all the information is also there.”

Taking them in hand he smiled and called Boko over after getting Maya to let him up. “First up is yours Boko.” The white Chocobo ‘kweh’ed’ in a pleased tone as she leaned down and letting him clip it around her neck and adjust it. Her collar was black with a gold tag. Next up was Maya, who almost seemed to reverently bow her head to let him put the collar around it. The feline’s collar was a burgundy maroon color with a bronze tag.

“I made sure to get them enchanted and to choose materials that complemented their color schemes; you can thank Rarity for that advice.” Fluttershy came over and took a closer look at the collars and tags smiling. “And she was right, they are both very lovely.”

She gave a squeak as she was pulled close by the human. “Thank you Fluttershy, it means a lot that you got these for me. I know bronze is very expensive so I will pay you back for them both; No that is not a suggestion, it’s a promise.”

He felt her wings and hooves wrap around him as she returned the hug. “Alright, I am just happy you are happy along with Boko and Maya. I know you will continue to care for them both to the best of your abilities and they will both be very happy.”

Nods then thinks for a moment. “Do you have an extra pet bed and such that I can buy from you? That is unless this one will insist on sleeping in my bed like this one does.” He points and rolls his eyes at Boko who just tilted her head as if to ask ‘what’.

With the bits given to her for the supplies, thanks to his bag of holding having a bag of bits which to use, he made his way back and made sure that the troops of the castle as well as its residents knew about the new companion, as Dustan refused to call Boko or Maya a pet, so that they wouldn’t attack her. He told anyone interested that she was a meat eater and would be put on a fish diet, as well as some small vitamins to help keep her healthy and full of energy. He took her tag to the blacksmith of the castle for an engraving, which didn’t take too long.

With that done there was only two more issues. A minotaur and pony had arrived while he was out and was looking to meet him, as such he was sent to a room to wait till Dustan had returned. Seeing as how he had and got informed of the visit, Dustan sent someone to go and send said minotaur to the meeting room first so they could speak. Said minotaur was huge, a good foot and a half or more taller than Dustan with a metal grey fur color over a tough looking hide. Though Dustan wasn’t an expert of minotaurs giving he had only met a handful so far he could tell this one was an older one judging from the lines of age under his eyes and on various parts of his face. What was more was the ornamentation upon the bull’s face. In each nostril was a ring and on his ears were five more, all made of gold.

The minotaur looked at the human for a moment before sitting down. “Thank you for meeting me Lord Warner. I recognize you from your description.”

“Thank you, care for some tea?” Dustan had went ahead and made some while waiting. “It’s not the best, but I did what I could. If it’s too strong we have some milk and some sugar if you need it.”

For some reason that seemed to put a smile on the old bull’s face which in turn seemed to relax the atmosphere in the room. “Thank you for the generous offer. I would be delighted to partake.”

Standing up Dustan poured him, it was a he as that much was obvious, mostly from his voice and from his lack of a bra…unless minotaurs didn’t have traditional breasts like he assumed a half bull half human type of creature would possess. “No problem. You are a guest and I am glad we can get along. Last few guests haven’t been exactly friendly given my looks and the fact I am not a pony.”

“That is easily overlooked, though I will admit, if you were in Minos it would likely be similar but only because of how scrawny you are rather than your species.” The bull took the cup and sipped it before setting it down and grabbing some milk and two cube of sugar. “However I should apologize for my lack of manners. I am Steel Brilliance. I have come here all the way from Minos after learning of your intellect so that I may better improve my mind. However in seeing your guards I would also like to offer my help in payment.”

“Ok, while I am not sure what I could teach you, I don’t mind doing so, just keep in mind I may not give you what you are looking for exactly as I am not sure what it is you are looking for.” After putting some sugar in his own tea and sipping Dustan asked. “But what help are you offering?”

Stirring the tea for a bit to make sure all the sugar dissolved and the milk was properly mixed Steel spoke. “I am ex-military from my homeland I will spare you the details but I am highly decorated. As such while I see you tending to the physical training of your guard, I have yet to see any such for their minds. I am willing to teach tactics as well as specialized training exercises to help improve their minds like how to recognize when someone is lying, smuggling contraband and what to look for, as well as spotting suspicious activity in general.”

“Alright then, you are hired.” Dustan said simply and almost immediately.

Seems that caught the old bull off guard. “Just like that?”

“Mhm.” Sipping more of his tea Dustan could tell the bull wanted to ask why. “While our PT instructor Tremor, a dragon, is doing wonderful, he is focusing a bit too much on training. He is doing wonderful don’t get me wrong, but having someone for tactics and such is what we need. I am not one for that as most of what I have learned has been through experience via one on one combat. So I am lacking in that side. There is also the fact that you seem to be interested a lot in what I can teach you and if that is true I am willing to give you a trial run to see what will happen.”

There was a large moment of silence between sips of the tea both of them had before Steel spoke up. “You are too kind. While I do admire that, be warned that it can be and will be a weakness.”

“I know, but it is a burden I am willing to bear.” Dustan finished his tea and smiled.

For a moment the face of the bull became unreadable before he smiled and laughed. “I like you. You are honest, seem to genuinely care about those around you, and are willing to learn with your subjects. I think this is going to be fun for all involved.”

The bull then got up chuckling the whole time as he left before Dustan went to make some more tea as he told one of the guards to now get the pony that wished to see him. The pony would arrive just as the new batch of tea was finished being escorted in and made to sit down in the guest seat.

“Welcome, I was told you wished to speak with me, also would you like some tea?” Dustan offered as he approached the table.

“Oh, sure thank you sir.” The pony seemed honestly surprised by the offer but saw the displayed milk and sugar cube and smiled back. Upon sipping the tea the unicorn would wince a bit and go for the milk and sugar. “I came here hoping to offer my services. I am afraid the last master I served did himself and his family a great disservice that I could no longer ignore. I left with a heavy heart but I had to do the right thing.”

“Doing the right thing is not always easy.” The human could easily agree with that even without knowing the unicorn’s problem he could tell it weighed heavily on him based on the look in his eyes. “What is it you did before?”

“I was a butler and general caretaker of my master and his estate. I can cook, clean, brew tea, perform small medicinal magicks, and have general knowledge of most Canterlot dealings from when I was there though that will fade in time since I am no longer there.” The black and grey pony told him.

Speaking of his color scheme, that Dustan knew this pony was a butler it was much easier to tell. His body was mostly black but his underbelly and thighs of his legs were great as if he was wearing a black butler uniform with grey under clothes. His mane looked to be taken care of really well judging from the shine of his grey almost silver coloration, though that might have come from age as well, and while it could use a touch up that was likely from whatever traveling he had just done.

“I can start at anytime if you approve, though it would be directly under you.” Something about that spoke that if Dustan approved he would be like Merlene in that he would be a vassal or something of the equivalent. “I have brought my own uniform if needed unless you deem it not acceptable.”

Using his magic, a silver coloration for sure, the unicorn floated his butler uniform out and showed Dustan. “Looks fine to me, though I am not sure why you want to follow me.”

Stowing the uniform away the unicorn pointed around and spoke. “The former family I was involved with had the betterment of everypony and everyone around them in mind when they took action. Though my last master had not, I wish to serve only those that would do as my original masters did. I can tell from how those outside interact with you and speak that you are someone kind and that they respect. I have taken time to look into what you have done for Equestria before being named a noble and found you to be a truly altruistic soul.”

Sighing and rubbing his chin, and making note that he needed a shave, Dustan considered the pros and cons of this before finally deciding. “Alright then, I will give you a trial run, a month to do as you normally do with some corrections here and there if needed and if it turns out that you fit in you can stay.”

Standing up the unicorn would fold in his front legs and lower his head to the ground in a bow. “Thank you Master, I promise that I won’t disappoint you.”

“Don’t overwork yourself to do so either; I am not someone that would want you to focus only on others while ignoring yourself.” Suddenly the unicorn stood up and went into the kitchen area. “Where are you going?”

“To make a batch of tea.” He also levitated the batch that Dustan had made with him. “No offense Master, but if you are the one to brew this it is not the greatest and I would be happy to show you how to do so that it brings out the most flavor of the leaves as possible.”

Standing up and feeling slightly hurt at that remark Dustan followed the pony. “Hey it wasn’t that bad…was it?” Now that he thought about it, everyone he served always tended to use a lot of milk and sugar in his teas. “Never mind, oh I never caught your name. Sorry about that.”

The black coated butler was busy familiarizing himself with things around as his magic touched plenty of things before turning and smiling his aged face upon his new master. “Faithful Servant at your service.”

Author's Notes:

Oh, well isn't this surprising. Who would have thought? Good job CMC.