Prologue: Package and arrival. (Edited)

Arden Sila, 21 years old, med student. If you're waiting for some sad story about a depressed guy with no friends and multiple traumas...then leave. He has his own circle of friends and a regular life. No big events, no special talents. He is smart though, book-smart. A nerd with a lot of imagination, if anyone ever noticed him spacing out, he would actually be in the new world he came up with in his head. He also was a creature of habits, figure out his routine and you have his entire day schedule ready.

He was heading to his university's building, just another day. 'Ok...if I'm not mistaken today's classes start with surgical abilities. My stuff is back in the locker...I take about two minutes to reach the floor where the labs are. I'll have time to spare to look over the materials again." He thought to himself while walking down the street, he was so focused that he didn't notice a weird teenager running towards him with a big package that was tightly wrapped up.

"Catch!" the teenager said while he forced the package on Arden and ran away like a maniac.

"What the?" Arden asked as he held the package, it was heavy. And based on the shape he could swear the package was a sword.

"HEY! GIVE THAT BACK!" A bunch of guys yelled at Arden when they saw him holding the pack. He looked at the thing and then back at them, 'Ok...I'll just-?!'

Before he could finish his thought the solid ground beneath his feet made a cracking sound like it was made of glass and he fell through it. As he fell down he heard the pursuers say "Dammit! We lost the package! We better try to get the guy to make another one."

As Arden fell through the weird tunnel, he felt his skin being torn from his body. He heard and felt his bones twist, bend, and break as they tore through his muscles. In addition to all the excruciating pain, he also felt his eyes being twisted and squished. He grunted and yelled while clinging to the package for his dear life. Arden looked down the tunnel and the last thing he saw was a golden sun in front of a bunch of pure white clouds...before he crashed into them and blacked out.

(A few hours later)

"I hate Mondays," Arden mumbled to himself as he woke up. Opening his eyes he saw a bland looking white ceiling, and smelled a familiar scent...he recognized this kind of ceiling and scent due to his med school, that meant one thing: 'hospital'. He felt his head throbbing as the light got through to his eyes. He reached out to the spot where the pain was and he noticed something strange.

"My hand...is blue." The student said as he moved it around.

Arden sat up and looked at the opposite side of the room. The wall was a mirror from one side of the room to the next. His reflection revealed a different body. He looked like a horse with big black and blue eyes and on his forehead...a horn. 'Ok...pain check, perfect control of my body check, all of my senses present check. I'm awake and I'm a horse with big eyes and a horn. Great!' He concluded. Now, normally you would expect someone to freak out at this scenario, and with good reason. But Arden had a very particular way of thinking. To him, the impossible was just something people had yet to master. Therefore, him being transported somewhere else and transformed into another creature wasn't that difficult a concept for him to accept.

After getting over that fact he was now an anthropomorphic equine creature, Arden got on his hooves so he could fully see himself in the mirror. Using them was exactly the same thing as walking with his feet so keeping his balance was easy. Once on his hooves, he noticed that whoever put him there was nice enough to leave him with his underwear, but not nice enough to leave any of his other belongings near him. 'Of course my stuff wouldn't be here. I look like an alien so I'm probably in some research facility. Therefore this *mirror* is just hiding a bunch of scientists monitoring me, annoying but I can't actually blame them.'

Looking around the room, the young stallion noticed that there was no door to enter or leave. Another thing that caught his attention was the lack of any furniture in the room, only a bed that seemed to be bolted to the ground. 'Is that...the package that kid forced on me?' Arden thought as he approached the thing, the once carefully wrapped object simply laid bare.

'It really was a sword.' The weapon was in its scabbard. A simple leather scabbard with no details or any decorations, the handle and guard were pitch black. But the handle had some sort of emerald green material wrapped around it. Arden reached out to the blade with his left hand. The moment he grabbed it by the handle he felt his hand start to burn. He tried to let go of the blade but his hand wouldn't respond. Then suddenly the pain stopped. As he opened his hand he saw some sort of symbol he didn't recognize on his coat. The symbol was a darker shade of blue when compared to the fur surrounding it. 'What was that for?! Was it registering me as a user or something?'

Since he already had his hand on the weapon, he pulled it out of its scabbard and inspected the actual blade. It was a simple ordinary blade, although it actually looked a bit fragile. No engravings...but the metal was slightly darker than any metal he had ever seen. 'Maybe a different alloy, or maybe they didn't give the alloy the proper treatment. I don't think the gray should be this dark. This looks like it belongs to the middle ages...European? It's about the size of a one-handed sword, though it seems more ceremonial than an actual blade...' He loved tales about knights so he had actually studied about their gear, but he never had the chance to learn how to use one these things.

"Better put this back in the scabbard before one of them decides I'm a threat" the stallion muttered to himself as he reached for the scabbard and looked around again before placing the weapon back inside. "Just to be sure though..." Arden said as he went to the side opposite to where his bed was, and placed the blade there before he returned to the bed and sat on it. After a few seconds of silence, a voice caught his attention.

"State your name and intentions." The voice came from a white-coated and blue-eyed stallion donning a golden armor with purple details. Like Arden, he had a horn. His mane was a dark blue with a single stripe of light blue running through it. He had his hand on a blade placed around his hip. The thing was...he came out of the mirror, it looked like the mirror turned from solid to liquid around the area where the stallion came.

"Man, that's an awesome armor! Whoever did this was really careful when forging it." Arden said jumping from the bed and starting to analyze the armor. "That helmet of yours seems to be fashioned like one from the centurions in ancient Rome! Awesome! Can I tr-?!" Arden was cut mid-sentence by a blade placed on his throat. "Gulp...okay. N-name is Arden Sila, i-it means 'strong bond'. T-the first name means strong and the second can be interpreted as link or bond." He said, trying to smile a bit as he stuttered. The blade retreated to the scabbard.

"As for my intentions...I have none since I don't know where I am. But I imagine that won't cut it so I can tell you how I got here, but I do not know who, why or what sent me." The stallion didn't answer, he just made a gesture telling Arden to proceed. "Okay, I was back in my world being human when a kid came out of nowhere and pushed that onto me. That thing was wrapped up like some sort of package so I didn't know what it was." Arden said pointing to the weapon at the edge of the room, the stallion's face didn't help him much since there was no reaction to it. "After that, a group of humans came by chasing the kid. They started yelling at me when they saw the package in my hands. When they got closer the solid ground beneath me cracked like it was made out of glass and I fell into a weird tunnel." He explained keeping his eyes locked onto the soldier's eyes.

"Then I felt my entire body being shredded into pieces, my arteries and veins popped like balloons. My body burned and twisted while I was conscious. I imagine that was due to my body changing into what you're seeing now. After a few seconds in that hell, I saw a big golden sun on a white background." The soldier started to pay more attention when Arden said that. "Then I was tossed at it and blacked out, only to wake up here. And that's it." The soldier looked at Arden for a few seconds before retreating to the mirror without saying a word, but before he finished phasing through it he peeked out of the mirror and said.

"My name is Shining Armor. We're gonna check if your story adds up."

"...Okay?" Arden said while tilting his head. 'I am soooooooooooooooo screwed. Not much I can do though.' He thought to himself as he sat back down on his bed.

Chapter 1: Solar princess. (Edited)

"This is sooooo boring," Arden said while he sat down staring at his reflection. Two hours had passed since the Shining soldier had left. In the meantime, Arden noticed something that made him slap himself really hard for not noticing earlier since it was probably the reason for his current situation. On his forearm and on the side of his legs he saw tattoos that were identical: a black and white heart with an evil looking eye on its center. The eye had a crimson sclera, a bright blue iris, and a black pupil. This is the sort of thing a gang member would have or maybe a villain from a cartoon. In other words, Arden could be in deeper trouble than he had initially thought. But the damage had already been done so he would just need to endure whatever came at him now. However, since he actually told the truth, he should be safe. "After all I really did-?!" He stopped his mumbling realizing he found himself remembering the events he had told the soldier about, again and again without reason. The flash-backs stopped as suddenly as they came. 'What was that all about?'

Sometime after, he grew tired of waiting without anything to do, so he sat up and mumbled to himself. "I can sing to myself, right?"

Shining Armor was returning to check on the progress of verifying the accused's story. 'He ought to be lying, no way he could have broken through the castle defenses without some sort of intent. But...what is he made of? He hit that wall really hard, and not a single broken bone? And if you add that to his zodiac...he should have died on impact.' He kept pondering about the events, that unfortunately for him, happened a few days after his nomination to become captain of the royal guard. As he proceeded towards the holding cell that the princess herself had prepared for the prisoner, he heard a melody coming from its direction.

Shining picked up the pace and got through the door. What he found inside confused him. The mare soldier assigned to protect the wizard in charge of checking ponies memories when they were accused of crimes, were sharing an embrace as they kissed each other. It had been obvious to most of the guard and the other wizards that they had some sort of connection, especially since they were always fighting each other without any reason, but whenever they did it they were always locked into each other's eyes. The only ones that didn't seem to notice their feelings were themselves. Then he realized that there was a melody playing without any instruments and a voice singing.

"If today was your last day..." The prisoner finished, it wasn't the sort of voice to make you go like: you're amazing! In fact, it was just a decent voice not exactly good nor bad. It was at this point, that Shining Armor realized it: the prisoner was the only one singing...and the melody stopped when he stopped.

'No way...did he just do a...'

"If today was your last day..." Arden finished the first song that came to his head, not usually the first thing he would sing but his chest seemed to influence his head on this decision, 'If today was your last day' from Nickelback. "Well...I think I have a built-in auto-tune. Because I should sound like a dying cat...compared to that which was angelical just now!" Arden said smiling at his own reflection.

"How did you do that?!" Said a floating head that appeared out of nowhere through the mirror.

"WHOA!" Arden exclaimed as he fell to the side of the bed with a loud thud. "Ouch." The stallion looked back at the mirror and realized it was the soldier that interrogated him earlier. The soldier had a dumbfounded expression with his eyes open wide, staring straight at Arden.

"HOW. DID. YOU. DO. THAT?"

"Do what?"

"How did you trigger a harmonious heart on your own?"

"A what now?"

"The melody playing out of nowhere. The effect on ponies in synch with feelings that matched the song. It usually takes up to six ponies with perfectly synchronized emotions and complete domain over the lyrics! Yet you triggered one all by yourself! Only one other pony ever did that!"

"Oh...so you're a pony not a horse...and I just wanted to do something to pass the time. I didn't mean to cause any trouble." Shining just left out a sigh.

"Okay...we checked your story. Now it is going to be presented as evidence in your trial." Arden blinked twice at that with a blank expression. "Along with your belongings and that weapon." Arden's eye twitched at that.

"Did you just say trial?" The stallion nodded in a positive manner. "What am I being accused of?"

"Attempt of the murder of the Solar princess, Ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia. And attempted sexual assault on the same pony." Arden stopped moving and appeared to have turned into a statue. After a few moments the soldier tossed him a white shirt and an orange jumpsuit. The number 0001 was inscribed on the back. "Put those on. Your trial will begin as soon as you get before the princess."

Arden entered auto-pilot with his mind lost in a storm of thoughts, his body just followed the request and dressed. Soon after, Shining Armor created chains made out of magic and bound Arden's hands and hooves. The sensation of something around his wrists made Arden wake up. Looking at his hands, Arden saw that the soldier had chained him with his hands in front of him.

"Wouldn't it be better to have my hands bound behind my back?"

"...that's true." The soldier said while raising an eyebrow. He then proceeded to make the change. "Escaping won't be harder with your hands like this?"

"I'm already with enough trouble in them right now. Don't want to add to that. Especially with those kinds of accusations." Arden said with his ears hanging and his eyes now focused on the ground. "Let's get this over with."

The soldier created a door before placing a bag on Arden's head and then guiding him through the darkness. 'I am so fucked...what happened while I was out?' He thought to himself as he continued to be pulled by the soldier.

"Shining!" A female voice came out of nowhere and Arden's march came to a halt. Whoever it was made the soldier stop in his tracks. "And who is this?"

"Cadance don't!" Arden heard before getting blinded by the brightness from the outside of the bag. After his eyes adjusted he saw a pink coated unicorn with a mane that was purple, yellow, and pink and she had bright blue eyes. Said unicorn also had wings, a crown and a dress fit for royalty. After analyzing that much, Arden just proceeded to close his eyes again and ignored the mare. The soldier had placed the bag on his head for a reason, so he decided not to tempt fate and closed his eyes in order to prevent himself from seeing more than he was allowed to.

"Um...what is he doing?" The mare asked silence followed before a gasp came from her and she said. "Shining, come with me for a bit. Chain him to the wall." Once she finished saying that Arden felt the sack return to his head and a sudden pull followed by the sound of hooves getting further away from him.

"Shining." The princess of love started. "Why are you walking him around with so little restraints?! Did you even check his magic level?!"

"No. Actually, I didn't." He answered before powering his horn and checking the prisoner's magical potential. After a few seconds, she watched the soldier reactivate the spell about three times. "H-he...b-but...h-he is a-about..."

"See what I mean?! He could have set himself free at any given moment!" She exclaimed making the shocked soldier look her in the eyes. "Where are you going with him?"

"I'm taking him to his trial." He answered, after shaking his head a few times. "I'll reinforce the restraints. Thanks for the heads up Cadance."

"I'm coming with you, just to be sure." The stallion frowned at her after the comment. "Your shields are very sturdy but it won't help you if he does something before you can summon one." His frown deepened.

"Very well..." He resigned, for as stubborn as he was, the stallion could never beat her in that aspect and he knew that.

"Anything else?"

"He actually..." He seemed to be reluctant to mention this which made her frown and stare at him until he actually said it. "He triggered a harmonious heart...by himself. He made Mind Walker and Walkyre Heart...I found them kissing each other as he finished to singing a weird song."

Her jaw dropped at that. "That unicorn managed to find a song to match those two up? By himself?!" The soldier nodded positively again. "I am so watching his trial. Is he the one that..."

"That's him." She scratched her chin as she observed the prisoner that was staying put as a statue.

"Let's take him to Tia." She said walking towards the prisoner. She heard the captain pick up the pace to be by her side.

The sound of hooves returned and Arden felt the chains around his wrists and legs get heavier. He also felt new chains around his neck and torso. The ones on his torso forced his arms to stay glued to his sides. The final addition was something that was preventing him from talking. 'Extra measures...they must know something I don't. That or the mare cares too much for that soldier and doesn't want me to pose a threat...'

Arden felt a pull on the chain around his neck, so he started to move again. Several minutes later, Arden bumped into something or someone.

"Sorry." It was the voice he heard from the one Arden believed was called Cadance.

"I-it was my fault!" The soldier stuttered, his behavior had changed a bit after Cadance started to walk with them. "I should have told him to halt. Anyway, prisoner, we are going to enter the throne room now. Once inside you are supposed to bow and stay like that until you are told to get up. Understood?" Arden nodded positively. "Very well. You are to answer the princesses questions. Once she considers that every aspect of the case has been clarified, she will hand out the verdict." Arden nodded again.

The sound of something heavy moving reached Arden's ears. 'Here it goes...time to meet the solar princess and maybe die.'

Chapter 2: Judgement. (Edited)

Author's Notes:

Author's Note:

Okay...I'm currently trying to fix some of my mistakes. I can't fix all of them by myself but I can fix some. The "Edited" part means that I fixed some stuff. But I don't know if I managed to cover all of the problems.

I am looking for an editor, if you guys know one please let me know. And...if you guys can point out my mistakes please feel free, English is not my first language so I'm sorry about that.

As the soldier started to pull Arden again, he was forced to walk for quite a while before he heard the soldier start. "Princess Celestia. Before you stands the accused Arden Sila. Unicorn. Male. Unregistered cutie mark. Unknown talent. Supposedly born under the zodiac of Virgo. Age...supposedly 2000 years. No previous register in any of our archives." Arden got on his knees and bowed placing his head on the floor while the soldier said all that.

'Two thousand years? I think they might have misread my birth date. And why is my zodiac important?' Arden thought to himself.

"You can release the heavier restraints captain." A new voice spoke, her voice was calm and soothing, yet something about it made a chill go down Arden's spine. It was like a mother talking to her child, even if they sound calm their voices carry a lot of power.

'Wait...that Shining guy is a CAPTAIN?! Oh god...I hope I didn't do anything to piss him off.' Arden suddenly felt the chains around his neck and torso disappear and whatever was preventing him from speaking was gone.

"You may stand up little one." Arden followed the command with a bit of help from an unknown source as he stepped up to what he believed to be a witness stand. Suddenly the bag that was covering his head got lifted and light once again assaulted his eyes. After the initial impact, Arden saw in front of him various steps that led to a throne where a figure sat with her gaze fixed upon him.

The figure was a white-coated mare, much like the previous one she had wings and a horn. Her crown was way bigger than the other mare, her mane was green, pink and blue and it seemed to be moving in the wind...in a closed room. 'An ethereal mane? Cool. And...she looks familiar.' Her eyes were pink...and so bright. He got lost in them for a few moments before his head started to hurt again and something else caught his attention: her dress. The thing was fashioned similarly to the sky of a summer day; a bright blue sky with a few clouds and a brilliant shining sun. The thing was...

"It's moving..." he whispered to himself, the clouds on the dress were moving. Then Arden looked up at the wall behind her, the material looked like the one he saw when he fell through the hole. Several feet towards the ceiling he saw the golden sun symbol. The symbol was cracked in the shape of..."So that's what I hit. That explains the headache."

"Since you already finished taking in the sights..." The princess said making Arden jump a little in surprise. "Tell me: Why did you come here?"

"Straight to the point. I didn't come here from my own volition your majesty." Arden answered keeping his eyes fixed on the bottom stairs as if the princess was there and not on the top.

"Captain does this match with the memory check?" The captain nodded in agreement.

"What are you?"

"What I am or what I was?" Arden asked with a serious tone.

"Are you being a comedian?"

"No your majesty. I was a human living in another reality where none of your species existed." He answered keeping his expression neutral. "Now it would appear I am a male unicorn."

"Captain?" Shining once again supported Arden's assertion. "Why do you have this weapon on your person?" She said making the sheathed blade float in front of him.

"An unknown party forced the blade upon me before I got thrown at a portal. I do not own it nor do I know who made it."

"What do you recall after being swallowed by said portal?" Her voice was getting colder...maybe she did not find the fact Arden had so little answers to her questions amusing.

"I remember feeling my body being torn into pieces and burning as I rocketed through a tunnel. Eventually, the pain stopped right before I saw a golden sun in a white sky. Only that it was a wall...not a sky. I discovered that because I hit it and blacked out. After that, I do not know what happened."

"Captain..." Her voice got even colder before the soldier answered.

"The accused was unconscious after he hit the wall."

"Look, I do not know what happened but I have no ill intent towards you or any...pony? Here. The only thing I know about this place is that I'm not in my reality." Arden said this forcing himself to look her in the eyes. His head began to hurt again, but it was worse than before.

"That is yet to be seen. Now answer me: Who sent you here?" Arden could not hear her, a high pitched sound was muffling all the other sounds in the room. His head started to throb, the pain was way worse than the one he felt when he woke up and it was getting worse by the second. "Did you not hear me? Answer the question!"

'What is this sound?! Make it stop!'

'This one isn't helping me in any way.' The princess thought to herself as heard the young stallion answer each one of her questions without even flinching. 'He passed through all of our defenses and knocked me out by hitting me with the sheathed blade when he fell on top of me. And above all else, he remained on top of me during the entire time I was out, so he stayed with me for about forty minutes...but according to his memory he really was out cold during the event. Which might explain why the only pain I felt upon waking up was the spot where he hit me on the head with the sword.' She thought to herself. Remembering the event made her feel embarrassed. She was the keeper of harmony and a fierce warrior, none of the guards could best her in magical or physical combat. Yet this little scrawny stallion caught her by surprise and knocked her out, and to rub salt on the wound he had no memory of the event meaning it was not intentional. The mighty ruler of Equestria was knocked out cold by a clumsy little stallion.

"That is yet to be seen. Now answer me: Who sent you here?" She asked while keeping her glare locked at him, the stallion didn't answer but his face changed from a composed expression to one of what looked like worry. 'Struck a nerve? Good, maybe I'll get some answers now. And maybe he isn't so innocent after all.'

However the accused did not answer. He just kept his expression and reached out to his head. "Did you not hear me? Answer the question!" She asked using the royal Canterlot voice, something she hadn't used in at least one hundred years.

"Urgh...AAAAARRRGGH!" The Stallion started to grunt and move his head around as if he seemed to be in pain. Shining Armor reached for his sword and prepared in case the accused tried something. What happened however caused all of the ponies to wince at it. "PAIN STOP!" He shouted before bashing his head against the witness stand, which was made out of stone, at full force. The stone stand broke at the point of impact, just as suddenly as he did that the accused raised his head with both of his eyes closed and showing a large cut on his forehead that was bleeding considerably. "Ooookay...pain stopped," he said with a drowsy and comical voice.

Then he opened his eyes, Celestia felt a chill when she saw his eyes. The black one was glowing just like hers when she used the royal Canterlot voice while the other...the other had its sclera turned crimson and his iris turned from a regular blue to a bright blue.

"What are you doing?!" She inquired while getting up and enveloping the stallion with her magic and freezing all of his body except for his mouth in place.

"W-what do you mean?" The stallion stuttered, this time he seemed to be really scared. Then he started to cry as he gazed upon Celestia.

"Why are you crying?!" She questioned making him sob even more. "WHY ARE YOU CRYING?!"

"WHY ARE YOU CRYING?!"

Arden couldn't help but cry even harder as he looked at the princess. Her entire body went dark, it had turned almost transparent and only a red light remained. From this light, Arden could hear another voice much like the princesses' voice.

"Why couldn't I save you, sister?! Why must I be alone and praised for hurting you?! Why? WHY?"

"WHY ARE YOU CRYING?!" The princess yelled again at him while he could still hear the other one.

"Why must I stay untouched by time while everypony around me ages and dies?! Why must I be alone?!"

"Y-you're *sob* crying..." Arden finally spoke to the enraged princess that was in front of him with a magical spear ready and pointed at his heart. He couldn't tell her expression due to the change in his vision the entire world was a bunch of different shades of red but her body had now disappeared and only the red light remained.

"I am not crying. What are you talking about?" He heard her.

"Y-you're...*sob* sad. A-and c-crying so much."

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!"

"YOU FEEL GUILTY FOR HURTING YOUR SISTER!" Arden yelled at her, the light backed away a bit.

"How...HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?!" Her voice shot at him, as Arden finally managed to stop crying before he spoke again.

"I..heard you...you're still going on about it. And...I'm sorry about your condition." The light backed away, even more, tripping on the steps and falling down and no more was heard from the voice. The grip that held Arden in place disappeared, however, he did not move since there was floating sword in front of his throat.

"DO. NOT. MOVE." It was Shining's voice. Arden turned his head towards the voice and saw another red light.

"Why does all of this have to happen right after I achieved my dream?! And right in front of Cadance and the princess! I'm going to be demoted and all my dreams are going down the hole."

"I'm sorry sir," Arden said, that made the blade tremble a little. "I did not mean to put your dreams at risk. I am so sorry." The sword trembled even more.

"What? H-how did you...?" The voice stuttered as it tried to keep the blade steady.

"STOP!"

"STOP!" The princess of love cried out in order to prevent the captain's attack on the prisoner's neck. "I think I know what is happening!" She proceeded to step to the front of the prisoner. She forced the stallion to look at her, he still had tears streaming out of his eyes. But as soon as he looked at her, a small simple smile formed on his face, more tears came but no sobbing.

"You are so happy...you love him so very much." He said with his voice still cracking due to his crying but it was slowly returning to its old self. "You carry and bring so much joy. I'm so happy for you." Cadance smiled back at the prisoner, in the end, he could really see it.

"Just as I thought." The alicorn said before making her way to the captain and forcing him to lower his weapon and then proceeded towards her aunt that now had tears forming in her eyes but she seemed to refuse to let them flow. Once Celestia was back on her feet, Cadance turned back to the prisoner and ordered. "Close your eyes and focus on the color you are seeing. After ten seconds, open your eyes again." The prisoner obliged and closed his eyes, after ten seconds his eyes re-opened she saw his eyes slowly returning to normal. The left eye losing its crimson sclera and bright blue iris while the right eye lost its glow and returned to its black iris and white sclera. "Can you see us again?"

"Yes, thank you." The prisoner said lowering his head. "What happened to me?"

"I believe that you were looking straight into our hearts and listening to the emotions we keep inside. Or the emotion that is currently ruling it." She explained while keeping her calm smile. "I can do something similar, but my changes are less noticeable. Just a faint glow at the center of my pupils. Another difference is the fact I can only hear one emotion in other ponies hearts: love." Cadance said while walking back to her original position from before these events transpired: to the stallion's left side.

"But...I heard her sadness. I felt her sadness." The stallion stated looking back at the princess of the sun before turning back to the captain. "And the same happened with him. I felt his despair. His regret." Finally, he turned back to her and continued. "And I also felt your happiness."

"My guess is that you're more sensible than me. I am limited to seeing their hearts and listening to the heart I am focusing on. You can actually feel their emotions as intensely as their feel it, which could also explain how you could trigger a harmonious heart by yourself." She said with a bit of envy. After all, that was her talent. Having somepony else who could do the same thing as you but with more variety of outcomes was somewhat unpleasant. But the stallion didn't mean any harm and he seemed completely oblivious to what he had just done.

"I...see." He said before going down the stand and placing himself in front of the princess. Shining Armor tried to reach him but Cadance made a gesture to let the prisoner be. Once he was before the princess he reached to the blade that was presented as evidence. He drew the blade and presented it to the sun princess, the princess took the blade into her hands with a confused expression. The stallion turned his back to her, got on his knees, and lowered his head. "Let's end this judgment. You can end me if you so desire and then I'll have paid for these crimes."

'What is he doing?!' Cadance thought to herself when she heard the convict. The she saw a barely noticeable grin on the stallion's face. 'What is he up to?'

"What?" The sun princess said. "You were answering my questions truthfully. So far there isn't anything to convict you." Her voice had changed. Cadance could feel something was off. Celestia's voice after Cadance had explained what the convict probably had done appeared to have something else added to it. "You were fighting for your life up until now! You didn't mean to knock me out! You didn't mean to stay on top of my unconscious body! You didn't even mean to use your special ability on us!"

'That's...a bit scandalous Tia...' Cadance was processing the words she had just heard until she looked back at the prisoner. The she saw his smile grow bigger. 'He did this on purpose...'

"So that's what happened...heh," The convict smiled as he looked over his shoulder, he had a mischievous smile on his face. From Cadance's point of view, he was already aware of his chances of being declared guilty so he decided to be dramatic. And as a bonus, he actually got to hear what happened. "Well...right now I feel too tired to think straight. So I'll accept your choice." He said in a playful voice. "After al-?! Ouch!"

The princess hit him with her fist making him rub the spot after the blow. "That was your punishment for the crime of being a nuisance and poking around my heart! You're declared innocent of all the other charges. If you meet certain conditions. This is the end of your trial Arden Sila."

'That's it?' Candance thought to herself after hearing the verdict, but her brain lit up the moment she remembered the *certain conditions* part. 'What are you up to Tia?'

"That was your punishment for the crime of being a nuisance and poking around my heart! You're declared innocent of all the other charges. If you meet certain conditions. This is the end of your trial Arden Sila." Arden heard after feeling the princesses' hand hit him on the back of the head.

'Maybe I shouldn't have done that. I thought it would be theatrical and maybe get her to object judging me before she got through the rest of the trial...I didn't expect her to straight clear me of all charges. I guess it's a win for me! I get to keep my life. WHOOHOO!' The stallion thought to himself as he rubbed the sore spot where he got hit.

"Now as to the conditions for your record clearance..." Arden's mind stopped for a moment, the word *conditions* sent a chill down his spine. "...you will have to live at a specific location for the next four years." Arden gulped as a smile formed on the sun princess' face.

"W-what?" He stuttered turning to look at the sun princess.

"Yes little one," She said getting on eye level with him and her grin getting wider. "You are going to help me fix something." She got even closer focusing her glare straight at his eye. "You and that little eye are going to help me."

'Ok...I think I should have gone through the entire trial...I think I got in an even worse scenario than before.'

"Now we need to get you some decent travel clothes and we need to fill you in about our world Mr. Sila." She said with a giggle as she got up and started to leave.

"...I. Am. Screwed. Please...restart my judgment."

Chapter 3: Explanations. (edited).

Arden was still in his mind break as Celestia walked away. In fact, he was in such a daze he didn't even notice she had actually lifted him with her magic and was carrying him through the castle while Shining Armor and Cadance stayed back in the throne room.

"Now, little one." The princess' voice brought him back from his haze.

"WHA?!" Arden yelled as he noticed he was no longer in the throne room also acknowledging the fact he was floating around the castle.

"Finally back from dream-land?" She said laughing at Arden's reaction, though after the initial shock he suddenly started to spin in the air while she stared at him having fun with her magic. "You're a weird one aren't you? I'm feeling really silly for being so on edge with you."

"Speaking of edge," Arden said as he sat on the air still spinning around. "What was up with all the threats to my life?" Celestia let out a sigh after she heard the question.

"In the last 20 years, the seal that has kept my sister in her prison on the moon has been weakening." Arden raised a brow at that piece of information. "As a result, the entity that has taken over her body has been able to influence some of my subjects that have had bad dreams. She managed to manipulate them to make attempts on my life multiple times."

"How does that relate to me?"

"The only common trait between the attackers were their eyes. They changed, different colors, different pupils, and so forth. When you first appeared a doctor was called to check on you. When he opened your eyes he informed us about the unusual aspect of your left eye. So we assumed you had been taken over. But since all of the victims recovered after they lost consciousness, we were going to check if you had any recollection of how Nightmare Moon took over you. But you saw how well that worked out."

"So, I guess when I started to see your heart my eye changed again," Arden said finally as she ceased spinning him around. The princess nodded positively at his statement. "Therefore, you assumed I was possessed and threatened me because my behavior was different from the previous assailers?" Another nod from the princess. "And that captain, Shining Armor, he must have stopped quite a few of those attempts. I never saw anypony reach such a high ranking position in the military at such a young age. How old is he? 28?"

"Something along those lines," The princess answered smiling. "Now, I have a few questions of my own. What was up with the theatrics back at the throne room?" The stallion let out an awkward laugh as he scratched the back of his head.

"Well...It's kinda stupid actually." He said trying to keep his smile. "You know how different individuals deal with emotions in their own way, right?" The sun princess just stared at him while he tried to keep his poker face. "When I am scared I tend to change into a persona from characters in stories I read, heard or saw. I kinda shifted into a character from an adventure story that is a bit over the top with the drama. He was always so sure of himself and he always had a plan to get out of any situation. He would come up with the most insane plans and beat his opponent, even if he had to get himself into trouble. I believe his catch-phrase when he was about to beat his opponent was: Now you're going to say..." Arden said striking a dramatic pose like he was about to give out a speech.

"Something similar happened in a play I was part of once. I was a villain, and I was so afraid I kinda impersonated an antagonist from a movie I saw and ended up improvising on multiple scenes. The play ended up being a drag because of me. Since I didn't stick to my lines, I lost the rest of the participants. But I ended with being praised a bit because of my acting though."

"Pfft...I-I'm sorry." The princess said trying to contain her laughter. "But...you actually changed your personality because you were scared. That is quite unique."

"Yup, I'm a nerd, a dork, and a coward." He said proudly, earning a giggle from the princess. "But this is me being myself and I met wonderful individuals as well as bad ones because of it. So, I am pretty happy with how I am right now."

"Very well, next question: Why didn't you oppose my conditions?" He let out the same laugh from before, which caused Celestia to raise her eyebrow.

"I was once told I tend to go with the flow too much, not to mention following rules down to the letter." He said blushing. "Soooo...I'm simply being myself right now. Just following the rules of your country, if you say I need to fulfill some conditions to be declared innocent, then I'll do it."

"I'm referring to wanting to return your home or something along those lines."

"Oh...it's because I'm having a blast right now," His answer made the princess drop the spell, which resulted in him falling to the ground with a thud. "Ouch! I mean...a world with magic and creatures of myth that are sentient. I'll take this reality over mine any time."

"What about your family? Your friends?"

"My guess is that I can probably get in contact with them with your help so... I don't see any problems. Not to mention, that they are the ones that told me to do what I wanted not what I was told. That's the reason I tried to become a doctor, and that's why I’m choosing to inhabit of your world, not to mention choosing to help you," Arden would often dream about living in a fantasy world, this was his chance to do so.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that," Arden said getting back on his hooves smiling. "Another question: What was the deal with my zodiac? I mean, why is it important?"

"Ok, are you really from the Virgo zodiac?" Arden let out a sigh before giving her a thumbs up. "The zodiacs in our reality have direct connections to certain capabilities of those born under them. For example, those under the Taurus zodiac have greater physical strength."

"That is awesome," Arden said with sparkling eyes, he now had the smile of a child on an amusement park. "What about Virgo?"

"All stallions born under that zodiac die after a few months of birth. Mares, on the other hand, have the capabilities of their species strengthened considerably." Arden frowned at *species* she must have noticed it because she extended the explanation. "Earth ponies have their physical strength. Pegasi have their speed. And unicorns have their magic."

"Are there any theories about the cause of death?"

"Our bodies are vessels for the magical energy of our world. Each species channels them in a specific manner. As far as we know, mares are stronger vessels that can wield more power. And since the Virgo zodiac strengthens the natural magical abilities of the individual," She said with a different tone to her voice, now she sounded more like a teacher than a mother. "The current theory is that the surplus energy damages the stallion's body, causing their deaths."

"So, I'm an anomaly. Cool." Arden said without a care.

"Yes, indeed you are." She said with a discreet laugh. "Well, since you'll be staying in our world. You'll need to know how things work here."

"Sure thing, Your Highness."

"Call me Celestia," She said smiling. "So, our kingdom is known as Equestria. Pegasi are responsible for controlling the weather. Earth ponies are especially good at handling produce, they are also amazing foot soldiers, and are splendid athletes. Unicorns, on the other hand, are good at developing technology based on the talents of the other species as to facilitate their jobs. There are even some who can look into the future and write prophecies as well. We used to be a diarchy. Although now, after my sister's banishment, I'm the only one in power. Therefore, I'm the one who's been handling her duties as well as mine."

"So, you're basically a goddess," Arden said looking at her. "I am talking to a deity! May this brilliant star never die!" He said in a dramatically bowing to her, he looked back at her, only to see her rolling her eyes at him.

"I guess so." She said dismissing his antiques. "Due to a difference in the birth ratio between males and females herds are formed. There aren't any rules to determine a max number of participants of said herds. Now, what else?"

"What are these tattoos?"

"Oh! Silly me, those are called cutie marks. They tell us about a pony's talent as well as serving to identify our citizens."

"So, your's indicates control over the sun. While mine is seeing into hearts. Neat."

"You seem to be taking all of this fairly well, may I ask why?"

"Different world, different culture. Who am I to judge? Besides, you guys have magic. Everything I know can be tossed out the window to a certain extent," He said while he scratched his chin. "I'll have to start from scratch. But I eager to learn everything I can about your...no, our world."

"Our?" Celestia asked.

"I'll be staying here until the end of my days. So yeah, our world. The world we share."

"So it seems...now let's get back to getting you some clothes. If I remember anything else I'll tell you on our way."

Chapter 4: An odd one (edited)

Celestia continued to walk the young ex-convict through the halls of the palace. She had used her magic to heal the wound on his face and he had used his shirt to clean the blood. Their destination, the royal seamstress workshop. The sun princess came up with a plan after hearing about the stallion’s ability from her niece. The little one would check somepony very specific to determine if there was any chance of saving that pony. The thought of still having a chance to save that pony filled her with hope, the likes of which she had never felt since that dreadful day. But at the same time, if he said it wasn't possible to save this individual...that thought sends shivers down her spine and crushed her heart. Celestia was so deep in these thoughts that she didn't notice the stallion walking backward in front of her.

“So,” Arden said making her snap back into reality “Are you going to fill me in on the details of your plan or am I to guess?”

“About a thousand years ago I was forced to banish my sister Luna to the moon using the most powerful magic our kind had, the Elements of Harmony. She lost control of her body to an entity known as Nightmare Moon. As I said before the seal that keeps her in the moon is weakening. When we hit the turning point of the millennia at the Summer Sunset Celebration in four years, she will be able to return.”

“Summer Sunset Celebration?“

“It’s the longest night of the year and celebrates my “victory" over Nightmare Moon,” she said with a defeated sigh. It didn't matter how long ago it has happened, she still hated that event. “Your role is to determine if there is anything left of my sister once she returns in four years. They are two separate entities, therefore, two separate hearts. You’ll need to do that before my plan to deal with her is completed. If there is anything left I am sure my plan will save her. But...if there isn’t...”

“She’s a goner, as well as Nightmare moon, correct?” Celestia gave out a positive nod as a response while she tried to keep her composure. “I won't say that there isn’t a chance that she will disappear. But if your sister had a strong enough heart you can bet she still there. I guess it all comes down to how much you believe in her.”

“Thank you for your words.”

“By the way...” Arden said squinting his eyes at her as if he was looking for something. “...did you ever sing a song called Lullaby for a Princess?” Celestia frowned at that. She didn't recognize that name at all.

“Do you know any of the lyrics?”

“I believe, BELIEVE, it starts with: Fate has been cruel and order unkind. How can I have sent you away? The blame was my own the punishment yours, the harmony silenced today.” Arden sang as if trying to match a rhythm.

“Where did you hear that song?” Celestia asked confused as she heard the lyrics.

“I love animations. So one day I found this video which had Lullaby for a Princess as its title. You resemble the character that sings the song. But the character walked on four legs and didn't wear any sort of clothes. I didn't look into any details of the animation or the story behind it, but from what I gathered from the video itself the story told by Lullaby is very similar to your story. VERY similar." Celestia's eyes lit up with curiosity and an idea popped into her head.

“Have you seen any other of this videos?” Arden nodded positively. “Have any of them pointed out the outcome of the story?”

“I think I saw two different outcomes. One had the sister being saved and the other had the “evil” one taking over.” That left her without any sort of answer. It would appear she would have to wait. Then she realized that they finally arrived at their destination.

“It would appear we arrived,” Celestia said halting her march while the stallion turned around only to faceplant into the door. “He-he...you should look at where you are going.”

“Perhaps I should,” he said pulling his face off the door. Then he tried to lean on it, but as he tried to do so the door opened and he once again fell to the ground. “I should not lean on doors either.” Celestia giggled.

‘He certainly is an odd one.’

“Your Highness,” said a pony coming out of the chamber. It was a light gray mare with white and lavender mane wearing jeans, a white shirt, and a black waistcoat. This mare was appointed as the royal seamstress due to her ability in making amazing clothes for others, not for the taste of her own clothing.

“It is good to see you again Velvet,” Celestia said before looking down and seeing that she had walked over the stallion that had now disappeared.

“To what do I owe the pleasure? Has something happened to my daughter?”

“No, nothing of the sort,” Celestia said as she looked around the hallway looking for the stallion. “I actually came here because I need to have some traveling clothes done for somepony.”

“And who might that be? You don't mean to send my little boy out on a mission do you?” The captains’ mother tried to hide her concern.

“No. It’s a stallion that I seem to have lost in these hallways somehow.” Celestia continuing to search for the stallion. Her search came to an end when she heard his voice coming from inside the workshop.

“These designs are amazing!” Celestia entered the workshop accompanied by the seamstress that hid behind her once she saw the stallion in an orange jumpsuit that was destined for convicts. “Did you do this Ms.? You really know your stuff!"

“That is the stallion I need you to make those clothes for,” Celestia said trying to calm down her friend. “He was considered innocent and has actually agreed to help me with some problems.”

“I-is that so?” Velvet said from behind the princess while looking at the stallion. After taking a deep breath she spoke. “My name is Twilight Velvet. A pleasure to meet you.”

“Pleasure is mine. I'm Arden Sila.” As he offered his hand, Celestia saw Velvet hesitate a little before shaking his hand.

“Well, let’s take your measurements. Take off your clothes but keep the underwear.” Velvet used her magic to pull a stool for him to stand on.

Aredn obliged, Celestia watched him take off his clothes. He was very slim, barely any muscles. No scars and nothing actually worthy of attention, in fact...he looked so light. Celestia started to question how did he not turn into a bloody splatter on the wall when he first appeared. Suddenly Velvet stood up. “I got them, return in two hours and I’ll have them ready for you,” she said turning her back on them and headed to her designing table.

Celestia watched the stallion put his clothes back on before he said, “Now what do we do?”

Celestia scratched her chin pondering the possibilities. “How about we see what you can do?”

“You mean...like a test?” the little one asked with a raised eyebrow. Celestia nodded positively.

“Lead-” before he could finish his sentence Celestia teleported them to the training yard. The stallion stood still with his mouth agape. “Show me the ways of the magic master!”

Celestia rolled her eyes with a smile. “Try to levitate that rock,” she said pointing to a small rock, when she looked back at him she saw him staring blankly at her. “What?”

“How does one levitate rocks?”

“Oh...world without magic,” Celestia said with an awkward smile. “Focus on the rock, then imagine a force great enough to keep it afloat.”

Celestia watched the young one try his best to make the rock float. He managed to channel magical energy around his horn on the first try but...no matter how much he tried no aura would manifest itself around the rock. After several minutes he left out a defeated sigh before turning back to face her.

“I don’t think I can do that.”

“That’s odd. That’s one of the most basic ones.” Celestia frowned and scratched her chin. “Let me check something.” Celestia then proceeded to check his magical potential. Casting a spell that allowed the caster to verify somepony else’s ability to manipulate magical energy to use it according to their species talent. From what she could see he had the same magical level of her student. Yet he was unable to cast the simplest of spells.

“Let’s try something else. Maybe I can’t do everyday stuff.” Arden said making her blink and cancel the spell.

“Then try to create an energy beam,” Celestia said. “Focus your energy on the palm of your hand then imagine it blasting away in a straight line.” The result was the same as before. “Try elemental.” Nothing again. “Illusion.” Zero. “Then try to make a shield. Focus your energy anywhere and then give it the shape of a shield and imagine how sturdy you want it to be.”

She watched a round shield made out of blue energy materialized itself attached to his arm, the stallions arms were sparkling as he stared at the creation. “Now let’s see how durable it is.” The stallion agreed excitedly and raised the shield. Celestia charged a small beam and shot at him, not a crack. Another blast, this time stronger, once again no damage. Then a constant beam, the stallion was pushed back but nothing happened to the shield.

“Brace yourself, this is the strongest blast I ever used against the best defensive magic user we have,” she said before shooting another beam. Arden flew upon impact and hit the wall causing it to crack.

“Oh no!” Celestia rushed to the stallion and found him getting up and brushing off dust. The shield was still there and not a single scratch on it.

“That was a strong one, glad I had something between me and the beam,” Arden said once he noticed her standing there.

“Shining Armor’s shield withstood that blast but broke soon after...yours is still intact. That’s impressive.” She walked around him to look for wounds due to his impact on the wall. None were there.

‘This is the durability of an earth pony...what is going on here?’

He left out a giggle before making the shield disappear. “I’m okay if that's what you're checking. It seems I can only use defensive magic though.”

“Let's test something else,” Celestia said channeling her magic and making a machine intended to measure the strength of an earth pony. ”Punch the red spot with everything you have.”

Celestia paid close attention to the display as the stallion prepared to hit the designated area. He swung his fist and the machine produced the number one thousand two hundred. ‘That’s the minimum strength of an earth pony. Their maximum value goes up to three thousand five hundred. or at least that's the maximum ever registered. I am at four thousand five hundred due to my duties preventing me from training...given his species, he should be at six hundred, that’s the unicorn’s max. If he was a pegasus he that would be acceptable since they can reach up to two thousand.’

“Is that a good number?” the stallion asked looking at the display.

‘Maybe...since his world doesn’t have magic he was supposed to become an earth pony when he came here. But that would mean something either went wrong with the transformation or something about him made him turn into a unicorn.’

“Princess?" Arden said waving his hand in front of her, Celestia woke up and shook her head before answering him.

“That is an astonishing number.” The stallion blushed as he let out a laugh and scratched the back of his head when she said that. “You said you didn’t have magic in your world. Did you ever wish to be able to use it?”

“Of course! Having magic meant being able to protect other people back in my world. Or at least...that’s how I saw it when I saw heroes using magic in the stories I loved.”

“Did those heroes have to channel magic through spells?”

“Yes!”

‘Maybe that could be it? His desire to use magic combined with how he saw it...a way to protect others. Maybe that desire twisted the transformation allowing him to become a being able to use magic that required channeling spells. But...I think his desire could only influence the change partially, so the end result was a unicorn only capable to use defensive magic with the strength of an earth pony.’

“Is something wrong?” he asked making Celestia come back from her thoughts once again.

“You are.” The stallion frowned at that. “Your traits are all over the place. You can only use defensive magic and you have the strength of an earth pony.”

“I am too crazy for this world, I’m breaking all of your rules!” He exclaimed striking a pose.

“You are indeed an odd one,” Celestia said giggling.

‘And maybe you could be a good sparring partner...if you got stronger.’

Chapter 5: Warp (edited)

'My back hurts. How much force did she put into that blast? I also think I hurt my hand with that punch.' Arden thought to himself as he rubbed his knuckles. Due to his way of living, fighting wasn't exactly something he knew how to do. In fact, he only knew how to throw a punch because his father showed him how to do it. And the only instance where he had to do it was when a dumbass kept annoying him to the point he punched the guy in the chest, making said guy fall inside a trash can that was right behind him. The two jackasses that were with the guy ignored Arden as he left the scene. Luckily those guys never came back for payback. Especially since Arden didn't like to deal with people that way. Arden would much prefer to deal with people like that by using the rules to turn their lives into a living hell until said people would leave him alone. In other words, he had literally zero experience as a fighter, no martial arts of any kind.

"Do you know how to use that sword you appeared here with?" Celestia asked as they went back to the seamstress workshop. That little magic test had taken more than a few hours. And the end result was as he feared. He was only able to create that shield. He could change its shape and size but anything more than that...he was screwed.

"No, I don't. I don't even know how to defend myself, to be honest. Never had to." Arden said as he walked the hallways with the sun princess. He noticed the princess had was pouting after he said that. "What?"

"I am a very proud fighter. And I was knocked out by a complete amateur! That hurts my pride, I won't lie." She answered as she massaged her temples.

"Then just hit me on the head and knock me out." He said nonchalantly. "As for the sword...and the rest of my stuff. What happened to it?" He said remembering he had a backpack with his computer where he stored all of his study material for his classes, a notebook with his personal notes on the subjects he studied, a stethoscope, his lab coat, a sketchbook for his anatomy classes, his phone, and a wallet. "Those things have some of my notes and research."

"About the items..." Celestia said biting her lip and averting her eyes, he knew the bad news was inbound. "...We managed to salvage some of the data from your computer, but it was damaged beyond repair with the impact. The same can be said about the phone. Your notebook was taken over to be studied by some doctors. The same can be said about the sketchbook. We have never seen anatomic parts like those, so they were having a blast due the number of details. How did you do those?" Arden just let out a sigh as he heard all of that 'At the very least somepony was having fun with my work. I bet they were talking about the shape of the legs and the feet as well as the face shape. It must look quite weird to have toes at the end of your lower limbs, and to have a nose, and not have a muzzle.'

"Placed the page over the drawing and copied it." He answered without hesitation, which made the princess almost trip due to the honesty. "I made those so I could study at home without having to carry the anatomy books around. Those are heavy. What about the wallet with my documents? And my clothes?"

"We barely managed to salvage the documents you were carrying, since both your clothes and anything inside was scorched except for your underwear. Actually, you were covered in burnt rags when you arrived." Arden just shrugged at that, it wasn't like he could actually use those here. "A question: When were you born?"

"Oh, back in my world I was born on September 13 of 1996. If I am not mistaken it was a Friday. So back in that world, I am 21 years old." Arden said without a care, he explained that too many times before when he was asked to introduce himself to college and other places. "What year are we in?"

"2996." She answered in a heartbeat, 'I guess she's been counting the years for her plan to come into action. And holy shit if this is actually my earth a millenium in the future I'll be depressed. '

"It seems we arrived," Arden said when he saw the seamstress' door at the end of the hallway. "I wonder how they turned out," Arden said knocking on the door.

"Coming." Velvet's voice came from inside, she opened the door and as soon as she saw the two she let out a sigh. "How did you get yourself covered in dirt like that?"

"Got blasted against a wall while testing my shield's resilience." The seamstress made her eyes dart from the stallion to the princess multiple times before she actually gestured them to come inside.

Once inside he saw a mannequin with a pair of teal pants that looked very light with a dark teal belt that had some pockets attached to it as well as some details that looked like the wearer could hold vials on them for easy access. The top part was composed of a dark blue shirt and a dark purple part that looked like some sort of long sleeved tunic that belonged to the middle ages...it looked just as light but very sturdy as well. On the end of both sleeves of the purple part, there was a very small sun sewed with a golden thread while the blue part had a very small silver moon placed over the heart. Both of these details only caught Arden's attention when he got closer.

"They look very nice," Arden said with while he kept circling around the clothes with his eyes scanning the whole thing. "They look from around the middle ages from where I come from...but they also remind me of clothes used by adventurers I learned about in stories. I like them!"

"Well thank you." Velvet said with a smile. "Now try them on. They should be a perfect fit."

"What's with the sun and moon insignias though?" Arden said looking back at the seamstress, that now had a frowning Celestia glaring at her.

"Why indeed Mrs. Velvet?" the prin

"W-well...you said he agreed to help you so...I-I thought he was going out on an official mission. So the symbol of the day and night you rule over seemed to be adequate." She stuttered trying to explain her reasoning.

"I like them," Arden said manipulating the sun emblem with his hand. "Where is the dressing room?" Velvet pointed to a small door on the side of the room. Arden headed towards it when he was about to enter he heard from behind him.

"I'll return in a few moments, I need to send a few letters and attend to my duties. As soon as I'm done I'll be back." It was the princess talking, he just gave her a thumbs up and went into the dressing room.

The clothes were lighter than he thought and they did fit him perfectly. As soon as he was ready, he left the dressing room and found the seamstress. She was at her table working on some sort of belt, or so Arden thought. But upon closer inspection it was actually attached to the scabbard Arden saw with the blade. 'A quillon eh? It's better than having to carry it around in my hands.' The quillon had a shoulder pad made out of some sort of material that resembled leather and appeared to have been made to cover the left shoulder and the immediate area above the heart.

"That's an awesome design, Mrs. Velvet." He said from behind the mare making her jump on her seat. "S-sorry," Arden said getting back to give her some space. As he did he also noticed a pair of bracers made of the same material and on the ground some metal greaves that resembled silver. "Are all of these for me?"

"Y-yes." She stuttered, she was having a real hard time getting used to him. "The bracers came from the armory for the ancient night guards as well as the metal greaves. They supposedly were part of the royal guard a long time ago serving the princess of the night, but they were disbanded after she became Nightmare Moon and was banished to the moon. So their equipment and materials have been kept in storage. Just in case the princess decides to form them back again. And the princess said 'traveling clothes' so you need some protection." Even if she had her guard up, she was still looking over all the details to ensure the clothing served its purpose.

"Thank you, I appreciate it," Arden said lowering his head in a half bow. "And this is very comfortable by the way." His answer to the compliment was a mild smile before Velvet went back to her work.

"Princess, you need to see this data!" Arden heard from behind the door to the workshop. "All of this is research about diseases, organic systems. There is also has data on laws and medical procedures that are way different from our own! Whoever possessed this cannot be from our realm!"

'Somepony is excited with the stuff on my computer.' He thought to himself as he looked back at a window, it had become night time already.

"I am well aware Twilight. There is no need to worry though, all has been taken care of." He recognized the princess' voice through the door, her voice carried a joyful tone. 'It would seem Celestia enjoys this pony's company.'

The room's door suddenly opened and Celestia came in accompanied by a lavender unicorn wearing jeans with a light purple long sleeved shirt. Her mane was dark purple with a single line of a lighter shade of purple and by its side a pink line. Her eyes were the same color of her coat and she was carrying a little blue satchel that looked empty. Based on what she said, she was the nerd type just like himself. 'Maybe she can lend me some notes about history and such. I literally know nothing about this place other than what Celestia told me.'

"But princess, we need to talk to this pony and learn how he got here and what he knows!" The unicorn said as she kept walking by the princess' side, she immediately stopped as soon as she saw Arden. "Who's this?"

"I'm the owner of the data you're so excited about," Arden said with an awkward smile and waving a little, the unicorn didn't respond she just froze in place and her eye started to twitch a little. Arden turned to the princess and said. "Celestia, I think I broke her...or she’s going to arrest me in order to interrogate me."

"WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?!" The mare suddenly shot with her eyes widening as she dashed closer to the stallion that walked backward due to both the scream and the sudden approach, then she looked straight into his eyes and stopped.

"..." Both of them just stood there for a little while, Arden started to feel a bit uneasy so he decided to see if any word from him would make her at the very least back away. "A-another reality?"

A huge smile suddenly sprouted at the mare's face and she jumped back making a scroll appear accompanied by a quill. Grabbing both in her hands she started to write on the scroll, Arden leaned sideways to look past the little author to find Celestia. Once she was in sight he saw that the princess was laughing at the entire situation.

"So what're the dominant species of your reality?!" Her eyes were beaming as she asked, Arden was starting to get a little worried. 'Is she going to dissect me if she finds out I was human?'

"...h-humans."

"So there is a world where humans exist!" She said hopping around as she continued to take notes.

"Twilight," The princess said, as soon as the mare heard her voice she came to a halt and turned back into her state from when she walked into the room. "This one is going on a little errand for me. So he can't stay here to keep answering you. Did you bring the items I requested?"

"Yes!" She said pulling the unsheathed blade from the satchel, Arden's jaw fell flat on the floor. "This blade is heavier than it looks, one can easily lift this blade with magic, but holding it with your own hands reveals another weight entirely, and it also appears to be enchanted. But what the enchantment does we couldn't determine." Celestia picked up the blade and then turned towards velvet who was standing by her side holding the scabbard along with the finished quillon. Celestia sheathed the blade and gave it to Arden, who proceeded to secure it on his person.

"And the other two items" Once again Twilight reached to the satchel and pulled out a small silver ring with a white stone embedded in it along with a necklace that had some sort of little crude white stone attached to it. With the items in hand, she handed them to the princess. "I assume you don't have control over your ability yet?"

"Guilty as charged," Arden said scratching the back of his head, in the corner of his eye he saw Twilight frowning at him when he said that. "I can reset the state but as for activating it..."

"It would be problematic if it were to suddenly activate without you wanting it to happen. So this necklace will suppress your talent. It is usually destined to prisoner's whose talents can make keeping them inside their cells rather problematic. Keep it on you at all times." The princess explained as she placed the necklace around the stallion's neck, the trinket gave out a small glow and the stone shifted its color from white to a rainbow stone. "That's a unique color...well the ring will allow you to send letters directly to me and vice versa. Just hold the letter above the ring and a flame will burn the letter turning it into a magical smoke that will be restored into its original form once it reaches its destination."

"Is it like mine Princess?" Twilight asked looking curiously at the princess. Arden looked at the mare's hand and saw a silver ring on her index finger with a pink crystal on it.

"Yes, my student. Now, Arden, you are only to contact me if absolutely necessary. I arranged for you to work at the Golden Oak Library in Ponyville as it's keeper. Not as a librarian as a keeper, you are to replace the books at their proper places at the end of each day. The pay is small but you will have the entirety of the day free to do as you please. So you can find other sources of income." The princess said while walking around the room, once she walked away from Twilight and Velvet, Arden saw them hug each other and he heard them greeting each other and asking how they were doing. "You will stay there for the next four years waiting, once everything starts to move I'll contact you to share more information."

"Why send him to a well-known location four years before whatever it is he is going to be involved happens?" Twilight asked. "Why not send him when the time comes? While keeping him sheltered at the castle. So you can learn more about his world."

'She's just making excuses to keep me here isn't she? Good god, she really wants to interrogate me. At least she hasn't asked about my talent, I'll probably never hear the end of it if she learns about it.'

"Well, I intend for him to learn how to live here on his own. As well as I intend for him to be well acquainted with the place where his mission will transpire. Four years will give him plenty of time to prepare." Celestia explained, Twilight tried to come up with a retort but gave up after a few moments...then her ears fell flat and she started to rub her arm and started to look at the princess with puppy eyes. 'That's...unexpected. Maybe...'

"Celestia, could you be so kind as to send some of your student's questions to me once a week?" Arden asked with a small bow as he clapped his hands together. "That way both you and her can understand more about my original world." The unicorn shifted from moping to beaming in a heartbeat. Celestia looked at her student and let out a sigh as a smile formed on her face.

"Very well, once a week I'll send some questions about your home. You can answer them at your convenience though. No deadline. But..." Celestia smirked as she proceeded to walk over to the stallion that gulped as she started to make the same face she made at the throne room earlier that day.

"B-but...?"

"I'll warp you there. You won't be taking the train." Arden let out a sigh and grabbed his chest as he started to breathe normally again. "Why are you relieved?"

"If it's just that then I think I'm okay," Arden said looking at the princess, that still had the smile from before then he looked at Twilight and saw her frowning and biting her lip. "That has a catch doesn't it?"

"Yes, it does. You end up in a random location at the outskirts of the town. So you'll need to make your way to the town from there."

"Is this payback?"

"Indeed it is."

"Oh, boy."

"Hand the pockets in your belt to Twilight she'll pack up all you'll need to make your trip to Ponyville." Arden did as requested. "Now then, first thing in the morning you will be sent to your new residence. I Hope you have a strong stomach."

"Once again: Oh, boy."

Chapter 6: Eyes, hut, village and dream (edited)

Arden found himself surrounded by a thick forest after he managed to recover from the insanity drive that was the warp spell. The trip was similar to the one he experienced in his first arrival in this world, without all the pain and burning...and the face planting into a wall, knocking out a princess, and ending up being arrested for it. But it was replaced by a strong sensation of nausea and the urge to vomit.

"Al-urp...uhg. Alright, I get the 'I hope I you have a strong stomach' part now." He said as once again he felt the urge to vomit. "Now I get why she had the cooks prepare such a great breakfast this morning. She is devious...I better get some payback ready. Now-?!" Arden froze in place as he felt the sensation of being observed. He realized he might look a bit suspect if he just froze there, so he tried his best to loosen up as he looked around.

Arden turned his head around he saw with the corner of his eye a pair of glowing green eyes with pupils that looked like the eyes of a feline. Arden was stood in front of such eyes so that he would be standing sideways from the watcher's point of view. 'God that's creepy. I hope it works.'

Arden got closer to the ground and started to draw on the ground with his index finger, after a few strokes he placed his palm on the dirt and grabbed a good amount of dirt while keeping his attention to the pair of eyes on that were following his every move. With dirt in his clenched fist, he stood up while staring at his fist, and then he proceeded to slowly move towards the eyes until he was facing them. Their eyes met and they just stood like that for a little while, until suddenly Arden tossed all the dirt straight toward the eyes. A hiss came from the eyes and Arden had already started to run in the opposite direction.

'Thank the lord it worked. Wait what is that sound?' Arden thought to himself as he heard something that sounded like a bug's wings buzzing behind him. He forced himself to run even faster. 'Please don't let it be a giant bee! Please don't let it be a giant bee!'

The sound got louder and louder as Arden continued to run, but as he ran he noticed out of the corner of his eye he had passed a small hut with some sort of tribal mask at the door. The sound of wings died down before the sound of flames took over. It was followed by the sound of steps. 'I don't know what is chasing me but I don't wanna look!' A few moments later Arden saw a clearing in the distance he made one last effort to go even faster as the sound of steps got louder.

Arden emerged out of the forest running like a mad stallion into what looked to be a town square. Stumbling around as he ran, Arden finally landed on his butt and turned around. Whatever it was that had been chasing him did not follow him into the town. 'Talk about a close shave.' He thought to himself as he got back on his hooves and brushed off the dust. However, as he was doing it he felt his entire body freeze as a voice echoed in the back of his mind.

"Aren't you clever? The little act, looking straight into my eyes..." The voice was somewhat unsettling. It sounded female and from what he could hear, it seemed as if two voices were overlapping as it spoke. "...then tossing dirt in them. And then finally running to cower in the village. I'll be keeping an eye on you, little one huhu...a VERY close eye." The voice made a chill run down Arden's spine before he could start moving again. The stallion kept staring into the forest as his breathing slowly returned to normal.

"A new face around town and our party organizer is visiting her family. What a shame." Said a voice from behind Arden. The voice made him snap back from his search of the forest. "Those are some magnificent clothes, my dear. Might I ask you where you acquired them?" The voice sounded female. When the stallion turned around, he saw a lot of ponies staring straight at him. He then noticed a white coated mare with a purple mane and blue eyes. She was wearing a black sleeved white shirt and a pair of jeans. As she stood there in front of the crowd, He realized she was waiting for an answer.

"Er..." As Arden tried to come up with an explanation, he scanned the crowd. There were way more mares than stallions there. Until that moment he had thought that Celestia was exaggerating on the birth ratio difference, but this was solid proof about it. "...Canterlot?" The white mare gasped and her pupils started to sparkle.

"You've been in Canterlot?! You need to tell me all about it!" She said while shaking the stallion's shoulders making the urge to vomit return once again.

"I-I would love to, but I want to find my workplace and home first." Arden finally managed to say once she stopped shaking him like a maraca.

"Oh, my stars! Where are my manners?! My name is Rarity Belle. I am the local seamstress and I run the shop known as Carousel Boutique." She said while brushing her mane.

"Well, you got the Belle part covered," Arden said without thinking. "I am Arden Sila. It means 'strong bond' I...I'm a kind of a wanderer but recently accepted a job proposal to work as this town's library keeper. But the warp spell ended up sending me into that forest over there instead of the town's entrance." He said, extending his hand to her as a greeting. As he did though, he noticed that he was talking to a unicorn 'How did I overlook the horn? Jesus! I need to get it together.'

"Pleasure to meet you." The mare answered accepting the greet. When her eyes locked on the ring placed on his middle finger. "My, my! Are you perhaps in a relationship with a special somepony? That is quite the ring! I have never seen any jewel with all of the rainbow's colors on it!" She was practically eating the ring with her eyes.'DAMN IT CELESTIA! I THOUGHT YOU SAID NOPONY WOULD CARE ABOUT SUCH A TINY JEWEL!' The mare then looked up and her eyes now locked onto the stallion's chest, during his escape the necklace he hid inside his clothes came out and the crude colorful stone was exposed.

"MY WORD! You have more of these stones?! Wherever did you get these??! I simply must know!" She said blinking rapidly as she stared into Arden's eyes and got closer. 'Is she really trying to use that on me? Sorry, but I won't fall for that.'

"Sorry, both of these were a gift. I don't know where they came from." The mare let out a sigh as she started to pout a little. Arden noted that the crowd that had been watching both of them had already begun to disperse and soon they were alone. "Can you point me to the library? I really want to settle in." Arden said rubbing the back of his head. "I also need to look for extra income so...do you know about any places that are hiring Mrs. Belle?"

"I could always use an extra pair of hands for running errands and cleaning the boutique." She said scratching her chin. "I wouldn't exactly be able to hire you since I just started the shop but I could pay you back with some clothing. And there is also the Apple family. Those ponies have some of the largest farms in Equestria and every so often they have positions available with good pay."

"Thank you so very much!" Arden said bowing to her. "How can I pay you back?"

"There is no need darling." She answered with a soft smile.

"How about I work cleaning and running errands for a while for free?"

"That simply won't do!" She shot back at his offer. "If you work for me you'll get paid! I insist, and besides. If you go around with my beautiful creations, my shop's popularity might increase!" She said clapping her hands together rapidly as she giggled. "Oh, yes! The library, it's over there past the fountain." She said pointing towards a fountain made out of pink stone that had a statue of a pony on top of it.

"Thank you. Both the offer and the help were very generous on your part. Especially to a total stranger that came out of the woods running like a maniac, as I did." Arden said smiling at her.

"Well, thank you, dear. I'll be heading back to my shop. Please come by once you settled in so we can discuss the details of your job as well as your working hours." She said before turning around and walking away.

'That was lucky...I hope it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass later. Karma is one nasty bitch.' He thought to himself as he watched the mare walk away, first he manages to escape a random creature with a stupid plan. Then he meets a mare that is offering him a job in exchange for some clothes...things were going way too well for him. 'Anyway, time to set up shop.'

The stallion headed towards the library following the mare's instructions. After he got past the fountain, he saw a huge tree with windows and a balcony. 'I didn't think that this was literally going to be an oak. This is AWESOME! If I go in and there is a fairy in there, I am going to scream like a little girl!' He thought to himself as he opened the library's door, sadly there were no fairies inside the place, only a lot of dust.

"*Cough**Cough* Okay...I’ll need to clean this place up." He said looking around the place, there were sections that were in fairly good shape, probably due to being more used. While others seemed to be a complete mix of dust and paper. Once inside he closed the door and started to look for cleaning tools. "This will take a while."

'That was an interesting encounter.' She thought to herself while scratching her eyes. 'Not the most elaborate of plans but a plan nonetheless. Not to mention he actually looked into my eyes, not many ponies actually look into our eyes like that. This oughta be fun.' She thought to herself as she made her way back to the local caves where she decided to reside due to her fair share of problems back at her home.

'That stallion is holding something back. I just know it!' The seamstress thought to herself while she got through the town heading back to her shop that also functioned as her home. 'I'll tell Applejack about it later so she can try to get something out of him. That mare can see a twitch from a mile away. Not to mention they could actually use some help at that farm of theirs. Maybe she can find out where he got those stones as well.' She thought as she opened the door to her workshop and saw all the leftover cloth from all of her designs resting everywhere, which resulted in her letting out a sigh.

'And I also really need a helping hand here.' She was very caring about her home, but when she was struck by inspiration there was no stopping her. Before she realized it everything she had just cleaned up was covered in rags and leftover threads and ribbons.

"That took waaaay longer than I thought," Arden said finally placing the mop and duster down. He had arrived in town that morning, but cleaning everything up and placing the books back took the entire day. It was already dark outside so he decided not to disturb Rarity at this hour and simply fell on the couch that was on the lower floor after he locked up the place. It didn't take long for him to black out.

"Aren't you an interesting one?" A voice echoed in his head, it wasn't the same he heard earlier that day. This one sounded different.

"Who are you?"

"A bad dream."

Chapter 7: I am king (edited)

"A bad dream? Seriously?" Arden said opening his eyes to see dark hallways leading to a humongous silver door with a silver moon engraved on it. These hallways were illuminated by both the moon and torches with blue flames, the carpet on the floor was blue with silver drawings. "Listen, if you're trying to make an entrance don't identify yourself in such a manner. Try to be more subtle."

No response came, so Arden let out a sigh. "Okay, I'm either dreaming or once again I've been teleported somewhere else. My money is on the first. Let's meet this visitor." He said to himself, Arden's voice echoed through the halls just like the sound of his steps. When he reached the door it opened by itself, revealing a throne room where there was a huge banner with the image that looked like the profile of a unicorn with blue eyes. Beneath such a banner there was a black thone decorated with sapphires.

"Welcome, our little subject. We are the rightful ruler of Equestria, Nightmare Moon. Bow before our might!" The black alicorn with feline sapphire colored eyes said while keeping her position on the throne. "Now please introduce yourself. We have never seen a creature such as yourself, please tell us what you are."

"What do you...oh..." Arden said looking at himself, his blue body was gone. He now looked like some sort of creature made out of the black smoke with white forearms and white hooves, he also noticed that the necklace he promised himself not to take off under any circumstance was gone. "Can't I just have a stable body?! Moon, I have no idea as to what I am right now and I don't feel like introducing myself since I think you just want to turn me into a puppet." Arden said crossing his arms and staring straight into her eyes, the mare was wearing some sort of black and blue battle dress.

"A brave one. Aside from looking strange, it has some guts. So...what should we do with you?" She said scratching her chin as she inspected Arden from top to bottom. "From what I can see you've been with that detestable princess wannabe. So you should be an incredible pawn once I break you." She said with a grin that sent shivers down Arden's soul.

"B-before you do that I want to try something." The Nightmare raised an eyebrow at the request. " So please tell me if this story rings a bell," Arden said stepping forward and reaching the center of the room. Once there he focused on another video he seen heard before. If he recalled correctly, it was made by a group of animators known as Duo Cartoonist. If what he remembered was right, the video's name was inspired by a song of the same name made by an independent musician called Ponyphonic. The song's and video's name was 'The moon rises.'

"Just listen to this." He said closing his eyes. Focusing on his memories, the melody started to play. Opening his eyes, Arden saw his memory of the animation had begun to materialize in front of him. 'Heh...I'm good then.' Then the voice of the figure constructed started to echo through the room.

(Use this to see what Arden is remembering)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2PCNKlddJY

Once the song finished Arden turned back to the dark mare and saw her mouth agape, "Thank you! Thank you! I'll be here all week folks." Arden said making a bow as if he was saluting an audience. The black mare shook her head at that before glaring at Arden.

"I don't know how you could even know of such a representation of our tale but...congratulations. You have officially angered us. Now we are going to create your worst nightmare right here and now."

"But aren't you the ruler of nightmares? Doesn't that place you at the top of all nightmares?" Arden said with a smirk which made Nightmare scoff and charged a magical beam. She then proceeded to shoot him with it. Arden didn't even bother to dodge as the beam went straight through him. The smoke that composed his torso had moved out of the way letting the beam pass through. "Oh...it seems I’m an ethereal being right now. So I guess I can do whatever I want."

"You think that's all we can do?! You arrogant fool!" She said making her mane made out of stars expand and give form to a hydra, a manticore, and a pack of wolves made out of wood. "Get him!"

When the creatures rushed towards him, Arden's body dispersed and enveloped all of the creatures. As his body reformed, leaving the creatures behind, they were replaced by adorable little critters. The dark mare stared at the dark mist creature that just undid her illusions. "What are you?"

"I'm something you created," The mare stared at him with her pupils shrinking. "I am a dreamer made lucid, therefore I control this place. Now, you've shown me how you dream. Let me show you how I dream."

Saying that as he opened a smile Arden snapped his fingers and the entirety of the world that surrounded them disappeared leaving only them alone in an empty dark realm. "Now let me begin!" Arden said bowing to her.

"Now let me begin!" She heard from the creature before her that was now bowing. Whatever it was, it had control over its dreamscape once again, which could pose a threat to her and her host now. Nightmare took a defensive stance and prepared her magic in case it decided to attack her. The problem is, that in this place, an attack could come from any direction. "A bit too dark for me, let's balance this shall we?"

With that, the creature raised its head and reached forward almost as if grabbing something unseen by her. Then it brought its hand near its head, took a deep breath and blew the clenched fist. A golden light began to pour out from between its fingers, it took a weird stance and tossed whatever it was on its hands. A small sphere of light flew through the empty space before it blew up taking the shape of a dragon made out of golden light. The entire space was taken over by the light.

"Every single thing has its counterpart, to light...darkness. Look behind you." The fog creature said to her, she slowly turned back and saw a pitch black dragon with white eyes staring at the golden dragon. "When two opposites collide there are two possibilities: the first is conflict." With that, both dragons started to fight each other, tearing at each other's flesh and using their elemental breaths of light and darkness at each other.

The clash produced new elements to the scenery. The dark dragon's blood created the dark night's sky while the blood from the golden one created its stars. The torn flesh from both beings combined created comets and galaxies, as the clashes between their elemental attacks created planets.

"The other possibility is coexistence." The creature said as both dragons got away from each other. From her point of view both dragons were at a stalemate, but of course, she was just waiting for the usual outcome to come by. 'Of course the light is going to win...it's typical for every single pony in this kingdom.' She thought to herself waiting for the creature to continue whatever it was doing. 'But we have to say...this is rather beautiful.'

"Another thing that can emerge from these possibilities is something very special. Something unique, something that only manifests to those who actually seen all the facades from one another, in times of peace and conflict." She heard as both dragons appeared to approach each other, Nightmare was waiting for the golden one attack and finish the heavily wounded dark one. However, both of them stopped once only a few inches was between them and stared at each other. Suddenly both of them opened their wings and took flight, as she braced herself for another fight between the two.

What she witnessed however confused her, they soared through the air in synch in what could only be described as an aerial dance. "That is love." The voice from the fog creature said from her side making Nightmare jump away from it. "And this can lead to something new: life." As he said that both dragons collided and mixed up into a sphere of light and darkness, from it beams shot in all directions hitting the planets that suddenly grew vegetation, water, animals and so forth. Suddenly she saw that both she and the creature were no longer among the stars, but on the ground.

"Look up." It said to her pointing to the sky, hesitant she glanced at the sky to see enormous ponies made out of stars dancing through the skies. 'What is this thing?! Why is he showing us this?!'

"Now..." The creature said snapping his fingers once again and returning to the scenery from before his demonstration. "...what do you think?"

"...what do you think?" Arden asked with a smirk on his face. 'Hopefully she learned something from this.'

The mare turned at him glaring daggers. "You think you can scare us? You are more arrogant than we thought!" She said once again taking her place on the throne and assuming the pose of a queen. 'Er...I don't think she learned anything from that...but that aside...how can she be so beautiful yet called a nightmare?' Arden thought to himself as he sighed due to her attitude.

"You may have regained control of the dreamscape, but you will not wake up until we say so. Therefore, You will be trapped here until you die!" Hearing that Arden started to think as he scratched his chin. 'Now that's a problem...she said she’s a Nightmare. Maybe I can call a Baku? That would either scare her off or kill her. It's worth a try.

"Then I'll just call a Baku and make it devour you," Arden said with a smile, the reaction he got from the mare made his suspicions be confirmed.

"D-don't you dare bring t-those things close to her! I-I won't let them hurt her!" The dark mare stuttered. 'Is she referring to Celestia's sister? Is she trying to protect her host and protect herself? No...she wouldn't cry if that was the case...huh...I wonder...' The mare began to charge a beam once again. Arden raised his hand and her magic was dispelled. "What?!"

"This is my kingdom," Arden said with a serious tone. His mind was his domain therefore here he was king. "So off my chair jester. The king sits there." The mare let out a horrifying scream as she disappeared into the moon. Soon after he woke up.

Arden opened his eyes and saw the familiar library still in the dark. Looking up at the clock he saw that it was around five AM in the morning. 'Well, my internal clock still works as usual. I should contact Celestia.' Arden said picking himself up, then he headed to the kitchen and lit up a candle. Then he headed to a desk that had a bunch of quills and parchment placed on top of it.

"Dear Celestia,

I am sorry to contact you so soon but I fear I might need some help. For you see Nightmare Moon tried to take me over last night, but luckily I drove her away. But I fear she might try to do this again since I seemed to have angered her. So I would really appreciate it if you could send somepony to maybe put some mental wards on me or something of the sort. Because according to what Nightmare said she needs to break the victim before forcing her will into the victim's mind.

Another topic I would like to discuss is Nightmare's motives for taking over your sister, do you have theories? Because I believe to have stumbled into something. But in order to see if it holds I need to know if there is any written record or tale about a creature called Baku. I would also like to see them if at all possible.

There is no need to worry though, it would seem that in my mind, I am still king.

Thank you for the patience and for your time.

Your Friend Arden Sila."

With that Arden folded the piece of paper and held it on top of his ring, as a colorful flame appeared and burned it to cinders. Then he went to the couch and sat down to wait until the letter was answered or dawn came and he could visit Rarity for the job offer.

(Two hours later)

*Rattle, Rattle*

The sound of the doorknob twisting woke Arden up, he fell asleep while waiting for the response, "Coming." He said yawning and putting his shirt back on. The rattling got worse, as he approached the door, "I said I am coming. Sheesh."

When he unlocked the door the ratling stopped but it didn't open. 'What the?' Arden then opened the door. The last he saw was a blue canon placed right at his doorstep and the last thing he heard was this:

*BOOOM*

"SURPRISE!"

Chapter 8: WELCOME! (edited)

*BOOM*

Arden felt something hit his chest, 'Why is everything in this world either trying to subdue me or kill me? I bet this is Karma coming back for me after that good luck streak from yesterday.' He thought to himself as he felt his back hitting the wall.

"SURPRISE! Welcome to Ponyville! IamPinkiepie..." He heard a happy voice singing, but his ears were still ringing too much for him to understand what the pony was saying beyond the first scream. 'What the heck is going on?' He then opened his eyes and saw a pink coated and maned pony wearing a white T-shirt with a yellow shirt and some blue pants. On her forearm, there was a mark of some balloons, her eyes were a cyan blue, she didn't have a horn or wings so she was probably an earth pony. She was bouncing around like she was made out of rubber.

"HEY!" The stallion screamed since his ears were still ringing. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU! THE CANON SHOT IS MAKING MY EARS RING! CAN YOU WAIT FOR A WHILE UNTIL IT COMES BACK TO NORMAL?" The pink one looked back at him after she stopped in mid-air making the cartoon sound of brakes. "DO YOU HAVE BUILT IN AIR BRAKES?!" The pony touched the ground while she kept looking at him, then her mane lost the puffy aspect it had and fell flat. Her entire coat changed into a grayish pink. 'That's a sudden change...'

The ringing stopped and he could finally hear again. "There, now I can hear you. I'm not mad just confused. Please repeat everything you said after surprise? I kinda lost everything after that." Then the pink mare bounced and the color returned to her. Arden then raised his hand and said. "I know you are excited but please talk in regular speed. If you're anything like me when excited you're gonna talk fast like a rapper." She giggled and then took a deep breath before starting to speak.

"Welcome to Ponyville! I am Pinkie Pie. The local party organizer, I throw parties for every single event that happens in town! This time I am throwing you a..." She said reaching into something behind a unicorn head statue that was on top of a table in the library. Arden had cleaned that yesterday, so there wasn't anything there. Or that's what he thought since she pulled out a box with a cake inside. "...WELCOME TO PONYVILLE PARTY!"

"TEACH ME HOW TO DO MAGIC!" Arden said falling on his knees after the little stunt, the mare looked at him with her head tilted to the side.

"I'm an earth pony. I'm just strong, silly." She said giggling and smiling.

"Thenhowdidyoumakethecakeappearoutofthinair?! Youcan'texpectmetobelievethattherewasacakesittingonthetable!" Arden said running out of breath. "Icleanedityesterday!"

"You said I should speak normally but you're talking really fast. No fair!" She said pouting. He was still breathing a little heavy, so he tried to calm down and recollect himself.

"Sorry..." Arden said after pulling himself together. "...forget about that. Thanks for the welcome. But right now I need to find a pony named Rarity. She offered to hire me yesterday, but due to the fact this place was covered in dust and is going to be my new home, I had to clean it up which took the rest of the day. So I kinda left her hanging." The mare blinked at him a few times. "What?"

"You can talk to her during the party. I invited the whole town! They are waiting outside!" Arden just gave her a blank stare, then his eye twitched a little.

"You invited the whole town?" She moved her head up and down so fast that Arden just saw a blur. "It's 7:00 AM." She repeated the movement. "Rarity said that the local organizer was out visiting her family. So you got back and organized this like what...one or two hours?" The same move happened, again his eye twitched a little. "You're something else, aren't ya?" Her answer was a mild smile before trying to pull him out of the house.

"Wait! I'm still all dirty and sweaty because of the cleaning yesterday!" He said resisting the pull, which surprised the mare. "I'll just take a bath, and use the cleaning thingy an acquaintance of mine has given to me to clean my clothes. Be right outside with you." The mare was still pulling him while he kept resisting. She was frowning while she kept pulling, her eyes fixated on his scrawny arms.

"Ok...are you using doping magic?" She asked while keeping her gaze fixated on him. "That shortens your lifespan. Don't do that."

"Er...what is doping magic?" He asked while raising an eyebrow.

"Magic that can be used by unicorns to gain strength that goes beyond their capabilities. Earth ponies channel magic to make ourselves more resistant so we can use our full force. Unicorns channel their magic to use spells, in this case, they use their magic on their bodies to increase their strength. But that isn't good since your bodies aren't made for that kind of strength." She explained with a rather serious tone, she looked quite different with that voice...it seemed off. But he was glad that he heard about that kind of magic, that's the sort of thing he wanted to stay away from. 'I like my life too much to do that!'

"Don't worry, I am not using that magic." He said going to the stairs that led to the second floor. "I can only use defensive magic. So no worries there Mrs. Pie." She frowned a little while staring at him before opening a smile and going outside.

"Okay! See you in a bit!" She said leaving through the front door. 'I think I should pretend to be weak...I don't think she bought that.' He then proceeded to go to the bathroom to clean himself.

'That guy is weird. I wasn't using my full force but I shoulda been able to pull him out. He is a unicorn for Celestia sake! They aren't that strong! He is weird! And his mark was scary looking.' The mare thought to herself as she waited outside with the rest of the guests.

"Hang on everypony! Our new friend just went to wash before coming to meet us! Once he comes out it's party time!" She said gaining a lot of cheers from the crowd. Then an old friend of her approached her, Rarity. "Hi, there!"

"So, what do you think of the current library keeper?" Rarity asked after giving her a hug.

"He is weird. I tried to pull him out but he didn't budge." The white mare frowned at that. "I know weird! Then he didn't know about doping magic and said he could only use defensive magic. His cutie mark was weird looking too." Rarity's eyes widened at that, while a small blush came to her cheeks. "It was on his forearm. He was dressed Rarity. It was a black and white heart with a weird looking eye on its center. Freaaaaakyyyyy. But I don't think he's a bad guy." She said happily. "By the way thanks for the heads-up about a new pony in town! It would have taken waaaaay longer to know about him if you hadn't told me."

"Do you think he is hiding something dear?" Rarity asked after checking if there was anypony paying attention.

"Oh! That's for sure!" She said looking around trying to see what her friend was looking for, then she gasped. "OH! OH! Maybe he is a spy! Or, or a ninja! Or a spy-ninja!" Pinkie said hopping around. When she turned, Pinkie saw Rarity rolling her eyes and giving a small smile to her. "Oh yeah! He also said he needed to find you." Rarity raised an eyebrow at her. "Something about a job offer that you made him."

"Oh...that. I thought he gave up since he didn't come by yesterday."

"Sorry for the wait!" Pinkie turned around to see the stallion standing by the door with the same shirt she saw him with a few moments ago. "Thanks for the party!"

"Thanks for the party!" Arden said with a big smile. The townsfolk came by to greet him one by one, the stallions looked at him with a bit of pitty on their eyes. The same could be said from the mares, they all looked at him like he was sick or something of the sort. 'Uh...maybe I look too scrawny? Even the stallion unicorns have some muscles on them...I look like a stick person compared to them. I'm pretty sure that with all the exercise I'll get some weight in no time.' Then another pony came to greet him, but this one he knew. "WHAT?!" He screamed at the sight of the pony in question. "?!" Before he could continue his mouth was forced shut with magic.

"Please don't make a scene." The mare said looking around seeing that the other ponies were looking at them, then she whispered in his ear. "We'll talk after you finish greeting everypony." Then Arden felt his lips going back to normal. 'Why is she here and how come nopony is noticing her with that stupid disguise?!'

"Arden dear," Another voice made him look away from the pony disguised with an overcoat and sunglasses, that made said pony look like a secret agent in old spy movies, the voice came from the mare he was supposed to meet the previous day. "Are you okay?"

"Uh? Oh! Yeah, yeah I'm okay. Just a bit confused with that mare over there." He said pointing at the *spy* mare.

"She seems quite close to you. She got real close to you." Rarity said looking at the mare he pointed out, surprisingly to him she didn't react to the clothes or the mane. "Oooh, is she the one that gave you that ring?! Oh my! You do have a marefriend! You have to introduce her to me!" Arden stared at Rarity for a few seconds before he burst into laughter.

"pfft...HAHAHAHHAHA! Do you think that I? HAHAHAAAA! Oh, my god! You, you...HAHA!" He kept laughing non-stop, earning a frown from her and the attention of the other ponies. "Haha...oh god. Okay...sorry to break it to you but I don't think anypony would want anything with me right now. And that lady is way out of my league."

"My, what makes you say that?" Rarity said staring at him, Arden noticed that she was eyeing his mark. Before she tried to make any other questions he decided to respond and change the subject.

"I look scrawny as shit for starters. Then there is my current job that pays very little. I don't think anypony would date a deadbeat." Arden said with certainty making the ponies that were watching shrug and Rarity look away. "Anyway, is there anypony else I should meet?"

"Oh yes! Allow me to introduce you to my other friends. Aside from Pinkie that you already met." The white mare said pulling him by the arm, Arden pretended to trip after she pulled him. Almost as if she was applying to much force on her grip and pull. "S-sorry darling. Didn't mean to do that." She said when she noticed that she was dragging him through the dirt. Arden raised his head and spat out dirt before responding.

"It's okay. I'm not very strong so...not your fault." He noticed that the mare gave him a suspicious glare before helping him up, then she gestured him to follow her. Near the fountain there were a group of mares that waved at Rarity, Arden recognized Pinkie Pie but the other he did not.

"Howdy there, partner!" An orange coated, blond pony said. She was wearing jeans and a flannel red shirt over a white T-shirt. She also had a cowboy hat, her eyes were green and she had a mark on her forearm that had the shape of three apples. "I'm Applejack. Rarity told me you're looking for a job?"

"Arden Sila," He said offering a handshake that she complied, her grip was strong...but it didn't hurt, however, he pretended to wince at it. "Ouch. That's quite a grip. And yes I am looking for a job." The mare gave him a weird look before a blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane with pink purple eyes poked him on the shoulder. This one was wearing a dark blue jacket with a cloud letting out a lightning strike that was also rainbow colored. She also had a Bright blue T-shirt and some jeans.

"Hey! I'm Rainbow Dash. The best flyer in Equestria! I'm part of the weather team here in Ponyville." She said in a confident tone. "I'm also the coolest pony around." Arden rolled his eyes at that.

"Pleasure." Then he felt another hand on his shoulder, turning around he saw a yellow coated pegasus with a pink mane and bright blue eyes. She was being pushed by Rarity to get closer, while she tried to hide her face behind her mane. "Hi." The mare jumped a bit with just that, Arden began looking around trying to understand what was going on. "Did I do that?"

"She's a bit on the shy side." Rarity said. "Go on, introduce yourself."

"I-I'm F-Fluttershy." She said before she flew away.

"Oooooooooooookay. She is shy, and her name reinforces the idea. Got it." Arden said looking at the empty space once occupied by the pegasus. "Is this the whole gang?" They nodded at him. "Okay, now I'm gonna walk around this party for a bit," Arden said walking away. "Pleasure meeting all of you."

'Okay time to see why the heck she's here. And ask how in hell she isn't being recognized.' Arden thought to himself as walked back to the spy-mare.

Chapter 9: A concerned friend (edited)

"Okay, time to explain what are you doing here," Arden said to the spy mare. "As far as I remember, you were a bit on the defensive with me around. Also, why isn't anypony recognizing you?"

"I'm not the royal seamstress without a reason. Enchantments are something I can do very well when it comes to clothing." Twilight Velvet said with pride. "Why do you think your clothes are so light even though they are made of very resistant cloth?" Arden tried to come up with a rebuttal but he ended up pulling a blank. "In my case I made myself look like somepony else, except for those I want to recognize me. Just as long as I am wearing this overcoat." She said while slightly lowering her sunglasses before she placed then back on the right place.

"Right, that explains the hows, now come up with the why," Arden said while they walked around the city, the ponies at the party were enjoying themselves way too much to notice him leaving the festivities. "Cause you're the last pony I expected to come by after I sent the letter."

"Well, I made it me concerned given how much distress the Celestia went through after she remembered that the surrounding forest that covers most of the outskirts of this town is infested by Timberwolves." Arden gave her a blank stare while in his head he thought. 'Wait...what? What are those?!'

"Care to explain about the timber-thingy, please? And the part where the princess was concerned. Because I'm kinda at a loss here." The stallion said while keeping his blank expression. "I'm literally a stranger here, there should be no reason for concern. Besides, I did contact her today so that should be a sign that I was okay."

"She passed the entire day waiting for confirmation that you reached the library safely. And the Timber-wolves are basically wolves made out of wood." The blue unicorn's eye was twitching at the last statement. 'Wolves made out of wood...' He thought to himself. "Mr. Sila? Are you okay?" Arden didn't answer her he just stood there in silence for a bit.

"I'm gonna catch one of those and make it my pet!" Arden said suddenly making Velvet jump. "Okay, that part was covered. So please elaborate on the concern because I still don't think she should be so distressed over a stranger." He said while slowly stepping away from her due to the fact she was glaring daggers after he scared her accidentally.

"You are a citizen of her country and you're doing her a favor. She suddenly sent you to an unknown place with no training on how to defend yourself." Velvet explained, her glare was slowly fading as she continued to talk. "Basically she could have sent one of her citizens to their doom."

"Okay, but that doesn't explain why the heck you, in particular, came all the way out here or why would there be any need for a visit after the letter." He said crossing his arms while he stared at her.

"The princess stayed up all night, I found her walking around after I received a request for a special dress from Walkyre Heart." She explained as her eyes started to light up a little. "So I asked if she wanted somepony to wait for the letter with while I worked my magic for the first dress that mare has ever asked me to design. While waiting for it, Walkyre learned about your current situation from the princess herself. And since she recently decided to take a vacation with her new special other Mind Walker, she contacted him and both agreed to help you out."

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh...okay? When does my letter come into play?" He asked.

"When your letter arrived the princess felt quite the relief. But as soon as she finished reading it. Celestia kinda went into a blind panic after she read something about a Baku." Velvet said earning a look from Arden that meant: 'And you know what was written because?'

"She has this really bad habit of reading letters she receives out loud. So I got all the details as she read it." Arden frowned at that but gestured her to continue. "She started to talk about how you were in a bigger danger and that she should have thought things through before sending you on your way. I decided to take a look into the Baku subject, so I sent word for my husband, Night Light, to see if he knew about any documents containing information about them." She continued to explain.

"Is he a soldier or something?"

"No, he works at the department of the restoration of historical documents. He is part of the reason Twilight is so obsessed with books." Arden felt a little surprised about that part. "His answer was that all the documents about the subject were destroyed during a special operation called 'Dream eater's demise'. So the only pony that still has any knowledge about the subject is Princess Celestia. So she would need to deliver the information directly since it was sensitive data. Something she can't do without putting you in the spotlight. Seeing as she and I are friends, I offered myself to go explain everything except for the Baku part."

"You gave me an entire story about how you ended up here," Arden said looking away from her. "Now, let me see if I got all that: Mind Walker and Walkyre Heart agreed out of nowhere, to help the guy that was accused of an attempt of murder. Then, the princess basically went into a spiral of panic because she was worried about me being in danger. And finally, you, the pony who was scared of me to the point of hiding behind the princess, decided to leave the castle to relay a message that she could simply write down and send to me through the ring. Did I get all of that?" Arden said, while keeping his tone and posture neutral, as he was looking away from her.

"Uh...yeah. That's the entire situation. What about it?" Velvet said tilting her head.

"Do you really expect me to believe that?! That's gotta be the most convoluted story I ever heard! From what I've seen Celestia is way smarter than that! She would probably be able to use some other method to see if I was okay, and she would also think of a way of getting me to learn how to defend myself. Not to mention I am certain she would send me a letter telling me about the current predicament with the information." Arden said turning around and glaring at the mare. "So please stop with the lies."

"I am not lying Mr. Sila!" Velvet shot back while placing her hand on her chest. "I am a concerned friend, trying to help out my distressed friend that hasn't been thinking straight after she met you! What did you do to make her worry about you like that?!"

"I didn't do anything!" Arden said in a serious tone. "What I can do gave her hope of seeing somepony again. That's the story! I won't go into any further details than that! If you want the story, ask your friend." He stated while crossing his arms and looking at the mare, her eyes widened as he made his speech. "Now, since I already know what you came here to inform me about, you are free to return and stay away from me since I scare you that much. Thank you for relaying the message. Tell the princess that I'll be sending her another letter very soon. Also please do ask her to tell me when Walkyre and Mind are going to come by. I want to make my home presentable for their visit." He said starting to walk away from the confused mare.

"Why..." The mare started making Arden stop. "...why are you helping? Why are keeping this a secret? She is basically forcing you to work for her for the next four years!" He turned around with a simple smile on his face and said.

"Because I chose to help her." The mare's jaw dropped when he said that. "And because ponies do stupid things when they love other ponies or are desperate. I can't blame Celestia for being desperate for answers. I know I would do the same thing. So if you're waiting for some sort of catch, sorry. There is none."

"You truly are an odd one, just like she said."

"And I don't intend to change. Especially since I kinda grew fond of her after she welcomed me here." He heard Velvet gasp at that statement. "I intend to help her since I consider her my friend. And I hold every single one of my friends right here." Arden said pointing to his heart. "So...the actual reason for me to do all this is that I care about her. I'll ask Celestia to send me your travel expenses once you're back. I won't have her expending money of the royal treasury because she was worried about stupid little me." He said turning his back to Velvet once again and waving before he said. "Have a safe trip! And tell Celestia she can drop by anytime she wants! I'll come up with something, so tell her not to worry!"

"Have a safe trip! And tell Celestia she can drop by anytime she wants! I'll come up with something, so tell her not to worry!" The mare heard as she watched the stallion walk away. 'So that's how it is huh? He truly is an odd one. I really like that.' She thought to herself before taking off the overcoat and breaking the spell and making the figure of Twilight Velvet visible to anypony who could be around.

'Looks like the sun princess has a new friend. And he doesn't expect anything in return for his help apparently.' She said taking off the sunglasses and revealing her white coat, three colored mane, golden ornaments, and pink eyes. 'He actually knew how I would have acted under normal circumstances. However, everything I told him was true...except for my identity...

"Hehehe..." The white mare giggled a little as she came up with a plan. "I guess I can take his invitation and come by. Just hope he really can come up with an explanation, if he can't...I guess I'll have a good laugh at the very least." She said before letting out a small sigh as her smile widened a bit. "It would seem that the real *concerned friend* here is him. After all, he is doing this just because he cares about me. That's adorable, I must say. And I truly wonder what will come out of his training after these four years finally come to pass." The princess said to herself before teleporting away.

(Meanwhile, watching the entire transformation.)

'OH. MY. STARS. That was Princess Celestia! Arden was casually speaking to her! He called her his friend! And she seems to see him in the same light! I knew he was hiding something! But this is way beyond everything I imagined!' The designer thought to herself while trying to keep her composure. She saw Arden walking away from the party and decided to follow him since she didn't buy his statement of the mysterious mare not being his lover. She always did like some gossip, unfortunately, she had to stay away from them since she wasn't the sneaky type.

She managed to tail them, but as for listening what they were talking about...she didn't have such luck. However, after they stopped walking she slowly got closer. But in the end, she caught the part about him considering the princess his friend, her taking off her disguise once he had left and the part where she said she wondered about the outcome of his training. 'Training for what? How did he meet her? How did he get her to care about him? How did he come to care about her? Is he a noble? Maybe a prince?!' Or maybe a small knight?! Is this about forbidden love?!' All those questions boiled in her mind as she began to imagine some sort of novel about the possible scenarios. The curiosity was taking the better of her, she had to know!

'That's it! I'm gonna uncover everything I can about that stallion! Or my name isn't Rarity!' She thought before picking up the pace to return to the party. 'I'll find out what you're hiding! Just you wait, Arden Sila!' And with that, she set her sights upon a goal: Discovering just who was that newcomer and what his story was with the Ruler of Equestria!

Chapter 10: Be my guest! (edited)

Arden was back at the party after his little chat with the royal seamstress, the entire thing took about an hour. He made his way back without any problems and just as he presumed nopony noticed that he left for an entire hour, or at least...that's what he thought. Once he reappeared in the crowd a pink blur tackled him knocking him down.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! YOU HAVE BEEN LOSING ALL YOUR PARTY!" Pinkie yelled at him while was still trying to process what just had happened. "What have you been doing?! Did you not like the party?" Her color was starting to drain again when she asked that.

"No, I love it!" Arden said making the color rush back into her. "I just saw a familiar face and went to talk with her. So I went to talk with her in a quieter place since all the partying made it difficult to talk since she speaks in a very low tone." He explained, making Pinkie blink twice before she got back on her hooves and helped him up, once both were back on their hooves she grabbed his wrist and started to lead him around the ponies towards the buffet.

"You gotta try these! They're from the bakery where I work. And live. And sleep. It's called Sugar Cube Corner!" She said presenting a table filled from one side to the next with cakes, flowers, bread and so many other baked goods. Arden picked a piece of a cake that was already sliced and took one small bite from it to see how it tasted. After the bite, he stood still frozen for a few moments. "You okay? Did you like it?" Suddenly the blue unicorn shoved the rest of the slice into his mouth and started chewing. "No need to rush! You're gonna choke like that."

"Sorry! This is delicious! My compliments to the chef!" Arden exclaimed after he finished to swallow the rest of the cake that was in his mouth. Then he remembered the breakfast he had with Celestia before coming to the town, she seemed to have a sweet-tooth. 'Maybe she would like these...too bad she's back at the castle. She did look like the type who likes to be outside...I bet being in that throne room all the time is like hell to her. At least she'll have a reason to go outside since she can transmit the data.' He thought to himself not even noticing that he had picked up another treat from the table and was eating it until Pinkie pulled him away once again.

"We need to get you to the games! Pin the tail on the pony! Karaoke! You have to try them all!" She said while bouncing around and pulling him to the places where the games were.

"Did you eat the Gum-Gum fruit to become made of rubber? I don't think ponies are supposed to bounce like that!" Arden said having a hard time keeping on his hooves since her bouncing made him go up and down with her.

"Nah! If did that I wouldn't be able to swim anymore!" She said stopping the bouncing, Arden stared at her with his eyes wide open and twitching. 'How in bloody hell did she get that reference? Do the devil fruits exist here?' He questioned while he kept staring at her. "But those things don't exist. Especially since they come from the One Piece universe." Silence proceeded after that phrase.

"What?" He asked blinking and shaking his head.

"What, what?" She answered tilting her head.

"What were we talking about?" Arden said rubbing his temples, that conversation was giving him a headache.

"I don't know..." The mare answered rubbing her chin as if she was trying to remember what they were talking about, then she started to walk away before continuing. "Let's just-?! HUUUUUUUUUUUHHHH!" Pinkie exclaimed before rushing off leaving behind a statue of pink smoke where she once stood.

Suddenly every single pony in the party started to gasp and bow, except for Arden that was at a complete loss as to what the heck was happening. So he turned around and saw a familiar figure. "SAY WHAT?! AGAIN!" He yelled earning many surprised looks from the crowd. "Again, somepony that I wouldn't expect to see after I finally settled in, folk. A visit from a friend and one from the Sun Princess? Somepony pinch me to see if I'm awake." As he said the last part he felt something twisting his skin. "Ouch!" He exclaimed, looking at the pain's origin point he saw a golden aura that suddenly disappeared. Then he looked back up to see a sun princess standing a few inches from his face with a mischievous little smile on her muzzle.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, your Majesty?" He said making a bow and stepping back. "You're certainly the last pony I expected to see considering all your duties." He said starting to make an excuse.

"Well, I had to see the new pony I had assigned as the new library keeper to keep the records in a safe condition." She continued. "I did not expect to see a party though."

"It would seem the ponies here are really friendly. It's a nice change of pace from being a nomad." He said with a shrug. "Since you're already here, why not join in the festivities? I know a certain pony who will be very happy to see another participant here." He said smiling at her. She let out a small laugh before coming up with an answer.

"My, you are an-"

"An odd one? Yeah, I get that a lot more than you think." Arden said cutting her off mid-sentence, which threw off both her and the other ponies WHO WERE STILL BOWING! "But nevertheless I guess that we should start the party again!" Arden said pulling the princess to the buffet where he tasted the baked goods. "An acquaintance of mine showed me these. You should try them." He said pointing the table filled with sweets, looking back at her he noticed Celestia's eyes were darting from one cake to the other. Once she noticed he was looking at her she stopped and recomposed herself.

"T-thank you. But I already ate." She said with a small smile, Arden looked at her thinking 'Are you serious? You seemed to love these things yesterday. Are you really denying yourself a treat to keep an image?'

Then a sudden pink blur appeared and took the Princess and him to participate in multiple games. "Let's have some fun!" The blur shot while she guided them around. Before both of them could realize, they had spent about three hours playing around and interacting with all the townsfolk. The entirety of the fun stopped when a grumble started to sound off from the two. 'Celestia...I'm pretty sure your stomach should not sound like that. When did you eat last?' He thought to himself trying to ignore the fact she looked adorable due to her turning red as a tomato due to the sound.

"I guess I should get myself something to eat to stop this roaring right? Sorry about that Princess, do you want to go get some of those cakes?" He said making her give a relieved sigh.

"I'll accept." She said with a smile. "Let us go back to the buffet." And then they went back to the table. 'I'm not even hungry...but she seemed like she was going to pass out...she should not do that...IDEA!'

Once Celestia got distracted he ran off and grabbed a chair, then he asked for help from Pinkie to move another table. When Celestia got to the buffet he had a table set up with a plate set and had a napkin on his arm like some sort of butler. "Princess Celestia, please take a seat to relax and be our guest." Then a song started to play, and he began to walk around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBErQSiUCsM

As the song played he moved around and served her cakes and did what the lyrics described. He tied up the napkin around her neck and then continued to dance around and pull off some tricks like juggling some cakes which ended up with some unfortunate victims. Including himself, the entirety of the performance made Celestia giggle and laugh mildly while the other guests had their jaws on the ground.

"That was quite the performance." She said after having her fill with the baked goods. Thanks to the dancing around and moving like crazy he had kept the spotlight off of her, so she had managed to eat as much as she needed. "Thank you. Now I'm afraid I have to ask to talk with you alone." She said getting up and using a spell to clean up both him and the unfortunate guests that were hit during the performance. That last part Celestia said made the townsfolk look at each other and start to whisper.

"Be my guest, your highness! My home is always open to you and all of the citizens of Equestria." He said in a dramatic bow before making way for her and asking her to follow him towards the library.

(meanwhile)

Did...did that stallion really just trigger a harmonious heart by himself?' The white unicorn thought to herself watching the princess and the blue one walk away. 'I didn't even know that was possible!'

'Just as I thought...he is a very curious one. I'm going to have to try and approach him and see what he is hiding. And maybe try to understand why that idiot stared right into my eyes for so long as well' The mare thought to herself. She had been watching him since the party had started but had to hide since the sun princess decided to show up. 'Things are getting interesting...what do you know? You little idiot.'

Chapter 11: Schedule.

Aredn locked the door behind the princess once she was inside the library, now he had walls between them and the peering eyes of the townsfolk. Being out of their sight made him feel at ease to go back to acting how he usually acted around her, feeling the stress melt away due to the lack of prying eyes he let out a sigh. "Okay...what are you doing?" He asked once he noticed the princess' spell starting to cover all of the walls, then he facepalmed realizing what that was about. "The sensitive data." He said with his eyes closed.

"That is correct my little jester." The princess said in the middle of a mild laugh, which made the stallion blush while an awkward smile formed on his face. "However, before I can share any information about it I need to know how are you acquainted with those creatures." Her tone shifted from playful to serious with the snap of a finger.

"Fair enough," Arden said walking to a bookshelf, he had noticed that they were being watched by Rarity by catching a glimpse of her before she hid again. The unicorn was hiding in the bushes right beneath the window, so he decided to come up with an act. He would act like he was consulting a specific book the princess asked about, and he knew just the tome. 'The Elements of Harmony, A Reference Guide.' He found it the previous day while organizing the books, once in his hands, he turned back to the princess which had an eyebrow raised while she kept looking at him. His answer was a quick movement of his eyes towards the window, Celestia looked at it then back at him with an expression that could be understood as 'Got it.'

"Okay," He started taking a seat on a couch facing the princess. "I like to write and come up with stories, so I researched some things about ancient myths back in my world. Nothing too deep, just the basics so I could find some inspiration. That's when I stumbled upon the Baku legend, also known in my world as dream eater." He explained while he acted like he searching for something within the pages.

"I see, and what do you know about them?" The princess asked while crossing her arms and tapping her fingers like she was getting impatient.

"Back in my world, they were seen as neutral creatures. Neither good nor bad. One could summon them by chanting something like: 'Baku please some devour my nightmare.' Or something along those lines, it also required a charm." He said getting up and taking a seat beside her to show a specific part of the book. "Once summoned the Baku would eat the bad dream and leave. If the person that summoned him did not do it so often, because in that case the Baku's hunger would increase and it would not restrain itself to devouring the bad dream. he would devour everything the person's mind created. Which would result in negative repercussions I never got around to discovering due to my other studies." The stallion explained while tracing his finger on the book that was positioned as to allow the princess to see the transcript.

"Oh..." She said looking at the pointed areas on the page as she moved slightly away to get some distance between them. "They seem to be more docile in your worlds myths than in our reality. Originally they entered ponies dreams and ate only the vile thoughts that corrupted them, however...their behavior changed. They started to invade every single one of our subjects dreams and ate away every single thought they had, may it be generated by the mind or the heart. Those afflicted turned mad and attacked anypony who came int their line of sight." She explained with a tone that made Arden feel bad about asking for information about these creatures.

"I-I'm sorry if don't want to talk about this anymore..." He said closing the book and getting up.

"It's okay," she said regaining her composure. "Luna was yet to be born when our parents discovered that the Baku can only enter the dreams of those who know about their existence in detail. Hence, operation: Dream eater's demise, a complete eradication of all written records were made to prevent any other victims. And in order to protect those who already knew about the Baku they created special counterparts to protect the minds of their subjects and their daughter." Arden placed the book back on its shelf and started to scratch his chin.

"What were these counterparts?" He asked while he started to move his hand around the other books on the shelf.

"They were spirits created by magic that protected the mind and heart of their host." She further explained, her voice was getting darker and her breathing changed. "The spell was discovered after Luna's birth, so both I and she received the protection. My counterpart is called Daybreaker. Luna's..." Celestia did not continue, and he could hear her starting to sob.

"Nightmare Moon," Arden said turning around and seeing the proud ruler crying her eyes were closed shut as she tried to hide her face in her hands. "Listen, you can stop, I get the picture. No need to go any further." He said getting closer to her as she continued to weep. Then he sat by her side and tried to reach his hand to place on her shoulder...'Sould I? I'm not used to this...I can't even say that I know how she feels. What can I do now? My questions brought this up.' He thought to himself as his hand approached her shoulder. Once it came in contact with her fur the princess looked to the side as she lunged at him. Which threw the stallion into a panic, mainly because of the risk of being impaled by her horn.

"IT'S MY FAULT!" She cried. "I told her stories about the Baku! I ignored my parent's warnings. I ignored how much she was afraid of not being loved by her subjects! I must have weakened the counterpart and she was corrupted!" She shouted crying, even more, Arden finally got over the shock and started to think about what to do. He then hesitantly placed his hand on top of her head and started to brush her mane with his hand.

"Shhhhh...It's okay. You can't change the past. But the future isn't set in stone." He said in a soft voice he had used on very few occasions...occasions that usually involved sad news. He started to cry. "*sob* You know *sob*...when Nightmare tried to take over me and I scared her off. She was afraid of the Baku reaching somepony she referred to as 'her'." He said feeling more tears roll up his face when the princess heard that part she got up really fast and locked her eyes on his, they were a few inches from each other. 'There I go again...the one thing I was told again and again to be careful with: Stop making the pains of others your own, there is only so much one can endure. It's good to feel empathy towards your patients, but you cannot take it to the point it clouds your judgment.' He thought to himself remembering the advice from his teachers after the simulation classes.

"*sob* Y-you...you think that..." The stallion was still crying while he did not avert his eyes from hers, he then moved his head up and down with a smile on his face. Celestia gasped as she got back and covered her mouth, Arden felt his chest get warmer as he saw the smile taking over the princess' face. Then she hugged him again, but this time he knew she wasn't searching for help in the gesture. No, this time she was showing her gratitude. "T-THANK YOU! T-THANK YOU SO MUCH!"

"It's okay," Arden said returning the hug. "I'm just helping my friend. Do you need anything else?" Arden stated breaking the hug and looking back at the princess' face.

"I-I need to place the protective ward on you to protect you from the Baku." She said slowly going back to her usual self. "Then there is the mental wards to keep you safe from mind control spells. Mind Walker will make them more specific to protect you in your dreams." She further explained still wiping her tears from her red eyes.

"Okay, do your thing." He said closing his eyes, his voice still in its soft tone. The princess charged her magic and reached his forehead, Arden felt a shock where the princess touched his skin.

"The wards are placed. Now for the counterpart." Celestia said Arden could hear the magic charging up. Then he felt something soft touch his forehead...he felt something like it before...but he couldn't remember what it was. Once again a shock, but this time the princess' voice followed instead of silence. "Y-you...already have one? You have protection against them."

"What are you talking about?" Arden said opening his eyes, he saw that the princess had a faint blush on her cheeks that was fading. "How's that possible?" He asked trying to ignore the blush that had disappeared.

"I don't know." She answered, which made Arden raise an eyebrow and tilt his head. "You never cease to surprise do you."

"I guess." He answered scratching the back of his head.

"In this case I guess...I guess I better head back." The princess said getting up still facing some of the aftermaths of that much crying.

"Get some rest okay?" He said looking at her as he got back on his hooves. "I know I feel like crap every time I cry like that. And before I forget, thanks for the wards. You're saving my life here." He said offering his hand. A warm smile formed on the princess' face 'That's the face I want to see. She looks better when she is smiling.' Arden thought to himself when she took his hand and pulled him into a strong and warm embrace.

"I'm the one that should be thanking you." She said in a whisper, then he felt the same thing from when she tried to cast the spell on him, but this time on his cheek. Those were her lips...the spell was activated by a kiss on the forehead. Like when a mother sends her child to sleep and wishes them goodnight. If the spell was originally created by her mother to protect them...then it would make sense. Otherwise...that could mean...'Nope! You're reading this wrong Arden, she's just grateful about the help. Don't do that stupid mistake of misreading things, again.' Then she got back, a very slight blush could be seen on her face. Then she charged a spell and vanished.

"That's magic for you..." Arden said a little bit sad, he was still bothered by the 'only defensive magic' thing. Then he noticed the spell the princess cast dispelled itself, so he went to the front door. With one hand on the doorknob and the other on the key. He twisted both at the same time opening the door, which revealed two mares who faceplanted on the ground.

"You know ladies..." Arden said looking at the two mares, Applejack and Rarity. "...I always wanted to fall for somepony and have somepony fall for me, but this isn't exactly what I had in mind." He continued as he helped the two mares to get back on their hooves. "To what do I owe the pleasure of having you two eavesdropping?"

"Ha-ha..." Rarity awkwardly laughed as Applejack lowered her hat as to cover her face. "I'm sorry, but the princess dropping to visit isn't something that happens very often soooo...you can't blame us for being curious about what the two of you were talking."

"Ah was just curious about the reason Rarity was sneaking around yer house." Applejack said making Rarity glare daggers at her. All the while Arden was laughing at the conversation. 'Those two seem to be very close, they remind me of some friends of mine.'

"Anyway..." The stallion said making the white mare stop trying to melt the orange one with her death-glare. "I actually wanted to talk with you two." The mares looked at each other. "The job offers? I want to talk about my work hours with you two." They let out an 'Oooh...' in synch after he explained. "As well as ask a favor from you Rarity."

"What is it darling?" She asked tilting her head at the sudden request.

"Do you think you can come up with some clothes by tomorrow so I can work on the farm? That way I won't have to use these all the time?" Arden said pointing at his garments. "They are made for traveling, not for working."

"I would need your measurements to do that darling." She answered. "And all of my things are back at the shop."

"Got you covered," Arden said pulling one of his pockets out of his pocket and fitting his entire arm into it. "The pony who gave me these wrote down my measurements and gave a copy of them to me." He said pulling out a scroll that contained his measurements. "This should have everything you'll need." He said handing the piece of paper to the seamstress.

"O-okay." Rarity said while keeping her eyes locked on the pocket the stallion placed back on his belt. "I-I will work something out for you...for tomorrow at 12:00 PM." Arden gave out a smile once he heard that.

"Alright! Now, how can we work this schedule out? I'll need to have everything sorted out before the end of the day."

"See you two tomorrow!" The stallion shouted at them as they left. "And thanks for the jobs!" In the end, the arrangement was that he would work alternating between the two places from Monday to Friday having the other two days of the week free. He would work from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM, stopping only for lunch or when the two of them told him to do so. His job would be whatever the hay they wanted as long as he wasn't humiliated or placed in harm's way by doing them. Something rather odd for a male to settle for those conditions without much resistance.

"What the heck is up with that stallion?" Aj asked her, the seamstress shrugged at her before starting to scratch her chin. "There isn't a single guy in this town that would take a job with those terms."

"I don't know." Rarity said biting her lip. 'There is something really off about that guy. He acts like he is nopony special, yet the princess comes to check on him and throws herself at him after she started to cry uncontrollably...this is one gossip I got to get to the bottom of.'

"What do you think we should do?" Aj asked making her snap back.

"Let's have all the girls to keep an eye on him." Rarity said firmly. "Fluttershy can use her animals to check on him during his free time or when he gets out of our line of sight. Rainbow can keep track of what he does during any errands we sent him off to. And Pinkie...we better leave her out since she would probably dress up as a spy and start to stalk him. In a non-discreet way." Rarity explained, earning a confused look from her friend.

"You really want to figure out what he's hiding, don't ya?" Aj said pulling her hat down as to cover her face, Rarity turned towards her and nodded. "Ah can't say I completely trust the stallion. So Ah'm with ya. Let dig out what he buried in his backyard." Rarity let out a sigh of relief as she reached out to shake her friend's hand, Aj accepted.

"It's a deal then!" She exclaimed before they parted ways. 'Very well Mr. secrets, let's see what you're hiding in your closet!'

'He was really kind...and he certainly did give me hope to see my sister once more. I wonder...what would he think if I assigned him to be a soldier? Nah...I'll have to think about something else. At the very least...I know I can drop by anytime. I wonder what we can talk about next time?' The princess thought to herself as she continued to hear the complaints from other nobles about petty things, then she remembered a message from Candace to the stallion. 'Damn it! I completely forgot about the advice to help him control his talent! Oh! I got a reason to go back now! If it helps...I might be able to see what made him trigger his abilities for the first time!'

The sun Princess got on her hooves with a smile on her face, leaving behind her a bunch of confused nobles that were surprised to hear her humming to herself as she walked away.

"Soo...the princess is waiting for her sister to return and that project of a male actually got the better of the mare in the moon..." The lonely creature said to herself as she entered her cave once more. "...that idiot might make a decent pawn for getting the princess to aid me. The only problem is the mental wards...I will have to work my way around them. And there is only one way to do so." She continued her mumbling as she lit a crystal from her former kingdom with magic revealing a large underground pool with crystal clean water that reflected her image on its surface.

Her black chitin body reflected on the surface, as well as her once grand emerald green royal dress that was now ragged pieces of clothing that exposed parts of her belly and back. Her eyes glowed in the dark and were fixed on her reflection, her wings twitching from time to time. Her green unkept mane fell in front of her face, living in these conditions had its downsides. Not being able to take better care of herself was one of them. "I wonder whose form will I have to take to manipulate that idiot. Maybe Celestia? Or maybe...somepony else entirely?" she said looking at her image shifted from one form to another as green flames engulfed her between each of her transformations. "There is yet to be born a pony who can resist the charms of the Changeling Queen! And since I already know his schedule...I can prepare to approach him in so many ways." She exclaimed producing an echo before she started to laugh a maniacally. "After all, I can be anypony he so desires!"

Chapter 12: A worker and a stalker.

*knock, knock, knock, knock*

The sound of somepony trying to take down the door forced a very grumpy unicorn to get out of bed. Looking at the clock he saw that it was still 4:27 AM, way too early for the library to be open or for anypony to be up for that matter.

*KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK*

"I AM COMING DOWN! JUST DON'T BREAK THE FREAKING DOOR!" He shouted getting up and dressing in the same clothes for the THIRD day in a row. 'I really need those new clothes.' He thought to himself as he got downstairs. Once there, he unlocked the door and opened it. Before he stood a unicorn he didn't recognize. Green coat, yellow eyes, green and white mane, a golden harp on her forearm, blue T-shirt and black pants. "What can I help you with at...*yawn* sorry. What can I do for you at this hour?"

"I'm sorry!" The mare said realizing Arden's state. "I just need to find a book that is very requested here."

"Then you could wait until the library is open," Arden said closing his eyes and trying to remember the working hours of the place. "In one hour and thirty-three minutes."

"Can you please make an exception?" The mare begged and tried to win him over with puppy eyes, he just raised a brow at her. "*sigh* Please? I've been trying to get this book for ages but other ponies beat me to it. And whenever it's available I'm away in Canterlot. Please?" Arden examined her again.

"*sigh* Okay, the name is Arden Sila. Come in Mrs...?" He said opening the door and gesturing her to come inside.

"Lyra. Lyra Heartstrings." She said quickly getting into the library.

"Ok. Mrs. Heartstrings, don't say a word about this to anypony ok?" He said closing the door again. "Now, what exactly are you looking for?"

"Theories about creatures of myth." She said in a heartbeat searching the place. "I want to continue my studies on humans and to the few researchers that actually look into them. That book is a reference guide." She said looking at the wrong shelves. "Especially since it was supposedly written by a human that visited our world. There are only a handful of copies throughout Equestria. And most of them are in possession of nobles that only showcase them."

"Then you should be looking over here," Arden said browsing through the books, once he found the tome he pulled it out. "Here it is written by...Jack Reacher?" Arden tried to contain his laugh, which was pointless. "HAHAHA! My god, for real?!" He exclaimed as his laughing got worse.

"What?! He is a great author don't you dare laugh at him." She said taking the book out of his hands.

"I-I'm sorry...haha...It's just..." Arden tried to explain while trying to stop his laughter. "That's got to be a fake name! No way in bloody hell that is the guy's name. That's actually the title of a-" After starting that sentence he covered his mouth and took a deep breath. "Sorry about that, you got your book. Now you can leave." Arden looked at the mare that was looking at him wide-eyed. He literally slapped himself. "Sorry about that. I'm sort of a human fanatic as well. Traveling around I got to see a lot of different representations of them so..."

"Y-you said: My god. T-then you acted like you knew the writer's name." Her eyes were twitching Arden tried to keep his cool. "D-don't tell me...that you...you're..." At this point, he started to panic.

"PLEASE DON'T TELL OTHERS THAT I WAS A HUMAN!/YOU'RE ACQUAINTED WITH HUMANS!" They both shouted at the same time. Both of them just stared at each other for a few moments, Arden let out a sigh after punching himself. Then he walked towards a wall and bashed his head in it, after that he walked back to her and groveled to her.

"Like I said: Please don't tell anypony I was a human." Once he looked up he noticed the mare was but a few inches from his face staring straight into his eyes. Her eyes were twitching and her muzzle had a terrifying smile. "M-Mrs Heartstrings?"

"You...you...you...youwereahuman! DearCelestiadearCelestia! Pleaseyouneedtotellmeeverythingyouknow!" Arden was trying to understand what she said while slowly crawling away.

"I'll tell what I know. I'll even get you some of the notes I have on anatomy. But please keep this under the wraps!" The mare stopped her rambling and fell on her but once she heard that. "Do we have a deal?"

"Yes! YESYESYES!" She said getting up and starting to hop around with the book on her hands.

"Okay, now please take the book and leave. I'm free after 6:00 PM. I'll answer what I can then. So please try to keep this locked up. Otherwise, I'll disappear and you can forget about answers." He said in a serious tone which made the mare stop hoping and assume a military pose.

"Yes! Sir! These lips will remain sealed!" She said before heading towards the exit like she was marching. When she reached the door she turned back and said. "I'm looking forward to our Q&A." Then she winked and left.

'Thank Celestia she bought that. Time write to Celestia and see if there are any mind-erasing spells.' The stallion thought to himself as he cursed his existence for being such an open book at situations when big secrets like that were on the line. Keeping his connection to the princess was different because he felt the responsibility he bore because of the hope he gave her. Him being human was nothing compared to that, so he would go above and beyond to keep that part. However, having that secret out could make his life harder so making Lyra forget about that was the best way out. So he went to the table and wrote down a letter explaining the entire situation and sent it.

"With that out of the way..." He muttered getting up. "...time to try to learn how to fucking cook."

'Too easy.' The mare thought to herself as she carried the book outside and then used her magic to send it back to its original place. She then proceeded to hide away.

Once it was 5:45 Arden was placed in front of the carousel boutique. The shop wasn't exactly something easy to miss, a huge round building with fancy looking windows and decor. The entire place screamed 'FANCY CLOTHING' or 'HIGH SOCIETY'. Then he knocked on the door.

"Coming!" The door opened revealing Rarity, wearing a white and pink robe. Arden just focused on her eyes, they looked like sapphires. "Oh! You're early dear."

"Sorry. I'm kind of an early bird." He said closing his eyes and tilting his head. "Can I come in?" The mare gave him passage and Arden walked in.

"Rarity! Who's at the door?" A high pitched voice asked it sounded like it came from what looked like the kitchen, then a little unicorn popped out. Her mane was pink and purple, green eyes, white coat. She was wearing a baby-pink t-shirt with a baby blue skirt that went all the way to her knees. Once she saw Arden she looked at Rarity. "I didn't know you got a special somepony!"

"Sweetie Belle!" The seamstress glared at the little one without blushing or anything of the sort. Meanwhile, Arden just chuckled before he walked up to the filly and said.

"Hey, little one. The name is Arden Sila." He said getting on eye-level with the filly, she backed away from him before he continued. "No, I am not your sister's special somepony. I doubt she would settle for a stallion like me. I'm just a new employee here at the boutique." The stallion stated while giving her a smile and tilting his head.

"Are you a noble?" She asked fidgeting.

"No."

"Are you a knight?"

"No?"

"Do you know royalty?"

"I'm met Princess Celestia yesterday and had a conversation about ancient tales."

"Then you have a chance." Arden tried o muffle his laugh while Sweetie ran off as her older sister started to chase her. This time, however, Rarity was blushing as she chased the little filly through the house. Eventually, the filly returned and hid behind Arden. "Please control your marefriend!"

"SWEETIE BEEELLE!" The seamstress yelled as she heard that.

"Calm down honey," Arden said while trying to suppress his laugh, the mare was glaring at him the same way she did with the orange pony from the previous day, she was also turning into a tomato while she started to pout. "Okay...listen, Belle. How about you stop teasing your sister and apologize? Messing around with that subject never ends well with any of the parties involved." His voice shifted to a firm tone as he said that.

"Okay..." The filly said while coming out of hiding. "Sorry for teasing you, big sis." The unicorn started with the puppy eyes thing, her older sister eventually caved in and offered a hug.

"Okay now go to your room do your homework." The little filly smiled and ran up the stairs giggling. Now Arden was sure the mare was going to exact her revenge. "As for you sir..." Arden just braced himself for a slap or some sort of weird punishment. "Thank you for being so nice to my little sister."

"Uh...you're welcome?" He said tilting his head as the mare walked by him into the kitchen, 'That was an awfully generous pardon...I was sure she would gut me right then and there.' He thought to himself before shaking his confusion. "So where do I begin?"

"You can start by cleaning this mess I made while working on my next designs," she said pointing to a bunch of materials scattered around the entire workplace.

Arden stretched and started to collect all of the materials and discard the ones that were unusable. That took about two hours of cleaning and choosing the usable things that she left. Once he finished he noticed that the filly had returned downstairs and was pouting over a notebook.

"Everything alright there kiddo?" Arden asked startling the little one, looking at her notebook he saw some basic first-degree equations.

"I can't solve this one..." She said pointing a pencil at the problem she was stuck. Arden looked at what she had done and noticed she forgot to add a two while transcribing the problem.

"Here, you forgot to add this to the equation. So that's why you're getting a negative answer." Arden said pointing his index finger at the missing number. The filly looked at the number, then she did the entire thing again and arrived at the answer written in the book.

"Finally! Thanks, Mr. Arden sir!" She said closing the notebook and then pulling another one from her backpack. "I'm not good with numbers...but I'm really good with grammar!"

"Fair enough," Arden said with a smile. "I'm pretty decent at multiple subjects...but I'm a bit slower with numbers. And please call me Arden. Or you can come up with a nickname." He said petting her head before walking away.

Soon after he heard the entrance bell ringed and Rarity practically darted all the way to the door to greet a customer. Arden recognized the customer, it was Lyra. She was talking to the seamstress about needing a dress for a special date for that night.

"No problem dear!" The seamstress exclaimed clapping her hands. "But I got to say I'm surprised to see you away from your studies in Canterlot. I thought the break wasn't going to begin until next week!" Arden was hiding while they talked. 'Really now...she must have been desperate for that book.'

"I-I actually got a few days off." She stuttered while giving a nervous laugh. 'She is lying isn't she?' Arden thought to himself as the seamstress also gave the mint mare a weird look. "A-anyway, I really need this dress! I-I'll pay extra!"

"Nonsense dear!" Rarity shot back. "I'll do it with a discount! First time special!"

"O-okay. Thanks rarity."

Then the white unicorn led her to the fitting room and stayed there for about half an hour. Coming out of the room she told the customer to wait while she worked with the fabric to make the dress. "MR. SILA!" She called out.

"Yeah, boss?" He answered coming out of the kitchen.

"Take that broom and please sweep the shop's entrance please?"

"Got it!" He answered going to the pointed object. Meanwhile, he noticed the mint mare eyeing him. "Can I help you with something Mrs?"

"Can you? I heard you can do a harmonous heart by yourself." She said leaning forward while keeping her weird glare focused on him. "I want to see it."

"Ask the boss. then I'll see what I can do."

"RARITY! CAN YOUR EMPLOYEE DO A HARMONIOUS HEART FOR ME?"

"AS LONG AS HE IS OKAY WITH IT!" The green mare looked at him with a smile.

"Anything special in mind?" The mare tilted her head when he asked that. "A theme?"

"How about love?" She said winking at him, Arden let out a sigh and leaned on the broom thinking.

"Okay," He said with his eyes closed. "This is called 'Poet'."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5NIoWpkdj4

Arden sang the song while sweeping the floor. His movements matched the song's rhythm almost as if he was dancing with the broom, once he finished he noticed that his boss actually came down to work while he was singing and the filly that was in the kitchen came by to watch him perform.

Suddenly the front door opened and citizens started to come by. Rarity started to beam seeing so many ponies visiting her workshop. The mare looked at Arden practically begging him to do it again, Arden sighed again and started with another song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDoU-gE2AXA

Once the second song finished came a round of applause and the ponies started to browse the clothing available. Rarity ended up selling twelve dresses, two tuxedos, and about thirty accessories. According to her, that was the best sales day she ever had since she opened up for business.

After the place had no costumers again, guards came by looking for Lyra that had disappeared during the presentations. 'What was that about? They were looked really serious about it...did she break some law to come here?'

The rest of the day went by without a cinch. Rarity gave him the clothes she promised: a white T-shirt with a dark-blue flannel and a pair of jeans. He sang a few more songs before leaving a very happy mare and a little filly that claimed to be his fan back at the boutique.

Once he was inside the library he was pulled in by a golden aura.

"Thank the stars you're alright!" It was Celestia, she checked his top to bottom trying to see if there were any signs of injury.

"Um...what's up?" Arden said backing away. "Did something happen?"

"It appears you're being stalked."

"What?"

Meanwhile back at her cave, the queen hissed and cursed.

"I need to be more careful with my disguises! Not to mention my cover ups! But learning he was a human...this just keeps getting better and better!"

Chapter 13: Apples and uneasyness.

Celestia proceeded to explain to Arden that the mare he referred to in his letter was actually a student in her academy and she was in Canterlot at the time he sent her the letter. Therefore whoever he was interacting with him that day was using a disguise.

"That is why I came here." The princess finished her explanation.

"This is a bit...unsettling, to say the least." The stallion said while he sat down to process what she had just said. So basically he could have been interacting with a murderer that now knew he was human. This was a problem, he started to think about how he could get around those disguises. There had to be a way to see through them. He forced himself to remember what the mare looked like, anything that was off. 'COME ON! THINK!'

"You seem troubled," Celestia said, only now he noticed that her voice sounded like when she was with Twilight...she seemed more at ease. "Are you afraid?"

"Yes..." he answered with his gaze focused on space. His was focusing on the memories from when the mare appeared in the morning. Then he focused on the memory from when he was closest to her, after begging her to keep his secret. Closing his eyes he forgot about the deity standing there with her gaze focused on him and tried to reimagine the scene as if he was outside of his body. Inside his mind, he saw the mare kneeling down to look him straight in the eyes, the scene was stuck in time and he started to examine it. Using all the details he caught from her during the brief encounters with her he rebuilds her entire body in that scene. Part of his duty as a doctor was to examine his patients, so ever since he started to study Arden developed a habit to pay close attention to another person's appearance and body details as to see anything that could lead to a diagnosis or at least gives him a clue about where he should start investigating.

'Her body didn't have anything odd, her neck was normal, nothing out of ordinary in her horn. Her mane was normal as well, her forearms were ok, nothing odd on her hands. Time to check the face...' Arden thought to himself after taking her head off the body in order to inspect her face. 'Her muzzle didn't have anything, her lips and nostrils didn't have any clues either...how about the eyes?' Focusing on the eyes Arden tried to remember all of the different times he saw them. Suddenly he remembered seeing something off about them. 'Wait...in a split second I remember...a faint green glow appearing over her eyes...they looked...familiar...'

"GOT IT!" Arden exclaimed opening his eyes once again and jumping off the couch. Looking around he saw that Celestia actually took a seat by his side and was looking at him with her head tilted and her eyebrow raised. "I think I found something to identify the stalker when they are in disguise!"

"That was fast." The princess stated while keeping her gaze on him. The fact she kept her eyes locked in his was starting to get him slightly flustered.

"O-okay, I think I saw a faint glow come out of the impersonator's eyes while transformed. If I am correct, that should repeat itself when they are disguised." Arden started. "Also...I want to know something about this Lyra."

"Do you now?" The princess' tone sounded...bitter, Arden thought it was best to specify.

"Is she obsessed with humans o something of the sort?" The princess' gaze softened and she took a few moments to respond.

"She is writing a thesis on how there are multiple realities where our species do not exist and humans are the dominant species. But it isn't an obsession." The princess spoke with her voice going back to her usual tone. "She is enthusiastic about new information but she believes it would be best to keep humans to their realm and our species to ours. Since most of the data, she analyzed so far from myths and legends points to humans having problems with other intelligent species."

"Strange...the impersonator acted as if she was downright insane about humans," Arden explained. "They even went so far as to make her look like she would toss herself at a human's arms as soon as she found one." Celestia frowned at that. "N-not that she actually tossed herself at me! She acted as if she was hitting on me." The frown deepened. "Listen, am I reading you wrong or you seem jealous? Because I tend to read other's feelings towards me wrong." The stallion shot before covering his mouth, 'SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT! I just asked that! I! AM! FUCKED!' then he started to sweat a lot before getting on his knees and saying. "I-I'm sorry! I-I j-just...have a lot happening at once and now I-I'm sort of stressed so please ignore what I just said!" The princess' expression didn't help him since she didn't show any reaction.

"N-no. It's alright." She said after shaking her head and blinking a few times. "I'm just worried about the pony who plays a part in my plan..." The princess said while averting her eyes for a moment. 'Thank whoever is watching over me for having me meet so many beings with a decent amount of kindness in their hearts to ignore some of my fuck ups!' The blue one thought to himself as he let out a sigh of relief, but in the back of his mind, he also thought: 'I don't buy what she just said.'

"Right! So..." Arden started as he got back on his hooves. "Am I right to assume you have another reason other than the letter to be here?" The princess agreed with a nod. "In that case, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"First a message from Princess Candance regarding your talent: Try to remember what you were thinking when you first manifested your talent." Arden just blinked at that

'That's it? What was I thinking? I...I wanted to understand what going on. No...that's not it...I wanted to understand what made them act that way towards me. That's it, I wanted to understand them.' Arden thought to himself, the princess must have noticed he was lost in his thoughts because she coughed a little to bring him back.

"Figured something out?" The stallion just gave her a gesture that meant 'I think so?' a smile quickly formed on her face but it disappeared just as quickly. "Secondly, I want you to meet your teacher in swordplay, and her partner. Walkyrie Heart and Mind Walker. I've stationed them in Ponyville so they can teach you while performing their duties. They will move by tomorrow around 5:00 PM." Celestia said pointing to the kitchen where two ponies were sitting and watching the entire scene unfold. Meanwhile, in Arden's mind 'I just made a fool of myself in front of complete strangers...awesomeeeee.'

There was a mare yellow pegasus wearing some sort of battle dress that looked like it was made of gold while the other was a dark grey stallion wearing some garments that made him look like an acolyte from one of the RPG's Arden used to play. Complete with a belt with a book attached to his hip and a bunch of vials of colorful liquids. Arden raised his hand and waved at them awkwardly.

"Hi..." He finally managed to say.

"Do you want us to give you and the princess some privacy?" The mare spoke with a mischievous smile, the comment made Arden scratch the back of his head.

"I-I just interpreted her reactions the wrong way there. So there is no need."

"Just teasing you." The mare said getting up and heading towards the blue one accompanied by her partner. "Thanks for helping us out." She said bowing to Arden who reacted by tilting his head and letting out a 'huh?'

"The harmonious heart you triggered while you were being captive made us realize that we were wasting our time together by ignoring what we felt." The stallion explained while also bowing to Arden.

"No problem...just stop with the bow thing, please?" Arden said pulling them both up. "A handshake or a hug is enough." The answer to the last statement was a hug from both of them.

"Very well," The warrior said breaking the gesture. "The princess tells me that you have no experience fighting. Is that correct?" Arden nodded positively. "In that case, starting tomorrow, every day around this hour we will come by to teach you swordplay. He will heal your injuries after each session." Arden gulped at 'injuries' which made the mare and her partner giggle. "No worries I won't kill the princess' stallion of interest."

Arden looked at the princess that was glaring at the warrior and the wizard. They noticed death glare and made themselves scarce by having the wizard teleport them away. Once they were gone it was just him and the princess, silence filled the room for a while before she just gave him a hug and also left.

(11:00 PM)

Arden stood in front of the bathroom's mirror staring at his reflection, his heart practically ready to jump out of his chest. He was afraid to take off the necklace, 'FUCK IT!' He thought to himself before slapping his own face. Then he reached for the necklace's lock and took it off, headache followed as soon as he took it off which made him wince and look at the ground. Then he thought to himself: 'I want to understand them.'

As soon as he finished the line, the headache ceased and the world was red once again. The stallion tried to look at his hands, expecting to see nothing he was caught by surprise since he could see himself normally. Looking back at his image he saw a creature made out of a black fog with white forearms. 'I look like...Deemo...I'm just missing the little bowtie...' The blue one thought to himself while staring at the reflection, that was until it started to move on its own.

"Hello there partner. Good to see you're checking up on me. I'm doing good no worries. You, however, seem to be in quite the pickle." The image said making Arden let out a whistle, the voice was odd. It was shifting its pitch frantically, to the point he couldn't make out if the voice was male or female. "Well friend, I'm here if you ever need to talk just come by a mirror an I'll listen. There is only so much one can bear on his own. I'll help you just like you tried to help others." The voice, even if unsettling, did not bear any sort of threat to it nor it seemed to be trying to lure him. It just sounded like a being who liked to talk.

"Thanks. Listen...I am really sorry here but..." Arden said fidgeting.

"Aimée Sila." The voice said. "It means 'friendly bond'. You should remember that much. You did give me that name after all." Arden raised an eyebrow at that.

"That's...the name of the...but..." He knew that name, he researched it. He wrote it down, he used it in a story. A story he never got around finishing. "But...the name belonged to..."

"We can talk later, you should sleep partner. Your job starts early tomorrow. And please handle it with care? This talent of yours and that blade. I'm guessing your gonna need both of them in the future." Arden nodded and closed his eyes. Once he repeated the procedure from before the world returned to normal, however before the final seconds passed he heard once more. "Keep the collar on, even though you figured out how to trigger it. It's your heart that governs the ability. If your heart desires to understand, it will trigger the change regardless of what your head says."

Once he had finished his change he put the necklace back in its rightful place. Then he heard "Who-whoo" Looking out his window he saw a black owl with yellow eyes staring straight at him. The peculiar thing was that the bird's eyes dilated as soon as it noticed the stallion staring at it and it flew away. "No way...don't tell me that impersonator can change into animals!" Arden muttered to himself.

In a cottage by the edge of the Everfree forest, a yellow pegasus received one of her friends back from the little errand she sent him off to do. The pegasus heard the tale the bird brought with him and once he had finished she gave him some treats as thanks and sent him on his way.

"Oh dear! T-that could be a problem...a-a possessed one h-hiding in plain sight." The Pegasus said to herself while trembling at the thought of him attacking the townsfolk or her. "I-I need to t-tell Rarity." Stuttering wasn't something that happened to her very often, but when she found herself scared forming words became a little difficult. After building up her courage she went off in the night to alert the seamstress.

In Canerlot's royal palace. The princess accompanied her student's late night studies session.

'Did those two have to shove into his face that piece of information? I am interested in his talent and how he is doing. He is a visitor from another world! And top of that he has potential to become very strong! Not to mention I am interested in how he is adapting...and interested in his future...I wonder how he will turn out...'

"Princess?" The lavender mare asked making her wake up. "Is everything okay? You've been aloof ever since you sent that stallion to Ponyville." The princess giggled at her student. 'Perceptive as always aren't you Twilight?'

"I am fine my dear. Just have a lot on my mind."

"Princess?"

"Yes?"

"Have you sent him any of my questions?" The princess bit her lip before answering that.

"I was waiting until Friday to sent them."

"Oh..okay then." The lavender unicorn said before returning to her books.

(The following day).

After another failed attempt to cook pancakes, which turned out salty and less burnt than the previous attempt, Arden found himself by the gat to the Apple family's farm. Arden placed his sword into the enchanted pocket, as well as the rest of his gear. Something about that bird in the previous night made him slightly uneasy. In fact, as he made his way to the farm he noticed that some of the critters living around town...had their eyes on him. Or at least that's how he felt, since everytime he would turn his head towards the little ones they would either run away or appear to be looking at the ground or the opposite direction. It was 5:57 AM.

'This day seems off...' The stallion thought to himself as he passed the gates, he was wearing the clothes rarity made him the previous day. Once inside he was greeted by a familiar female voice.

"Howdy Mr. Sila." The country pony greeted him by offering her hand for a handshake that he accepted. "Early rise, early finish?"

"Something like that." He answered paying close attention to the mare's eyes, trying to see if there was any trace of the glow in hers. He would need to keep on the lookout for that since he did not know how vast the number of disguises his stalker had. "So what will we be doing today boss?"

"Ah've already started to buck the threes for us to harvest them apples. You'll be getting them off the ground, put them in a bucket and take them to the barn where mah brother will select the ones for sale and the ones for our products." The mare explained cleaning a bit of sweat from her forehead. "After that, we'll be heading into town to sell them with our cart. You'll be pulling it with that magic of yours." Arden stared at her blankly after the last phrase. "What?"

"Nothing!" The stallion said shaking his head. "Let's begin!" The mare gave him a weird look before noticing he was still locked onto her eyes.

"Found something you like here partner?" She said teasing.

"Wha-?! No, no! I-I mean..." Arden said trying to fix another one of his stumbles. However, as soon as he noticed the mare muffling her laugh he tried to recompose himself. "*sigh* Let's just do the work shall we?" He said pulling up his sleeves.

He did his job just as instructed, while he was doing it though he noticed that Applejack had a dog. And this dog was following him around with like a guard would escort a prisoner during his sunbathe. 'What is going on here? I don't like this.' After a few rounds going back and forth, he noticed that the mare's brother would follow him to the barn's door every single time he came by to drop the apples. The guy was a giant both in height and in muscle mass, the sort of guy you would not want to piss off when you first laid eyes on the fellow.

'Seomething is really off...I better keep doing my job and pretend I'm not noticing. Otherwise, they might become even wearier.' He thought to himself as he finished another round. As he got out of the barn he was greeted by Applejack.

"Time for the sale?" Arden asked sweeping the sweat off his head. The sun was scorching him, the mare gave him a glass of water she was carrying with one of her hands. She had another one half-full on the other hand. Arden accepted it.

"You betcha! Ah, 'll be going on ahead to pick a place to park the cart." She said taking the glass from him and walking away. "See ya there. Good job so far."

"Thanks..." Arden said while placing the buckets on the ground by the barn's entrance. Then the unicorn went to the cart that was parked at the entrance. 'Since I have no magic for this task...time to put m back into it.' The stallion thought to himself as he positioned himself in front of the thing and started to pull the mobile store.

The cart was heavy but nothing he couldn't handle with a bit of effort. Once in town he noticed all of the ponies giving him confused looks, they were probably expecting him to be pulling the thing with magic. 'Too bad so sad for me. More spotlight for this guy who wants to keep a low profile.' Arden thought as he navigated through the village. He saw the cow-girl waving at him in the distance, she had a dumbfounded expression after she saw him pulling the cart without his magic.

Once the cart was placed at the spot selected by his boss, Arden put on an apron Applejack handed to him. This time his task was to place the number of apples requested by each client on a bag while the mare would handle the payment. Simple enough right? As Arden worked on his task he noticed something peculiar, there were no guards around. According to what he saw there were two guards stationed in town, small town and peaceful...no need for extra measures. But those guards were nowhere to be seen. Another thing he noticed was: 'Why is everypony looking at me with the back of their eyes?'

"You're alright there partner?" The mare spoke making the stallion drop an apple he had on his hand. He got the apple back and gave her a thumbs up. "Alright then. If you say so."

'Something is fishy here...and I don't like it.' Arden thought to himself as he continued with his task. Then he heard a considerable amount of ponies heading towards him. Rarity was leading them accompanied by Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. 'Oh, I don't like this one bit.' But little did he know what was about to unfold. His uneasiness should have been heard.

'Ooooh, I bet I can use this to get him away from this place!' The queen thought to herself as she mingled in the crow with a new disguise. 'Then I can do my thing when he is all alone.'

'I can't believe I let a possessed work in my shop! Let alone ask Aj to give him a job! She is at risk and I am the one to blame. But I will remedy this!'

'I wonder if I should have left the guards there until Valkyrie and Mind arrived? The guards were made aware of his talent while the populace was not. He probably would not be trusted if they knew what he could do. Who wants others peeking around the feelings they try to keep hidden?'

Chapter 14: Just who is he?!

Author's Notes:

WARNING! DO NOT DISMISS THIS NOTE!

I'll give credit where is due.

The user metordragon gave me a huge help for this chapter. I was going to take the story through a specific path, but his suggestion was way more interesting and gave space to work without having to rely on a time skip of four years (that, for now, will no longer happen).

Whenever someone contacts me in private to give suggestions or gives me an idea/advice that helps immensely to the story's progression in the comments I will try my best to give them all credit. Here are some other people who helped me out so far: PuzzleMaster98, Oops door, Ale, Don't Forget Me.

This is everyone that has heavily influenced the story so far.

Thank you all for the support and patience. Have a nice reading.

'Are they willing to talk?' Arden thought to himself as he continued his work while a mob was assembling and heading towards him. 'Okay, Rainbow is cracking her knuckles. They are not willing to talk.' He concluded as he saw the mare prepare her fists in the distance. Then it occurred to him 'Shit. That owl yesterday must have been sent by one of the townsfolk. Magic is a thing here so having somepony who can talk to animals isn't that far-fetched. They must think I'm one of those possessed ponies...they will try to knock me out as many times as they need to get me back to normal. And since my eye will keep changing...shit. I'll turn to a fucking vegetable before they can *save* me!' He continued as the mob grew closer.

'Okay, calm down and think. There are scrolls back in the library. If I can get there and lock myself in I might have enough time to send Celestia a letter asking for help.' He thought to himself as he allowed an apple to fall underneath the cart. Once the mob approached enough he positioned himself behind the cart (from the mob's point of view) and kneeled down to reach the fruit. 'Please let this work. The only problem will be the blue one.' He thought to himself as he charged his magic.

'I still can't believe we're facing a possessed!' The cyan pegasus thought to herself as they approached. 'Especially when the royal guards left. And to top it all off this guy can hide the one trait that identifies them! This is going to be...AWESOME!' She said once they reached the cart and the stallion hid behind the mobile store.

"Alright, you weirdo!" She started getting in front of the group. "Come out of hiding and face us!"

No response, she, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie stepped closer. Still no sign of any resistance. Closer. Still no response, suddenly the sound of magic activating and the cart flipping over caught them off guard. Using her speed Rainbow created a gust of wind that tossed her friends back while she took up to the sky. Looking over the fallen cart she searched for her target, he was nowhere to be seen. 'What the? He couldn't have gone far, being a unicorn and all. They are very slow.' Rainbow thought to herself looking around, then she saw him bolting away towards the library at a speed that surprised her. His horn was glowing but no visible spell was to be seen which could only mean...

'Damnt it! He must be using doping magic! That's a pegasus regular speed!' Then she remembered that she saw him pulling the cart. If that was the case, he could have been forced to use that magic continuously since he arrived. Which would mean that he could at any moment...'SHIT! We need to stop him before he dies!'

"Get back here!" She shouted as she zoomed on the target. However, as soon as she was about to tackle him he turned around swinging his forearm upwards while summoning a shield. The move came too suddenly for her to react, the shield hit her on the jaw launching her upwards. She did two or three backflips before she managed to stabilize herself. That didn't make sense. The doping magic took time to switch between the enhanced attribute, what he just did was too fast. Not to mention one cannot use other types of magic while using the doping, yet the guy just triggered a shield summon. In a speed, she never saw before.

"That hurt you freak!" The pegasus shot starting her dive once again. This time however what stopped her was a wooden door that was slammed at her face. Then she heard the door locking up from the inside. 'Damn it!' The mare cursed trying to bust the door open, then a switch flipped on the back of her mind. 'The second-floor window!'

'Shit! I'm using all of my luck here!' Aeden thought to himself as he wrote in capital letters 'HELP' In a piece of paper before burning it with the ring. 'Don't dismiss the shield, don't dismiss the shield.' He still couldn't believe that he managed to use his shield as a hydraulic monkey to flip the cart.

*CRASH*

Arden just leaped sideways avoiding a strike from the cyan mare that ended up hitting the solid wood. Even if he never fought his reaction time was on point due to his gaming and constant pranking from his sister that kept tossing stuff at him at random times without warning. People would often get pissed at him for dodging attacks in fighting games and FPS when he was online, so you can get the picture.

'OUCH!' The mare thought to herself as she turned back towards the stallion. 'How in bloody Tartarus does he keep dodging my attacks? I didn't even announce my strike!' She thought to reassume her stance. What she saw was a stallion awkwardly shifting from one stance to another. 'Does he even know what he is doing? No matter, just remember: don't hit him with anything more than 610. Even with doping magic, any strike ten points above the unicorn's strength cap and he will pass out.'

Deciding not to give him room to breathe she attacked. He summoned another shield to defend himself, the force of her blow moved him backward. Then she saw stars after seeing him grab a wood statue that was sitting on a table. her ears were ringing as she heard. "I AM SORRY!" And saw the guy running away to the second floor.

'What the hay?'

'SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!' Arden thought as he jumped from the balcony. 'Okay just keep on the move until Celestia gets the letter and gets here.' The stallion continued on the run until he was tackled by an orange pony that came from an alley. He tried to struggle, but she was way stronger than him.

All the unicorn managed to do was get his left hand placed in front of her as he tried to block her attacks. Most of them got through, even if they were below his strength level he still felt the damage from the blows accumulating. 'Let's see if lightning strikes twice on the same spot.' He thought to himself as he positioned his free fist on her stomach, the mare was too focused on trying to knock him out with her attacks to notice his move.

Suddenly he made his shield spring into its regular size, with his control over it Arden managed to keep the shield placed on his forearm as a miniature version that made it look like an accessory. That was how he kept summoning it in the blink of an eye. The impact of the shield's expansion tossed the mare off of him and it also made her lose her breath. Arden took this opportunity to scramble away, then as he did it another blow took him by surprise and tossed him to the side.

The attacker this time was Rarity, Arden kept rolling after the first blast. The mare noticed and kept tossing volleys at him, she eventually stopped gasping for air and he took this chance to try and run. A pink blur, however, prevented it by tying him up with a rope without him noticing it.

"You, sir possessed, need to stop hurting my friends!" The pink mare said preparing to attack him. He responded by using his body to slam her.

"What proof you have that I am possessed?!" He cried as he tried to keep his balance and run away, the mare forgot to tie his legs.

"THIS!" Another voice cried out, this time he took a kick to his stomach. The attack tossed him towards a mob that quickly surrounded him and started to beat him up. Rocks, pans, those ponies took whatever they had at hand and started to bash him. Amidst the confusion, he managed to get free of the ropes, but at the cost of having his necklace broken when somepony tried to strangle him so he would pass out. As soon as the accessory broke a headache triggered.

'I won't be able to think straight without the necklace! No choice now! I want to understand!' He thought to himself as the affliction ceased. But the blows from the citizens were taking their toll, he felt his bones starting to crack. Using another shield he forced them to back away slightly. Then he spun his forearm around with the shield activated to force them to back away again.

'We got him cornered now!' The seamstress thought to herself as she finally caught her breath and saw the mob around the fallen stallion. Suddenly, the mob ran away from him screaming, then the seamstress saw the stallion standing up breathing heavily. On his forearm a round blue shield, but what really caught her attention were his eyes. One of them completely taken over by light while the other turned red, the once regular blue iris was now a brilliant blue. 'There it is! Fluttershy was right.'

Suddenly he started running again, but this time he was limping."OH! NO, YOU DON'T!" Shooting another blast Rarity made him fly into the fountain. The stallion came out of the water gasping for air. "How is he still standing?!" Then Rarity saw Applejack pull him out and start a beatdown, this time however she used her legs to lock his arms to the ground. Blow after blow Rarity winced the stallion take them head-on.

One of the blows cut his lip, another made him spit blood. Again and again and again he withstood the attack. Suddenly another voice echoed through the town.

"ENOUGH!"

Above them, she saw the princess descending from the sky rapidly. Princess Celestia used her magic to restrain, much to Rarity's surprise, Applejack! 'What is going on?!' The princess then rushed to the fallen stallion's side and started to check on him.

"What on Equestria's name do you think you're doing?!" The princess shot at the country pony that winced and started to sweat.

"B-b-but princess..." The mare finally managed to say. "...h-h-he is possessed!"

"What on Equestria are you talking about?! He..." Rarity witnessed the princess' eyes widen as she let the mare go and once again turned towards the stallion that was having trouble breathing while he kept his eyes closed. "Arden! Arden open up your eyes!" Then she inspected his neck after a few moments Rarity heard her ask. "Where is your suppressant?! Oh, stars...is this blood?! This is my fault!"

"N-no, it isn't." The stallion finally said, as soon as she heard his voice Rarity saw the princess sigh in relief. "I-It's these dammed eyes. T-They're at fault." He said before coughing up a bit.

"Let me see them!" The princess asked, pulling his head so that it would face her.

"I-I rather not." The unicorn said to the princess as he forced himself to be freed from her grasp, then he moved away dragging himself to the fountain and used it so he could sit. "They already made me scared enough as it is. If I use them now the situation won't improve."

'If I use them? What in Celestia's name is he talking about?'

"Very well," The princess said getting up. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could speak the stallion spoke up again.

"Please don't be angry with them! They're just scared." He said basically pleading. " *cough, cough* They were acting based on the information they had!" Was he...was he intervening in their favor? The ones who put him in that state?

"Are you serious?!" The sun Princess exclaimed. "Look at what they did to you!" The stallion's response was a thumbs up. " *sigh* Very well, Arden." She sad in a soft tone, then she turned towards the crowd of ponies that were gathering around. "Listen, and listen closely! This stallion is not a Possessed!" The princess started.

"He is a traveler that in the recent days arrived at Canterlot!"

'That much we knew...' Rarity thought to herself as the princess gave that information.

"He comes from another land distant from our own! Therefore there were no registers of his abilities or traits! Upon his arrival, we discovered that he also had a unique magic that we are yet to determine it's nature and full extent!"

'Now we're getting somewhere!' The seamstress thought to herself as her eyes widened. 'Wait...unicorn with unique magic that not even the princess know about?!'

"This magic, however, causes certain changes to him! Namely, his eyes change!"

"Yet that could be just a ruse, Princess!" A stallion shouted from the crowd. "How can you be sure?! Just knock him out!" The same voice shouted, this time however other ponies in the crowd started to follow.

"I am sure because Princess Miamore Cadenza checked him and assured me that he is not a danger to us! Not to mention he can revert the state at will!" The crowd fell silent. "Show them, Arden."

"I-I'll try!" Arden said frowning, after ten seconds he winced and opened his eyes. Rarity saw the stallion's eyes returning to normal just as the princess said. "Damn it."

"What's wrong?" The princess asked getting closer to him.

"Without the necklace, my head won't stop throbbing." The stallion said while he tried to crush his skull with his hands.

"As you can see the change is up to him! But he is yet to control his unique magic and talent! So at my personal request, he agreed to stop his wandering and stay with us so we could learn more about his magic and he could learn how to control it!"

'He was...here at the princess personal request! Oh, my stars just who did we attack?!'

"This town seemed ideal due to its pacific nature! However...due to an error on my part I assumed to be best to keep his ties to me hidden, as well as his talents! But as all of you witnessed it was a grave mistake." Rarity saw the regret o the princess' eyes as she took a glance back at the stallion. "So here is what we know so far about his magic: along with his ability that causes the eye change, he is the only known stallion to be born under the Virgo zodiac."

'T-ties? She seemed really bad for his condition...a-and a male born under the Virgo?! Who is that guy?!'

"We also know that even though he is a unicorn, his strength is well above that of a regular unicorn without the use of doping magic. As well as his resilience. That as far as we evaluated is equivalent to that of an earth-pony." Rarity's eye twitched.

'T-there is only one r-race that can have the traits of other pony races...don't tell me that he is an...an ALICORN?! B-b-but that would m-m-make him...a bloody prince!' Then the seamstress remembered about the ring as her mind went into meltdown. 'I can tell that the ring was enchanted...don't tell me that the ring is hiding his wings?! He never took it off! Fluttershy's animals can attest to that!'

"Therefore he is not a threat to any of you!" The princess finished frowning deeply at them. "Now, if you'll excuse me. I'll tend to his wounds."

"Don't trust him, Princess!" A male pegasus shouted from the crowd as he came forth. "There is no guarantee that he didn't use a spell on you or the Princess of love!"

"I'll handle this one Celestia." The fallen unicorn stated as he forced himself to stand once again. Once on his hooves, he limped towards the pegasus, stopping only when he was but a few inches from the pegasus. In that position, Rarity saw the unicorn lock his eyes into the pegasus' eyes. The flyer started to blush and sweat, after a few moments the unicorn formed a vile grin on his muzzle. The unicorn's eyes widened and he finally spoke as he slowly tilted his head. "I was riiiiight..." His voice sent a chill down the seamstress' spine and made the pegasus start to shiver. "I can seeeee you. You sad, saaad impersonator." The pegasus gasped as he moved backward while the unicorn limped forward.

Then the Pegasus' wings disappeared and a weird-looking horn appeared on its head, then it let out a deafening screech. Then it shouted with a female voice "Y-YOU IDIOT!" Then the creature caused a magical explosion that sent the injured stallion flying through the fountain's statue and caused a dust cloud.

Once the dust cloud finally dispersed, Rarity only caught a glimpse of the princess entering the library with the wounded stallion on her arms. 'I want to know more!' She thought to herself as she tailed them silently. The library's door was left unlocked so she slowly walked inside. That's when she started to eavesdrop the conversation that had already started.

"...yes the concept of herds also includes the marriages. As long as all of the participants are okay with it the ceremony can be held." Rarity blushed at that part.

'I think I might have walked in a sort of private conversation.' She thought to herself as she tried to make herself leave, her curiosity, however, took the best of her and made her stay.

"You know I'm just trying to make you forget about this right?" She heard Arden say. "But you're not helping here. It was my fuck up!"

"I-I...still..."

"Okay, I forgive you." The stallion said with a mild laugh before he grunted a little. "Better now?"

Then the seamstress heard another laughter, this time sounded like the princess', then she stated. "You haven't got the slightest bit of sanity, do you?"

"I thought that accepting to that ceremony in four years without any sort of resistance should have made that much clear!" The stallion said in a boastful tone that was followed by the princess' laugh once again.

"I guess you're right. Nopony in a position like yours would have taken that deal on the spot like that." The seamstress kept covering her mouth to prevent herself from gasping. 'A ceremony in four years?! Talking about herds?! A deal between them in a spur of the moment?! Don't tell me those two are engaged or something?! Just who is that stallion?!'

"So how's the preparation's for the big event?" The seamstress almost squealed at that.

"I'm already seeing into it. Rest assured it will be a day to remember. Especially since it will overlap with the Summer Sun Set celebration."

'Oh. My. Stars. They are going to marry at the celebration?!'

"I guess so. I'll be working on my preparations during these years. Then, perhaps, I'll be of use to all you." The stallion said with a different tone from before. "Because as of right now I'm as useful as a punching bag."

"It's isn't your fault that your conditions prevented from learning how to fight." The princess said in his defense. 'A unique stallion from a faraway land with unique abilities and a tragic story? And he is also in a romantic relationship with the princess! This is just too perfect!' Her inner fangirl was screaming while she was beaming at the conversation. "Besides..."

"Now, don't you dare to start mopping again! Ack!" The stallion ordered. "Listen, as proof that I do not hold this against you I'll share one of my favorites letters and favorite song from one of the stories I love the most from where I came from. Only if get that frown off your face." Silence followed for a few moments before he spoke once again. "Okay here it goes."

"Thinking of you, wherever you are.

We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend.

Now I will step forward to realize this wish.

And who knows:

starting a new journey may not be so hard,

or maybe it has already begun.

There are many worlds, but they share the same sky —

one sky, one destiny."

'That...that was a beautiful poem...'

"Now, for the song. the song is called simple and clean."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWIiJkXP15I

Once the melody started playing the white unicorn felt her chest tighten. 'This song is...so sad. Yet...it...it...'

"That was a beautiful song, what is the story's name?"

"The name was Kingdom Hearts. I love this story. Heck, I still do."

Silence filled the room after that, then Rarity heard the princess say. "You'll need to keep that arm immobilized for some time. The bones are still fragile even after the healing. As for the rest, it will remain sore for some time but you'll be walking normally as of tomorrow, the arm, on the other hand, will take about two or three days to go back to normal." Then rarity heard the sound of a flame burning coming from the room. "Here is the replacement for your suppressant. I'll have to go now. But I'll instruct Walkyre and Mind to keep guarding you for the night. Okay?"

"Yes, mom." The stallion said. "Ouch! I'm still hurting you know?!"

"I know," The Princess said. "That's exactly why I did it." Silence, then laughter. "Have...have a nice day Arden."

"To you as well Celestia." Once again silence before the sound of a spell being cast echoed through the library. Rarity walked away slowly. Before she heard from behind her. "How much did you hear?" The mare froze in place. "I was told more than once that my hearing is incredibly annoying! So who's there?" Rarity broke into a sprint and got away from that place.

(Later that day)

"Ah still don't like that guy." The country mare said while they shared a few glasses of apple juice inside Sugar Cube Corner. "Ah saw the princess twitching! She was lying about him! Ah, am sure of it!"

"I agree with Aj," The cyan mare said. "No unicorn could run that fast without doping. And if it really is true about him being all weird...then he might as well be an alicorn or some other thing that looks like a pony!"

"I...uh..." The yellow pegasus tried to say. "I think he even scarier than before now..."

"I think he is weird." The pink mare said earning an ironic gaze from all of the other mares. "What? He is! Arden Sila? More like Arden Silly!"

"I...I don't know what to think anymore..." The seamstress finally spoke. "The conversation I overheard suggest that he is VERY close to the Princess..."

"Then Ah suggest that we keep a close eye on the fellow." The country pony proposed. "Just to be sure he doesn't try any funny business."

"I'm with Aj."

"I agree! He is really freaky! Silly, freaky!"

"I...I...I agree."

"I'll do it as well. I am curious about what 'unique' magic he has." The seamstress said trying to imagine what his preparations for the ceremony were and what was he able to do that caught the attention of the Princess. And one question, in particular, was repeating itself in her head: Just who is he?

Chapter 15: Huntress.

Author's Notes:

Shout out to Kobolum and Disciple of history.

Their comments made me realize something I needed to address in this chapter. And also about things I needed to do.

Five days had passed after the entire 'Possessed' incident. Arden was back to health and he finally started to receive the letters from the princess' student. He was amazed at how many questions she could fit in one piece of paper, the first one had around sixty questions. All of them were simple to answer so covering the subject was just a matter of hours. Then he actually took the liberty to ask her for some notes about history and provided extra info on random subjects that came to his mind which included: literature, movies, technology and so on. 'I wish I could see her face when she receives all of this.' The unicorn thought to himself as he placed the answers on the inside of an envelope and sent it.

In the past few days, he also started his training. Walkyrie took it easy on him after she heard about what happened and Mind gave him some vials to help with the pain. So far the only thing he did was physical conditioning: running laps, sit-ups, push-ups and so on. Walkyrie said his actual training would begin after a week over the incident, that way the magic spells from Mind would have healed him completely.

During the third day of his recovery, he also received a visit from Celestia. But he wasn't in the best of moods to talk about what happened again so he decided to ask about something that was bothering him: the power measuring thing she used on his first day in Equestria. As it turns out the description of it as 'power level' was just a stupid a name that the creator of the measuring system came up with, based on the more detailed description from the princess Arden assumed that a better name would be 'mastery level' or 'power outlet'. Since it actually measured how well the pony could control their traits such as strength, speed, resilience, and stamina consumption.

Basically, the number was calculated based on the strongest strike because it was the easiest way to see how much force the subject could bring forth without any sort of backlash and the difference between species was their affinity to control their different traits. For example, Pegasus could control their overall speed and stamina consumption, while on earth ponies their affinities ruled over strength and resilience. The higher the number, the more control you had over your magic to use your body and achieve greater feats without the use of spells.

As for the other measuring that Celestia used, it was called 'magical potential', this one was more literal. According to her, the spell allowed to see the magical aura that surrounds the unicorn, determining their potential to control new spells. Unlike the 'power level', this trait was measured according to the size of the aura and it was immutable (she seemed to want to avoid this part of the explanation and kept fidgeting whenever he tried to press on the matter), while the 'power' could be changed until they got to the species cap.

Now, back as to how his situation was with the town. After he woke up in the following day of the incident, Arden decided to take a stroll through town. Since he could already walk, the only issue was the pain from the blows. Once outside, he noticed that the locals were avoiding him. He initially dismissed the behavior, he saw how scared they were during the event. Not to mention Celestia's intervention made things worse, after all, if he hadn't intervened she would have probably come up with some sort of punishment for the entire place given how she reacted.

However, as the behavior persisted despite his best attempts to approach them he started to get pissed off. And his employers weren't helping either. In his first day, they at least made small talk to him, it is a way for people to start to talk to each other when they don't know each other well enough to start something naturally. This world was no different, but after the incident, they would only talk to him to give him his tasks for the day. This was pushing him to the edge.

Back to present time, Arden found himself at the Apple's doorstep to begin his work. However, it didn't matter how many times he knocked on the door, there was no answer. "Grrrrr...YOU KNOW, IF YOU GUYS WANT ME OUT JUST SAY IT! I AM GETTING TIRED OF THIS SHIT!" He cried out before leaving the place.

'At least I can still try Rarity's place, there is always something to do there.'

"Was that Arden?" The cowgirl asked after hearing the cries from outside, her brother looked through the window. "Shoot! He had to be outside today? The day when she comes to town?" Then the mare facepalmed. "He wouldn't know about her because of our suspicions...that prevented us to talk to him. Though the fellow seems to have lost some screws...the guys been acting off after the incident. Allways gazing into space and not talking to anypony." She continued as she took off her hat and looked through the window.

"I guess that the last part is our fault...we should have at least given the guy a chance to get used to us. Even if we kept our guard up both parts would have at least a chance to find some common ground..." She said looking out the window. "As of right now...both he and our folk need to do something so both parties can have a second chance." She finished closing the window and heading back to her room.

Back in town, Arden was getting even more pissed. Now everypony in town was locked back in their houses. "DO ALL OF YOU GUYS JUST WANT ME GONE?!" The silence was the only thing that followed the echo of his voice throughout the empty streets.

*CRASH, THUD*

This sound made Arden look for its source, looking around he saw a cloaked figure trying to gather some fragments of a barrel and some pieces of broken glass. He silently rushed to behind the figure. "Hey, you okay there? " The figure winced and looked at him with the back of its eye before they ran off. "Wait up!" Arden said reaching out, he considered stopping there...what was the point of going after them? He would just scare them off even more, but as soon as he noticed to where the figure was heading he started to chase it.

"Don't go there! It's dangerous!" Arden's cries fell on deaf ears since the figure entered the Everfree. "Shit." Hesitating a bit Arden ran after them. Trying his best to catch up with them he continued to follow the cloak, however, he eventually lost sight of it. 'Crap! This is bad. I have to find that pony!'

The unicorn continued to run through the forest, eventually, he saw in the distance a clearing with something blue on the ground. As he got closer Arden managed to identify that he was looking at a vividly colored flower. 'That usually points to things being poisonous...or mimicking something poisonous...best to go around them.' He thought to himself turning around. As he did he bumped into something that almost made him fall into the flower-bed, his fall was stopped by something pulling his forearm.

"One should not allow the touch of the poison-joke. That is unless one wishes to become a joke." It was a female voice.

"So they are poisonous..." Arden muttered as he got his balance back with the help of the figure. "...I was planning on going around them." Arden explained before he remembered why he entered the forest and grabbed the figure's shoulders. "Never mind that! Are you okay?"

"This one has no injury." The figure answered.

"Thank, Celestia!" Arden said letting out a sigh. "Alright then, let's get you back in town. This place is dangerous." He said grabbing her hand and starting to lead the figure back.

"Dangerous this place is. Yet here you set hooves." The figure said breaking away from his grip. "Why?"

"Because you ran into this place after you saw me?" The Stallion said tilting his head, inside his mind he was celebrating the fact that this pony was actually talking to him. "If something happened to you it would have been my fault."

"In danger, you ventured, for the sake of one you do not know?" The figure said taking off her hood, revealing a zebra with green eyes. Arden didn't react to the revelation, he just kept looking at her. 'Her voice is...very nice. She talks funny...but I like it.' he thought to himself. "This one's appearance does not frighten you?"

"Uhhhh...what?" Arden answered tilting his head. "Should I be scared? You're a zebra, what's the big scary thing that should make me tremble in fear?" Arden said making a theatric gesture of being afraid, 'It feels good to be talking to somepony about something that isn't about work.' Then Arden noticed the zebra had her eyes wide open and had her jaw hanging. He reached for her jaw and using his index finger he forced her mouth to close.

"A local you are not. From where does the blue one come?" She said shaking her head a few times before she started talking.

"Somewhere pretty far away." He answered bluntly. "So...how about we get to somewhere safe so we can tlak more at ease?"

"A conversation you wish to hold? In that case to my hut, we should go." She said smiling and pulling him by the wrist. 'Hey! I found somepony who doesn't get suspicious right away! BEST DAY EVER!' The mare seemed as eager to talk as he was.

As she led him he eventually saw a hut with a mask hanging on the door. "Hey! I recognize this place!" He said making the mare stop to look back at him.

"You know of this place?" The Zebra asked tilting her head.

"When the princess sent me to the village a little mishap of the spell tossed me in the middle of the forest. So I ended up being chased by a local creature and ran past this hut." Arden explained scratching the back of his neck. "I didn't know there was somepony out here."

"There is, this one lives as one with the forest as her culture dictates. And as her choice." She said smilling. 'Somepony is really happy about this conversation...well she isn't the only one.'

"So...we're gonna go inside or...we're gonna sit by the door? I'm fine either way." Arden said playfully earning a chuckle from the mare. "After all, I've been waiting to have a normal conversation with somepony that wasn't the princess or my teachers...or about something that wasn't working." He said dropping his shoulders.

"This one can say that she's been waiting for a chance to talk as well." She said heading towards the door and opening it. "Come inside, since out here beasts tend to hide."

Arden took the invitation and got through the door. The inside looked like something out of a fairy tale book, a witch's house. Creepy masks on the wall, a big cauldron over a fire on the center of the room. Shelves filled with old-looking books, plants, and herbs hanging all over the place. A little side room with a small table with just two bowls and some spoons, another one with a bed made out of leaves and grass covered by an old sheet. A humble place but comfy, the entire place was warm and had a pleasant scent hanging in the air.

"Nice place," Arden said getting closer to a mask, this mask was round and red with something that looked like an evil grin. "I know these have some sort of meaning behind them. What does this one mean?"

"These do not scare you?" A voice came from behind, Arden just answered by moving his index finger sideways without turning around. "That one means 'welcome'."

"Neat, I bet a lot of ponies would assume that is some sort of cursing or chanting thing," Arden said turning around, "Nice clothes." He said noticing that she took off the cloak and revealing what she was wearing. It looked like a daishiki and a kitenge wrapped around her waist. The Daishiki was white on the upper part and orange for the lower part, while the Kitenge was a bright yellow with some blue shapes sown into it. "Is that A Daishiki and a Kitenge?" Arden researched a lot of different myths and stories when he could and as a result, he ended up learning a bit about different cultures. While researching somethings about African myths he ended up stumbling into some of the names of some of the traditional clothing of the continent.

"Quite knowledgeable you are. Usual garments of my land indeed they are." She said opening her arms and spinning around to show him the clothes. "What does the cerulean stallion think?"

"They look nice." He answered, then he remembered something. "Where are my manners? My name is Arden Sila. It means 'strong bond'. And you are?"

"Zecora is my name. Healing the mind and body is my craft." She answered making a reverence.

"A healer that isn't a unicorn! That is amazing!" Arden exclaimed.

"One does not wish to pry...but as far as this one knows..." The zebra started biting her lip every time she stopped. "...those marks represents one's talent. What is yours?"

"Oh...that..." Arden looked at the ground when he tried to answer. "...it has to do with my magic. Why do you ask?"

"A unique and beautiful eye it is. For that, this one's attention it's caught." She answered fidgeting a bit. The answer made Arden smile. 'Now that's a first.' Seeing his smile the mare asked another question. "If it isn't a monumental task, could please allow me to see?"

"Er...are you sure?" Arden asked staring at her, she nodded. "Really sure? The last time somepony saw it I ended up being attacked by an entire village." He started looking around and seeing some weapons that were placed near her, namely a short sword that looked like it was made out of brass, a spear, and some daggers. Then he returned his attention to the mare that came closer and nodded positively once again. "*sigh* Okay...just...promise to not hurt me, please?" The stallion said reaching for the lock on the necklace and taking it off.

"That stone comes from my land." The zebra said once she saw the stone in the necklace. "A stone that suppresses a pony's talent. But if enchanted can be some much more than one bargained. Magical flames, elemental domain, sealing of a soul. Such a versatile yet devious stone." Arden's eyes widened at her revelation, but he didn't keep his surprise for long since the headaches started again.

"Does your mind ache whenever the suppressant is not in place?" Arden nodded positively. "It would seem that the blue one does not appreciate what makes him unique."

"What?"

"The stallion is just a new form of a traveler's soul is it not?" The mare asked making the Stallion put back the necklace so he could pay attention. "Would you perhaps a human be?" Arden's eye twitched at her statement.

"H-how?" The mare gave him a smile and came to his side and guided him to the room with the table and gestured for him to sit before she continued.

"Familiar with the author Jack Reacher you are?" Arden answered with a positive nod. "Jack Reacher is but an alias to a human turned into a stallion known whose actual name was Artur." She said leaning to the side and getting a hand-mirror that was resting on the table. "The traveler first appeared on our homeland. There he learned about his talent of transferring the of the living souls into objects so they could live on as long as the object resisted." Arden was paying close attention to her every word, his gaze fixed on her eyes as she spoke. "He believed that his talent allowed others to be with their beloveds for more time. Much to his despair, he discovered that his magic had the side effect of torturing the trapped soul inside the object. By the time he discovered his nature he had already used his spell again and again without failing once and had already traveled throughout our world. As well as written his book about creatures of myth."

"But this is not the lesson he passed on through his life." She said getting up and reaching for a book on a shelf. "The discovery of his talent's true nature made him reject his very existence. The symptoms he felt after were registered in another book he this time wrote under his real name." She explained placing the book on the table and sitting once again 'The affliction of a mind broken by the truth.' Arden read to himself. "His initial signs were headaches, later evolving to multiple diseases, madness and so forth. Only in his death-bed, in one of his few lucid moments, did he accept what his talent could do and the symptoms that plagued him subsided giving him two more years of life before his body died of old age and he died with 70 years of experiences."

'So I'm not the first one here...but the last one seems to have been sent to the past while I was sent to more recent years...that's how he knew about the title of a fairly recent movie.' Arden thought to himself as he studied the book.

"Wait," Arden then said looking back at the mare. "So what you're saying is that my headache is because of me rejecting my talent?"

"For what this one has seen..." She started. "...your progression towards the other symptoms came with without delay. But you are young so there is time for the damage to be undone." Arden started to think about what she had just said.

"You don't mean that I..."

"Mad as a hatter, this one would not lie on this matter. The stallion wanders the streets with empty eyes. Paying no heed to those who attempt to approach." Arden started to question his current state and everything that he saw during the past few days. "One has described an attack in the past. A healer's guess is that the event triggered a quick decay in your condition making your mind deteriorate."

Suddenly in Arden's mind, he remembered the hearts of the citizens. 'A monster! He's gonna kill us! He is lost! Somepony please saves us from it!' Then he remembered his own words: 'It's these damned eyes fault!'. Going further into his memories he remembered his theatrics back at the throne room...'I wasn't afraid of what they would do...I was afraid of what I could do with this.'. Arden's mind began to burst with anger towards himself and the villagers, as well as Celestia.

'I put myself in this condition because I listened to my teachers and rejected my empathy, the source of my talent...and the village made it worse with their rushed judgment about me. Celestia also made it worse by telling me to hide this! To suppress it! God damn it! Everypony is to blame! Me above all else! I etched their teachings into my head! I listened to her advice! But they are no innocents either! They could have given me a chance to explain! She could have tried to help me understand my talent before sending me off! But nooo, she had to make me suppress it!' He was lost in these thoughts, he didn't even notice himself gritting his teeth and clenching his fists.

"Are you okay?" The mare asked making him snap back into reality. He then noticed that he was practically tearing through his skin with his nails. Suddenly he felt his eyes start to water, all the anger...all the fear he felt during these past few days and that he kept locked up finally came to light as he realized what he was doing to himself. Then he thought 'Wait...is...is this enough?'

He reached for his necklace once again. Once he removed it, however, the pain came even worse than before. The world was beginning to twist and warp before his very eyes. The masks began to move and talk, Arden quickly replaced the necklace on its original place as he breathed desperately.

"H-how does one treat this affliction?" The unicorn asked drying his tears.

"One would require a healer trained to deal with this affliction. But the treatment has to be followed down to the letter. Otherwise the ill will be nothing but a soul." She explained. "This mare is trained in such a craft. You, however, would need to stay here for the treatment to take have its effect." She continued. "The treatment will use potions that will cause you to enter a state of trance for several hours. In that state, the core of your rejection you will need to uncover and overcome."

"For how long would I need to do this?" He asked with his gaze fixed on hers.

"Up to your mind that would be." The zebra said crossing her arms. "From days to months, years are not out of the realm of probability." She continued getting up. "But there is no guarantee that you-"

"I'll do it." He answered with certainty. "Please help me. I don't know how I could pay for the treatment. But I'll do whatever it takes!"

"In that case, to my home, you must return by tomorrow so you can begin. As for the payment, a pony to talk will be more than enough. The solitude does not feel good after a long while." Arden agreed with a nod as he got up.

Then the mare guided him back to the forest. Along the way, she explained that the necklace was keeping the symptoms in check to a certain extent, but since the ponies in town triggered his decay, the mere sight of them was causing him to hallucinate to a certain degree. Hence why he was having hallucinations of himself attempting to interact with other ponies without realizing, the greater distortions were being kept in check by the suppressant. She also instructed that he would need to cease all contact with the ponies that could be related to the problem during the treatment since they could worsen his state. Therefore his ring would need to be left behind.

During his way back he also learned that Zecora was also a huntress, some of her potions required parts and fluids from creatures like timberwolves and manticores. So basically she would be placing herself at risk to get the ingredients for the potions required for the treatment. Once back in town it was 6:37 PM, everypony was still locked down so he rushed back to the library after saying goodbye to him. Getting a quill he wrote down three letters, two letters identicals and one that he sent away using his ring. By the time he finished them it was around 9:42 PM. Arden kept trying to come up with the right words. With the other letters ready he placed his ring in one of the envelops, he had two copies of the keys to the library so he placed one copy in each envelope. With these items ready and his things packed up he prepared to head out first thing in the morning.

At 2:00 AM he left the library and made two stops before heading into the Everfree.

In the previous night Princess Celestia was going through the answers that Arden sent with Twilight when she received another letter from the stallion.

'Celestia

It would appear that my headaches are actually symptoms of a sickness that affects those who reject their talents, that sickness will develop and eventually kill me if not treated. However, I met a pony who can treat this affliction. But...I won't sugarcoat this. You, the ponies of Ponyville, and myself played a part in making my state decay, your desire to keep it hidden, made me become even more fearful of my talent than I originally was (please be aware that I did not know about my fear consciously, I only came to realize this today once the origin of the headaches was explained to me).

In order to prevent my condition from decaying even further, I will need to cut all contact with everypony related to this development during all of the treatment. So I'll be forced to leave this ring with somepony for safe-keeping. I will overcome this and once this is over I'll need to actually sit down and talk to you about what happened.

Still your friend, Arden Sila.'

The Princess felt tears form in her eyes as she read the letter, once she finished she left the piece of paper fall. Her student picked it up and once she read it she did she went to her tutor's side and comforted her.

In the following morning, the seamstress woke up and as she went to unlock her front door and found a letter at her doorstep.

'Rarity,

I'm contacting you so that I can ask you a favor and ask for forgiveness, as much as I am angry right now with both you and all of the townsfolk I need to seek treatment to a condition that both the ponies of this town, the sun princess and I are responsible for. I am rejecting my talent and as a result, I was slowly decaying, the incident with you guys ended up triggering the disease to escalate way too quickly.

So I am currently leaving town to receive treatment from a healer that I met that has been trained to treat this. As part of the treatment, I'll need to cut connections throughout the entire course (that has no estimated time to finish). But I have one job to the library, so here I come to ask that you please open the library. I know nopony in town currently trusts me. Just like I didn't trust you with my story. But I plead with you to do this for me.

You have no idea how much resentment I kept locked up after that beatdown. But I am willing to try again once this ordeal has been seen through. This time maybe both sides can be more honest about their stories.

As for the apology... it is my understanding that I've been off these last couple of days. Whatever I did to you or anypony I was not aware. The sickness made me hallucinate, my mind made me see myself trying to interact with all of you.

Sincerely a possible friend, Arden Sila.

PS: I sent a similar letter to Applejack in case you do not wish to help me with the library. Inside the envelope, there is a copy of the library key and...my ring. Please take good care of it.

The seamstress covered her mouth as she read the words. When she finished she analyzed the ring he sent. Later that day she had Pinkie Pie gather everypony in town to explain the stallion's disappearance. With Applejack backing her up the townsfolk actually agreed that they would need to give him a chance once he returned. Applejack convinced them that he was willing to give them a chance, so they should do it as well. Not to mention that in her letter he stated that he would keep his guard up towards them, so he would be alright with them doing the same thing, in the end, both sides would need to find a way to try to make this work.

Arden stood at the doorstep of the huntress of the Everfree, he knocked and she answered immediately.

"Please come in." Accepting her invitation he stepped into the hut that would be his home for quite the while.

Chapter 16: Session and thoughts of a princess.

Author's Notes:

Once again, metordragon was a huge help in this chapter.

If any of you need help with ideas or suggestions, talk to this person. They are really good to come up with suggestions and advice related to a story's development. Their insights gave me so much more room to work. And also made me realize a path I had dismissed out of fear of being unable to write it down in the right way, however thanks to them reminding me of the potential the path had we're getting where the story currently is.

So yeah...this is my shout out for this chapter!

"So...how is this going to work?" The stallion said taking a seat at the table while Zecora sat down on the opposite side. "Once I wanted to be a healer myself. But due to a lot of twists and turns, I ended up as a library keeper..." Arden explained to the mare. "The point being I like to know about healing procedures."

"This one understands. I'll provide the potion, once you drink it you will enter a state of trance. While in that state. You may have a fever and other side effects. This mare will have to control those symptoms during the entirety of the trance, each session lasts for about five to six hours. And upon awakening, you will feel exhaustion, starvation, and pain. Therefore, this one shall conduct the sessions around 3:00 PM." The mare explained drinking some sort of tea she also offered him. As he heard the explanation he remembered all the procedures he read about and the risks and side effects they carried. 'Hey...rare disease equals drastic treatment. I'm just glad that there is a treatment.'

"What about the rest of the day?" Arden asked once he noticed she had finished her explanation and was focusing on her tea.

"For that...your mind must not be focused on the treatment until you're at the session. So we'll need to make you focus on something other than the illness." She said placing the cup on the table.

"Why don't you teach me how to identify medicinal herbs and hunt? That way I can help with the treatment." The Stallion suggested, he was very curious about what she knew after learning about she being a huntress and a healer. The zebra blushed as he said that. "Er...not a good idea?"

"Tracking and learning about my concoctions as well as the herbs required for the craft I can teach." She said as she looked down moving her gaze from the stallion to the ground. "To teach how to fight and kill beasts as well as ponies and other beings...in my culture, we can only teach our ways to...to our mate. The same goes for the males..." Arden nearly choked on the tea once he heard that part.

" *cough, cough* S-sorry! I-I didn't know it was that personal. I-I will settle for the tracking skills and the potions thing." He said trying to undo his screw up. "We barely know each other so please just forget I said anything in that regard." He continued to fidget until he slammed his head on the table. "Just forget everything I just said. I'll just..."

"What is the blue one waiting for?" He heard from the mare, looking up he noticed she was putting on some light leather armor over her usual clothes. "Morning hasn't begun and we must cover our ingredients before the appointed time. Since an acolyte of my craft, you became. More time I'll require to collect all of the herbs and teach you about their uses. As well as the tracking. Both require time, so lingering here won't help your lessons." She said giving him a smile and putting on her cloak.

"Oh...ok!" He said getting on his hooves he reached for his pockets as to put on his traveling gear. But the mare pulled him away from the pocket.

"If learning you desire, my ways are required." She said before heading to the room with the bed and returning with a pair of pants and a waist armor. "These are the clothes of an acolyte tracker and potion maker. Put these on. The search is on." She said tossing him the clothes and heading outside.

"What did I just get myself into?" He asked himself as he donned the clothes.

Meanwhile, in the princess' chambers, the sun princess was pondering over the contents of the letter she received in the previous night. 'What have I done?! Once again I focused on my own interests and caused one of my subjects pain. And once again I might have signed somepony else's death sentence.' She thought to herself as she gazed upon the moon, It was still 3:02 AM. She did not sleep on the previous night, she was sitting on her bed. Twilight was fast asleep on her lap as Celestia stroke her student's mane.

"And of all the ponies I could have hurt this time...it had to be the one that caught my eye. I guess...the title and the age do not always go hand-in-hand with wisdom." She muttered to herself as she continued to pet her student. "He wrote 'still your friend'...I guess it must've really hurt him." She sighed turning her gaze to the moon once more. "Luna, do you still consider yourself my friend?"

Looking through the window by her bed she could see right underneath the moon the Village to where she sent the newcomer. Then she thought to herself about what she should do, the stallion had a point. "Making him hide his talent...I should have tried to help him understand it...what should I do now?"

"*yawn* If...If keeping his talent hidden...*yawn*" Twilight said opening her eyes and slowly turning upwards to face Celestia. "...hidden is the problem, why not just tell everypony about it? Since he is the only one that has it, there would be no need to worry about it anymore." Celestia looked back at her student.

'What about the possible backlash? His talent could make a lot of ponies weary...no this is the line of thought that got us into this mess. Even if his talent can be seen as a problem by some ponies...this way he wouldn't have to hide it. He could simply live with ponies that like him or not. Like the rest of us, perhaps it could really be better this way?' The princess thought to herself as she looked back at one of the pieces of the puzzle to stopping Nightmare upon her return. 'It would be worse to leave thing as they are...nothing ventured nothing gained.'

"I'll give it a try Twilight." The Princess said smiling at her student. "Thank you, we'll both deal with whatever comes after that later."

"Princess?"

"Yes? My student."

"What is his talent?"

"His eyes change, and when they do he is allowed to see into the heart of the creature his gaze is placed upon. Seeing what the being keeps locked inside them, no lies, no illusions. Only the truth about somepony else's feelings." Looking back at her student she saw her eyes beaming and a huge smile on her face.

"He is like Candance!" Celestia nodded before she said more.

"But he not only can he hear the voice of another's heart. He can feel what the pony feels just as strongly." Celestia continued as her student sat back up and started to write down what she was saying. "From what I've seen, he also has the same potential for magic as you. But he is limited to creating a small shield that is more resilient than your brother's strongest shield." Twilight frowned at that. "I tested it myself. And another peculiar thing about him...he is as strong as an earth pony."

At this moment the Princess noticed that Twilight's brain seemed to come to a fritz. "I assure you, he did not use doping or anything of the sort. He has a power level of 1200." She then saw Twilight breaking her quill. "And...and...on top of being from another world...he...he was a human before he got here." At this moment Twilight's eyes rolled up and she fainted. "*sigh* I guess I should leave that last part out." The princess said lifting her student with her magic and placing her on the bed.

'But...did I push him far enough so that I couldn't reach him anymore as anything other than a friend?' She thought to herself as she laid down so she got close her eyes for at least a little while.

"Now, these tracks are old. So no worries are to be had from the wolves of timber." Zecora explained as the stallion closely analyzed the tracks she pointed to him. 'Very attentive he is. A diligent student he shall be.'

For the last seven years, when she decided to venture out on her own at the age of 17, she had been alone just for being a foreigner. So having somepony to talk and interact to was a much-welcomed change of pace. They passed the entire morning collecting the herbs, every time she talked she noticed him paying close attention to every single detail. Without looking away from her for even a moment he would keep close and pay heed to every single one of her warnings and directions. 'A truly diligent student indeed.'

When they returned it was about 12:28 PM, he carried all of the herbs giving her more mobility. Once they made their way back she pointed to him where he could place their harvest, while he took care of that she returned to her room and took off her cloak and her armor. 'One has to wonder what he can do. And his eyes are still as unique as his mark. Heterochromia is something quite rare in this place. One black as the deepest cave, the other blue as the brilliant sky.'

Once she returned to the main room she saw him looking out her window. "Something of the matter?"

"What? Oh, no, no." He answered looking back at her. "Just seeing if I can see any animals out there."

"The scent you caught here serves more than making a pleasant air. The beasts are kept away by it." She explained picking some edible plants from her storage along with some bread she made herself. "The morning was long but very productive. A good meal will do good for this ill." She said inviting him to sit with her on the table.

Together they ate, for the first time in seven years she shared a meal with another being. "So...does the unicorn have any questions so far? The teachings can be tough, but this one can aid with no delay." She then noticed the stallion was looking at her with his ears dropped. "Plagued by something your mind is?"

"I-I...It's just that..." The zebra began to wonder what was making the stallion act that way, perhaps he was homesick? "Listen, I feel bad for starting to live here and have you teach me about potion making and tracking." He said placing the food on the table. "On top of that, you are giving me food, treating my illness while the only thing I offer is somepony to talk to...I don't think it is enough."

"For one who had no companion for seven years, having a being who will listen to this one's teaching is quite the payment." Then she drifted her gaze through his body, the stallion didn't have a single mark on his body that pointed to him being a warrior, his build wasn't anything to notice...but something about him made her feel at ease. Then she remembered something she was yearning to see. "If payment is what you have mind. There is something if you wouldn't mind." She said getting up and gathering a bunch of herbs then mashing them together on a pestle. Once the mix was ready she made a tea she was taught how to brew. "A tea to ease the symptoms of the illness for a short while. Please drink it and show me your other eyes. More than enough that will be." The stallion took the cup, but before he drank it she warned. "Careful you should be. Very bitter this tea can be."

She watched the stallion look at the mix, then he drank the entire thing in one swing. After that, he started to cough before he took a deep breath and reached for the necklace. He took it off and placed on the table, then she watched as he remained with his eyes closed and said in a clear tone. "I want to understand."

Then he opened his eyes, Zecora opened her eyes even wider. She stared at the two different eyes that stood before her, one with a brilliant light emanating from it. The other red as blood at its sclera and iris blue as the brilliant flowers she prevented him to fall into. However she noticed that he did not dare to look at her, he kept his gaze in such a manner that she could see both eyes, but never gazing at her.

"Is something wrong?" She asked trying to get directly in front of his eyesight. Arden, however, kept looking away. "Why won't you look at me?"

"Because if I do...I'll hear your heart and feel what you're feeling." He answered turning away from her once again. "The first time this happened I ended up with a spear being pointed at me."

"There is no need to fear." She said placing her hand on his shoulder and using the other to make him look at her. "This one wishes to know what you'll hear."

The stallion finally had his gaze fall upon her, once he did a soft and gentle smile formed on his face. "I'm so glad...that I'm making you feel at ease...and I'm so glad that you are happy for the company. Please know that I am just as grateful for being here with you as you are." Zecora smiled back at him, he read perfectly. The stallion that met her for one day, had a sensibility that allowed him to understand how she felt about the entire situation. And his talent made him able to understand her even further by digging what she wanted to say from her chest.

From the moment she started to talk and invited him the previous day she wished to tell him how happy she was about the event. But she feared that would scare the only pony that dared to talk to her in so long, so she kept her words of gratitude to herself. Yet he exposed them with a simple look at her.

"A truly remarkable gift! Such a sight could bring so much into the light! The reasoning behind an act. The truth behind a war!" The zebra said as she watched the stallion close his eyes for ten seconds before putting the accessory back on. 'Both of them are truly a sight to be held!'

"Or how much I could manipulate somepony." He said opening his eyes once again and she saw them returning to normal. Then she saw him blushing, at this point she realized that she was just a few inches away from his face. She felt her temperature rise before backing out and getting back on her hooves. Then she went to get a vial with the concoction she prepared the previous day.

"T-to my room, we must go. There the session shall be held." She said without looking at back at Arden. After she took her place she saw him come in and sit down. "All of the vial's content you must drink. Then you the sickness you'll begin to treat." The stallion took the vial and without hesitation followed her directions before he laid down her bed.

"See ya on the other side." He said to her before closing his eyes again. Then she began to gather some basic healing potions and ointments to counter any side effects from the mix he just drank.

Arden felt his body become lighter as he laid down the huntress bed and closed his eyes after saying: "See ya on the other side."

After that, he opened his eyes again and saw a familiar form. In front of him, he saw his former human-self standing before him. Only without a face, Arden recognized his body due to the traits he was so familiarized with. "Let me guess, you re the version of me that wants to give up on everything and will try to make me give up as well."

"Not at all." The faceless human said, his voice was distorted into a very deep pitch. "I am your guide. The potion you friend gave you makes the mind generate a construct to guide the patient through his mind during the trance. A very difficult potion to brew, after all...it requires a bit of the brewer's blood to finish the preparation." Arden would have raised an eyebrow at that if he had one since he hadn't he just tilted his head. "I will show you the memories related to your complex. But it will be up to you to find the pieces of the puzzle in each of them, hidden at the weak points of your memories. Once you find all the pieces you'll be able to reach the core of the problem." The figure explained.

"And where is said problem?" Arden asked looking around and noticing he was back into being a foggy creature.

"You tend to be a bit straight to the point so..." The figure raised it's hand and pointed to a huge locked chest right behind him.

"Is it going to play the Legend of Zelda's chest opening theme when I do?" Arden asked looking at the ridiculously big chest that went all the way up to the half of his torso.

"Hahaha...No I don't think so..." The figure said walking all the way to his side. "Now for the very first one."

When it finished saying that Arden saw the empty background disappear and he saw for the turn into the first time he showed his empathy. During his grandfather's funeral at the age of six, Arden saw his child self and everyone in the event to be crying, while the little one just wandered around. Arden remembered that he felt sad, but not enough to cry. While it was true that he lost his grandfather, he still remembered him and he remembered how he was before passing away, so he thought that his relative being gone was better. Then Arden saw his own father, much like himself, his father wasn't crying.

However, as Arden approached him Arden felt his chest get tighter and he started to cry, and he cried more and more until he passed out. Only to wake up two days later in a hospital with both of his parents by his side, that's when he remembered himself telling his father to not be sad that Arden's grandfather died. Arden's father was taken by surprise by his words and asked him how he knew. The little one's answer was: "You were crying during the funeral." After that Arden undertook exams to see if there was anything that pointed out how he could have understood his father's feelings when every person in the funeral swore that the man looked like a stone statue.

That's when Arden realized: 'I remember...I was afraid of the doctor's tests, I knew that they saw me as something unusual. I felt that me being able to feel that was off based on their reaction.' Then the foggy creature saw something inside the chest of his child self. Reaching for it he pulled out what looked like a piece of a key. "Is this what I was looking for?" He asked the figure that turned to him.

"No, but is the first step towards the core you're searching for." The being said pointing at the child form of Arden, that was frozen in time. "Look at yourself and think: do you need to feel weird for being different? Maybe for being taller than other people? For being smaller? Perhaps paler?"

"No," Arden answered.

"What is the concept of normal? What justifies the act of rejecting what makes you yourself?"

"The..." Arden stopped and began to think, then he remembered about all of the quirks, his shenanigans, and other traits that made him who he was. 'They made meet good and bad people, people who liked me for who I was and people who didn't. But that never made me reject any of those traits. Why should I reject that empathy?' He thought to himself and then answered.

"There is no such thing as a fixed concept of normal. There is only one's perspective of normality. A concept that is built upon the person's life. The act of rejecting part of yourself means bringing the concept of normality from another being into yourself. It's okay to want to try an understand another's point of view of the world, but it isn't to abandon your own in the process. For it is your point of view that allows you to be who you really are. But one should be aware that this vision of the world is not immutable. It grows with the individual as they experience new things, as they live the life they chose for themselves."

As he finished his sentence the scenery before him undid itself and Arden found himself back in the room with the chest. The empty white background now had cracks beginning to appear along its surface. Looking at the key piece he saw that the part of it that should connect to the rest of the piece was glowing.

"Well, this is all for today. You already made the zebra worry enough for one day." The figure said as he started to fade. "Take care, partner."

"Aimée?" Arden asked before he felt his body being pulled back with extreme force. The form he had kept being stretched by the pull until he...

After the stallion passed out Zecora stood by his side, checking for his temperature, pulse, and breathing pattern. She also paid close attention to his facial expressions as to determine any signs of pain or discomfort. As the time passed she kept controlling his temperature that was shifting between high fever and hypothermia way too fast. 'His mind in disarray must be. Too great are the changes and too fast as well.' Then his body started to move as if he was having a convulsion.

Quickly reaching for one of the vials, Zecora opened it making the liquid evaporate once the lid was removed. Holding the vial near his nostril the fumes entered them and the spasms stopped. 'Quite the ordeal he must be going through, the mark for his return is in two more hours.' She calculated, an hour passed and no other symptoms manifested and all others changes subsided. Seeing this development Zecora placed a cup on top of his head. 'Now this one can go prepare something for both parts to eat if he moves the cup shall fall and I'll be warned.'

Then she headed to her cauldron and filled it with the water she had stored in a special vase made out of a material that sterilized the water stored within it. After that, she started the fire and began getting the ingredients and placing them in the cauldron. Another hour passed and no sound came from the stallion, the zebra finished the soup and filled two bowls before heading back to the room where he remained in trance.

She sat by his side and waited, and waited, and waited. Two hours passed since the time limit expired and the zebra found herself going from one book to another trying to find the recipe to the potion that countered the trance-inducing brew. Her eyes began to tear up. 'Ancients help this one! A cure was what I promised not a slumber!' She thought as she continued to rush through the contents of the book.

"WHOA!" That scream startled her enough for her to drop the book she was searching and fall on her behind. Realizing that the scream could only have been from the stallion she scrambled back to the room and found him sitting and breathing heavily as the tips of his fingers buried themselves on his chest.

"Okay you are!" Zecora cried as she moved closer to check his vitals. Once she finished she proceeded to hit the unicorn on top of his head. "This act do not repeat! Her ancestors this one will almost got to meet!" She said drying the tears in her eyes. The thought of being alone again after all that time scared her, especially since it would be her fault if he entered a coma. She tried to warn him about the risk on the first day they met, but the Stallion said he would do the treatment no matter what he had to do.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch!" The stallion said falling back into the bed. "Everything aches!" He said stooping all of his movements except for the ones related to breathing. "Ahhhh...way better." He said smiling, then his stomach made a growl. "How am I going to eat if breathing and talking are enough to make my body ache?"

"That is why this one is here." The zebra said making him sit up straight. "Though this was prepared with the intent of being served hot. The delay on the stallion's awakening gave it time to cool." She said reaching for a bowl, another growl came as she did it.

"I don't care," the stallion said, "I'm just glad you got me covered Zecora, thank you." He said before the Zebra began to tilt the bowl so the soup would flow into his mouth. He drank it all in one go. "Thanks, that was really good." He said before his eyelids began to slowly close on and he almost fell backward. She reached out to him dropping the bowl on the process and catching the stallion.

She then carefully placed him back on the bed, which was the only bed in her house she would also have to sleep there. But the bed had more than enough space so both could sleep. So she went to her ark that rested underneath the floor in a compartment that she build to store her clothes. From inside she picked up the clothes she usually slept in, older and more comfortable than her usual garments. After dressing up she also picked up another sheet she had and used to cover both her and him, but in order to do so, she had to stay close to him.

'If the session's aftermath has to be like this...this one won't mind one bit.' She thought to herself as she turned her back to the unconscious stallion and fell asleep.

Chapter 17: Seamstress writting and Discord.

Author's Notes:

Almost forgot!

Shout out to kobolum and metordragon for helping me out with this chapter!

Also, thank you for waiting! I hope you enjoy it!

'I smell...perfume...it smells good...' Arden thought as he finally opened his eyes and saw the hut's ceiling. 'Roses?' He thought to himself as he sat back up. "I...I fell asleep on her bed..." Arden mumbled before he punched himself and got up, compared as to how he was feeling after the session on the previous day he felt great. Leaving the room he noticed that Zecora was nowhere to be seen.

'Where did she go?' Arden thought as he looked around the room, on her table he saw the pestle she used to prepare the mix in the previous day. Only this time it had some sort of pink reminiscent of another one concoction from the zebra. 'What's this? Slimmy...' The stallion thought to himself as his index finger touched the fluid, then he brought it closer to his nostrils. 'So this is the source of the scent.' Then he licked it before spitting it out immediately. 'Okay... this is soap.' As a child, he once wondered what soap tasted like so he went ahead tried it which resulted in he spitting the piece he bit down the toilet.

Then he thought. 'Maybe she went out to clean herself up or wash some clothes. Huh...if there is a stream nearby I can probably wash there as well.' As he finished that thought he stretched and headed outside. On the ground, he saw hoove-prints, based on what little he learned from Zecora he assumed that they were hers, he followed them. Eventually, he started to hear water running so he continued to follow the tracks until he ran into Zecora...who was in the water...washing herself.

He stopped on his tracks after the zebra, it was at that moment that she turned around and saw him standing there. Now, what exactly happens in this situation? Wel,l the cliché is the female physically assaulting the male. In this case, here is what happened:

"Morning!" Arden said getting closer and sitting by the river's edge. "How much soap did you make?"

"Good morning to you as well." The zebra said getting water on her hand before pouring on her head. Then she looked back at him. "Has the stallion no interest in females?"

"Uh...what? Oh! You mean the lack of reaction." Arden said after he hit himself in the forehead. "It's because of my training to become a healer. I ended up studying a lot about anatomy and saw a lot pictures of bodies both females and males. I even got to examine a few during some internship, my college would have us accompanying consultation from the first year of studies. Eventually just seeing a female body stopped making me feel excited. which was good since if I had to examine a female it would not be good if I got stimulated by just looking at them." He explained. "I am interested in females, I just...do not react to a body alone." The zebra just raised her eyebrow when he finished his explanation.

"What? Do you want me to go into details about how beautiful your body and eyes are? As well as how smart you are?" The stallion asked before he froze, started to blush, and finally facepalmed. "Smooth, real smooth jackass." He muttered to himself as he turned back to the mare that was laughing at the scene. "I'll just turn my back now and wait you finish."

"Most flattered this one is." He heard Zecora answer. "As for the amount of soap. It should be more than enough for both." As he heard that he smiled, 'Good, I really need a bath.' Then he heard another question. "If one does not mind, why not join this one?"

"I-I am not comfortable to walk around showing my stuff without reason, m-medical check-ups? Okay. No reason at all? That's a no-no. Especially if there is a good-looking mare around." He answered while keeping his back turned to her. "Let's change the subject okay?"

"Very well," The zebra said as she moved around. Then Arden heard her walking in the water. "This one has finished. The cerulean may go." He got up and then he remembered that he didn't bring something to dry himself with.

"I...kinda didn't know if there was somewhere to wash when I went out so..." Arden said with his back still turned to Zecora. "...I would first need to-" He was interrupted by a flying piece of cloth. "Thanks."

"This one always carries an extra whenever she comes to clean," Zecora said finally appearing in his field of vision, completely dressed this time. "Since a surplus of supplies we collected. Scavenging today is no longer required." She said sitting by his side after giving him a bowl filled with the liquid soap, but she was facing the river. "In this case how about a conversation?"

"Like you ask me a question, then I ask and so forth?" The zebra agreed by nodding while she kept her eyes on the water. "Okay, but do you mind looking the other way?"

"A peek you got on this one. A fair trade requires a chance to look." Arden tried to come up with a reply, but none came so he just let out a sigh before he started to undress. Once he finished he headed towards the water, that's when he heard. "The path of the warrior is unknown to the cerulean. Not that it changes what this one thinks about how he looks."

"I-I will take that as a compliment," Arden said from the water. "And you're right. I never was a warrior, I can say for certain that I was a scholar." Arden said as he began to wash. "So, who starts?"

"The horned one already shared a fact. My chance to give one back." Zecora said from behind him.

"Okay...let's see...Got it!" Arden said when he remembered something that was bothering him. "Why did you have clothes that fit me?" Arden didn't see how she reacted since he kept his back turned to her if he had turned he would have seen the mare turning red.

"T-the costume dictates that an acolyte shall receive two pairs of clothing during his path. One at the start and another upon the moment master and disciple choose their own paths." He heard the answer while he washed his head. "That the disciple is ready to pass on the teachings the second garment symbolizes. A specified size they have, up to the master to make the adjustments required it is."

"This one believed the pony who chased her simply for caring for the well being of a stranger would be a good disciple. Hence the modifications to the clothing were made by estimating the possible disciple's size. This mare hopes that they please."

"They're good thanks," Arden said looking back at her over his shoulder. "Your next question?"

"A healer you mentioned to aspire. Why that is this one wishes to inquire."

"Oh, that's because of the story of my birth," Arden began as he finished to wash his torso and upper limbs. "My parents told me that my mother developed pre-eclampsia during gestation. Thanks to the doctors finding it they saved my life by making my delivery through cessionary. Later they discovered that if they had waited they would have to choose between my life or hers." Arden explained as he washed his lower limbs. "Not to mention that course of action still had the risk of both lives being lost. After that story, I thought to myself that I wanted to understand why that had happened. Why did her body reach that point? As I grew up I saw more and more ways to heal those in need being developed and then I decided that I wanted to be part of that and maybe I could end up helping others just as I was helped."

"That is a very grim tale. The very thought of the situation makes this one pale."

"Pale you already are," Arden said playfully. "But I have to disagree on the grim part. After all, both parts were saved and I got to where I am now. I see this as a happy story." He said turning back to her after he finished to wash everything. "Now, my next question: the warrior mate thing has to do with outsiders doesn't it?" he said reaching for the towel that she offered, as embarrassed as he was she had already seen everything so there was no point in hiding.

"Indeed it has. Healing is and tracking can be taught to anypony since our culture believes that all should know that, how they would use it is up to the healing. But the fighting offers a threat to ourselves since the knowledge can be twisted to bring us harm by breaking our defenses. Therefore to outsiders of trust, they can be taught, the ones we would be willing to share our lives with." The mare answered while still looking at the stallion that was dressing up.

"Uh...that's actually a bit romantic." He said finishing to strap the waist armor in place. "Next?"

"Tales of your world, pretty unique they may be. Any, in particular, you like to speak of?"

"I guess..." Arden said sitting down by her side. "That would be: 'Fios the Prata, Reconstruindo Sandman.'" Arden said while scratching his chin. "The author is called Raphael Draccon, and a literal translation of the title is Silver threads, rebuilding Sandman. The story is a romance and an adventure of a male trying to reclaim the soul of his beloved from the hands of demon that traded the male's soul in exchange for the male's soulmate with the angel that held her. All the while the gods of the dream realm are having a war because of such bargain, if I recall correctly. And all of this happens during an induced state of trance of the male since he can only reach the dream realm and be able to fight in there while in that state." Arden explained as he tried to recall the details.

"Very chaotic that sounds. A happy end this one gets?"

"An open one," Arden answered turning to her with a smile. "The end sounded like it would get a sequel. Not that I will know how it ends." He said picking a pebble and tossing it into the river. "Okay, is your family back at your land?"

"Probably. My family desired me to become a shaman. To focus my craft upon only the spirits. This one decided that she would serve better by tending to the living. They came to accept it before my departure to travel the realm." The zebra answered with a smile. "To home, we should return, a meal we should have."

"Agreed."

"In a faraway kingdom, two wise rulers had two sons. The children sharing the traits of their fathers were both alicorns. Both children were raised with love and care from both their father and mother. The older one was an expert fighter and a master at arms, no knight or beast could best him at combat, a valiant knight with a heart of gold. However, the eldest lacked in wisdom, being easily manipulated by the vizier of their country and quickly delved into politics as to show his parents his inept ability to rule their kingdom. The youngest, Arden Sila, on the other hand, had no talent as a warrior. The path of knowledge was the one he sought, his heart was kind and he was just as beloved by his subjects as his older brother was praised by them.

Not so easily swayed the vizier had no influence over the youngest. Choosing to pursue more knowledge over magic and the machinations of the world he uncovered his talent. This talent causing a change in his eyes, creating a terrifying sight, a talent that he was yet to master. Seeing this as an opportunity to exact his plan the vizier decided to take away the brother who would not fall under his influence.

In other to get rid of the youngest, the vizier assassinated the current king and queen causing by poisoning both during an event when the youngest came forth to announce to his parents about his discoveries. Before the event, the vizier came to visit the youngest and gave him a pendant with a small vial containing a brilliant blue liquid. The vizier claimed that it was a gift from his mother. Seeing the design the youngest believed the vizier, upon starting the event the youngest was quickly surrounded by guards that were following the orders from the eldest.

The eldest was by his parents' corpses as the vizier pointed to the youngest's necklace accusing him of being possessed. To Arden's misfortune, his eyes activated and the very sight of his change worked in the vizier's favor. Using what magic he could muster the prince fled his kingdom as an exile, swearing to return and prove his innocence and catch the real murder."

The quill was dancing to the rhythm of the seamstress words. Rarity was at her workshop and kept her magic active as she did multiple tasks, such as sowing and designing new dresses, when inspiration hit her multi-tasking was nothing to the mare. The more she learned about the stallion and his relationship with the sun princess, the more she fantasized and the more she wanted to get to the end his secrets. 'I just can't wait to discover his story!'

"During his first years of exile, he came to meet a healer that was trained in the treatment of multiple rare diseases and gave him shelter during his escape from the kingdom. After a long travel, the young prince came to found himself in the land of Equestria and came to know about the princess of the sun and keeper of harmony. Princess Celestia, seeking to ask her to aid him in his endeavor and to aid him to learn how to control his talent he ventured into the city of Canterlot.

The stallion did not count for the surprises that lady luck had in store to him. Upon passing the gates that gave way to the city his eyes once again changed, which resulted in his immediate arrest. The end result was him being brought before the
Sun Princess herself, upon meeting her his eyes met hers and he felt his heart beat more strongly than he ever felt before. Princess Celestia, on the other hand, was ready to hand down judgment, however, before she could the princess of love intervened in the young prince's favor. Seeing that even with those eyes he fell for the ruler of harmony, at first sight, she saw that his talent was not to be feared and that he meant no harm to her kingdom.

Upon this discovery the sun princess witnessed the stallion's eyes return to normal and saw them for the first time. Asking for forgiveness she offered help so that he could learn how to control his talent, he accepted and proceeded to tell her about his sad tale. His story moved the princess that agreed to aid him in his efforts but seeing what he could become and how far he would go so that he could save his country she found herself wishing to stay by his side. That was when she offered the stallion another deal: if he were to marry her he would have all of her army and power at his disposal.

The stallion smiled at her proposal but declined and offered another deal. "Regardless of you can aid me with the return of my kingdom or not, I offer you all of my existence. In exchange of only your love. And the chance of staying by your side."

Hearing this words Princess Celestia's heart raced with joy. That's when the princess said. "If you would take my hand so that we could share our futures together. I'll gladly accept your offer."

Right then and there both of them shared a passionate kiss under as the Sun set itself to rest on the horizon. It was after that they-"

"What are ya doing Rarity?" Applejack's voice scared the mistress to the point of dropping all of her magic and every object that was being kept animated by it.

"D-d-don't scare me like that!" The seamstress stuttered as she grabbed her chest. "H-how long have you been there?"

"Long enough to hear the entire thing." As always the honesty with this mare was on not from this world. "Where did you get that from?"

"I..." She shifted as she tried to hide her shame, Rarity did after all eavesdrop on a private conversation. "...I'll tell you if you promise me you won't say a word."

"Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye." That was a little chanting their friend Pinkie Pie came up with when they made a special promise, so far nopony went as far as to break one of those.

"I...I overheard a conversation between Princess Celestia and Arden after the incident." Rarity finally admitted. "And another one before that, those two looked really close and...I think he might be an alicorn prince from another country." Applejack just stood there for a few moments staring at Rarity with no expression before she burst into laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! That's some nice sense of humor you got there partner!" The mare stated while Rarity she pouted and frowned at her friend. After a few moments of her stare, the earth-pony stopped and tilted her head. "Y-you're serious?"

"Well, how else do you explain him not being knocked out by any of our attacks?" Rarity shot at her friend, the mare started to open her mouth to answer but Rarity didn't allow it. "And remember that doping doesn't let you shift between the trait you prioritize for at least five minutes if you're an expert caster. Not to mention the unicorn is unable to cast other spells during dopping. When he ran away from us he would be focused on speed, yet he also managed to launch Rainbow Dash several feet up in the air while summoning a shield at astonishing speed." At this point, Applejack just huffed and crossed her arms as she frowned at the seamstress.

"Ah still think we are missing something." The cow-girl finally said. "Anyhow, I came here for a favor." Aj, said before sitting on Rarity's bed.

"Yes, darling?" Rarity said raising an eyebrow at her friend's request.

"Ah need ya to make some clothes for winter and rainy season." Rarity just tilted her head as she heard that bit. "Rainbow just passed by mah farm to give us a heads-up about possible weather problems in the following days." Rarity the blinked as she still had questions. "Something about the princess having requested most of the flyers of Equestria to make deliveries all over the country and friendly nations. So the weather teams are gonna have a harder time controlling the weather."

"I see," The seamstress said as she understood the current situation and made some of her tools levitate. "In that case, I'm gonna take your measurements." The earth pony let out a sigh before she got back on hooves and stripped so Rarity could take the measurements.

"So..." The blond said while the white one kept at her work. "...what was that about a marriage proposal between Arden and Celestia?" Rarity was aware that Aj knew about her habit of writing down her fantasies when she was taken over by inspiration.

"That..." Rarity said making some other stuff float around, cloth, thread, needles, and so forth. "...when I got inside the library after the incident I overheard the Princess explaining how males can marry the entirety of their herd as long as all of the members agree. And later on, I overheard Arden asking her if the preparations for the big event in four years were doing okay." The Seamstress said while pinning the cloth pieces together as to adjust them to her friend's body. "Then the Princess, stay still will you? The Princess then said that she was already seeing to it before she asked him how the preparations on his side were doing."

"Then the Princess claimed that this day would be a day to be remembered since it would overlap with the Summer sunset Celebration." At that point, Rarity started to sew the pieces together. "So piecing all of this together I believe that they are going to get married at the Celebration right here at Ponyville. And I also believe that plans to form a herd, hence his question about the marriage system. And such question also points to him being a foreigner. Like Zecora." the seamstress said as she continued to piece the outfit together.

"Yer, sure it ain't just wishful thinking?" The farmer said while she put her clothes back on after Rarity finished the first outfit.

"It doesn't hurt to dream." The seamstress said when she started to make another one, this time on a mannequin. While her friend sat down on Rarity's bed and kept watching Rarity do her thing. 'I wonder...if I am right about this, maybe I can help them have the greatest day of their lives. Maybe he can bring himself to forgive me and share his whole story.'

"So...what's in today's menu Aimée?" Arden asked the faceless guide.

"Look over there." The figure said pointing in a random direction.

That's when Arden saw his final years of high-school. During the last year, he was at the beginning of the final exams for the semester. The first tests were for grammar and algebra, the algebra teacher was okay but the grammar was infamous for being strict during their tests correction. But it was fair, even if most students would complain about them to the principal, others even went after petty things and magnifying them to make them look like a monster. But since they had a solid argument for the scores they gave the complaints never went through. Arden, however, was close to his teachers he found easier to get around with older people than those of his age.

Even if he was with mostly with his teachers Arden still had a decent relationship with his classmates. However, in the week previous to the exams due to some problems with the calendar the grammar teacher was going to have only one class. In said class, they would specify the subjects that would be covered in the test, and said teacher warned that they would do that in the previous week. However, one of his classmates asked the physics teacher to take over the period in which grammar class would take place with the excuse of they wanting to go over the subject for the tests. Most of the class agreed since the majority of the class was stumbling with the last subjects.

After the incident with the doctors, Arden began to ignore the feelings of those around him. In order to do so he started to lose himself in fantasy worlds he created from time to time. Hence his daydreaming state, however as time moved on he began to find it more difficult to keep the other people's emotions out. So he had to lose himself even further, but that would not work during class since he had to pay attention. Therefore he came with another method, he began to worry himself about other things such as following rules down to a letter, studying and writing.

This system, however, had its flaws from time to time, so he had minor incidents that where he faked sickness and such. This event, however, was different, because of how he talked to the teacher he knew that they were going through a tough time so hey needed to keep their job, but with the number of complaints piling up against them the only reason for them not being fired was how evaluations were strict but fair. And due to a moment where he got distracted during class, he felt something from the student that asked for the change. He felt resentment, the student was the top student of the school, but his last tests scores were lower and he dropped a few ranks, all because of grammar.

Bothered by that he stayed until the only ones left in the class were him and the student. Upon asking him why did he ask for the grammar to be replaced knowing what would be covered in the other class. The answer he got was that he was finally going to get the tyrant out of their throne by making them look like they did not tell the subjects and forced the entire class' scores. The student told Arden that he already prepared things with other classes and they all got rid of the grammar classes for the week by swapping them with other subjects. Arden and those closest to him were left out because of his following the rules attitude.

Arden learning about this felt anger towards the student, just like the student felt towards him once Arden declared that he would alert the principal about it if he didn't drop it. Arden even tried to reason with the student by telling the teacher's situation, but the answer to that was: "That's not my problem nor it is yours. They shouldn't have made me lose my ranks, this is payback." At that point, Arden snapped and went straight to the principal. Using every single rule he knew he exposed the student and the classmates involved. The end result was the expulsion of the schemer and all of the involved were punished by being forced to go through a retake of the test that would cover all of the subjects of the year in order to graduate, even if they got a high enough score to pass.

As for Arden, he ended up being isolated from all of the classes. The only people who kept in contact with him were the innocent ones, they thanked him for being honest and helping the teacher, as it turned out some of Arden's friends were trying to help this teacher out during their free time so they discovered that the teacher was strict because of their concerns for the entrance exams their students were going to go through. In Arden's country, the most entrance exams required them to do a multiple choice test as well as an especial essay. Said essay was of a random subject that was kept a secret until the exam day, the catch is that it was worth 60% of the student's complete score.

The teacher told that they kept a close eye on the tendencies for the essay themes the last couple of years and that they believed that the next topic was going to involve the changes in vocabulary and grammar issues that came with the "tech-language" so he made his tests and corrections focus on that so that the students would be prepared to create arguments for it. Later that year Arden passed his entrance exam. The teacher was spot-on, but Arden still had to deal with the hatred from the other students.

Arden remembered how he felt because of the hatred 'I started to become even more scared, every time I felt something like that I got into trouble, either said trouble made people run tests on me or I got a lot of unwanted attention. I should care less about other people's problems.'

"Do you regret helping the teacher?" The guide said pointing to the weak spot at teacher's heart.

"No." Arden said reaching for it.

"Your life and your colleagues' lives were in an almost perfect harmony before this. You followed every single plan you came up with. But this one moment you gave into an impulse and caused discord to take over the wheels. Do you think it was a bad choice?"

"Of cour-" Arden stopped himself there. 'If I had left things as they were someone else was going to suffer. Just like I could have died. The act of causing a disturbance saved my life and my act helped someone in that was in a bad situation to overcome it. Harmony was the wrong choice at that moment. And the discord caused by my actions made me closer to my real friends. My empathy made me cause chaos, but it the outcome was good for everyone involved. Our school got the highest approval records on multiple entrance exams across the country. Which led to multiple students to go ask forgiveness from the teacher once they realized the similarities between the subjects in the teacher's tests and the essay's theme, the one who organized the entire thing however...he grew only bitter about the incident. As for the teacher, he became the principal later on.'

"So tell me, was the order you always used as a tool of any use then?"

"No, in that scenario it was useless. Like it always has been. Harmony only served to those who were 'normal'. To those who felt comfortable with being tied down by every rule. I had to use those, it was the only way to get out of things unnoticed. I wanted to be myself. I wanted to act like I did with only those who I felt comfortable being around. Harmony only existed in my life to tie me down to conventions."

"So tell me, which of them you think ruled over the brat?"

"Definitely discord," Arden said as the memories of what happened, later on, came back to him. The kid continued to come after Arden, even if he was no longer in the same city. Up until that point, Arden always believed that rules where there only to be used when someone wanted to get rid of people being a nuisance. That's why he preferred to use them to deal with his problem since that way he could stay out of the spotlight in most occasions. However, in that scenario, the law came to play as something to protect him, since acting on impulse with the assailer and using more discord against him only seemed to make the brat believe more and more in himself being the righteous one there. The kid tried, again and again, to pull the rug from underneath Arden, but during an attempt in which Arden almost got injured the kid ended up being arrested.

The shock of the situation snapped him back into reality when the brat finally realized how far he had gone he returned to his usual self from before the grade issue. The kid sent a letter to Arden apologizing and ended up getting an early release due to good behavior. Arden met up the guy during the second year of college, the guy straightened himself out and was working hard, the surprise of meeting him made Arden hear the guy again, this time he felt the guys gratitude and regret on his actions. He had recognized that he was lost in discord, but Arden's actions that got him arrested made him realize that he needed to seek help. 'That was when I realized that Harmony with its rules was just as important as Discord with its freedom.'

"Which is the true good? Harmony? Or discord?"

"Neither, our lives are a road filled with twists and turns. Sometimes the right thing to do requires a touch of Discord. Other times it requires a touch of Harmony. Finding the balance should be our ultimate goal. Too much Harmony can lead to stagnation and people can be hurt because we are feeling comfortable with where we stand and don't take action. While too much chaos will lead to unnecessary conflict and in sometimes unnecessary loss of life. Both have their pros and cons. We need to do both as our lives move on. Even if the right thing to do sometimes hurts a bit."

Once again the key piece shinned, but this time it had some sort of magnetic pull on it. looking to his other hand Arden saw the piece from the previous session, letting it fly towards the new fragment Arden watched it attach itself to the glowing spot.

"Is it time to leave?" Arden asked the faceless figure.

"Not yet, there is something you need to address first." The guide said pointing to something behind Arden. Turning around Arden saw a familiar sight, Nightmare Moon.

"Mffmmm." Arden watched the dark mare struggle as multiple threads kept her tied up. "Mfhummmm!" She did not seem happy with her situation.

"Is this because of the wards?" The faceless figure nodded positively. "What do I do to get her out of here?" The guide pointed to a weird white door, Arden let out a sigh as he reached for the mare and carried her over to the door while she tried to kick him. "Off you go." The foggy one said before he tossed her through the door and started to feel himself wake up

"A chaotic soul that understands the importance of harmony. You really are all over the place aren't you?" Aimée said to him as he started to fade. "Not to mention you are in a world of harmony. Yet you are making waves in all directions partner. Keep on living. Keep on improving."

Zecora this time around had prepared the counter potion for the trance-inducing one beforehand. Everything was going smoothly this time, no signs of fever or convulsions. But this time, she found herself inspecting the stallion's torso and face with more care than before. Looking at his hands she saw runes embedded into his skin and fur. 'Incantations? Has he been exposed to enchanted objects in his realm? Learning about his past could serve me well. Objects infused with magic ruin and wonder can bring.'

The hours passed by as she continued to watch the stallion, she often found herself just getting closer to his face and watching him almost laying by his side. Once she noticed that once again he was reaching the last two hours mark she went back to prepare another soup for the male. Like in the previous day she brought back the bowls with the soup and waited for him to wake up. Much to her liking, Arden woke up within the time limit, seeing him waking up made her heart calm down.

"Can this one assume that progress was made?" She asked him as she helped him sit down.

"You can...*yaaaawn* can say that," Arden answered as he winced because of the pain that didn't take long to install itself once again upon him. "So, do I get to eat more of your cooking?"

"Yes," Zecora said picking the bowl and giving it to him. "So, does the soup served warm taste better?"

"Way better," Arden said with his eyes slowly closing, however before he fell asleep again he looked back at Zecora and kept looking at her before he said. "Hey...your eyes...they remind me of emeralds...soooo...*yawn* preeetty." He said before losing consciousness.

Zecora found herself staring at the stallion for several minutes before she realized that she had to let him rest. After carefully placing him on the bed she once again changed herself and covered both him and herself with a blanket. This time, however, she allowed her head to rest on his chest as she slept. Since she was taller than him she had to get her hooves a bit off the bed in order to sleep this way.

'Very nice he is. So...warm he feels. This stallion...quite unique he is indeed.'

Chapter 18: The queen, brainstorming with a specialist, I can.

Author's Notes:

Hey guys!

Just so you know in the next few three days I have my finals. So I'm gonna get even slower with the updates, however, once they are done I'm gonna be on vacation. And that means...

INSANITY DRIVE!

Thank you for your time, enjoy the reading!

Arden felt the scent of something fresh baking. 'This smells so good.' He thought to himself as he felt his mouth watering up, then he realized another scent. 'That soap Zecora made is good. I can still smell it.' He thought sitting up and stretching a bit before he opened his eyes and saw Zecora sitting by the fire. She had a little metal stand with a little oven made out of clay standing over the fire at the center of the room.

"Morning, *yawn*," He said getting on his hooves and walking over to her. "Need help with anything?"

"Nothing so far," The zebra answered while keeping her gaze at the oven. "Today physical conditioning we do." Arden raised an eyebrow at her schedule for today.

"Isn't that considered training of sorts?" The unicorn said sitting by her side and noticing some pieces of dough placed on a little board. She must have been plowing through her supplies for him to stay with her. "I guess we should search for more supplies soon shouldn't we?"

"For the second question, your answer is yes," Zecora said pulling the baked bread out of the oven and then placing another piece inside. "As for the first, this one cannot have a student with no stamina during her hunts. Therefore exercising is required both for the student as well as the master." She had a point, even if his stamina was greater then when he was a human Arden still had a bit of trouble with Zecora's rhythm. She easily navigated the terrain he had scan were to step.

"Very well then," Arden said looking at the fire that was dying. "I'll get more wood for the fire." He said getting up and heading outside where she kept her wood stored. When he found it he noticed more marks on the ground, these ones, however, had some weird pattern. Almost as if the pony's hooves were missing pieces, getting back inside he was greeted by a question.

"Curious this mare is," She said while keeping her eyes on the oven while Arden placed the pieces of firewood at the bonfire. "Runes engraved into your skin you have. An enchanted item you happen to acquire?"

"Oh, these..." Arden said placing the final piece of firewood into the bonfire and making the fire gain life again. "It's thanks to this thing here." The unicorn said going to where his pockets and belts were left after his first day. He pulled out the sword from inside it. "This little girl here was forced on me before I was sent here. When I touched the hilt for the first time it made these. Don't know what they do though." He said showing the blade out of its sheath.

"This mare shall check it once the pieces of bread are done." She said without taking her eyes from the oven. After she was done with the baked goods she took out the fire and turned to the sword. Taking it into her hands she started to swing it around. "Well, balanced it is. Sharper this one is yet to see." She said while analyzing the blade's edge. "Enchanted this blade is...but the enchantment's purpose...a changeling you would require. If discovering its true nature is what you desire."

"A what now?" Arden said tilting his head.

"Shapeshifters. Creatures that inhabit the badlands of Equestria." She explained returning the blade to him. "Specialist in breaking down other species magic and mimicking it. During one of her travels, this one met a changeling that analyzed one of my charms after he was healed by this mare. An outcast This one believes he was since changelings are not described to have the habit of covering their bodies with white tattoos. Love they feast upon."

"Oooooh," Arden's eyes were beaming. "That is awesome! Wait." He said remembering something. "I think there was one those stalking me during my stay in Ponyville."

"Signs of one hiding in the area I found." The zebra said getting up. "Finding the shapeshifter, however, a challenge it proved to be. Now, eat we shall then exercise." She said heading towards the storeroom.

"You're the boss," Arden said following her lead. Zecora then proceeded to put him through hell and back. Sit ups, push ups, pulling himself up on tree branches. Teaching him how to run through the forest with free running, breathing exercises so he could control his breathing as he moved around to reduce fatigue and so on. In case you're wondering, the duo's day began around 4:35 AM, after the breakfast, meaning they would have plenty of time to run through everything. Especially since Zecora seemed very eager to get the stallion to make him work up a sweat.

'I think I might pass out if...if I'm not careful...' Arden thought to himself as he continued through the exercises.

"That blasted idiot had to find another place to hide!" Chrysalis said kicking a rock into the water, then she picked up the necklace she took from him during the squirmish. She was trying to drag him away from the crowd when he was on the ground but the necklace gave in when she tried to sneak him away from the conflict. "Where did he get this damned stone?! It's my mother's hive all over again!"

Being alone since she managed to flee from the hive the future Changeling queen acquired a bad habit of talking to her own reflection when she was alone. The only moment when she didn't have to wear a disguise, the only moment when no being would look at her. No being except for the stallion that popped out of nowhere in front of her cave.

"It isn't like I want him to help me." She said while playing with the stone. "I just need my hostage to get Celestia to help me." She reassured herself while the stone danced between her fingers. The stallion was proving to be a more difficult prey than she anticipated. First, the simple trick that made her incapable of getting him right away. Then the wards, then the freak figures out a way to see through her disguise.

"That IDIOT!" She screamed tossing the stone upwards and catching it. "How? How did he find me out?! My transformations are flawless! Yet that stupid walking snack exposed me!" The royal said gritting her fangs with her eyes starting to glow. "He makes a fool of me and then goes into hiding with that zebra! The same one that has been tracking me for a while now. That blasted mare. Luckily I can change my tracks and lure her away." She said as she clenched her fists.

"But...he had another item with him...a ring." She muttered as she raised the necklace in front of her eyes. "I need to get that and figure out what that one does. This little nick-nack only nullifies the talent of its user." She said placing the necklace into her ragged clothes for safe keeping. "That seamstress had it during the gathering after he left. I just need to steal it." The mare said sitting by the water to look closer into her own eyes. "Why did that snack keep looking into my eyes?"

Back in Canterlot Twilight was out and about searching for a particular pony: Lyra Heartstrings. After learning from Princess Celestia how peculiar that stallion she met a few days ago was, she started to ponder about why his traits were all over the place. So she suggested to Celestia to have a brainstorming session with the mare that was known for being one of the most dedicated researchers on the subject. Twilight also suggested to offer the mare a copy of the data Arden brought with him and a copy of the data he shared through the letter, more particularly Twilight's own notes on the contents.

Twilight found her acquaintance back in the library with an old tome that she was carefully manipulating as to not damage the worn pages. "Lyra, Can you please come with me?" Twilight said in a very low voice by the unicorn's side as to not disturb the other readers.

"I'm in the middle of something Twilight," The mare said without taking her eyes off the book. 'Ancient myths of Equestria.' That was the book she had, Twilight recognized the volume anywhere. Her father brought it home when she was very young to restore it to prevent the history from being lost. It was also one of the first books she read with her father, Twilight would sit on her father's lap and hear him read the contents out loud as he used some spells and tools to rejuvenate the pages, figures, and writings. Because of those stories she began to love literature in general, let it be about myths, spells, science. You name it she would read about it.

"Princess Celestia asked me to call you," The lavender unicorn said keeping her voice low. "She asked your input on a subject and some theories we are currently discussing. Merely hypothetical material that made us think after we received a huge amount of data on humans we are going to share with you in exchange for your help." The mint mare ears perked up before she turned to Twilight with an eyebrow raised.

"What sort of material?" She asked crossing her arms as she turned to face her.

"This sort of material," Twilight said pulling out a page with a copy of Arden's research on human anatomy. The mint mare's eyes widened before she took the page and started to examine it.

"T-t-this..." She said with the piece of paper trembling on her hands. "...this is so much more advanced than any of the data I've ever seen in any books. How?"

"Do you know those rumors about a stallion appearing out of nowhere in the castle?"

"The ones were he was possessed but he disappeared soon after his arrest?"

"Yes," Twilight answered casting a spell to create a silent sphere so she could continue to lure the mare to come with her. "They were true, but this stallion came from another realm. A world where humans are the dominant species." Twilight continued her explanation. "So? Will you come?"

"Are you joking? If you have more of these count me in!" She said getting up and carefully closing the book. "Besides, it isn't every day that the princess asks for the input from a mare that isn't her star student. I'm feeling kinda of important!" She said smiling.

With that, they both left and headed towards a study where Celestia told Twilight she would be waiting for her. Getting through the door she saw the princess sitting by a small round table where they could discuss with ease. "Princess Celestia," Twilight greeted.

"Twilight Sparkle, Lyra Heartstrings. Welcome, and thank you for agreeing to aid us." The princess said offering them a place to sit. Both of them complied and sat down. "Now, the reason we need your input is due to a theory we brought up based on some of the data our acquaintance, Arden, brought with himself," Celestia said to the mare before she gestured Twilight to bring out the copies she had and the book on pony anatomy and physiology. "Based on a comparison with the data he had, what we had and the fact he came from another realm we theorized about what would happen with a human that turned to a pony after being transported to our realm." Twilight saw Lyra raise a brown and tilt her head.

"But...are you questioning this because you suspect that the stallion is a human transformed?" Lyra asked Twilight looked away before Lyra could notice that her eyes were twitching.

"No, we verified his memories upon arrival and there are no signs that he was human." Twilight sighed quietly while Lyra let out a loud sigh.

"Good," She said closing her eyes. "Based on what I've seen on them. Humans aren't exactly the most sociable species that appears in our myths. They are often portraited as being that sought to acquire our power or caused mayhem on multiple locations." She said scratching her chin. "Although there are very few depictions of them being benevolent and kind. But..." She said crossing her arms, closing her eyes, and tilting her head. "I believe there were only two myths with that. And one of them is a speculation about the author Jack Reacher being a human turned pony...though that was never confirmed."

"In any case, you can rest easy," Twilight reassured her. "Back to the question, what do you think it would happen to a human turned pony?"

"Well," The mint pony said as she scanned the records Twilight placed on the table. "It's hard to say...based on these I can see that their anatomy resembles ours quite a lot. But..."

"But?" Celestia asked leaning forward. While Twilight did the same.

"These notes show that humans lack our harmonic chain." She said pointing at the special tissue that allowed the energy of their world to flow through them and also allowed them to channel it through their species traits, this tissue accompanied the nervous system. "Meaning that their body would need first to develop a familiarity with the new component and then assimilate it."

"So...his form could be considered unstable as well as his traits." Twilight proposed while her brain ran through the options. "Like a unicorn unable to cast spells? Or maybe A earth-pony with unusual speed?"

"And if that were the case," Celestia continued her student's proposal. "Maybe as their form stabilizes he would lose the traits he appeared with?"

"Or he could end up developing both the traits of their species and the trait they appeared with?" The mint one shared. "Considering that this is all in the realm of theory..." She continued. "...let's say that the human came from a realm without magic. I believe that if this was the case they would end up as an earth-pony inevitably."

"What if they were transformed into a unicorn?" Twilight inquired.

"Maybe the horn would regress as he stabilized and he would lose any magical abilities?" She answered. "I doubt that in a world that completely lacks magic they would be able to even come here. But since this is just a theory...no problem in giving it a thought."

"I see..." The princess said while her student looked over the materials on the table. "...What about possible talents?"

"Well..." Lyra said scratching her chin as she looked at the ceiling. "...since we are talking about an unknown human world and them according to the myths are very versatile...there is no telling what talent the might manifest. There is even the possibility of them not developing any talent at all." Then Lyra seemed to stop and began to ponder about something.

"Something came to mind?" Twilight asked with her ears perked.

"I was thinking...our bodies are in harmony with the world around us. As well as our souls. Hence our abilities and magic being dubbed Harmonious magic..." She explained, Twilight picked up on her intent.

"There would be a possibility of them never actually developing any sort of magic since their souls are not in harmony with our world!" The mint mare agreed with a nod.

"So that would point to their existence here being merely temporary or that they would perish if stayed for too long?" Celestia seemed to bite her lip as she finished the thought.

"Well, let's say that any of this happened," Lyra started. "The entire scenario is already a drastic and improbable event. Therefore if it were to happen...maybe we could expect something impossible as well." She said in a dismissive tone. "Like the human actually embracing the harmony of our world and being able to stay here indefinitely as well as being able to use our magic."

"That would be an interesting outcome," Twilight stated when she heard that. "That would point out to a very interesting scenario...especially if you would consider the different studies we could make if that were to happen." She said smiling and remembering the blue unicorn. 'I bet I can get some interesting data from him if I were to run some tests with him.'

"Very well," Princess Celestia said snapping Twilight out of her little dream of having the stallion going through her machines to see what readings she could get from him. "Thank you Lyra, your input was extremely interesting. Twilight, please see that she receives a copy of every single document Arden shared with us."

"As you wish princess," Twilight said gathering all of the papers and getting up. "Come on Lyra, I'll use some spells and you'll be able to cover a lot of new branches for your thesis." The lavender said guiding her friend to the door. 'I really want to study that guy now.' She thought to herself as she walked down the hallways leaving princess Celestia in the study where she began to write down an announcement.

"And through door number three?" Arden said to the guide that showed him another memory.

This time it was about his time at college during the most recent years. As he began his road his road to becoming a doctor, during his first year one of his teachers recognized Arden's name due to an acquaintance back at the hospital where Arden was born. So he contacted Arden and asked him to take another test, one that the original doctors overlooked. Electroencephalogram, this test was not very common when Arden was six years old so that was probably the reason for the scientists' oversight. The exam verified a person's brain activity and produced an image of the active areas during the tests.

Arden agreed simply because the teacher asked for it, Arden was a freshman so he decided to try to get along with the teachers and his colleagues the best he could. The test showed a specific area of Arden's brain overloading before he started to show a change in his emotional state, like the episode with Arden's father. The entire exam stopped at that, his teacher couldn't find any other leads as to why Arden's brain would react to another person's feelings. The teacher was a good person so he agreed to keep the results to himself and not to mention this in front of other students.

Then came the most recent straws regarding his ability. During his first years, Arden had some classes that taught him how to conduct a consultation and do a proper anamnesis. The simulations involved patients that voluntarily chose to participate in the med school's space at the hospital. Arden's consultations always took linger then those of his colleagues and when his teacher came by to see how they would proceed with the patient based on the interview he would always find Arden with red eyes and signs of him having cried. The thing was every patient that had a consultation with Arden would ask about how he was doing and if they could have another consultation with him.

Eventually, the teacher must have thought that Arden was using something and that was the reason for his red eyes. Because one day he decided to stay inside the room where Arden was conducting a consultation. That's when he saw Arden beginning to cry after the patient began to explain his condition. For some unknown reason, Arden always ended up with patients that were in really bad shape. That day Arden's teacher told him to chose between three therapeutic projects for that patient. Arden chose the one based on the patient's description of their lives and what they did not want to do, however, the teacher had checked the patient's file and knew he was already on another treatment. That's when Arden's teacher began to try to burn into his mind that Arden could feel empathy for his patients but he should not let it cloud his judgment.

After a year, the same patient returned to the hospital and Arden saw that in his file, the doctor's therapy had changed based on the interview Arden conducted. And the patient's condition had improved considerably. However, due to the first teacher's influence, Arden had already begun to change his anamnesis. He had practically become a machine that was following the teacher's directions and was ignoring the voices by drifting from reality during the consultation and coming back as to ask them to repeat the last part. Due to that his anamnesis quality decreased considerably so did his grades, however, his therapeutic decisions were always exactly according to his teacher's decision. Decisions that were eventually changed by the doctors that continued to take care of the patient after the first consultation.

Seeing the difference between those interviews and the new ones. He began to question which ones were right.

"So, were your decisions clouded?"

"Based on the results...I can't possibly say that."

'I should have stuck to my original self...even if I received influence from emotions...they did not cloud my mind in the end because I knew where their emotions ended and mine began. My judgment was right. By listening to others I could understand them better. Since I could understand them better I could see what they needed. I could understand what they needed. And differentiate it from what they wanted. And since they could see that I understood them they were more open to my suggestions. I was on the right path...' Arden thought to himself as he saw the patient's chest glow. Reaching out to it he found another piece.

"The emotion's of another, your emotions. Your heart craves to understand those around you, it opens a link between you and them. And your mind translates the thing you see, while also allowing you to feel them. Something like that is rare, but is it bad?"

"No," Arden answered. "Their hearts, my heart. Because of my eyes, I can understand them, because of them I can help those beings." Arden answered, while his fists clenched and he blinked a few times. "And...n-now I-I can have some control over it." Arden felt himself tremble a bit as he said that. "N-now that I-I can...d-do more. T-there are many things I could do."

"Yes, you're right." The guide said before disappearing. Right then the key fragment reattached itself to the other pieces forming a complete key.

"H-hey, it's done!" Arden said holding the complete key in front of his face. Then he turned around and saw a familiar sight, Nightmare Moon was on the ground tied up even tighter than before. "Hello."

"M-mmhummm!" The black mare said.

"Listen, I'll take off the gag since I want to ask you something," Arden said kneeling down near her. "But you'll have to promise me that you won't try anything. Otherwise, I'm gonna make your situation a bit worse before tossing you through the door. Got it?" The mare's response was a positive nod. He removed the gag and asked. "This is the third time you come by and the second time in two nights. Even though you should be aware of the wards now. Why do you keep coming back?"

"Not like we chose to!" The black one shouted. "I've been trying to invade other ponies minds, not the freakshow's that beat me! And for the record, I only lost because I let you defeat me. Not like the ruler of the night would be defeated by a peasant!" She said struggling. "I definitely did NOT want to see you again!" The mare had some slight pink on her cheeks as she continued to struggle.

"Okay, whatever you say your obscurity," Arden said picking her up and taking her to the door once again while she once again tried to break free, only with a little less violence than last time. Then he placed on the ground and untied her before saying. "Got through the door now. I need to finish my therapy, otherwise, I might die so...off you go." The mare just blinked at him as she looked at her untied hands before she stood up and left.

With that out of the way, he went towards the giant chest. Placing the key on the padlock he unlocked it, much to his surprise, however, the entire thing exploded with a bright flash that blinded him for a few seconds. After he regained his sight he saw something he didn't expect. Before him, stood a version of his pony form with its eyes changed, Arden tried to come up with something to say but nothing came through. That's when the stallion before him spoke.

"I can save." The figure said, however the moment he said it Arden felt his chest tighten. Looking at his torso Arden saw his foggy body becoming unstable. Then as the creature before him began speaking again Arden completely dispersed. and the last thing he heard was "I can doom."

Zecora was once again by his side, he didn't have any symptoms this time either. She found herself gently passing her fingers over his face as she recalled all the effort he put into the exercises she put him through. She saw him work hard with her tasks. She saw him struggle with the free running to the point of having multiple bruises added to his arms and face because of mistakes he made, trusting the wrong place to place his hooves before a jump and so forth. She put him through a lot, but whenever she looked back at him she would see him smiling and giving his best.

'A dedicated student and a dedicated athlete. This one has to wonder if a dedicated warrior he would be.' She thought to herself as time continued to pass. Eventually, she noticed she was very close to his face her blood rushed to her head as she looked at the stallion's face. He looked so peaceful. She began to get even closer, however, her mind reminded her of how much time had passed so she retreated to make the soup so they could eat.

While she was preparing the soup her mind began to drift and she began to see the stallion exercising and his current state. She didn't even realize that she finished the soup and had it ready by his side when she woke up from her daydream. While she waited she noticed him beginning to shift and make expressions that resembled pain. 'Painful thoughts? Or a troubled memory?' Suddenly he woke up coughing really badly. However, as soon as he opened his eyes all he said was.

"I...can..."Then he passed out. In a panic, Zecora tried, again and again, to wake him up, but he wouldn't respond. He was breathing and his pulse was steady, however no answer at all.

"Oh, no..." She said covering her mouth. She reached for one of the vials she had prepared ahead of time. This potion would wake somepony up because of its strong smell as long as they weren't in a coma. Opening the vial and holding it near his nostrils The stallion woke up coughing again but passed out soon after. "G-good, alright he is," The zebra said grabbing her chest as she let out a sigh.

After that, she decided to stay awake and monitor him through the rest of the night. Just a precaution, after all, he was acting weirdly after a session. '*I can?* Could he have discovered something?' She thought to herself as she covered him and placed him in a more comfortable position on her lap. 'This way if he shifts or begins to have trouble. This one will know.' She concluded as she began her watchful night to keep her patient safe. 'Perhaps...perhaps teach him I could?' She thought to herself as she observed the stallion's face. 'Time will be the one to tell.'

Chapter 19: Retry and pegasus talk. (edited yet again).

Author's Notes:

Okay, Let's see if this is right.

I will no longer write these when I'm in high-stress situations since I tend to make way more mistakes than normal.

Thanks to Kobolum and Metordragon for the help.

'Pillow, so soft.' Arden thought as he made his head rest sideways. '...pillow...pillow?' His eyes suddenly shot open once he remembered that he slept the last two days with his head on the ground. And since he didn't see anything that resembled a pillow, it all pointed out to him be resting on Zecora's lap. The light took over his eyes as he felt his head hurt like something trying to break through his skull.

"Awake you are!" He heard from above him, Zecora's voice was soft as ever, still, it made his ears ring as he reached for his own forehead.

"Hey! Argh!" Arden said crushing his head with both his hands. "My head feels like it is about to explode."

"What has transpired in your trance?" Zecora asked trying to conceal a yawn.

"I..." Arden said sitting up, his body still stiff and sore from the training in the previous day. "...I was kicked out by my pony body. I think I found the core...but I don't know what it means. I do know that it hurt when it kicked me out. Hell, it still hurts," Arden said placing his hand over his chest. "I guess that means, I'm gonna need to retry the last bit."

"This one is glad that the blue one wasn't hurt," Zecora said smiling, Arden saw her tired eyes. 'She stayed up all night just to monitor my condition? I'm glad I met Zecora. She is the kind of doctor I want to be, no, she is the kind of person I wanna be. Actually, the pony I want to be.' He thought while he ignored the pain getting up.

"Okay," Arden said walking towards her. "You should get some rest. I'll read some books, so sleep for a bit alright?" He said placing his hand on her shoulder and gesturing her to lay on the bed. Since Zecora seemed to be slowly drifting into a slumber she didn't offer much resistance. Then he whispered: "Sweet dreams, Zecora."

With that done, Arden went to the small table room. Reaching out for the bookshelf, he pulled out the book about crafting potions. "Super-naturals. Talk about a misleading title." He muttered, Arden had seen the book at the library. The title was off compared to the little symbol of a plant on the cover. So Arden checked the first page and found out it was about potion crafting and other natural remedies. Sitting down he started to read. Since Arden still didn't know how to cook correctly, it was best not to mess around with fire. 'Zecora needs her sleep. But I better start to get my shit together. I can't keep relying on her or others for everything. I need to figure out more things I can do besides this eye thing.'

"Waiting is sooo boring!" Rainbow Dash said to Fluttershy. She and many other pegasuses had been called to return to Cloudsdale by Princess Celestia to deliver a message. The problem right now was that it was taking too long for the message to come by, which bothered her. "Why is this taking so long?"

"Um...Rainbow..." She heard her old fly camp friend speak. Rainbow helped Fluttershy out many times in the past with bullies and other problems. Another thing Rainbow tried to do was help Fluttershy to be more assertive. "...maybe Princess Celestia is trying to find the right way to convey her message. It is supposed to be something that will go to friendly nations as well."

"I know but...it's been two days already and no sign of this message," Rainbow said, laying around in a cloud while Fluttershy sat on another. There were other pegasuses sitting nearby chatting but most of them had their own groups. So Rainbow stayed with her friend. "It would be awesome if the Princess herself came by to tell us what we are supposed to do. But, I bet that it will be just another one of those stone-faced royal guards."

Just as she said that trumpets started to sound., Rainbow initially dismissed the instruments before remembering that only one pony ever was announced by those. And as far as she knew, that pony was the Sun Princess. "No way..." She said getting up as fast as she could. "...this is so awesome!" She squealed. The princess was the strongest fighter ever, and she also had the Wonder Bolts at her disposal to perform missions or make special performances. Meaning she was their boss, and since Rainbow was a die-hard fan of the Wonder Bolts, she admired the princess.

"Hello, my dear subjects!" The sun princess said landing on a cloud, with the sun behind her. That way, she looked more like a goddess than when suddenly appeared on Ponyville. Especially with a dress that looked like it was made of gold, silver, and a white delicate cloth. "I am grateful for your assistance in this matter. I came here to explain what you'll be delivering." The princess stopped her speech to take a deep breath. Rainbow noticed that the princess was acting off. Rainbow had seen her a few other times as a child, and during some competitions for the flyer of the year. In all of those occasions seemed to be so confident and calm. Yet the last few times Rainbow saw her, the princess was acting weird, not to mention it all seemed related to Arden.

"A few days ago a unicorn appeared in Canterlot out of nowhere and breached all of our defenses. He made his way to the throne room and knocked me unconscious in the process." All the pegasuses, including Rainbow herself, had their jaws hanging. "However, this was clarified have been an accident. This unicorn was sent to our kingdom by forces unknown to him. He was sent from another world against his will." Rainbow's brain was on meltdown and based on what she heard so far, the Princess was not done.

"This unicorn later revealed to possess a talent on par with only one other pony. The princess of love herself." Rainbow's brain went blank for two seconds. After the shock, she heard: "His talent causes his eyes to change. The change is very similar to a possessed pony." Rainbow only knew one stallion that could fit that description, Arden. "As you know, two years ago we sent a message to all of our cities warning about the danger of the possessed ones. The message you'll be delivering explains the unicorn's appearance and talent in detail."

"This stallion's talent allows him to see into the hearts of other beings when active. Meaning, he can see what other beings truly think and feel." This bit caused a stir since Rainbow started to hear a lot of whispering. "But please bear in mind that he means no harm to any of us. He actually agreed to abdicate a chance to return to his world to help me with a personal favor." Rainbow turned to look at Fluttershy only to see her covering her mouth and with her pupils shrunk.

"Not only that but when he arrived at our world, he had a humongous amount of data. So far this data seems to be the key to advancing our technology. As well as our knowledge in the medical field." Rainbow was having a hard time processing everything the Princess just tossed at them. "To finish this meeting, I'll be giving the stallion's name and the names of the ones responsible for organizing this mission. The unicorn's name is Arden Sila. Because he is from another world, his strength is greater than your average unicorn. The last measurement was at 1200 points." Rainbow finally started to connect the dots.

"The ones responsible for organizing all of you are the greatest flyers in Equestria," Rainbow was fangirling really hard. when she heard that. "The Wonder Bolts! Second in command Spitfire will take over from here," The sun Princess said giving the Wonder Bolt prodigy space to come forth. Her orange and yellow mane as well her yellow coat were exactly like the posters. Her flight gear was top of the line, and in Rainbow's eyes, that uniform was the symbol of her dreams becoming true. The blue colors represented the sky, and the lighting strikes represented their speed. The carefully crafted details of the suit represented their skill, and expertise in flight.

Rainbow was shaking Fluttershy sideways like crazy as the candidate for next leader of the Wonder Bolts was going to supervise the entire mission! There were no words to describe how excited she was. "Listen up! Every single one of you will receive a bag containing a set number of letters. The amount of letters is specified for the number of citizens in the town you'll be in charge of. Greater cities, like Mane Hathan, will have teams assigned to them. The delivery begins tomorrow at dawn. All of you need to have your bags before nightfall. If you are unfamiliarized with your area you may trade your bag with another area you are more familiar with. The better you know the area the faster you can make your deliveries, so be mindful of that. The bags have no names assigned to them, so just exchange it with somepony who can handle it. That is all."

After the explanation, Spitfire left leaving behind her a trail that matched her name. Her speed created the illusion of a trail of fire when she flew in high speed. Rainbow went with Fluttershy to collect heir bags. Rainbow ended up with Ponyville while Fluttershy ended up with Canterlot. Seeing as how Fluttershy had some issues with locations unknown to her Rainbow volunteered to exchange bags. Later that day, the two of them were back at the barracks they got assigned to pass the night.

"So...um..." Her yellow friend started. "What did you think about what Princess Celestia said?"

"I guess it makes sense, no normal unicorn could react that fast or be that resistant. So I guess we can at least cut the guy some slack. Especially if he actually brought stuff that can help everypony in Equestria." She said laying down on the bed. "Besides, I guess screwed up real bad. I mean, the stallion gave up on going back home to help our ruler. I guess he can't be that bad." She said rolling to the side and facing Fluttershy. "Gotta wonder where he went to."

"S-some of my friends told me before we left that they saw him heading to the Everfree," Fluttershy said fidgeting. Rainbow always found her talent to be nothing less than amazing. "B-based on what they said, he was heading towards the Bad Lands. But they couldn't follow him too far into the forest. Too many beasts from the Everfree."

"The Bad Lands? Isn't that the region Changelings inhabit?" Rainbow asked. The answer was a nod from the pegasus. "That guy has to be crazy to head there. Especially through the Everfree. Isn't there supposed to be some castle ruins there? That also rumored to be the house of one of those old legends? The pony of shadows one?"

"Y-yeah. T-t-that story always s-scared me," The yellow one said before shivering at the story's name. "B-but given his situation...I-I guess that he didn't have much of a choice. He needed a healer."

"But that raises another question: who is this healer that he met?" Rainbow said turning to face the ceiling. "If he came from another world, who could he possibly know that had the training he mentioned to heal him?"

"I-I don't know."

"In any case, we should rest up for tomorrow," Rainbow said before closing her eyes. As she drifted away she remembered another thing that bothered her: 'What is up between Celestia and that stallion? Whenever he comes up she seems different. Could she? Nah I don't think so.'

"Hello again," Arden said to the black mare that this time was tied up with chains, and even tighter than the previous day. Even her eyes were covered. "Just give me a second." He said reaching for the mare and breaking the chains, removing the gag, and blindfold. "There you go Mrs. Night. Now I gotta ask: What in heaven's name are you doing here? Do you enjoy being tied up? " Arden got closer to analyze her face. "Are you wearing eyeshadow? And lipstick?" He asked, seeing her eyes with a fading blue over the eyelids, and her bright blue lips.

"I do NOT enjoy being tied up! Nor did I intend to get here again!" She huffed. "As for the make-up, I don't have to explain anything to a shapeless creature." She had a really faint blush on her cheeks. "Why the decor change?"

"What?" Arden said looking around and noticing six spots on the ground. These spots connected making a hexagon that formed an arena of sorts. "These certainly weren't here last time I checked. Now," Arden said looking around searching for his reason for being there. "Where is that little shit? There he is." The foggy one said looking at his pony self that stayed out of the hexagon. The unicorn looked back at him before turning away. As it did, the entire area was closed off by walls and a ceiling. "What the fuck? Why did it do that?"

"Who did this?" Nightmare asked seeing the walls.

"Wait, you didn't see him?"

"Who?"

"I guess the potion just makes it visible to me?" Arden said walking towards one of the walls. It was solid. He then inspected every area he could. There were no hidden doors nor switches in them.'This is my mind maybe I can just imagine the door?' He tried to imagine a door again and again but to no avail. "GOD DAMN IT! THIS IS STUPID! HOW IN BLOODY HELL DID I GET STUCK IN MY OWN HEAD?!" He screamed, then he heard a giggling. "Get the fuck out. I am not in the mood for bullshit. So if you don't have anything good to add here, don't let the door hit your big sorry ass!"

"Who do you think you are?!" She said holding her hand to her chest. "I am the ruler of the night! I have better things to do than being insulted by a creature made out of fog!"

"Then be my guest! The door is right over there!" He said pointing to the white door. "Now if you excuse me, I'm on a time limit. So, bye-bye!"

He saw the mare go wide-eyed when he spoke in that tone. "V-very well, I will leave...But before that...What do you mean by time limit?" Arden tilted his head on that question. 'What is up with her?'

"I rejected my talent and because of that, I'm slowly decaying until I die. So unless I figure this shit out, I'll die. Heck, if I take my inhibitor off I start to hallucinate, so if you don't mind." Arden said, leaving her behind and sitting on the center of the room.

"You don't say." She said. Arden heard her say something else but couldn't make out what it was. He turned around to ask her what she said, but she was nowhere to be seen. 'What did that mare say? And what was up with the attitude? Anyhow,'

"Okay, this is a room my mind built and there are only two beings here right now," He muttered as he tried to come up with a plan. "That points out to either me or that version of me pulling this stunt. It wouldn't make sense, however, for him to do this since he represents my rejection. It would make more sense if he wanted to torment me with whatever my problem is. Unless I already know the answer and he's scared. But since I have zero clues as to what that is I can discard that for now. So this place is a safe haven for me. I just need a door, and I'll have a direct path to him." Arden opened his eyes and he saw that the ground beneath him changed color.

Looking around Arden saw a line heading towards one of the walls. The spot where the line connected with it, had a door. Arden didn't hear anything so he assumed that the door manifested silently. "Alright," He gulped heading towards the gate. Once he was at the edge, he walked to the sides as to see if the unicorn was in sight. His best shot right now seemed to be a sneak attack. If that failed he would need to change the approach yet again. Since he didn't know his opponent's weakness he would need to exhaust every option.

As soon as he set foot outside the unicorn suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Arden tried to hit it, but his body stopped responding and he felt his chest aching again.

"I can hurt," the figure said, his voice distorted. Arden managed to look down and, once again, saw his chest was starting to disperse.

"I can heal." Arden was dispersed once the figure finished the second phrase. But unlike the first time, his body rebuilt itself before the figure spoke again.

"I can comfort," it said. Arden was struck with even greater pain.

"I can dispirit." Arden was completely dispersed with that sentence.

This time Arden wasn't having trouble with fever or convulsions. He was proceeding without any sort of symptoms. "A rare talent indeed, both wonder and ruin he can bring," Zecora muttered, passing her fingers through his mane. The moon had reached its zenith when Zecora woke up. Arden didn't eat, he didn't make so much as a sound aside from pages flipping as he read one of her favorite books. And when he noticed she was awake he didn't even ask for food or anything of the sort. He just came by and asked if she was feeling better. Then he sat by her side and stood there keeping her company until she finally got up.

Out of nowhere, the stallion started to move. His hands clawed his chest as if he was trying to rip something off. She took them and held both his hands tightly. That seemed to calm him down, however, his eyes suddenly shot open and he sat up straight panting. "Okay, you are?"

The stallion looked around frantically. "Damn it!" He said clenching his fist. "What the fuck does it want from me?" The blue one asked looking straight at her. "What does it want?" He didn't sound tired. Neither did he look in pain. But something was off, his voice was cracking, and he didn't look like he could focus on her.

"What did it say?" She asked.

"It keeps saying 'I can' before it blasts me into oblivion," Arden said. "What should I do?"

He was acting even weirder. Now he had a creepy smile on his face that disturbed Zecora more than his eyes.

"You tried attacking?" The stallion nodded positively. "Then perhaps you should try reacting," she said trying to come up with advice.

"I...guess I need to go through all the options right?" He said falling to his side and onto the bed. "How did I get myself into this mess?" His eyes were different now, he looked lost. It didn't look like he knew she was still there. His voice changed. "I get to meet a goddess. I get to meet a beautiful healer that is the incarnation of the kind of doctor I wanted to be. I get sick even before I get a chance to do anything to help others. And now I'm seeing snakes and ghosts moving around. Would you look at that! It's the reaper! Hello Mrs. Death! Care to get the fuck out? Neither I or my little rabbit friends need your cleaning services, so please leave." Then the stallion started to laugh. Zecora was in shock from what she was hearing.

"But dude shouldn't you just ignore these mares? They are mares?" The voice sounded deep. "Look at us jackass! We are a horse!" This one was high-pitched. "No problems, now we are just butterflies!" This one was feminine. "Why do I always get the crazy ones?" This one sounded like a child. Zecora snapped out of her shock and forced him to look straight into her eyes.

"Arden! Look at me and tell me what you see!" She said holding the dead-eyed stallion's face as he continued his rambling. "Please! You need to get a hold of yourself lest you lose yourself!" she pleaded. Tears were forming in her eyes before he started blinking suddenly.

Looking closer into his eyes Zecora saw a faint green glow fading while as he seemed to return to normal. Looking around she saw a pair of shining green eyes in the dark forest outside. She placed him down and rushed outside but the eyes were gone.

"Changeling," she muttered.'Could Arden's health can be brought back if the changelings were to be tracked,'She wondered before she got back inside and found Arden sitting down with his hand on his forehead. "How do you feel?"

"Sleepy..." Arden said as he passed out.

He had once again left her alone after scaring her. After what she saw, it was clear to her that whatever it was forcing him out of his trance was also damaging his frail mind. Her only option was to track down the changeling and get them to help her one way or the other.

"Rest easy my acolyte. Your teacher shall see your treatment through." Zecora said, positioning him on the bed and covering him once again.

"Now, preparations for my hunt. And rest assured this time nothing will get in this one's way." She reassured herself as she walked around her house gathering her gear and placing it by Arden's side. She would spend another night awake to monitor him. But this time she would also prepare potions, bait, and sharpen her weapons just in case the changelings were unwilling to cooperate.

Zecora stared at her reflection on the brass of her blade.'This mare will not let her friend loose himself! This mare shall bring this stallion back to health!"

"I only did that because I need him alive." The changeling queen said to her reflection. "I need him to be even closer to the princess and I won't be able to use him unless he is alive. That's it. I. Just. Need. My. Pawn." She reassured herself staring straight into her eyes. "Just. A. Pawn." She muttered looking at herself. "Love is a lie, just an emotion for us to feed upon."

"But...she seemed so sad..." Chrysalis said looking at her reflection. "It doesn't matter. NOT to me. I am the future queen while he is a walking snack and she is a hermit. What I need is to be careful and stop pulling stunts like that. There was no need to keep staring through the window. My spell was flawless. I am flawless. I do NOT care what happens to him." She said to her reflection huffing. "Now I need to be more careful with that zebra. She did see me now. I'll have to be extra careful."