I stayed on the train for awhile but I did get off at some point; I jumped off when I was nearing a mountain and into a forest.

The figure stood in the shade of the trees, staring at the train as it zoomed toward a city on the side of a mountain. The city itself looked magic and radiated and almost childlike fantasy feel to it; as it was the only place with buildings so far, that would be his first destination.

I could mark our destination if you’d like.

That be useful… should probably respond back to her. “...Do that...” Wait… was that my voice? Was that MY VOICE!?

Holy crap I sound like some kind of villain… but… is that what my voice or… Then a stray thought came to him, and before he knew it he started to think. Now that I think about it… I haven’t tried removing this helmet and see my face. I wonder if there’s a puddle I can see or…

In the distance is a small lake, approaching the lake, he makes it there in surprising time, even going so far to running without feeling tired at all. Once standing at the shore of the lake, he prepares to remove his helmet… only to feel a tug and nothing. Attempting to remove his helmet once more, it doesn’t budge and stays tightly around his head.

Well this is a problem, I can’t seem to remove my helmet… I guess my only option is if I can find a professional to remove this helmet of mine.

Without nothing much to do, and nowhere else to go, he makes his way to the mountain city afar.

The figure wandered through the grassy plains, passing by dirt paths and the occasional woodland critter. Oddly enough the creatures seem to stare back in curiosity and run off, but not in fear but simply because they wish to keep their space. On the long walk, the figure has learned several things from his suit – all of it being explained by Jiule of course.

Would you like to continue the tutorial? Y/N

He clicked the yes option on his tablet after removing from the hidden compartment in his right arm. He then simply listened to the tutorial as he clipped his tablet to his waist – magnetically clamping, similar to the sword – as he strolled through the wildlife.

The RST device comes with numerous utilities and programs, while your armor can extend such capabilities. To start things off, let us explain the mapping capability of both the RST and armor; this program can scan whole areas and realms in just under five to six hours, of course these scans can be delayed ranging from weather, interference, or something blocking the program from scanning. Once the area is mapped, cities and towns will be pinpointed, points of interests and landmarks will be notified and during battles, will give you a strategic advantage.

The next program is the item storage; here you can store as many things you like, without any weight gain – physical or not – to your person. Now of course certain things must be considered an item, so for example picking up rocks are indeed an item, but attempting to pick up a large boulder… not so much.

Then we have the skill & weapon program; here you can access various abilities you may use, which are accompanied by the weapons you have-

“Weapons you say… hmmmm,” said the figure. I see the katana but I have more weapons? Well let’s see them. “Pause tutorial; access weapons’ wheel.”

As the tutorial stopped, a display show a wheel of sort that held eleven spots – in the center was the katana he picked up – but the other spots were…

“...Jiule… there are no other weapons here, the only one I have on myself is this katana.”

Strange? You should have all your weapons unle- ...Oh my… it appears when we came to this world, your other weapons were dispersed. I can scan for their location, but this will take… hmmm – combined with the time it takes to scan this realm – hrmmm… Several… weeks. Sorry it appears we may have to skip the weapons program for now, so that concludes the skill & weapon program, onto the next part of the tutorial.

Welp that sucks, well no reason to complain over spilled milk, what other things do I got?

Up next is the profile program; here is every piece of information on yourself. You can write logs and notes about what you may had encountered, as well as write letters – of course you must gather material in order to materialize a letter.

Wait, I can do what? “What’s this about being able to materialize things?”

Ah yes, well you also have a miniature 3-D printer on each your palms, enabling you to practically create things from thin-air. Since they’re small, it will take time for you to build things, especially large objects, and do not worry about unable to build things as all that is required is your own thoughts, but of course if you plan building a large 3-D printer, you may need to upload blueprints into that machine in order to print anything.

...Welp crud, I thought things were cool before, but this is awesome!

Moving on; on the profile program, it also shows the status you’re in, meaning what condition you’re in and if any sort of status affects you are under, of course some status affects your immune against, to list a few are – Petrify, Drowning, and Void Sickness.

Void Sickness? That doesn’t sound good.

Finally, we have the scanner; the scanner allows you to, well, scan things. Ranging from fauna, lifeforms, beings of interest, weapons, items, locations, and more. The scanner of course has thermal, night-vision, EMF, and a unique type called; Aura vision. Scanning things will cataloge them in your profile program under cataloged. Scanning lifeforms will not only give you their name, personal information, a small detailed explanation about them, but also what they can do and weaknesses/strengths, so remember to always scan things you don’t understand.

There are more programs but to see more, simply ask me or see the advanced tutorial. Thank you for listening to the RST tutorial guide, we hope to help you more, and using Void Tech – the technology of the Multiverse.

Void Tech, so are those the guys that made this RST and… the armor? “Jiule… Do you know who’re these Void Tech people?”

Sadly, I do not, and while they did make me, it appears my memory has been wiped of who my creators are. I can however tell you this, that every piece of equipment – from your weapons, this suit, the RST, and myself have indeed been made by Void Tech.

“Thank you, I was wondering if they may have something to do with me.”

It is no problem user… I’m sorry, but what is your name, we haven’t properly introduced, have we?

My name… my… name… is…

“Luke… call me Luke,” said ‘Luke’.

Luke… I like that name; it means light in many cultures does it not… Which is ironic.

“How so?”

Well you see, Void energy is what walls off other realms, let me explain; imagine the multiverse like this, that each realm or world are suns, and the Void space. Just how these realms bring forth light – life, creation and such – the Void is space, empty… cold… nothingness… it is what walls off other realms from one another. Of course travel through the Void is possible but dangerous, as many beings use simple mass teleportation or a device and simply slip through the Void… but not many rare enter it and if they do… well, I explained to you earlier what happens to normal beings entering such a place, just like entering space without some form of protect. Pop!

“That is an interesting way of looking at it...”

Thank you for asking me, user Luke.

“Just call me Luke, no formalities or this user talk.”

...Of course… Luke…

For awhile the two stay silent… too silent. Greeeeat you just had to make things awkward. “I’m sorry if I insulted you in anyway,” said ‘Luke’.

No no… I was simply staying quiet, and assumed the conversation was over.

“Oh… that is makes sense; but I must ask, or rather talk about something. What can this weapon of mine do exactly?”

Oh, well the weapons’ names are Crossroads & Destiny, they can-

“Wait, I have two weapons?”

My mistake I forgot to mention; almost all your weapons have at least two forms, with two of them having either one or three forms. The katana you have can transform to have a second weapon for you to wield – a short sword called Destiny. If you like to see, simply unsheathe your weapon, and follow my directions.

‘Luke’ nodded, reaching for his katana before holding it with both hands; stopping his walk, he notices he’s standing in a forest with enough amble space to do some practice with his weapon.

Now then, grab one hand onto the blade while the other is held tightly onto the handle. After that, shout out these words; “Weapon Morph!” followed by the weapon’s name of course. The rest should happen and you should be able to duel wield them both.

“Alright, I’ll do that,” said ‘Luke’. Grabbing one hand onto the blade, he focuse with all his might and shouted. “Weapon Morph! Destiny!”

Suddenly a bright light appeared, and the katana began to change as another weapon appeared out of its blade. Held in the hand that gripped the katana’s blade was a short sword – the guard was shaped like an arrow and pointed toward the handle, and while the blade of the katana was a silvery steel, the blade of the short sword was black like obsidian – and the katana felt lightly, making it perfect to be held with one hand instead of two.

It appears you have unlocked some skills by doing your first weapon morph.

On the heads-up display it showed several new abilities for ‘Luke’ to use, which Jiule listed off.

Basic, advanced, and aura skills unlocked! Basic skills: Void Slash, Edge Dash, Fury Swipe! Advance skills: Corruption Blast, Shatter Mine, Shadow Claw! Aura skills: Judgment Call, Void Warp, Dark Gaze!

Sweet, got some cool moves and everything, I want to use these moves so badly!

Suddenly a scream was heard in the distance, which sounded like it came from outside the forest – the scream sounded like a woman’s, and wasn’t too far. With out hesitation, ‘Luke’ dashed off to the source of the scream. On his heads-up display, his map pin-pointed several dots – three of the dots were blue, one was green, and eleven of them were all red – which were rapidly nearing his black triangle icon.

Time to test my new abilities… and maybe some music. “Jiule, I want you to bring up a certain song for me.”

Equestria while under peace wasn’t completely empty of bloodshed and violence, as occasionally raider attacks and murders would pop, especially in the small towns and frontier villages. So it was no shock to Private Emerald; she and those she was ordered to protect was to bring them to Canterlot to her highness about an issue that risen, only to be blocked by a bunch of bandits.

Sadly these weren’t your ordinary rogues as these guys were notorious for killing royal guard ponies, and attacking towns, doing various criminal activities. What was worse is that their leader was a notorious minotaur called, Burin the “Horn Crusher”, for smashing unicorns horns… and what was worse that she was the only unicorn in the small group.

Behind him were a small family of ponies – the young couple were earth ponies with the mother pregnant, and with them was the husband’s old friend, a pegasus – she only knew them for a short while, their names being; Smooth Earth, Carnation Rose, and Sky Watch who was ironically an ex-soldier of the old pegasi army which then became the Wonderbolts. The ex-guard knowing he’d be a distraction tried his best to protect the young couple with a club from the wagon they had with them.

The bandits consisted of four minotaur and several diamond dogs, the mutts wearing pieces of rusted armor and some pieces of royal guard armor, one dog was wearing a royal guard helmet, only managing to bend it due to its small frame not fitting the dog’s large head.

“Give us all your valuables guard, and maybe we’ll make your death quick and clean,” said Burin, chuckling darkly.

Dammit; I kept asking the sergeant for more guards but he told me the smaller our group the better chances of us not being spotted. That worked if I wasn’t wearing my guard armor, that and this route is literally crawling of bandits; I don’t even know how or why he got a promotion in the first place, all he did in that battle before was stand around guarding a room – an empty one at that – stupid nobles and their stupid easy lives.

The dogs were getting closer and closer, one of managing to almost grab Smooth – which of course resulted in that dog getting bucked in the nose by her husband – making the dogs extra wily from the action. They were wielding pole-arms, spears, swords, while the minotaurs had axes, hammers, and Burin wielded a very large mace, its spikes covered in dried blood from previous fights.

“Your not getting through me, bastards!” shouted Emerald, levitating her sword. Each guard was given three weapons each – a sword, spear, and either a crossbow or shield – and earlier in the fight, there was four other diamond dogs. Two were killed by a shot to the head, one had to be shot with two bolts in the chest before her crossbow was swiped away by another dog, while her spear pierced the dog that swatted her crossbow away, but sadly her spear got stuck in the body and now all she had was her sword and magic, but her spells were pretty basic. This meant she only had a healing spell, a simple barrier spell that only blocked the front, and two offense spells – a raw magical shot and an earth-based spell that sends an emerald shard toward its target; her namesake of course.

At that retort, Burin smirked before pointing his mace at her; several dogs grinned viciously before advancing forward, slowly. Emerald while being a private was experienced, the only reason she wasn’t promoted was due to – what her superiors call it – her attitude.

Emerald and those behind her were sweating, worried that their chances of warning Canterlot of what they discovered would end with them being killed off by some lowly bandits. As the diamond dogs approached, their weapons raised… a strange song started to come from the forest behind the ponies.

Everyone stood still, trying to pinpoint what was making this… strange music; in a burst – and increase of the music’s sound – of sticks and splinters, a black figure came charging out just as the song was reaching a certain point.

The figure flew over the ponies and Emerald before coming to a crash… right on top two unsuspecting dogs. With a loud squelch and pop, the dogs were smashed under the weight of the armored figure that stood before them.

The figure’s armor was sleek and sharp, all of it completely black or a close dark blue; its pauldrons had an insignia of a ten-pointed star with an eye in the center. Its helmet had five points, and a strange black visor of some kind in place of a metal face guard. It stood on two legs, but no sign of cloven feet; its hands were five digits and not the regular three or four that either the diamond dogs or minotaur were known to have. A dark cape billowed behind it, as it almost looked ethereal and see-thorough, the end of said cape was tattered and somewhat ripped but it seemed to fit the figure’s look perfectly.

Now the young couple flinched at the brutal execution of the two dogs, while Sky and Emerald only focused but were a little shocked at the suddenness of the attack. “WHO IN THE GREAT MINOTAUR KING ARE YOU!?” shouted Burin.

The figure slightly stood taller than before, even taller than anyone here, and possibly the princess. Looking back at Burin were two pupil-less eyes, their off-gray circles for eyes staring back at him lifelessly… but the voice was what truly unnerved them all.

“...You have ten seconds to turn around, run, and never again harm another being again… Or… well, I’ll leave your imagination to think of something,” said the mysterious being.

The diamonds dog whimpered at the dark tone of the voice, and nearly wet themselves – well one of them actually did, but he kept that from his other fellows – the minotaurs on the other hand felt insulted. They gripped their weapons tightly, before one of them screamed out a response… he would regret that immediately.

“YOU DARE INSULT US!” screamed the nameless minotaur. With a war cry, he charged with both his axes toward the armored figure, as he was counting down.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven,” said the figure as the minotaur approached.

Just he was about to say six, the figure dodged both axes and one quick swipe of his katana, both he and the minotaur stood stock still. The figure went back to his original position and continued to count. “...Six, five, four...”

“Orion! What the heck are you doing?!” shouted Burin.

And just like that, the shout of Burin’s voice was enough for Orion’s upper half of his body to slide off; both parts of his body tumbled to the ground in a wet splat, a pool of fresh blood, soaking the ground. The diamond dogs stared in shock, as well as the minotaurs and ponies; the figure closed to the final number, before speaking what would be the last word they hear from him.

“Two, one… I warned you; and I don’t break promises.” The figure pointed his katana at the bandits, while twirling his short sword until it was left angled lowered, to the side. “Void Warp.”

Just like that, the figure vanished – not in a poof, flash, or blink – he simply disappeared into thin air. Everyone wondered where this vicious warrior went, before one of the dogs screeched and went silent. The armored being stood in the center of the bandit’s group, already decapitating one dog with his short sword.

And like that, all hell went loose.

The dogs began whimpering and screaming in terror, as they either tried running or retaliating back; those who ran found themselves suddenly killed in an instant, but those who fought back… well their fate was far worse.

“Fury Swipe,” said the figure. Holding his katana tightly, a glow began to surround it; facing down one dog that held a crude shield and sword, the weapon sliced through both the shied and sword. The dog itself was left with a cut across his torso before it burst into black flames; the dog screamed and writhed in agony before the flames consumed the poor mutt.

“Shadow Claw. “Another dog tried attacking from a blind spot, only to have a claw wreathed in black flames, smashed into his face. The dog or what remained of his was his lower torso, legs, and arms as his head and upper torso, simply exploded as bits and pieces flew into the last remaining dog.

This dog was shaking fearfully, trying but hopelessly point his weapon at the armored being. Without hesitation, the being sliced the dog in half with his katana, and proceeded to walk toward the minotaurs.

The two minotaurs that both wielded hammers, charged both sides of the armored being, intending to smash him in the middle.

Seeing this coming, the figure hopped at the last second as both hammers hit each other. The figure stood on top both weapons, as both minotaur stared up at their demise.

Instead of using his swords, he send two powerful kicks that caused both of their necks to snap at impossible turns. Both bodies fell to the ground as the figure knelt down in a pose before standing back up, leaving bodies littered everywhere.

Emerald stared amazed… until she looked around and couldn’t find Burin… and then she felt a presence behind her. Quickly she turned around but was too late as Burin grabbed her by the neck, choking her. The minotaur brought up a knife and held it up against his neck, just as the armored being turned to face them.

“Ah ah ah, I wouldn’t make a move if I were you. Try anything and I’ll slit this mare’s throat; now you listen and you listen carefully, I want you to go to Canterlot, head straight to that princess of theirs and attack her. If you manage to kill her, then I may have to change my title from bandit leader to warmonger!” shouted Burin, smiling madly at the thought.

The figure kept still, with both weapons still out, but not pointing at him. At first, it looked like Burin one… except there was one trick up the figure’s metaphorical sleeve… as he placed a trap earlier, while that one minotaur that charged at him.

“Shatter Mine,” said the figure, letting the rest happen.

“Shatter what?” asked Burin, before it was too late.

Suddenly a strange swirling orb appeared in front of him and Emerald, the orb was glowing before the glow rapidly started blink before it stayed to a constant glow. One second a bright flash and noise appeared that blinded everyone. Emerald thought she was dead, but after a while reopened her eyes; once she rubbed them she looked around and saw what was behind her now.

Burin was impaled with the figure’s katana, while the short sword pierced his chest as well. The minotaur tried to say something but only managed to cough out blood – the figure didn’t care – with a flick, Burin’s corpse was sent flying off, as it landed against a tree. The force of the toss caused the tree and shudder, as the corpse rolled onto its side before landing loudly on its back.

The figure did another flick of the hand that held his katana and all the blood on it splattered to the ground. The figure then turned around until it faced Emerald; Emerald looked around quickly and grabbed her sword with both hooves – she was too shell-shocked to use magic – the weapon shaking in her grip. However the figure ignored her as it reached behind her, as she instinctively flinched and dropped her weapon, covering her head with both hooves.

For awhile she stayed like that until she looked up, and saw the figure had grabbed a piece of fabric from one of the corpses and was cleaning his other weapon. After that he put both weapons together and after a flash, they were both combined into a slightly longer katana. The figure put away his weapon by placing it on his back as a loud clank was heard, as the weapon stayed on his back.

The figure gazed down on Emerald once more, kneeling down onto her level; she flinched back in fear, but before she could scoot back, the figure grabbed her by her withers. It then began to wipe her cheek with the same cloth he was using to clean before tossing it to the side. Then it rummaged one of the bodies and grabbed a bag, then it went back to Emerald and pulled out another cloth, a bottle, and some bandages.

After wetting the bottle with the cloth, he cleaned and patted her cheek; a sharp sting was felt as she moved back in pain but stayed still as possible. The figure continued to clean her up and after bandaging her head, moved to one of her legs and did the same thing there. After that, it gripped the bag and suddenly the bag itself vanished into small little squares that floated into the figure’s hand.

What… did it do just now? Emerald then came out of her stupor once she heard it speak again.

“The wounds aren’t life threatening, but that leg of yours may be inoperable for awhile. Don’t put any weight onto it, and don’t strain yourself,” said the figure. “Also, what’s your name – that includes you and the others.”

That voice is going to give me nightmares. “M-my, name’s Private Emerald of Princess Celestia’s Royal Guard. The two earth ponies are Smooth Earth and Carnation Rose, the pegasus is Sky Watch; who’re you?”

The figure stood back up, and did a small bow before raising back to his full height. “My name is Luke,” said ‘Luke’, introducing himself.

“Its mighty nice meetin you Mr Luke,” said Smooth, his accent getting through. “But we really need to get ta Canterlot, pronto.”

“We have a message for Princess Celestia; an important one,” said Rose.

“What kind of message may I ask?”

Before anypony could speak, Emerald stopped them. “Now hold on a second; now I’m thankful you rescued me, but we can’t just trust you, especially after what we just saw! Just what exactly are you and where did you come from!?”

For a second, ‘Luke’ paused, thinking about what to say, and how to respond. Now how do I explain this?

It is best to stick with the truth, but I suggest we not mention about your from another world or the Void.

‘Luke’ nodded internally, before stopping his inquisitive look. “I came from the Frozen North; I wandered and gotten lost in my travels. I came upon a railway and spotted a train, and later hitched a ride and came here to Equestria. I was making my way to the city in the mountain, when I heard a scream and came here,” said ‘Luke’, giving his story.

“The Frozen North? ...Well we haven’t exactly mapped the north, so we have no idea what’s up there; alright, your story is sound until we get proof its true,” said Emerald.

“I thank you for trusting me,” said ‘Luke’, bowing once more.

“There’s no need for being so thankful, it should be us to-” Before Rose could finish, she grunted in pain as she hugged the bulge around her barrel with one hoof. Smooth quickly moved to his wife’s side, carefully moving her back onto the wagon.

“We have to get to Canterlot, the baby’s come soon!” said Smooth, in a panic.

Canterlot, so that’s what that city is called. ‘Luke’ can feel the city he saw earlier being listed and tagged as Canterlot on his mini-map.

“Okay alright, we head straight to Canterlot – if we see any trouble, you stop them, got it Luke! Double time everypony!” shouted Emerald.

While Emerald and Sky strapped themselves to the wagon, Smooth kept his wife company for the trip, while ‘Luke’ walked beside the wagon, keeping an eye on his surroundings through his mini-map.

“I said keep an eye, don’t just look ahead!”

“I am keeping an eye...”

“What are you-”

“To our left are two rocks, our right, a bush with a rabbit behind it,” said ‘Luke’, lowering down to grab a pebble. He then tossed the pebble into said bush which had a rabbit hop out in panic; Emerald was shocked.

He can sense his surroundings without even looking! Just who is this guy?

A couple of hours of traveling up the mountain…

The small group managed to finally arrived to the gates of Canterlot; two guards stood vigilant before they saw the wagon. Private Emerald told them to stay put as she approached the guards, which both guards kept their gaze forward until one spoke up.

“Fellow guard; rank and name!” shouted the pony on the left.

“Private Emerald; I’m here to bring a pony who has information that is vital for her highness ears!”

The two guards kept still as the one on the left used some magic only to later stop said magic, before looking at Emerald. “I have confirmed this is true; you may proceed.” Both guards opened the gates and stepped aside, but as the group began to enter, the guard on the right stopped them.

“HOLD IT! Who or what is that?” The guard pointed his spear at ‘Luke’, Smooth and Rose stared in fear at the guard, as Sky kept his hooves up and wings ready in case a fight was to occur, while Emerald quickly spoke up.

“He’s a traveler, and saved us from a group bandits of bandits; he killed Burin the Horn Crusher and most of his lackeys,” said Emerald.

The two guards looked in disbelief before looking back at the group. “Prove it.” Emerald nodded, and pulled out something from the wagon – before they left she grabbed something, both as a trophy and proof. What came out was Burin’s signature mace as it was made back at his homeland. The guard on the right examined the weapon before nodding at recognizing at minotaur-made weapon.

“Yep, this is his weapon, I recognize this think from anywhere. Alright, we believe you; we’ll give him the bounty for killing all of Burin’s group.”

“Actually; I managed to only kill eleven of those dogs, three of those minotaurs and Burin himself. The other four were dead before I came to save them,” said ‘Luke’. The guards were a bit taken back by his voice, but mostly from his honesty. Most bounty hunters would take any chance to get the bits, whether they did the act or not. Either this guy wasn’t a bounty hunter, or was new to the whole thing.

“I see, well you’ll still be getting your bits.”

The group continued to enter the city; ‘Luke’ gazed at his surrounding when his mini-map showed the name of the location below it.

Canterlot

The city itself had spires of marble, the buildings made of marble and the streets were as white – and you guessed it correctly – marble. Everything was made of marble or any other colors; either purple, yellow or orange. Ponies – mostly unicorns – trotted by wearing fancy clothes, with their noises high in the air; they passed by ‘Luke’ with disgust in their eyes. The looks they gave him didn’t seem to bother him – it was hard to tell as all they could see was his helmet.

Emerald had noticed one think during their journey to Canterlot after meeting ‘Luke’, as for starters, after he killed off all the bandits, his eyes then had pupils to them while before they were empty and only showed two gray circles. The pupils or dots in this case were a dark red, that were the size of a bit coin; it looked as if he was constantly glaring.

Can this guy lowered that look or something, its a bit unnerving to be honest. Emerald kept trotting down with the wagon being parked earlier somewhere. The four ponies neared Canterlot Castle, and on the way there, ‘Luke’ would slowly gaze around, keeping said gaze onto something or somepony, or would sometimes pull out a strange object from his waist, snapping it to his forearm and tapping onto it. And just what is that that he has?

‘Luke’ busied going through the various new information he had acquired on his way here – this was the creatures he encountered, the fauna, some of the locations and buildings, and finally those he was traveling with – to distract himself, and of course he could listen to music but that possibly spook everypony.

I’d rather not to anything to get these guys startled; it looks like a pin needle being dropped is enough to cause a stampede. Going through his tablet, reading a particular data file about the three pony tribes, the voice of Jiule came.

I have manage to scan all of central Equestria so far, and have found two energy spikes; the energy spikes are similar to your weapons but I am not sure which weapons they are. One seems to be located somewhere here in Canterlot, but I can’t get a reading of its location – this possibly means its somewhere my scans can’t reach or is being kept hidden. The other is located in a forest that’s south of us in some forest called the Everfree Forest.

That’s good to know at least, now maybe I can finally try out these weapons and what they can do.

The group managed to reach the castle’s gates, the guards there knowing their arrival and letting them cross. Once entering they saw the instant sound of activity being heard; numerous ponies – all guards – were training in the front courtyard, sparring or practicing their various craft with one another. Earth ponies practice throwing swings at one another with wooden swords or real swords. Unicorns fire and prepared spells against test dummies across a long yard, while pegasi practices flying and using crossbows with their wings.

One pony in particular was shouting for the ponies to train harder until he saw Emerald, and kept down a platform he stood on. “PRIVATE EMERALD! Well its been awhile since I seen your sorry flank!”

“Good to see you, Drill Sergeant Warcry, sir,” said Emerald, saluting with a smirk.

“You too private… how’s Private Wet Blanket?” asked Warcry, giving his own smirk.

“He’s a sergeant now; upper brass promoted him for ‘following orders, to the letter’,” said Emerald, raising her hooves to show her use of quotation marks.

“Again!? What is wrong with those ponies; in my eyes he’ll still be a private! Those fools don’t know how incompetent he really is.” With a sigh Warcry, looked back at Emerald. “Well what brings you here, private?”

“Orders sir; I’m to escort this mare and her husband to the princess.”

“Well don’t let me stop you, go on.” As Emerald and the group went off, Warcry spotted ‘Luke’. “Hold on… Who’s this?”

Emerald looked back and then to Warcry, before going with a shrug. “Don’t know, but he save my flank, so he’s good on my book. Though to be honest, he took down Burin’s group by himself, though I at least got four of those mutts.”

“Really now?” Warcry appraoched ‘Luke’ until he stood before the tall being. “Hey, how about you and I spar later, after you done seeing the princess? Is that fine?”

‘Luke’ looked down at Warcry and thought of this; after some careful thinking, he responded. “A duel would be nice; I’d like to see how my technique will handle against a pony.”

“Now now, don’t get all cocky with me sonny; I may look old but I still got some tricks under my sleeve,” said Warcry, unfazed by ‘Luke’ voice.

“I look forward to facing against you then,” said ‘Luke’, leaving with the others.

The group entered the castle, going down several halls and up some stairs before they approached two large doors. Before they could enter though, Rose had to be taken to the medical area of the castle due to her baby; Sky Watch volunteered to watch over her as he doesn’t know the information that Smooth and Rose know, leaving Smooth, Emerald, and ‘Luke’ standing in front of the doors to the throne room.

“Her highness, is busy with a noble right; wait until the meeting is over,” said the guard.

Smooth Earth seem to sweat – whether it was from meeting Princess Celestia or something else could be debated later – anxiously pacing back and forth. Emerald had enough and stopped him in his pacing. “Don’t worry, your wife be fine; you wouldn’t left your old friend with her if you didn’t trust him,” said Emerald.

Smooth nodded to that and took a deep breath to calm his nerves, were at the same time the guard announced for them to enter.

With that, Smooth, Emerald, and ‘Luke’ entered inside; on the far end of the long hall-like room was Celestia, as she sat on her throne. Beside her was anther pony that seemed to be an announcer, and several guards stationed around the room. A group nobles could be seen standing to the side, watching all of this happen.

“Introducing Smooth Earth, Private Emerald, and… and…” The announcer pony whispered to one of the guards before she approached ‘Luke’.

“Um, what’s your name please?” asked the mare, a bit sheepish for not asking for his name beforehand.

‘Luke’ was about to answer when Jiule’s voice was spoken in his head.

I think it is best that your real name isn’t used; as while the name itself would be find… Your somewhere new, and I believe a new start wouldn’t be too harmful.

...You know… she has a point; I don’t have any memory of my past, and I only remember Luke, but who knows, Luke couldn’t be my name and be another person’s name… And I think I know what name to choose.

“My name is… Zen.”

Author's Notes:

The character now has a name; meet Zen, the Void Knight. I think a cover and small drawing of him should come some time in the future. The next chapter is going to involve a certain princess, and a duel with the drill sergeant.