“Is there something wrong Praeratus?” Asked Celestia in a worried tone.

“Something wrong?” Growled the xeno-hunter, who was sitting next to her on a chair that was fortunately big enough for him to sit on... and strong enough to support his more than five hundred pounds of weight, five hundred from him and the rest from his repaired bounty hunter armor. “No, nothing at all. Except that Twilight said the School of Friendship was supposed to be a project to ease bonding between the species of Equus. And I'm seeing an unnatural amount of ponies here.” He said while making a gesture towards the crowd of pony children and their parents in front of them. Well, mostly ponies: there were also a dragon, a changeling, a hippogriff, a griffon and a yak. One by species that's it. “Also, you lied to me.”

“Hey, it's your fault too!” Replied Celestia in a defensive tone. “You were the one that forgot the Everfree's practically empty of monsters!”

After Celestia told Praeratus about the dangers of the Everfree forest and the fact that Ponyville was regularly attacked by its beasts, he finally agreed to join the School of Friendship, not as coach, but as protector; Twilight had never told him the peculiarity of Ponyville, and despite the fact that she had been living there for more than two years and became an alicorn in the meantime, the problems hadn't stopped coming to the quaint little town (of xenophobic primitives), and he didn't trust ponies with taking care of children near a place as dangerous as the Everfree, especially if said children weren't ponies themselves. Therefore, he decided to take it upon himself to guard the School of Friendship while it was open.

And then he remembered that the Everfree was practically empty of monsters, with most most of the aggressive wildlife of the forest slauguthered by him when the bioweapons mindraped them and sent them to attack Canterlot along with that lone freak. That wasn't a problem though: after all, he still didn't know where were the bioweapons hiding and for all he knew they were hiding under Ponyville. Fortunately (or unfortunately from a certain point of view) they weren't, and since he could simply fly the ship to other countries and come back to Equestria he supposed that being a glorified cop wouldn't be so bad, especially if it was to protect children.

The real problem was that, aside from the previously mentioned non-Equestrian kids, all the others were ponies. As in, only four out of maybe two hundred students weren't ponies.

Naturally this... angered Praeratus a bit (as in, he was pissed). Twilight had explicitly told him that she built the School of Friendship so as to help the relations between races, and yet the vast majority of students were ponies. Not even Spike was allowed to enroll in the school despite asking his legal guardian to do so. It would have amounted to nothing given that he was just one dragon, but still, he would have preferred that Twilight had let the boy join her 'little project'.

Behind them, Ember, Thorax, Rutherford, General Seaspray (the representative of Mount Aris), Grampa Gruff (some old guy from Griffonstone), Luna, Twilight's friends and Cyranus looked on as the two argued.

“Pony princess and space dragon act like married couple.” Whispered Rutherford to Pinkie, who was sitting behind him. She promptly smiled and giggled.

“I wonder what their babies will look like...” Rarity wondered out loud with a whisper, imagining either baby dragon-therawyrms with feathered wings and pony eyes or foals with scaly skin and claws (but not sharp teeth: when she asked him about his species in general in case she made him clothing he told her that therawyrms were born toothless just like mammals, but when they came came they would get replaced several times over a therawyrm's lifespan like sharks and crocodiles).

Rarity's whisper must have been louder than she thought, because everypony that was sitting near Rarity, including Celestia and Praeratus, looked at Rarity with wide eyes.

“What?” She asked.

“Did you just suggest that Princess Celestia and Praeratus could have children in the future?” Said Seaspray, asking what was in everyone else's minds. The man, a tall hippogriff with purple feathers, was the only one of the lot that Praeratus somewhat respected since he was an actual soldier, but only somewhat because he was for some reason the general of Mount Aris' navy. Yes, for some reason a general was the top officer of a navy. Granted, the 'navy' was simply the military of the hippogriffs, and the other races of the world didn't have actual fleets either, but stil.

It also made Celestia blush. Praeratus didn't, but it was obvious by the deadpan stare he was giving the white unicorn that he wasn't amused by her opinion.

“Why not?” Said Rarity, ever the romantic thanks to all those romance stories. “In fact, I believe it's fate!”

“Fate? Ya sure about that?” Asked Applejack.

“Of course! A princess and her kingdom threatened by demonic beasts, and a powerful, magical knight in shining armor and his faithful hound come down from the heavens to save them and slay the monsters. Besides” She continuted, this time in a more sly tone and a grin. “, Princess Celestia has been sleeping in his ship for the better half of two months.”

Naturally this made Celestia blush, but fortunately no one noticed.

“Yeah, except this 'knight in shining armor' is an alien and a soldier, and can be a jerk sometimes. And boring.” Deadpanned Discord while looking a Praeratus. He forgave him a long while before from the beatdown, but couldn't be as chaotic as he wanted when he was near because the therawyrm would still beat him, just not as savagely as the first day.

For example, one day he and Pinkie Pie decided to prank him for being a jerk and went inside his ship (he didn't care about why) when he was away to put buckets of water in every door. Either the ship had a silent alarm or Praeratus was paranoid, because just as they were placing the last bucket he returned and literally threw them out with his bare hands, and made clear that if they entered his ship again without his explicit permission he would brainwash them... into his drinking buddies. It didn't sound so bad, but the way he said it and the fact that he didn't say if it would be temporary or not scared them.

'He's also pretty boring' , thought Discord nonchalantly.

Praeratus' closed eyebrow twitched whe he heard that thought.

“And the kingdom he saves is full of xenophobic, moronic cowards whose only enemies until now had been other morons, not real threats.” Bit back Praeratus, not raising his voice but making sure to Discord (and Rarity for that matter) that the xeno-hunter heard him. “And I'm only boring because the alternatives would be either an idiot surprised by every little thing on this planet or a screaming madman.”

“Hey, you don't have to be a jerk now!” Replied Discord. “And when I was a jerk myself I wasn't a moron. Well, maybe I was a moron, but a powerful one, and smart too. Heck, I'm still am! I can create literal rains of chocolate, displace a mountain and even move the Sun and the Moon at the same time! And don't read my mind!”

“And Chrysalis conquered Canterlot twice, you know.” Replied Thorax, not liking remembering his former 'queen'. “And there were also King Sombra, Lord Tirek, the Storm King...” The changeling monarch was only listing the foes that didn't reform. Something told him that Praeratus would do much worse to Starlight than the beating he gave to Discord.

What no one knew was that Praeratus alrady knew (uh) what Starlight did, enslaving Equestria and messing with time itself; the last one was amongst the biggest crimes one could commit not just for the Confederation, but for the entire galaxy, but while he did think of hurling her into a psionic portal to another dimension he ended up chosing against it, partly because she seemed genuinely regretful of what she did... and partly because opening portals wasn't his forte; he had the capacity, but he rather grab things and launch them towards hard surfaces at hypersonic speed. Didn't stop him from glaring at her to time to time without the others noticing.

“And I can do similar things with my psionics, and a single battleship could burn a planet several times the size of Equus three times over. The world itself, not just all the life on it. And I read the minds of those I don't trust at all. What are you going to do about it goat boy, roll on the floor and holler?”

Celestia was about to ask them to shut up before they could get louder when Twilight beckoned to Praeratus to take her place. Praeratus looked at Celestia and read her mind.

'Please don't traumatize the next generation of ponies' She begged him, nowing that despite his love for children he was also very honest.

'I can try, but I won't promise. Besides, they'll probably traumatize themselves'

“Thank you so much for supporting the grand school of our school!” She said before stepping back from the podium. “Now, I present the School of Friendship's Guardian and first alien in Equus, PRAERATUS!”

She expected the crowd to cheer and applaud Praeratus because, as a... jerk as he could be, he had come to their world to save not just Equestria, but all of Equus, all because a mistake of his government that he didn't even know about, and was even willing to die to destroy the monsters.

Instead, she was sorely disappointed by the lack of reaction. Well, lack as in 'looks of fear or disgust' when Praeratus walked forwards.

“Go get them big guy.” She encougarged while smiling. It was more for her confidence than for him however.

“Yes, I'll get them.” He replied, not looking away from the crowd of ponies that was now looking up at him.

Before he discovered the truth of the School, he had already made a speech of how dangerous were the bioweapons, of the hours where he was avaible for them to talk to, and tell them a bit about the Confederation.

After he saw that the vast majority of students were ponies, though...

“I'm here to protect you from space monsters. That's it.”

He would have walked back to his seat if not for a scratchy voice speaking out in the silence of the hall.

“That's it? The big and mean wingless dragon from space simply says 'I'll protect you'? That's lame!”

Praeratus turned to see where the voice came from.

It was the dragoness that came with Ember to represent the Dragon Lands, a girl two or three years older than Spike with orange scales, purple head and tailfin, wings and blue eyes that had a cocky look, a refreshing change from the fear . For some reason Praeratus thought of Rainbow Dash when he saw that cockiness and heard that voice.

Everyone around the young dragoness stepped away from her, fearful that Praeratus would do something to her.

Well, do something he did.

“And why do you think it's lame, child?” Asked the xeno-hunter, crossing his arms and rising an eyebrow in intrigue.

The girl was either too brave, too dumb, or knew he wouldn't even shout at her, because she kept talking.

“I thought you'd say some awesome speech about being a space knight or something like that!” Said the girl. Praeratus probed her mind, just enough to know her name: Smolder, and to confirm that she was indeed older than Spike by two years. “I mean, you took down the single nastiest bad guy out there!” She probably didn't know about Tirek or Chrysalis, or did but thought that the Storm King was greater a threat.

Praeratus looked back at Celestia, and seeing her hopeful look he sighed and went back to the podium.

“I'll tell you guys something alright. I think you know this already, but if you don't, I came to this planet two months ago, and despite my actions, I wasn't here to actually kill the Storm King” He said (and unsurprisingly earning a collective gasp, even from the dragon girl; he resigned himself to the fact that 'kill' was practically the 'frack' of Equus) before creating a life-sized hologram of a bioweapon. “, but to hunt down these creatures.”

“Pff, those things don't look so tough. I've seen dragons back home that are scarier.”

Praeratus decided that it was time to scare her straight.

“Smolder.” He said without raising his, surprising the dragoness by knowing her name. “Just one of those is tough enough to survive a punch to the face from me, strong enough to bite my legs off, and smart enough to use you as bait to draw me out, and just like me it's psionic. In fact, two hundred years ago one of them slaughtered Equestrias' Royal Army just after it escaped from its prison. There are still eight of them out there, they can reproduce, and I don't know where are they hiding even after scouring the entire planet for their presence, and worst of all, just one of them can take me on.” He leaned forward to make sure everyone heard him. “And the only feeling they have is hatred for everything in this planet... and joy when killing you. So, yes, those things are pretty damn tough, pretty damn evil, and pretty damn invincible for you.” He then leaned back and straightened himself. “Which is why I'm here to protect you from them, but first the rules that you will have.”

He would have told them simple things like not going near the Everfree forest without permission, or staying inside, when suddenly...

“WHAT IN CELESTIA'S NAME IS GOING ON HERE!?”

It was Neighsay, who was glaring at them (or more accurately at him) from the gate at the other side of the hall before he made his way through the crowd, ranting all the while.

In another occasion Praeratus would have ignored Neighsay, letting the bigoted unicorn rant about letting creatures not of Equestria inside one of its most important castles. But at that moment he wasn't in the mood. Scratch that, just seeing Neighsay made him snap.

With a growl, Praeratus extended his right arm and lifted the Chancellor with telekinesis before pulling him towards him at break necking speeds before physically grabbing him with the same arm by the neck, not enough to choke him but in way that left him unable to speak.

Which wouldn't have been necessary with the angry glare Praeratus was giving him.

“If you want to give some stupid and specieist speech about the dangers of non-ponies attending Equestrian schools, give it to yourself while your bathing in your house, because I won't let you say anything pro-pony either in my presence or with two royals behind me.” He said while gesturing towards Ember and Rutherford, both of whom were glaring at Neighsay.

Before the head of the EEA could say anything, Praeratus continued, this time tightening his grip on his neck and making it difficult for the unicorn to breathe.

Celestia and the others were having a bad feeling about what was happening, but something kept them from acting.

Fear.

“Not only that” Continued to say Praeratus not realizing that he was choking Neighsay.” , but your damn ideology about how ponies are surrounded by possible enemies goes out of the window when you look closely.” He made a wide gesture to the onlooking crowd. “Look at that, there are at least a hundred ponies there. Yet how many dragons, yaks, griffons, hippogriffs and changelings are out there? Five! This school is supposed to promove friendship among species, and yet I'm only seeing a not-so-subtle show of blatant racism!”

“Praeratus...” Said Celestia, hoping that the ranting Praeratus would realized he was unconsciously crushing Neighsay's neck (and proying that he wasn't doing it on purpose).

“I would let it pass if there were more non-pony kids here, but there are only five of 'em; this won't just make them feel ostracized, they're outnumbered by a species of ungrateful, cowardly morons that scream at the first sight of danger and that believe they have to impose their way of life in others!”

Busy as he was ranting, Praeratus didn't see Neighsay trying futilely to pry his claws off his throat, or the growing fear of the crowd.

“Praeratus!” Screamed someone behind him before feeling something grabbing his leg.

The former Centurion looked down and snarled at the one that had the gal to interrupt him while he was pointing out the damn truth... and saw a scared Spike hugging his left leg and looking up at him, with Celestia literally centimeters away. She too was scared, but it was Spike's terrified face which took his attention.

And a certain voice in his head, that had been oddly silent since the day he arrived on Equus, whispered that she wasn't scared of him, but what he might have done to Spike.

'Plus, imagine what would have happened if you just stomped the boy without bothering to look.', it wondered

'SHUT UP!!', he replied to it before looking back to Spike and Celestia.

The sight of the boy and woman that fully liked the ex-Centurion being scared of him snapped Praeratus back to his senses. He then turned around and saw that the assembled crowd was just as scared of him as the group behind him, including the non-equestrians. Praeratus then looked at the half conscious chancellor and realized what he would have done if Spike hadn't stopped him to the ground and

“I...” He began to say before staying quiet for a few moments and then sighing, looking down in shame 'What the frack is wrong with me?'

Giving one last ashamed look to Spike and Celestia, Praeratus stepped down the platform, weaved through the crowd frozen by fear, and exited the place.

He took notice that Cyranus, who always followed him wherever he went, stayed with Celestia.

Praeratus stood guard next to the door of the school for what seemed like days even after the parents of the foals and fillies went back to their homes, including the Royals that came with the representatives of their races.

What transpired while he was out was exactly what he guessed, and it was loud enough that he didn't need to use telepathy to hear it: Neighsay ignoring his near death experience and demanding that Celestia banished him to Tartarus. But instead of Celestia being the one defending him, it was Fluttershy of all ponies the first one to scream back that Neighsay.

“Praeratus managed to calm down and speak like a rational creature about his rules only for you to come screaming! He already was on edge because he thought that the School would be a place that would teach friendship to children of all races!”

Then, it was time for Pinkie Pie and to his surprise for Discord.

“Tough space marine guys like him always attack annoying jerks if they're annoying no matter how weak they are!”

“Yeah, Pinkie's right! I would know, I'm very annoying and he thinks I'm a jerk, which I am, but not always!”

Praeratus didn't care how did that those two know the word 'space marine', and possibly what it meant, only that the draconeequs he disliked took his side.

'Doesn't mean he's not an idiot with too much power and not enough restraint.', said his mind,

'Shut up will you!?' The guy forgave me for nearly killing him!

After them came Twilight, who to his surprise turned out that didn't like how she made the school.

“It's my fault, not Praeratus', that the School of Friendship teaches ponies, and even then it's only because I didn't want to find out how would have you reacted to a hundred non-ponies attending a school right next to Ponyville!”

'I shouldn't have been so angry with the girl. I mean, I could HAVE read her mind before to find that out, but still.'

And then it was Luna's turn, and unlike the others her words made more sense instead of just lashing at Neighsay.

“If anything, it's your fault Neighsay! You said that the EEA would only allow me to build a school if it was for Equestrians! Don't ask me how do I know that, I'm the Princess of the Night!”

And then Ember theorized that, because of what happened, he would let the monsters kill them all, forcing Praeratus to telepathically tell them he wouldn't leave Equus until he killed all the bioweapons.

But even with their support and his statement, the damage to the school was done. He didn't need to read mind to know that parents would not send their children to a school guarded by a psychotic alien that had no allegiance to their country and practically despised their species. However, despite their fears about Praeratus most parents didn't revoke their children's appliances, trusting their princess' judgement.

'They shouldn't be so trusting of three pretty pony fairy tale princesses that can't do shit after facing only morons, ghosts, leeches and bugs. Very, very dangerous trustful indeed.' Said the voice in his mind.

'Just because they didn't have either psionics or guns doesn't mean they weren't dangerous, and those villains definitely were dangerous to Equestria.' He replied.

'A centaur that sucks magic and a shapeshifting bitch aren't nothing compared to hill-sized freaks that spit acid or a cruiser with enough firepower to...' Began to say the voice before it noticed something. 'Well look at that, you have company that doesn't fear you, at your ten! See you later Praty!'

“Hey, Praeratus!” Said a childish voice he recognized as Spike. The baby dragon was walking up to him alongside the other foreign students and two ponies. But what mattered to Praeratus was that it didn't seem he was scared of him even after his ranting and near killing of Neighsay.

“Mmm, yes Spike?” He said, doing everything to avoid sighing in relief.

“I met with to see how did you look up close, and so do these guys.” He said gesturing to the children, who began introducing themselves to him.

The first one was the blue and yellow furred/feathered griffon with informal clothes. “The name's Gallus.” It was obvious he was a bit scared of the alien bounty hunter, but Praeratus had to give credit where credit's due, at least he looked at him in the eye instead of staring at the ground awkwardly.

Next was the yak girl with brown fur, green eyes, pigtails and a furry jacket (how the hell could she wear that without being cooked alive by both it and her own layer of fur), who was also the biggest of the children. “Yak's name is Yona! Yona's happy to meet space dragon she heard a lot about!” She said smiling, holding up her hand. Praeratus, for the first time on that day, curved up his lips into a smile, and shook Yana's hand.

After Gallus came the changeling that came with Thorax, a young pony girl with light cyan fur and blue eyes.

“H-hi there, my name is Ocellus-” She managed to say before Praeratus cut her off with a raise of her hand.

“Girl, I know you're a changeling.” He said, making her gasp in fear and the others in shock. The pony went so far as to step back from her, but Praeratus then nudged him back to place with telekinesis.

“How do you know that!?”

“Well, apart from the fact that you weren't transformed back at the meeting you don't have a typical Equestrian name.” Said Praeratus nonchalantly.

“Don't worry, I'm not a bigoted jerk like most ponies. C´mon, let me see how do you really look like.”

Ocellus did as she was asked. It turned out that her pony disguise was literally a ponified form of her real body, cyan chitin and monochromatic blue eyes included.

“Ocellus why were you disguised as a pony?”

“B-because ponies still fear changelings even after Chrysalis' defeat and Thorax crowning, and they think we're evil bugs.”

“Well, would you feel better if I told you that the vast majority of evil aliens are mammals or reptiles, while one of the nicest species in the Confederation is essentially a bunch of bugs?” He said, referring to the othilads of the Othilad Monarchy.

“Wait, really?”

“Yep. They're four armed, short lived, and their biology makes them unable to speak the common language of the Confederation, but at the same time they're friendly, compassionate, intelligent, and just as technologically advanced as any other empire, and very respected even by our enemies.” He said with a smile.

“Really?”

“Wait, did you say empire? Wasn't the Confederation some kind of alliance?”

“It is, but calling an interstellar governments an empire is pretty common back in my galaxy, no matter if they're an elective democracy, a communist party or even a megacorporation.”

“Woah...”

“I can tell you more, but first lets finish this introduction.”

They hadn't noticed it yet, but a small crowd composed of the royals, Twilight and her friends, Cyranus and a few parents was watching the former Centurion interact with the children.

“What about you kid?” He asked to the only pony of the group, a green furred colt who was practically all light green; even the clothes he was wearing, a sleeveless shirt and short pants, were green.

He was also pretty terrified of him, which was totally justifiable given that he saw him choke Equestria's Minister of Education while ranting about the supremacism and bigotry of Equestria.

“M-my name's Sandbar, mister Praeratus.” He said nervously. Praeratus tentatively probed his mind and sighed when she saw what Sandbar was thinking.

“Look kid, I'm not going to disintegrate you with my raygun or bend you.” Before Sandbar could parrot Ocellus previous response, he continued. “I'm can use psionics. They're like magic, but there's nothing magical about them.”

“So that's how you knew my name!” Exclaimed Smolder.

“Yep, and psionics aren't only for grabbing stuff. But I'll explain more later. Anything to say about you Smolder?”

“Well, Dragon Lord Ember brought me here to represent the awesome race that are dragons!” She boasted proudly.” Praeratus facepalmed, but Smolder was a pre-teen so she probably wasn't observant enough to realize what she was doing. “Plus I wanted to see a cousin from space from up close, and you may be freaky with the lack of tail and wings-”

“Actually Praeratus is not a dragon.” Interrupted Spike.

“What?”

“I'm a synapsid, a reptile with mammalian traits like, warm blood. In fact, genetically speaking I'm probably closer to ponies than reptiles.”

“I thought you hated ponies.” Said Sandbar.

“Well, not exactly. I just don't like it when they stall pinning their faults at me or fearing and attacking me despite all my successful attempts at saving them, but otherwise they're not bad, just annoying. Besides, I do have some pony friends.” He said, finally noticing the crowd that was growing behind the children and seeing that Celestia was smiling at him. “Well, I think there's one of you left, right?”

Finally, it was the hippogriff's turn, a light-lavender furred/feathered girl with purple a two-toned blue mane and tail, and who for some reason was smiling very happily at him.

“Hi there, I'm Silverstream! I don't think you know of me, but I'm Queen Novo's niece and Princess Skystar's cousin, the one you saved from a storm beast!” She said.

'Uh, that explains why she looks familiar.” Thought Praeratus, remembering the peppy hippogriff princess. “Does that make you a princess?”

“Well, kinda, but I don't really have a title. Also, that Neighsay unicorn is an A-grade jerkoff! You saved Equestria from the Storm King, and if not for you everyone at Mount Metazoa would have been eaten by those monsters! And you want to protect us from other, even meaner monsters.” ” Silverstream replied before doing something that surprised Praeratus, the kids and everyone else: hug him. “Thank you.”

Praeratus, shocked at first by her actions, smiled and hugged her back. He heard the 'oooohs' of the onlookers, but didn't have it on him to facepalm at it.

'Celly?' He asked the Princess of the Day through telepathy while at the same time looking at her with a smile, which she returned in earnest. It was the first time he called Celestia by her pet name, and he knew she wanted him to say it. After the near-disaster of today, she deseved it.

'Yes, Praeratus?'

'I think I'm going to like Twilight's pet project. Also, you can call me Praty'

'Ok... Praty.' She replied before chortling and then finally laughing, and while she wasn't doing so with her face her smile still got wider.

'Oh c´mon, you're making it sound like it's embarrassing!'

'Sorry, sorry, it's just... Praty?

“Well kids, I think it's time for you to know a bit more about me... Nah, screw it, this is for all of you.” He then began telling the assembled creatures about himself, the Confederation and the Milky Way, .

No one noticed that a certain pegasus girl was smiling and thinking about what she could do with the alien's technology and magic.

And no one, not even Praeratus, realized they were being watched by furious eyes.

Here it is, the last chapter of 2019 and the 2010s, and it's twice as long as the previous one to boot!

Merry Late Christmas, and HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR EVERYONE!!!