Author's Notes:

Hey everyone, This is just a minor transition chapter. Just enough to move the story along. I have some more planned but I wanted this to stand as it's own chapter so that I can get right into the meat of it for the next one. Tally hoe.

Several weeks passed by with little change. Guards made their rounds through the palace and the grounds without consequence. The princesses sudden disappearance was still talked about, and the captain of the guard had pleaded with them to never do something like that again. He was met with a chuckle and an assurance that there was little that would be able to hurt them, but they would make sure to bring at least two guards next time they decided to suddenly leave the palace, for his personal peace of mind.

To date, the only thing that had changed was that there was a new route for the guards to take, as well as a new post. In the center of the maze, stood a simple wooden door. It stood on its own without support and for the guards remained a curiosity. Not once in the three weeks that the rotation had been added, had there been anypony that had passed through the maze, though rumor had it that Twilight Sparkle has been looking to get a meeting with the princesses. They have been unavailable due to their sudden disappearance, causing a lot of questions and complaints that took far too long to work out.

It was on this day that Celestia sat in Day court as usual. The noble standing before her was prattling on about some kind of ‘injustice’ that had been committed against them. From what she was about to glean from his pontification, he was furious that his favorite bakery had placed only two strawberries on his tart, instead of the usual three. The baker, who stood next to the irate noble was tired and upset at having to be there instead of at her shop. The noble had been crying out that the shop should have to pay him restitution for the ‘mental anguish’ that this ordeal had caused him.

Right before Celestia was about to pass a verdict, a gate spell opened in the middle of the courtroom. “Hel...Celestia! I’m bored, let's go for a dungeon crawl or something.” The room had gone silent at his sudden appearance, and the complaining noble grew red in the face at being interrupted.

“How dare you address the princess like that you… hairless monkey! And do you have any idea who I am?!” He seethed, all the while glaring with daggers in his eyes at the intruder.

Looking at the annoying little Stallion, Makarov shrugged “no, I have no idea who you are. Why should I?”

Before the noble was able to respond, Celestia spoke up, “I’m afraid that I am unable to join you until this matter is settled. Baron Jetset and Berry Tart here, are having a bit of a situation. They have asked me for my help to settle the issue.”

Makarov turned back to the two of them and took a moment to look them over. Berry Tart had large bags under her eyes, flower on her face and a strand of her hair had fallen out of her bun. Whereas the stallion looked to be the picture of refined. His nails glistened with a fresh shine. Hair that didn’t have even a single piece out of place. And, from what he could tell, an ego the size of the mountain that they stood on. Looking back at the princess, he asked: “So what is the issue?”

She sighed and gave him a brief description of the issue. He face took a look of shock. Turning back to the two of them, he spoke loudly for the room to hear “I have to agree, this is a travesty of injustice!” the mare's eyes fell “This pompous, self-center, idiotic,” Jetset’s eyes gleamed with triumph as he heard Makarov list of insults “arse hole, has taken valuable time away from a small business owner!” The room could almost hear the record scratch, and Jetset’s eyes began to bug out. “You stupid piece of shit should be fined for taking time out of her day to be dragged down here. If you love strawberries so much, try living as one for a while.” Reaching into the air, a staff materialized in his hand {Transmute Lifeform}. There was a bright flash in the courtroom, and where Jetset once stood, a large strawberry that had a rather unpleasant greenish hue sat.

After a moment, Makarov looked at the rotten fruit and scoffed, “Just as rotten as a fruit as he was as a pony.” Looking over at the mare, who stood rooted to the spot in shock. “I am sorry that he stole so much time from you today. Here, catch.”

He flicked a small green object over to her. Being snapped from her stupor by the item flying towards her, she just barely managed to catch it. As she turned it over in her hand, she looked up at him with curiosity in her eyes, “Um… I’m not sure what this is, and is he… is he going to be okay?”

Makarov smiled at her “Even though the pile of trash tried to ruin you life, you still care. Damn, wish I knew more people like you back where I came from. And to answer you question as to what the is. Or at least what it was. It is a Rupee. A long time ago it was worth 10 platinum.” Looking back over to the princess, “are they still valid?”

She smiled with warmth and a hint of mischievousness “Yes Makarov,” at the mention of his name, whispers began to abound in the room “Rupees are still very much valid currency, though most common folk do not even know about them. Miss Tart, if you take that to your bank, they will know what it is. If they give you any trouble with it, tell them that I can vouch for its authenticity and the fact that it was given to you.” Turning to the clerk that stood next to her, “make sure to take a note that her taxes should not be affected by the sudden balance in her accounts. After all, I would hate to take any of the gift she was given.”

The mare’s eyes had shot open at the mention of it being worth 10 platinum pieces. “Sir… A-are you s-sure you can give this to me? I mean, this is more than I can bring into the shop in over six months!”

Makarov smirked “Don’t worry about it, I don’t exactly have a shortage of funds for myself, besides, what good is money if you don’t use it. And if I can bring some joy by doing so. All the better. Now go ahead and get out of here. As I said, I’m rather bored and Helios… Pardon, Celestia here said that she could leave after she was done with this little situation. Don’t worry about the arse hole there, he should be back to his terrible self in around an hour or so. I nerfed the spell quite a bit.”

Berry Tart bowed deeply to the Princess and rushed from the room as Makarov watched her go. “Nice lady, definitely looks like she overworks herself though.”

Celestia giggled lightly “Yes, she does. But she does produce some of the best desserts in Canterlot. And just because you can turn ponies into fruit, I would appreciate it if you didn’t. He is going to be quite a headache when he turns back. You will likely have to appear in court tomorrow to address the situation.”

He eyebrow curled up with confusion “I thought you said that the Makarov was allowed to do whatever they wanted? Without repercussion.”

She smiled “They do, but It has yet to be announced to the general public that you have returned. I was holding that off until the Grand Galloping Gala next week. It’s much easier when all of the ambassadors from the other nations will be there. They can then carry the news back to their respective nations for us. Rather than waste time and effort to send couriers.”

Nodding with understanding, Makarov responded, “Well, in any event, as I had said before, I’m bored. Where could we find a dungeon to crawl? And where is Selene… I mean, Luna.” Muttering under his breath, “Gonna take fucking forever to remember that.”

Celestia smirked, “I would expect her to be asleep at this hour, she is quite nocturnal thees days.”

Frowning, he responded, “Well that sucks, a two-person party isn’t as effective, or as fun.”

She smiled, having quickly come up with a solution. “I have an idea as to whom we could invite. As for the Dungeon, there is actually one located at the base of the Catterhorn. To date, no one has explored the deepest parts of it. I think the last report I heard was somewhere around the 25th level.”

Nodding “Sounds good, also, who do you have in mind?”

_________________scene shift to Ponyville Library___________________

“So, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Apple Jack, Lady Rarity, Pinkie Pie, And Fluttershy, we would like to invite you to go with us for a dungeon crawl. It has been quite some time for me, and I would love for you to get to know Makarov here.” Celestia stood before the group of Mares as she discussed what it was that they were being invited to.

Makarov had stood behind her, scanning over the girls with a spell to figure out what levels they were currently sitting at and what kind of classes they would fit. From what he could tell, they all hovered around lvl 6, though Twilight was sitting at lvl 9 with Rainbow and Applejack the second-highest lvl at 7. Looking over there builds, he started figuring out what kind of gear they would work the best with. Twilight was a mage, no doubt in his mind about that, Applejack looked like a monk style fighter, her biceps and legs had visible muscle beneath her fur. Rainbow was lithe and wiry, Perfect for a rouge, quick strafing runs would be her forte. Pinkie’s bubbly personality made her seem to fit the role of a bard quite easily. Rarity looked to have an almost stuck up air about her, but Makarov could tell by the way that she carried herself that she was likely trained in using a rapier. Turning back to the timidest of the group, Fluttershy, who had been hiding behind her hair the entire time.

As he looked at her, Makarov could smell the nature magic leaking from her. It was one of the first branches that he had worked with, and the one that he was most familiar with as well. Unlike Arcane magic, which took personal mana into account to use it. Nature magic was far more subtle. It took a connection to nature and all the things that live in it. Smiling at her, she eeped and shrunk back behind her bangs. “Looks like we have a mixed bag here Heil...I mean, Celestia.” I have some equipment I can lend them for a while to help keep them safe. Not that they are really going to need much of it. By the way, what lvl of monsters are on floor 25 anyway?”

The girls looked at him like he was nuts before Celestia answered: “I believe they have been measured at an average lvl of 25 or so.”

Nodding, he looked back at them “Good, that should be a good lvl gap to do some power lvling. But before we go, I need to ask Fluttershy something.” Looking over at her, she eeped again and hid behind Applejack, “I’m not going to bite, you know. Hehe, unless you like that kind of thing.” It was the wrong thing to say, as her face lit up with a blush as she tried to disappear behind her friend. “Ahem. Well, what I needed to ask is if you have an animal familiar or not. If you don’t, I have one you can borrow. I expect that you would do quite well with one.”

She had perked up at the mention of animals as she muttered her answer behind Applejack “Um… well, I have my pet Angle Bunny.”

Applejack was about to tell her to speak up so that Makarov could properly hear her before being cut off “Angle Bunny? Interesting name, I assume they are a rabbit, yes?” she nodded. Well then, before I hand out equipment, let’s go meet Angle Bunny first. I will ask if they would be willing to go on an adventure with us. Can you guide me to your home?”

She nodded and walked out of the library, and Makarov followed behind her, completely ignoring the rest of the girls as they left. Twilight looked over at Celestia and asked, “Um… Princess Celestia, he does realize that we weren’t following him, right?”

She smiled as she watched him walk out of the room. “Yes, he is completely aware. It is heartwarming to know that time has not changed him. He was the same way back then.” As she lost herself to memories for a moment, Rainbow spoke up.

“Forget that dude is crazy. How are we supposed to deal with going down to the 25th lvl of the dungeon?! Only high lvl adventures go down that deep, and some of them never come back. He was talking like this was just another day or something!”

Applejack nodded in agreeance before Celestia spoke up again “I realize that for you, that the idea of this is quite harrowing. But rest assured, no harm will come to you down there. I have complete confidence that he will not allow anything to hurt you. Besides, lvl 25 monsters don’t offer much of a challenge to him. The only reason that he wouldn’t go even deeper is that you all will be joining us. He will likely be treating this as a training mission. For noobs as he puts it.” She smiled back at the girls, who were all instead put off at the comment.

Rainbow was not happy at being considered a noob and spoke out against it. “Hey! We are not Noobs. We fought off Nightmare moon and took care of Discord. No noob could do that. I bet I could take him in a one on one fight if I wanted to.”

Celestia sighed at her brash reaction before merely stating, “You may wish to retract that statement Rainbow, Makarov stands at the pinnacle of what can be achieved by anyone. After all, what would you expect from a lvl 100?”

The girls all shut up when she said that, just as a portal opened up behind them all. Out of it walked Fluttershy and Makarov, but what shocked them all, was that Angle Bunny, a rabbit that had been well known to hate everyone but Fluttershy, was happily riding on his shoulder. “So! What did I miss?”

______Just after leaving the library after having arrived at Fluttershy’s cottage_____

“So Fluttershy, where is the little one?”

She replied in near silence, but still loud enough for Makarov to hear with his listening skill “Um… well, he... He is likely inside.”

Nodding, he motioned at the door as if to ask if he might be allowed to enter. She nodded in agreeance, and he pressed forward. As they came, he looked around the room before noticing the white rabbit lounging on a chair in the living room. After looking at the rabbit for a moment, he came to a realization, “You didn’t tell me that he was an albino Almiraj.”

Both her and Angle’s ears perked up at the name. She spoke up, “Um, I’m not sure what that is. I just thought he was a cute white rabbit.”

Chuckling, he looked back over at the rabbit and crouched down to look at him eye to eye. He then spoke in a chitter voice that only Fluttershy and Angle would be able to understand, “Hello there little one. I am Makarov, I have invited young Fluttershy there to join me in the dungeon today. I was wondering if you would be interested in forming a contract with her to be her familiar.”

The rabbit sat there, complete confusion on his face. In his entire life, the only one of the bipeds that could talk to him was Fluttershy. She was a timid thing, and he had been trying to force her to grow a backbone for years. Many thought of his methods as just being mean to her. But he didn’t really have any other ideas of how to accomplish it. Responding, “Well… I dunno. I mean, I don’t really know how to form a contract. She is just fine as a caretaker, but I don’t think she has it in her to be an adventure. I’m still baffled at how she managed to face down that Moon mare and the dragon.” putting his paw on his chin, he thought for a moment before adding “I guess she did manage to put a leash on that weird noodle guy. Fine, if you can help her grow a spine, I’ll form a contract with her. No problem.”

Clapping his hands together with cheer “Excellent, let’s head back to the Library, I have equipment and weapons for everyone. Feel free to hop on up, going by a gate will be faster than walking back.” He held out his arm, and the little rabbit clambered up to sit on his shoulder. Turning back to Fluttershy, he smiled as he switched back to speaking plain Equish. “Now that that is settled let’s head on back. I have some gear to give you all before we begin.” She nodded with confusion before stepping up next to him. Waving his hand in the air, a portal to the library opened. As the stepped though, Makarov announced “So! What did I miss?”