Hey guys thanks for reading! Another short one, you know the deal by now.

Any critisism helps, good or bad, hope you enjoy!

Everyone had just gone to bed, storing their energy for tomorrows events. Berry had popped in shortly after our dinner to inform is that we'd be picked up tomorrow morning to be brought to the arena. She then quickly took her leave, and everyone decided to play some cards. After a couple hours, we went back to our rooms to rest.

"What to do....?" I mumbled to myself, pacing around my room. Eventually I sat down at a desk in the corner, and began just thinking; I was running through everything that had happened over the past week or so. I haven't been in this world for long, yet I've already been tasked with escorting a princess and the head of military to a foreign country. A few things could be going on behind the scenes, one being that Celestia and Luna just have the upmost trust in me. This world that I've been delivered to is odd, to say the least. The princesses could be desperate, but the fact that they'd risk sending me away from ponyville means that they have other forces capable of taking care of the ghouls. Sure I planted Chastiefol there but they didn't know I was planning to do that until I was about to leave. They have other forces at disposal, like the Shadow Stars, however they sent me on this assignment. Maybe to test me? No, if they wanted to do that they would have sent me on a mission with less weight to it. If things go south, Equestria could easily end up at war with the Griffin Empire, so they must trust that I'm on their side. That being said, I still worry about how quickly they trusted me. What if there's a fang on the inside? If they trust everyone this quickly, then it would be scarily easy to climb your way up to a close spot next to them, whether that be Duke, Knight, or even a Shadow Star............

Deciding to leave the pondering until after, I got up from my seat and walked over to my bed, king size by the way, before hitting the hay.

It was the next day, and the group and I were stood by the entrance to the arena. "The contestant will be escorted to the waiting room, the rest of you can head on inside." A guard informed us. We came up to a large corridor with a room to our right and the seating area for the arena up ahead. I turned to the group and gave them a nod towards the seating area, and they all reluctantly began their way over. But not before a few hugs and bro fists with Snipe.

Applejack turned back as she was walking, as the others continued, and gave me a confused look. "Yer comin' or what?"

"I was just gonna have a word with this guard here." I gestured to the guard in question.

"If ya say so." Applejack gave the two of us a wave before catching up to the others.

"What d'ya need?" The guard asked.

"I'd like to escort Snipe myself if that's alright." I turned to him fully with my hands behind my back. He was around 6,4 on estimate, so a bit taller than me, and wore Egyptian style robes. Just like the guards at the main entrance, a large cutlass was sat on his back, a few chips along the blade.

"I'm afraid I can't allow that sir." His response was blunt, as her looked down at me. It was an odd feeling being shorter than someone, as I was quite tall in my original body as well, but I can't say I enjoyed it.

"And why is that?"

He glanced to Snipe with a cold look; in response the boy stepped behind me in fear. He then looked back to me with disgust evident in his voice. "To put it simply, their is no chance I'm letting this runt get any extra help in beating Yakky. He may be a griffin, but he is no citizen of the Griffin Empire. To think a traitor like him would be elected by the gods...." He mumbled the last part, but I still made it out. And I was ticked.

"So what you're saying, is that it's not official rules, correct?" I quirked a brow at him as I continued. "So........ there is no reason for me not to go in there."

The hulking man was growing more irritated by the second, and grit his teeth as he spoke. "If I say you're not to escort him, then you bloody well won't!"

"Easy. Easy." I heard from my right. I turned to see Chiron and his wife approaching us, both looking as if they were on cloud nine. The prince gave me a warm smile before turning to the guard with his eyes closed. "Is there a problem here?"

"P-Prince Chiron! Lady Rhea!" He stuttered out his response before instantly dropping to a knee. "Forgive me! I was just dealing with these two foreigners.

" 'Dealing', hmm? Would you still use the same word if I told you that you were 'dealing' with the knight of Equestria, as well as the first phoenix?" It was unnerving hearing such a threatening tone through a smiling pair of lips. He didn't falter once, as he slowly approached the kneeling man. The guard, however, was looking everywhere but the Prince, sweating buckets whilst he was at it. What I wanna know, is what the fuck did Chiron do to garner this kinda reaction?

The guard practically froze in place upon hearing who he had been disrespecting. He slowly turned to look up at the Prince with horror etched onto his face. "Th-The first?" Chiron nodded. "I-I........" The terrified griffin turned to me and Snipe before leaping to the floor in a bow. He whaled about how sorry he was for a moment, before Chiron spoke in a calm and quite voice

"Be quite." The guard froze once more and instantly stopped his pleading. Chiron then turned to the Snipe and gave a small bow. "Apologies, this bafoon obviously doesn't understand the weight behind being the first Phoenix. I think it's only fair for you to decide his punishment. Don't you agree Rhea?"

"It only makes sense!"

Chiron finally opened his eyes for the first time during the interaction and eyed me. "What say you? Knight of Equestria?"

I shrugged and looked down at Snipe. "Couldn't give two shits. Your call Snipe." The boy stepped out from behind me and looked down at the guard. The guard slowly looked up at him with a pleading look on his face.

"I pick......" Snipe grew a dead face as he stared down at the man with pure distaste. "Prison for life."

I stared at the child in disbelief, and I was joined by the prince and his wife. "Are... you sure about that Snipe?" I asked, surprised by the order.

"Just playing." Snipe looked up at Chiron with a large smile as he spoke. "Have him do thirty laps around town in a bikini."

I smiled at the boy, but the prince just looked even more horrified. "I'm not sure what's worse........." He mumbled, before turning to the guard. "You heard the boy, get to it!"

The man scrambled to his feet before bowing to us all individually. He then took his leave, stumbling on his way out.

"You are one cruel boy." I said, ruffling Snipe's hair.

"Sorry about that you two, the guards here are a little biased towards the competition if you couldn't tell." The prince one again gave a small bow to the two of us as he spoke. "Sorry to cut it short, but you'll be needed in there soon, so you better be on you way."

"Thanks for the heads up, see you around." I gave him a playful salute, and the two smiled and took their leave. "Whelp," I began, looking towards the contestant. "Guess it's apparent that you aren't the fan favourite to win."

Snipe chuckled and looked up at me. "You think?"