Can't be asked to write more so here's a rather small chapter. It's been a rough couple of weeks at school. It might not be as good as the others but Ima gonna rewrite it when I get the chance.

Any criticism helps good or bad.
Hope you enjoy!

All of our collected faces went from being shocked, to a wide smile as we looked at each other, knowing we did good.

After there goodbyes, I headed back through the door and got on with my usual morning routine. After a quick shower I decided to try on my favourite outfit seeming as though this was a meeting with the princesses. Shaw, it looked a bit wacky, but I liked it all the same. Now clad in my multicolour shirt, professional trousers, and spectacular jacket, I began to make my way over to Canterlot. That meaning I threw Shadowfall and got there without a hitch. Man this blink dagger is a god send! Before anything else, I threw Shadowfall back at my house so I could get home easily. I then made my way around the winding halls towards the thrown room, but was cut short by a rather handsome looking man.

I walked round a corner whilst staying close to the wall out of habit, leading me to bump into someone as I turned. We collided, but to my surprise neither of us were even close to falling over, which told me he had quite the build.

He spoke before I could apologies. "Oh, apologies sir. I should have been paying more attention." Taking in his features, I saw that he had quite the head of hair. It was blue with a light blue stripe running down it; it passed just under his neck, giving him a fairly laid back kind of vibe. His eyes were also blond, and youth sparkled in them. He was wearing a red army style jacket with gold gold collar and cuffs. It looked to be a uniform of sorts, but what really stood out was the badges he was wearing.

On his left breast was three badges. The first one depicted what seemed to be a shield. It was blue with a pink six-pointed star in the middle. The second was gold and was shaped to be a unicorn of sorts. Nothing else stood out about it but it obviously meant something rather important. The third was a classic head of command badge, used in the USA.

It struck me as odd seeming as though everyone here seems to speak English, but I wasn't going to question it. It was also odd that the people of this era used modern day terms like the hand signs, and the badges. Frociesta's pretty lazy if ya ask me.

I finally responded to his apology, "No worries, it was also my fault. And anyway, what's the head of the guard doing apologising to some lowly noble?" I asked, rhetorically.

He chuckled a bit at my response, before answering. "I'd like to think I'm not your average commander." He then put out his hand. "It is nice to finally meet you Sir Elvenkind. I am Shining Armor, leader of the royal guard and proud member of the Shadow Stars!" He said, using his free hand to put on a playful salute.

I shook his hand firmly, which he smirked at, and spoke. "It is nice to meet you Sir Armor. But may I inquire as to how you know my name? And also, what are the Shadow Stars?"

"As for your name, the princesses told me about you. As for the shadow stars-" Before he finished, he shot me a smile. Then with a quick pop, I was once again in the thrown room. Fuck magic!!!

I turned around to face the Princesses and spoke, "Could you please stop doing that?"

That garnered a giggle from the two of them before Luna spoke. "Where's the fun in that?"

I grumbled a dew inaudible slurs under my breath before speaking. "Anyways, what did you want?"

Celestia answered my question. "We do not want anything, we simply wished to congratulate you on your performance yesterday."

Deciding to be a smart ass. "Well now you have. So is there anything else?"

Luna chimed in with a sarcastic tone. "Ha ha."

Celestia ignored my little remark and carried on. "My sister and I would like to give you a small gift for your effort."

That got me interested. "Go on...."

"How would you feel about becoming a Shadow Star!" She said in a overly joyous tone with her hands above her head.

"No" I simply replied, with no small frown on my face. I already new it was gonna be some sketchy shit. I've seen asterisk war, I need no further prompting to know that Shadow Stars are bad news.

The princesses sighed at my answer. "Not even going to ask what it means?" I shook my head. "Very well then. Just know the offer stands." I'm not going to join some random ass cult without a reason to; and quite frankly the name 'shadow stars' doesn't scream fun and rainbows.

But still. Something was off. No annoyance? I refuse to believe they are not bothered by me turning down such a generous offer. A thought then hit me.

I whispered under my breath, "Mind reading." and delved into there heads. However what I heard was odd. They appeared to be having a conversation.

I see your concern sister, but you must remember that he did not take the offer at first either. He will come around in time.

I see your point sister, but you know what happened to him! We mustn't let history replay himself!

It was odd hearing Celestia shout without moving her lips, and with a small smile on. Who was 'he'? I'm not a fan of being left in the dark, but asking the questions now would show the princesses one of my abilities. But no worries, I have just the idea to get the info I need.

"Well if there is nothing else, I shall take my leave." I said with a small smile.

Luna was the one to respond . "If you shall not take us up on our offer then that will be all. Have a wonderful day Phoenix."

"You too you two."

I clenched my fist and returned home.

Things were really off. And I needed answers. However, that would have to wait.

I suddenly felt a small bump on my side, followed by the sound of a certain rainbow haired woman laughing. I looked down at my right to find Snipe on the ground on all fours, rubbing the front of his head. He muttered under his breath, "What the-" He then looked at me and my confused expression met his. "Oh! Phoenix, I'm sorry about that. I swear I didn't see you there." His statement wasn't to reassure me it was an accident, but merely a statement.

I slightly chuckled at him as I put out my hand to help him up. "No worries kid, I'd be very surprised if you did see me quick enough to move." When he stood up, I noticed he was topless. But what really caught my attention was the large wings sprouting from his back. They were quite the spectacle, with quite the length. When he was up, he stretched his wings out and then retract them again, probably making sure they were fine after the crash. At length, they were around two meters to each side, with brown feathers slowly turning white towards the ends. "So what were you doing anyway?"

At that point, Rainbow had caught up to us from afar. She spoke as she walked the last stretch towards us. "I was teaching Snipe how to fly!"

Huh. Figured they could do it from birth. "Didn't you say at the party that pegasus, dragons and griffons were taught to fly at a young age?" We had had this conversation before, when I asked her how difficult it is to fly.

"I did say that. But Snipe wasn't taught in his infant years." She took a more sombre tone as she finished.

Not wanting to drag out the awkward silence, I asked another question. "Isn't it a bit difficult to teach him, you don't even need to beet your wings?"

She sighed in understanding. "You're right, it is difficult. I can't help him with gaining height, but gliding has the same principles!"

That explains why he couldn't stoop. "I see. Well, keep up the good work you two. I need to rest, and think about things."

"Ok, fair enough dude. Stay cool!" She said, as I returned the fist bump she offered.

"Cya around." I then turned to the Snipe and offered a fist bump of my own. "Have a good one little man." He seemed disappointed about not being able to talk much, but he returned the bro fist and then said his goodbyes.

Now left to my own devices, I walked into my house and made my way upstairs. Taking off my spectacular garments, I threw on some jogging bottoms and fucked the shirt. I then proceeded to use my earth bending to create a small desk by one of the walls. It helped that a lot of the building was made of marble. Right now I wasn't really giving any shits and so I just launched my note book and ability book off my bedside table and onto the newly formed desk with my air bending. Summoning Chastiefols pillow form to my feet, I sat crossed legged on it before raising it to use a seat.

I spent the next hour or so contemplating what I had been told and the information I had received. I came to the conclusion that I wasn't the first person to stumble into their land, judging by the conversation the princesses were having. This other........person.........something bad happened to him..........and that thing may happen to me.......

I was beginning to trust the people in my life less and less now, and my confusion grew the more I thought about it. My paranoia was starting to develop again, and I found my self questioning all my previous encounters. I began losing my thoughts, and every bad outcome flew through my mind. Pessimism is my greatest strength, but right now it's not doing me any favours.

However, before I could drive my self to insanity. I heard a familiar page turning from right in front of me. I probably should have been more exited then I was, but I was in no mental state to be cheered. I lifted my head off of my hands and looked towards the book. Once it had done flipping, I pulled the book towards me and looked through the pages.

As always, everything was as it seemed, except the new title. "Crystal gem." I read out loud.

And can you guess what happened next?

The information flooded into my head as usual, but what was different, was the weird sensation at the bottom of the back of my neck. It confused me for a moment, but I soon realised what it was.

Standing up, I reached for the back of my neck. My assumption was correct. I had a crystal gem. I quickly made my way over to the mirror in my bathroom and floated over a hand mirror behind me to have a look at my newest feature. It was what you would expect for a gem, but instead of rose, it appeared to be purple. It was about the size of a baseball in diameter, and had 12 sides to it. It looked a tiny bit odd to be honest but I'm glad Frociesta put my colour scheme into consideration.

After admiring the shiny thing, I decided I should actually see what it did. For some reason, this time I got the information on how to summon it, not what it was.

I slightly tensed my upper back and summand my weapon. But what I didn't expect was a bow.

I mean, it was cool and all, but bows weren't really my style, never have been. Deciding to play around later, I go rid of the bow and began getting changed. I threw on some black jeans and a green shirt and made my way downstairs. Then, with an apple in hand, I went to go do anything that popped up.

However, nothing popped up. So I made my way home once again after about an hour of wondering. Now, I'm not a drug addict, and I never was, but man would some weed be useful right about now. So with nothing else to do, I figured some light hunting would do me some good soon as I can't buy meet here.

I ran about five miles into the Everfree before deciding I was far enough away. Taking out my newest weapon, I laid down behind a rock with my bow placed horizontally on it, waiting for any pray that dared walk in my line of site. After a few minutes of waiting, what appeared to be a brown bear waltzed over to where I was aiming. I lined up my shot and released, firing a bolt of green lightning. I was expecting the energy to be released in the form of arrows, I've played enough fantasy games to know what it means when a bow doesn't have a bow string; however, I wasn't expecting my target to explode on impact. Should have seen it coming to be fair. Frociesta is basically just taking a level one character and maxing it out.

After a bit of experimentation with the bow, I decided it wasn't really for me. Bows are cool and all, but I'm more one for being up in the action. And so, I took a different approach, and just snapped the necks of anything that moved. I got really into it after a while and spent the next couple hours depleting the forests population. I made sure to only kill the ones that looked like predators hoping that Fluttershy would be less mad, but I was sorely mistaken.

After killing my seventy sixth manticore, I heard a small gasp from my left. The owner of the gasp seemed to be a familiar pink haired animal caretaker, one that probably wasn't very happy with me.

After she wiped away the tears she had running down from her face, she made her way towards me.

In a calming voice, "Look, Fluttershy. I can ex-" A loud slap sound interrupted me, but I did not move. Sadly for the girl, her plan backfired.

As she lowered her hand from my face, she looked at it in utter horror, before screeching in pain.

Thinking quickly, I shot Chastiefol over in its spear form before chanting, "Sprit Spear Chastiefol, eighth configuration!"

Focusing the pollen garden around her right hand, I healed it rather quickly due to how precisely I aimed the healing effects. After a few seconds of healing, she looked at her hand in amazement, shook it a about a bit, and then slapped me again. Then in turn, squealing again.

We repeated that process a few more times before I finally grew bored.

I gave her a blank stare and spoke in an annoyed tone, "You done?"

She wiped away another wave of tears before murmuring something barely audible. "You're a monster."

With a grin that probably shouldn't have been there, I replied. "Oh I am fully aware."