I agreed. Though at the moment, I didn’t truly think on how hard it would be training with Mike, I mean, sure over the years we spared a few times; mostly to entertain the kids of course, but no, he was not holding back when it came to training me. It had only been a week since I asked him to train me, and also a week since the day found out about Chrysalis having a Changeling colt, a colt who was mine. And being true to my word, once a day I would go up to Canterlot, go to the wing of the castle, given to the Changelings to stay thanks to Celestia and Luna; to offer some of my love as their food. Truly I did not fully know how the hell she was taking love out of me, all I knew was that I did not feel the effect of what she did to me last time while me and Vlad would spend some time together; she of course being close by. As I said before, I did not like her one bit, not after what she put myself and mostly Twilight through, but it didn’t matter, I was here for Vlad. Like is aid before, it took two days for the blood work to come back, and it was indeed a match, Vlad was my son. So sucking up my pride, I would have to deal with the queen of the Changeling while I would visit.

Every time I would come, Armor always had ten guards with me; just in case something was to happen. So far nothing had happen, but it was better safe then sorry. Vlad told me that he could eat like a pony could, which was good on some parts I guess, but he could not change like the other Changelings, something that I saw as a little weird. But what he could do surprised me. It seemed he could bend his body into the shadows, using the shadows around him like a weapon in a way, a neat little trick; and something that may prove useful if he ever had to defend himself. He had yet to come to Ponyville to visit, and he never did ask to come with me, so I did not ask. In fact he didn’t show any sort of interest to come to Ponyville at all. Pretty much, all me and Vlad did was talk, he would ask me of my past, wondering who I was before becoming what I was. I told him, and did not hold back. It seemed even though he was a little younger then Sonic Flash, he didn’t mind a lot of things at all. Chrysalis would be near a lot of the time, for the reason to feed off my love as was the deal, a few times I felt a little tried, as she told me this was normal, but she promised that she would stop if it went to far. Though with the guards around all the time, I think this was the more of the reason then that.

Over the week, I noticed that she truly was different, when she smiled; it didn’t seem that evil at all, it seemed like a real, heart warming smile. Did having Vlad real open something up deep within her? And could something that could feed off the love of others truly love someone else? I went to the library whenever I had the chance, to study up on the Changelings, I could not find what I was looking for, so maybe this was a first in history for her kind.

“Mother told me about how she tricked you,” I turned to Vlad, we were in his own room that was given, it was pretty large, I mean, I think it was as large as the living room of mine and Twilight’s home. “Do you still hate her for that?”

“I dislike her for doing that,” I told him as I sat on his bed with him. He had a few books on it, it seemed that he liked to read, not as much as Twilight, but he loved to read all the same, and write as well. “I mean…it was a pretty crummy trick I’ll admit, using my emotions and will to keep the ones I hold dear to me safe to her own gain.”

“She isn’t like that now,” I turned back to him as he looked up to me. “Mother…I believe that she has changed. I will always love her like a son should, and I do not know what she was truly like before, since I was not born then. But I know, just from hearing what the guards whisper when I sneak in the shadows at night that she has truly changed.”

“I truly hope so,” I answered him placing a hand on his head. “We real don’t need another foe that’s out to take over the world, or destroy It.” he seemed to smile at this as he went back to his book before I stood up and stretched. “How have you and Sonic been doing?”

“Great,” he answered me while my back was to him. “His friends though, the one with the green in her hair…she keeps looking at other ponies flanks.” I sighed and shook my head.

“Like father like daughter. Her father, Devon, he’s a bit of a pervert.”

“A bit?” he questioned as I turned to see him with a raised eyebrow. “He keeps making sex puns any chance he can get, and says the most random things ever! If it wasn’t for Discord being alive, I would think that HE was the God of Chaos.” This caused me to laugh loudly as he too started to chuckle.

“Yes, I guess you’re right, Devon can be a bit of a…air head, but he has a great skill and will for peace like myself and Mike. And he knows when it’s time to be for real, and not joke around; even though he does somehow still have time to make every fight a little…”

“Strange?”

“Strange,” I agreed before looking out the window. I was about to tell him that I was about to leave, when a knock came at the door. Going over and opening the door, I noticed one of my guards that Armor assigned to watch over me.

“I am deeply sorry Prince Brandon,” he spoke while bowing slightly. “But the princesses require you to come to the throne room at once.” I nodded my head as Vlad jumped off the bed and came over to me.

“I shall find mother then, see you tomorrow father?”

“Yes, and you know, if you wish you can always come to Ponyville to meet visit.”

“I shall remember that, but I believe you should go now.” I nodded as I gave my Changeling son my farewells and left.

Walking down the hallway, I turned my head to look out of the window to my left; I noticed that there were many more ponies then normal down around the grounds. Many of them seemed to be frightened, reason I do not know.

“Excuse me, but what is going on down there?” I asked the pale coat Pegasus as he turned his head slightly back to me as we kept on walking. “What is going on down there?”

“The reason why the princesses wished to speak to you and the other Guardians,” he answered looking on ahead. Devon and Mike were here as well; but why? “It seemed that the city far away from Equestria was attack, these ponies had come here to seek help from the princesses, and to also tell us what happened.” Could this be the army that Sinbad had started to build, could they be slowly gaining more and more guard that way they can have a place to grow even more? At least we now could find out what we are going to be dealing with.

The room of which Celestia, Luna, Mike, Devon, and also Shiny Armor was the same room we always have our plans, we now called it the War Room in a sense. Mike nodded to me as well as Devon as they both were waiting with the others. The guard that took me here went toward his post as Celestia turned to look at us all before speaking.

“Guard, may you please bring her in now.” another guard, all black but wearing Celestia guard armor nodded and went off, a few moments later coming back with a light blue color unicorn. I could not se her cutie mark, for it was covered as well as her hind legs, some red seen from the blood, in fact she looked a mess, her long blond hair in shambles. Her head was held down, her body visibly shaking as Celestia made her way over to the pony and brought a hoof to her shoulder. “Do not fear, you are safe here, please; may you tell us what happen?” the pony looked around at us for a moment, locking eyes on the only humans in the room, well…I’m not sure if you count Devon as a human anymore or myself; but you get the idea.

“It…was just like any other day,” she started, her voice so low, she reminded me a little of Fluttershy. “It happened so fast…I don’t even know if it was real. One moment it was clear, then the ground started to form mist, as if a cloud had came down on us. We thought little of it, but a chilling scream caused us to know, that this was not normal.” She then looked to myself, Devon and Mike again. “The things that attacked us, looked just like them, but at the same time not.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Their bodies looked to be decaying, they looked dead, and they WERE dead. Some missing limps and eyes yet they still roamed around; their swords and axes and other such weapons as twisted as they were!” for once Devon was right…zombies, great fucking great! “But…there were humans that looked…normal.” This caused me to look at her in slight shock. “The undead seemed to listen to them.”

“What did they look like?” I asked as the mare looked up to me.

“One was always flicking his hair back; another was small, maybe…less than five feet? And the last was both tall and wide…he was the worst out of all the three, he killed my husband…my filly…” she then started to break down in tears as I cursed and looked away for a moment.

“That is all, guard, take her somewhere where she can rest.” The guard saluted and then left, I soon felt all the eyes on me as I looked back. “You know who they are…don’t you Brandon?” Celestia asked as I sighed and nodded.

“They are three of Sinbad’s best men,” I told her as everyone started to listen. “Leonard, the one that’s he said was flicking his hair, he believes that even when killing can be a art, though he cares for of how he looks when he kills then anything else. The smallest of the group is Nix, crazy little bugger, he says the weirdest things, but he can torture and make sure you suffer a fate worst then death…soon you will wish for death! The last one is the worst of the three, he’s big, strong, fast, and will do anything to kill you, even kill his own men to do it. His real name I do not now, but from what I remember of him, he calls himself…the Animal.” I sighed and then started to rub my eyes. “The only reason I can think that they are here, is because Sinbad needs more commanders in his army,”

“That does make sense, and I’m guessing we can’t turn them over to the good side huh?” Armor asked me as I laughed slightly.

“Not a chance, they love to kill, killing is like breathing for them.”

“Such terrible humans that live in your home world,” Luna spoke while shaking her head. “How did you not become like them if you were raised around such vial villains?” I smiled and shrugged my shoulder slightly.

“Your guess is as good as mine truthfully, maybe I was lucky; maybe it was because of my mother.”

“In any case,” Celestia spoke while walking up. “I do not think it is wise to tell any other pony about this until it is the right time, until them; please keep this between everypony in this room.” We all agreed on this at once, like really, I don’t think the three towns in Equestria would take it pretty well if they found out that a army of zombies would be coming soon. “Mike, do you still have a lot of that metal Nova gave you?” the hammer wielding human nodded his head.

“More then enough Princess Celestia, do you wish for me to make armor for the guards as well?”

“If it is not too much trouble, the armor we gave them is pretty much only for show, and not really for fighting.”

“I shall get on it right away once I mosey back home then malady.” The whitish pink Alicorn nodded her head before something came to mind.

“Celestia, you told me that each land, like Equestria has rulers, right?” this was pretty much basic stuff when living in this world, the Alicorns were kings or queen of their land. Luna scoffed at this, seeming displeases at me brining this up.

“Yes,” she answered shaking her head. “The king of that land, what was his name…Prince Bright Heart, it seemed he fled two days before the attack of the city he lived in.”

“Wait, wait,” Armor cut in looking at her with confusion in his eyes. “Two days…he knew that this attack would happen?!”

“Yes,” Luna answered the captain guard. “The coward, he did not even tell his subjects that they were going to be attacked!”

“Any idea where he may have gone?” I asked, while Celestia shook her head.

“Bright was not always keen on…worrying about others, more on himself. He could be half way around the world by now.”

“What will happen to the ponies that came here, I mean…they need a place to go after this war is over right?”

“This is true brother,” Luna spoke up moving forward. “But I doubt many would want to go back to their old homes after this attack…too many bad thoughts. That is why, if there is no ruler to take over the land there, if the Changeling Queen can earn her trust, we wish for her to govern there.”

“Are you sure that is such a good idea?” Devon spoke up as he crossed his arms. “I mean…she does feed off love, and sure Brandon here can feed her…but if it took these ponies a day to get here, how will you watch her to make sure everything is all hunky dory?”

“We have the crystals we use when we must speak to all of Equestria; we can place many hidden though out the city, much like spies in a sense. And also we can send on of you four once a week over to make sure everything is fine.”

“I like this plan,” I answered nodding my head. “But one thing at a time, we need to ready ourselves at any given moment. We do not know truly how large this army is, when we get back Mike, how fast can you make those armors?” the cowboy turned to me and counted to himself with his fingers.

“By myself aye can make maybe…half a dozen every few days, depending on what type of armor we need.”

“Make the armor so that the wearer can move about with ease, you said yourself that the armor is light but strong right?” he nodded his head as I turned to Devon. “Devon, I’ll need you to train the guards under you with Armor, you don’t mind training him do you?” I asked turning to my brother-in-law as he shook his head.

“He still needs some learning in how to command, something I’m willing to give.” I nodded to him as I then turned back to looking at Celestia and Luna.

“I’ll help in any way I can as well, is there anything you two would like to add?”

“Yes, may you speak with the Changeling Queen and see if she is willing to add any of the Changelings to our main forces?”

“That…could cause problems princess,” Shiny Armor interrupted while the two Alicorns turned to look down at him. “I mean…its bad enough that the guards are always near the Changeling, but…them trusting them on the battle field?”

“We have no choice Armor,” I told him as he turned to me. “I can understand where you’re going with this. But for now, we have to at least trust them enough, to fight with them.”

The only sounds that could be heard were the clanking of the train’s. After the meeting, Devon, Mike, and I were now on our way back home to Ponyville. Since it was only us at the time, we were able to get one section of the seats, making it easier for us to speak of what we thought.

“I don’t understand why we can’t tell the girls,” Devon spoke as he shrugged his shoulders. “I mean, don’t they as well as everypony have the right to know what will soon be on top of them…so to speak?”

“Oh yes Devon,” I answered rolling my eyes as I crossed my arms, my chin to my chest. “I can see it now, ‘Oh hey there Twilight, oh yes my day went well. I just found out that the army Sinbad has, is in fact an army of undead humans!’.” I could see Devon’s reaction as he chuckled softly out of slight worry; as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Well…when you put it like that…”

“Ay agree with the princesses on this,” Mike answered as he nodded his head, taking off his hat to push his hair back. “Ay means, we should keep this under the farm until it is truly needed to be spoken of.”

“I agree as well,” we all jumped at this new voice that came out of nowhere, but I knew the voice at once. Soon a small head poked from under my seat as my Changeling son Vlad came out and shook his body.

“Vlad, what are you doing here?!” the young Changeling turned his head to look at me before jumping up on the seat next to me; and reseating himself. I did not notice till now, be he now held a cape that covered his body a bit. I mean, his legs and a bit of his sides were easily seen, and his chest as well. The cape was slightly ragged near the end, a deep black, the inside a blood red. “And…how did you get in here in the first place? I didn’t even hear you come in!”

“I used my skills father,” he answered me giving a small nod. “Remember that I spoke of it to you many days ago.”

“What skills?” Mike asked as the young colt turned to him and then to the ground where his shadow sat. Jumping down, he stood in Mike’s shadow, before his eyes flashed a deep dark green, and slowly; ever so slowly, he sank into his shadow. I have never seen this first hand, so seeing it for the first time slightly shocked me, thinking he would come back from the same shadow, I jumped as I felt him ‘grow’ from the shadow beside me, as we entered a tunnel.

Pulling up on the train platform, we got out one at a time, Vlad beside me as he hopped from the small jump as he looked around. Before coming to the stop, I had asked him, what he would do when everypony watched him with weary eyes. He just shrugged slightly.

“I do not care father,” he answered me as he turned to look me in the eye. “If they fear me, they fear me. Just like Nightmare Moon, where she had to gain their trust, I too can gain their trusts.” It was so weird, here was a youngling, only two years of age, maybe a bit younger, and yet…he spoke and held that much of wisdom; of that of a much older pony.

“Hey Vlad?” Devon asked as we made our way into the town, already eyes were on us as he looked up toward the Humicorn with half closed bored like eyes. “Does your mother know you are here?”

“No,”

“Don’t you think you should’ve told her?”

“I can take care of myself; I have been without any sort of life before.”

“What?” I asked as he turned to look at me.

“Mother knows that one day I will leave, so she wanted to get me ready for that day when it comes. So every few weeks, I would leave, sometimes close to a week itself, living off the land and keeping myself safe; I am not like my older brother father, I can and will deal with anything thrown my way!” I only gave him a half puzzle look, what was she thinking, allowing him to be out on his own, at just two years old, even younger! But…his kind does have a different…way of living, so I guess they and the ponies here are not all the same.  

“Hey dad!” I brought my head up after hearing the sound of Sonic Flash call out to me. Smiling as I saw him run over, behind him Cloudy Skys and Sapphire Bloom close behind. He then stopped running and went into a speed walk, and then stopped when he then noticed Vlad. “Oh Vlad! So you decided to come over here now?”

“Yes brother,” he answered with a nod, his eyes half closed in the bored like look I always seen him wear. “I have thought about coming here, to see what Ponyville is truly like.”

“Well that’s neat!” the white colt nodded his head before moving to the side. I could see that Sapphire Bloom was slightly scared, I mean, I could see it written all over her face. “These are my friends, Sapphire Bloom.”

“Uh…howdy,” she gave a small wave of her hoof as Vlad only nodded.

“And this is…uh Cloudy…?” I turned to look at Cloudy to see if she was alright, but what shocked me…was HOW she was looking at Vlad.

Her eyes were opened wide, her jaw slightly slack, and I think I saw a small blush on her face. I do not know if Vlad noticed this or not, since he only nodded to her.

“Hello there, so you are the one that Sonic spoke of, the perverted one?”

“Uh…uh…yeah!” she then nodded her head and smiled. “That’s me, uh… have to go,” and just like that, she turn and left, and for the first time ever, I did not hear a single comment on perverted like things come out of her mouth at all…it slightly worried me.

“Well…that was strange,” Sapphire Bloom answered out loud as Vlad turned to her and raised an eyebrow as she turned to answer him. “She never don that before.”

“Never?”

“Never,” Both Sonic and Sapphire answered at once as Vlad tapped his chin with a hoof.

“Well,” I answered dusting my hands as the three looked up at me. “You three do what you do then, are you two foals gonna show him the club house?”

“Yeah!” Sonic nodded his head slightly and grinned.  “Like I said, maybe you can get a Cutie Mark too!”

“I highly doubt this,” the changeling answered with bored like eyes. “But…doesn’t hut to try…right?”

“That’s the spirit!” Sapphire beamed a smiled as the three went on toward the farm.

After they were gone, I and Mike turned to look toward Devon who turned to look at us.

“What?” he asked as I shook my head.

“Why did Cloudy react the way she did when she saw Vlad?”

“How the hell should I know?” he answered with a shrug.

“She might have a crush on him,” Mike answered picking at his teeth with his finger. I and Devon did a double take back as we gave him shock like looks. “Oh come on, think about it. They are two years old, yet they have grown faster then any human child could, maybe they mature faster then humans do; I’m not sure.” I was about to say something else when I saw Devon smirk from beside me. Turning over I then saw him grin more widely as he brought an arm around my shoulder.

“I guess that makes us in-laws now!”

“Oh hell no!” the other two started to laugh slightly at this before roaring into laughter, and I had to admit, I too started to softly laugh at this. It would be slightly funny, I mean Cloudy falling in love with a Changeling? I guess it is really true what they say then…love truly holds no bounds.