The Forgemaster awoke the next morning to a truly heart-felt sight. He had forgotten to end his spell as he went to sleep, so he was still a pony. Rainbow Dash had curled next to him with a foreleg wrapped around him, and was snoring gently into his chest. He chuckled to himself as he looked down at her, making sure not wake her up. She looked about as cute as Fluttershy would look naturally.

Unfortunately, she was latched onto him tight, if he were to move she would be woken immediately, without a doubt. So he settled himself; perfectly content to lie there with her on him. Then he remembered that it was Rainbow Dash; she usually woke up after or immediately before noon, and that was on a daily basis! He had no idea how long it would take her to wake up if she stayed up till after midnight.

He sighed quietly, 'Oh well, might as well think of something cool to say…'

wWwWwWw

2 hours later

After quite the long wait, and quite a feat of willpower by The Forgemaster, Rainbow decided to return to the land of the living. She awoke gently, took a moment to herself, and then noticed what she was lying on. She shifted her gaze from the red coat her hoof was on to the smiling face of her coltfriend looking down at her.

"Hey…" she rasped out in a quiet voice as an early morning greeting.

In a similarly quiet voice, he said, "I must've forgotten to turn off my swag; I woke up covered in mares."

He smirked at her as her still sleepy mind processed what he said.

She smiled angrily at him and then punched him in the side, "You jerk!" she said, marginally louder than before.

He just smiled and then kissed her on the cheek, "C'mon, I'll make the pancakes."

He slid out of the bed and she followed after him shortly. He went down the stairs to make the promised pancakes, reverting to his human form half-way down, as she went into his pro-offered bathroom to take a shower.

He quickly whipped up the ingredients to the pancakes and was about to put them on the stove when Rainbow finished with her shower. She entered his kitchen nook with a towel wrapped around herself.

"Take care of these so I can take a shower too." He said, and then walked past Rainbow to the stairs.

When he was done with his shower and had gotten dressed, he walked down the stairs to find that Rainbow did not, in fact, burn either his house down or the pancakes. Much to his surprise. He quickly set up the table with necessary implements and sat down with Rainbow Dash to eat. Such is his devotion to his friends, for he considered Rainbow one now if that wasn't obvious, that The Forgemaster didn't even have manticore bacon with his breakfast. While the pair were enjoying their meal, a knock was heard on the door. He answered the door to a very stoic Royal Guard, a lieutenant judging by the markings on his armor.

The stoic face of the guard was threatened in the face of the beast that lived inside the massive house, "I was told that this was the residence of the Lord-general?"

The Forgemaster leaned against the door frame and said, "Yes."

"I have an important message for him." The guard continued.

"I'm sure you do." came the reply, much to the guard's anger.

"May I ask where he is?"

"Yes." Oh, the guard was getting flustered now

The guard waited a beat, "Where is he?"

"He's here."

"May I speak with him?"

"Yes."

"Forgey, quit playin' with the guard and let him in before he snaps!" Rainbow said from the dining room.

The Forgemaster sighed and waved the guard past him and into the living room, where a certain blue pegasus was currently devouring his pancakes, along with hers. He went over to Rainbow and saved his pancakes from her. He then whispered the gist of what went on in Canterlot to her, and that he was the Lord-general of the Royal Guards but that Celestia didn't want the guards to think they were being led by a non-pony, so he had to be Crimson to lead them. He also told her that the only guard that knew was the Guard-Captain. Rainbow understood what he was saying, strangely enough, and quickly dropped into the same evasive nature that he was in.

After the whispering mess that was an explanation, The Forgemaster turned back to the guard and said, "The good Lord-general actually lives in the cloud-house that is tethered to mine, though he is not often home. If you ever need to contact him, just come and find me. I'll get him here in a moment."

The Forgemaster walked up the stairs and yelled out of the window, mostly for the benefit of the guard downstairs, "Hey! Crimson! Get your midget ass down here, a Guard is here!"

He then stripped naked before he turned into the colt version of Crimson and dropped out the window, he then quickly ran through the front door and into the living room. When Rainbow saw him, she had to forcibly stop herself from laughing, and she was not entirely successful. When the guard saw him, he saluted and stood at attention.

In the most cordial, yet still incredibly child-like voice he could manage, he said, "What do you need lieutenant?"

At the voice he used, Rainbow Dash couldn't help herself and laughed loudly. The guard managed to ignore the madly laughing pegasus behind him, and answered the Lord-general's question.

"My lord, Princess Celestia asked that you come to Canterlot and speak with the Royal Guards, and see if everything is to your satisfaction."

The colt stared him down for a moment before breaking out into a huge smile stretching all the way across his face, "GREAT!" he yelled as loudly as possible.

He then jumped towards the guard and landed on his back. After getting situated on the startled guard's back, he said, "Let's get going!"

The guard managed to somehow shrug off his leader's antics and went out the front door, leaving a nearly dying pegasus behind them. They went to a nearby chariot and climbed into it, the pegasi there just as confused as the lieutenant was as to why their leader demanded to be carried.

wWwWwWw

They arrived in Canterlot in under an hour. He was quickly led to where the Princess was in conference with the 3 other Guard lieutenants and the captain. The lieutenant and he entered the conference room undetected, and were able to listen in on the argument that was taking place. The guards and the princess were arguing over a large, wooden table in the middle of the room. He quickly shushed the lieutenant he was sitting on to make sure that he didn't try to reveal their presence. The Forgemaster noticed that the Guard-Captain was staying out of the argument.

"Princess, how can you expect us to function under such an immature leader?" one said

Before the princess could speak, another lieutenant did, "Princess; he's quite literally a colt in a stallion's body!"

Celestia actually laughed out loud when the guard said that, "Oh, Lt. Barricade, it is much, much more complex than that."

"What do you mean by that, Princess?"

"He's a shape shifting magical warrior, to be honest."

The other ponies in the room looked between themselves for a long moment, contemplating that. The lieutenant underneath The Forgemaster started to shift uncomfortably when the princess said that. The Forgemaster hovered off of her, and snuck up on the group.

Finally, one of the guards spoke up, "Princess… is he even a pony?"

"No, he most assuredly is not." Declared a loud, deep voice grumbled from seemingly everywhere at once.

The guards looked about the room frantically, trying to locate the sound of the voice and failing miserably. The 4th lieutenant walked towards them and stood in the center of the group, though none seemed to grasp the implications of him being there. Celestia just looked bored at his antics.

He used his magic and created quite a light show, flashing and stunning the ponies at the conference. Then, every shadow seemed to twitch and giggle, before leaving the place where they would naturally be and started to drift towards the center of the table. The ponies looked on in horror as seemingly every shadow in the room coalesced into a solid, dark being in the middle of the table.

The shadows tightened and the being became smaller, smaller, and ever so much smaller before it became about the size of a large pony like the Princesses. The shadowy figure began to grow features, legs, a horn, wings, armor, the being slowly gained features before those present could guess what it was.

It slowly lightened into a red color before being revealed what, exactly, it was: Crimson Hammer.

He stood on the table, facing the guards with a glare on his face, as silence permeated the room.

Celestia broke the silence by saying, "That was quite the entrance."

He looked behind himself towards where she was and said, "They doubted me!"

She rolled her eyes and said, "They were put off by your immature attitude."

"Did you tell them about my wild personality shifts?"

"No."

He turned back to the shocked guards and said, "Well then, I have wild personality shifts." and then smiled cheekily at them.

He quickly got down to business, "Alright, since I don't know your names; you are going to be Lt. A, and you are Lt. B, you are Lt. Gives-rides-a-lot, and you are Lt. Barricade. The Good captain over there is the Captain…. Any questions?"

The guards were, understandably, put off by what he said to them. Barricade was happy that at least he got his own name, though the rest were questioning the 'Gives-rides-a-lot' name that he had come up with: the other names had at least some semblance of logic to them.

The Forgemaster, on the other hand, snickered at what he had done; the guards were incredibly confused and some were even angry. Especially that guard that picked him up from his house: he was mad.

The Forgemaster, however, barked out a series of orders before they could question him, "Alright: here are some new orders! Number 1; in the event of an Equestrian military officer or soldier questioning you about me, tell them nothing but my name, rank, and that I am a colt. The reasoning is that I enjoy watching their faces when they are outshone by a colt. Number 2; if any representative of the Equestrian military comes anywhere near me, warn me before-hoof so that I may switch back into my colt form. The reasoning being the same as the previous order. Number 3; don't question my orders. Number 4; protect the princesses with your lives, literally, I might add. Number 5; extensive training is going to occur, and nopony is exempt from it, including officers. Any questions?"

The guards were taken aback by his sudden seriousness, and failed to respond within the time limit.

"Alrighty then. Celestia, is there another reason I am here?"

"Yes." She motioned the guard lieutenants out of the room and walked over towards a hidden alcove in the wall with The Forgemaster and the guard captain. As they walked, The Forgemaster struck up a conversation.

"Hey Captain: never under any circumstance are you to reveal that I am also The Forgemaster. By the way, it's nice to finally meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, sir. My name is Shining Armor."

The Forgemaster groaned, "I'll never get used to pony names, I swear. It always appears to be a combination of adjectives and nouns, never any actual names."

Shining Armor cocked a brow, "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"My people name their children with names that mean things without using the actual damn words that the name means. For instance; the name Keenan can mean sharp, ancient, and little. The name Robert can mean fame, bright, and shining amongst other things. William means protector, Victoria means winner, Michael means like god, Adolf means noble wolf, and Quinn means wise. Every single name in existence has a meaning, but for some damn reason you ponies refuse to be original. It's like you open up a dictionary and point at 2 random words that magically string together. Look at your name, for gods' sake: your name is Shining Armor, what would've happened if you didn't become a guard? That's a mighty strange name for a home decorator, I'll tell you that right now."

"That's actually… quite interesting, sir."

"I know, who do you think invented half of those meanings?"

Shining Armor started, "Was it you?"

"Hell no, humans are creative."

"Ah, so that's what you are?"

"Yep."

Celestia turned and walked down a corridor before coming to a stop in front of an empty wall.

"We're here." She announced

"I assume there's a door in that wall." said The Forgemaster

"Yes, you are correct, Forgemaster. This is the only entranceway into the Royal Dungeons."

Shining Armor was confused, "But I thought that the dungeons were located on the other side of the castle?"

"Yes, but those are the dungeons, these are the Royal Dungeons." Celestia said, putting emphasis on the word 'Royal'

"Hmm, so this is where those griffons were taken?"

Celestia reached out with a hoof and touched a series of blocks on the wall, when finished, the wall slid into the ground.

Celestia then walked into the revealed chamber, saying, "Yes, this is where the worst scum in all Equestria have been sent, as well as traitors, prisoners of war, and these griffons."

The Forgemaster eyed the dark, damp walls of the prison and said, "Nice place. Ever think of opening a resort down here?"