The next day started out for the same for Leo. Again, he woke up as Celestia was raising the sun. After stretching out to wake himself up, he picks up the bracelet that he was given the previous day. "This is such a strange world with items like this." chuckling to himself. Putting the bracelet on his right wrist, he was transformed back into Ardent Shield, which left him off balance and his mind spinning. "I don't think I'll ever get used to this." he thought as he walked over the mirror. Looking himself over, he still couldn't get use to the fact that he was a unicorn and no longer a human.
As he was about to leave there was a knock at the door. Opening it up, the same, or who he thought was the same, guard from the previous day was at the door. "The Princess requests that you join her for breakfast."
Nodding, Ardent Shield follows the guard down the hall to the same room that he and the Princess had breakfast the previous day. Thanking the guard he enters the room to see roughly the same layout as yesterday; Princess Celestia sitting at a table reading a newspaper, an empty seat across from her, the only difference was that a buffet of fruit was already out. "Good morning, Princess." Ardent Shield said as he bowed his head.
Setting the paper down, Celestia found herself shaking her head at Ardent; she had expected him to still be in his human form. "Ardent, you do not have to be in that form around me." She said, smiling.
"Well, the transformation still causes me uneasiness, plus I still want to get used to being like this. If I’m going to blend in for the time being I'd rather not look like a complete idiot." Ardent sheepishly replied, taking his seat across from the Princess.
The Princess smiled as she poured tea for both her and Ardent. As they exchanged small talk during the meal, Celestia told him that her student would be arriving today and that she would like him to meet her. "It will be a few hours until my student arrives here, please feel free to walk around. I bet you would like to see more than this old castle." Celestia said smiling as the dishes were cleared from the table. Ardent nodded in agreement, but before he could speak Celestia spoke up again, "Don't worry, I'll send one of my guards to find you when the time comes." Nodding again, he got up and bowed to the Princess before leaving the room.
After he left the dining room, Ardent decided to head back out to the castle ground and explore the rest of the garden that he didn't see yesterday. Walking around, he arrives at a statue of a creature had never seen before. It look like it had the body and left foreleg of a griffin, a lion's right foreleg and paw, the head and neck of a pony with an over-sized tooth, a goatee beard, a mismatched antlers and horns of deer and goat, a pair of wings, one bat, one Pegasus, the left hind leg of a goat, the right hind leg of a green lizard, and the tail of a dragon. As he looked over the statue he noticed that the pose made it look afraid, almost as if it was being turned into tone rather than being carved. There was no name plate or anything identifying what this statue was. As he continued to look at the statue, something started to bother him, almost as if the statue was familiar. Putting the feeling aside, Ardent decided to head back to the pond that he rested at the previous day and to leave the statue alone. As he left, however, he couldn't shake the feeling that statue was smiling at him as he left.
After a few hours he was summoned to the throne room. Upon entering, he saw the Princess talking to a purple unicorn. "That must be her student." Ardent thought as he approached the throne. Looking up, Celestia notices Ardent approach and bow, "Ardent Shield, so nice of you to finally make it. And what did I tell you earlier, you do not need to be like that. Please be yourself."
Ardent could tell what she meant by that, but he had to make sure, "Are you sure Princess?" The Princess gave him a reassuring smile and nod.
The purple unicorn was confused by the exchange that was talking place between the Princess and the black unicorn that had just entered. Before the purple could find out, there was a flash of orange light and where the black unicorn was, there was a strange bipedal creature with no fur, a short brown mane of sorts, and wearing some sort of clothing.
"Leo, this here is Twilight Sparkle. Twilight, this is Leo, a human I brought from his world to see if humans can live here again."
Leo gave a small bow and approached Twilight, “It’s a pleasure to meet you."Leo judged by the look on Twilights face that she was in shock.
To say that she was in shock was an understatement. Here was a unicorn that just transformed into a "human". Twilight thought humans were nothing more than a myth. Sure Lyra kept coming by the library for books on them, but she never gave it any real thought that they were actually real and now, one was standing in front of her. She stayed like that for a few minutes, before she slowly advanced toward the human. She circled this strange new being looking him over, making mental notes of Leo's physical structure.
Celestia was amused as she watched her student walk around and examine Leo. She kind of figured that her student would react in this way, that's why she wanted Leo to transform to confirm it. This was the first step in possible reintroduction of the human race to Equestria. "Twilight" Celestia spoke up, "I’m putting Leo in your care for the next eight days."
That brought Twilight out of her stunned state, "Why Princess?"
Leo was about the same thing, but Celestia spoke up first, "I would like him to see first hoofed what Equestrian culture is like and being my faithful student I trust you to do it."
To Leo it made sense, Celestia did say that she wanted him to experience Equestrian culture before it was to be revealed that humans did and still do exist. Plus this was turning out to be a nice vacation from his day to day farm work.
"I understand Princess." replied Twilight with a bit of excitement starting to build. With the eight days that Ardent be spending with her she'll be able to study him and learn about his culture while he experiences theirs.
"One last thing," Celestia spoke up, “Leo, some ponies might ask where you are from and what you do, for that you are going to need a cover story, as much as I hate to deceive my little ponies. If anypony asks, tell them you come from Canterlot and that you are an auxiliary member of the Royal Guard. Twilight, I need to speak to you before you go." They both nod and Leo gives a bow before leaving the Princess and Twilight to talk in private.
Returning to the guest room, the only thing that he had in there was the bracelet that Celestia gave him. Putting it on and changing back into Ardent Shield, he headed back to wait outside the throne room.
Arriving he sees Twilight waiting for him. "Leo, there is a carriage waiting for to take us to Ponyville." Twilight said, looking over Ardent. It amazed her how he was able to transform into a unicorn and nothing seemed off. She made a mental note to ask him how he did it.
"Actually it’s Ardent Shield, at least while I look like this." he replied with a grin,” Got to keep up appearances and Leo doesn't sound very pony like, at least that what Celestia has told me."
Twilight nodded, making another mental note of that. They both headed out of the Castle and into the courtyard where a Pegasus-drawn chariot was waiting for them to take them to Ponyville. As they both boarded the two white pegasi took off into the sky. Looking over the side Ardent admired the landscape and marveled at its beauty. Twilight just smiled at the reaction of her guest. The two of them made small talk on the roughly hour long flight to Ponyville, the conversation mainly consisting of Ardent's time so far in Equestria.
After about an hour the chariot set down on the outskirts of Ponyville. Thanking the pegasi, they slowly make their way to into town. It was midday and the town was full of activity, Ardent took all of this in. The town reminded him of the small town where he lived, at least on farmer's market days. Nearing Twilights home, Ardent was startled when he heard a loud gasp behind him. Turning around, all he saw was a dust cloud. Twilight just faced hoofed knowing full well who it was and what she was about to do. "Come on Ardent, we are almost at there."
Ardent just shrugged and followed Twilight until they stopped in front a giant tree. "Here we are." said Twilight with a chipper tone.
"You live in a tree?" Replied Ardent disbelievingly.
"Yep, it’s also the library. Come on in." As they both enter, Ardent couldn’t believe that Twilight was right. He kept trying put human logic to the whole thing situation. "Spike, I’m back." He heard Twilight call out. As he looked around the room, the main room looked much like a standard living room minus the bookshelves full of books and small dragon dusting the shelves. He shook his head, after everything he has experienced over the last couple of days; a dragon did not surprise him much.
“Welcome back Twilight.” Spike said as he stopped dusting then glanced at the unicorn standing next to Twilight. “Oh I didn’t know we were having guest, I would have cleaned up quicker.”
Twilight and Ardent both chuckled a bit before she spoke up, “I didn’t either ‘til I saw the Princess today. This is Ardent Shield, an auxiliary member of the Royal Guard that the Princess assigned here for a few days.”
Ardent giving the small dragon a smile, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Spike.”
Spike walks over and holds a clawed hand toward Ardent, “Nice to meet you too.” Recognizing the gesture, Ardent shakes Spike’s hand with a fore hoof which felt strange for him not being able to give a firm handshake with hooves.
“Spike, can you show Ardent to the guest room. I have to go find Pinkie.”
"You can count on me Twilight." Spike said giving her a snappy salute. Twilight gave her assistant a smile before turning and walking out the door. Spike then turned to Ardent and motioned for him to follow. Following Spike, he is lead downstairs into the basement of the library. When they reach the bottom, Ardent notices all sorts of machines and science equipment, silently hoping that he wouldn't be Twilights next experiment. Off to the side was a small room that Spike was standing in front of. "Here it is." Spike said proudly.
"Thank you," as Ardent walks over to where Spike was and enters the room. The room was decent size, a pony sized bed, dresser, and a desk. Turning around he notices Spike is gone, he figured that he probably left to continue cleaning or something.
When Ardent came back up stairs, Spike was indeed still dusting around the library. Seeing that Twilight still hadn't returned, he decided to look over the selection of books that the library had to offer. While he glanced over the selection he came across one book that caught his attention, "The History of Equestria." He levitated the book over to a small desk. Taking a seat, he begins to read. He barely made it out of some of the most ancient history when the door to the library opens up. Looking up from the book he cranes his neck toward the door and sees Twilight has returned. "Welcome back, Twilight." He said, closing the book and putting it back on the shelf.
Twilight smiled as she walked over to Ardent, "The Princess asked me, before we left, to study human culture and to find out more about that strange bracelet that she gave you."
Ardent shrugged, "Seems legit. I am a stranger here and even I don't know anything about that weird bracelet besides what it does to me."
Following Twilight, the two of them head back downstairs and for the next three hours the two of them talk culture and history about their respected worlds. Twilight got a little disgusted about humans eating meat, but Ardent assured her that he can keep to a vegetarian diet while he is here. She also got a little worried about the violent tendencies of the humans from his home planet. Again, Ardent reassured her that he was not a violent person as he told her about is life as a farmer, including losing his parents, and the hardships of running the farm with only him and his twin sister. Twilight actually felt sorry for him, losing his parents and being brought here to a strange world while leaving his sister all alone. She also made a mental note to introduce him to Applejack.
After the third hour had passed, a sound, like a cannon going off came from up stairs. "What was that?" Ardent said wide eyed and shaken up.
Twilight on the other hand knew exactly what and who that was. Ignoring his question, Twilight got up and headed for the stairs. "I think it's time for a break, you hungry?" A small rumble came from Ardent's stomach causing him to blush. Twilight giggled and motioned for him to follow as she ran up the stairs.
Ardent slowly got up and followed her. It was pitch black when he got back to the main room of the library. "Uh Twilight, what's going on?" Ardent said as he slowly walked away from the staircase.
"SURPRISE!"
Ardent's jaw dropped as the lights came on. 'Welcome to Ponyville' was on a banner hung up in front of him. It was a welcoming party for him. As he looked around, a pink pony with a big smile on her face appeared.
"I'm Pinkie Pie, I through this welcoming party for you as you are new here and I know everypony here. I'll always throw a great big ginormous super-duper spectacular welcome party and invite everypony in Ponyville. See? And now you have lots and lots of new friends."
Ardent didn't know what to say. He didn't any friends growing up and here was this pony who just threw a party just for showing up. "I don't know what to say." He said, finally able to speak up.
"It's a party silly." Pinkie replied while bouncing around Ardent, “Have fun." With that she bounced over to a music player and turns on the music as Ardent just stood there with a stunned look on his face.
"She can be a handful at times." ®Twilight came up to Ardent with four other ponies joining her.
"I'm just overwhelmed that's all." he replied.
Twilight giggled, she knew from talking to him that he never really had a party thrown for him before. She introduced him to her four friends that were with her. Rainbow Dash, the prismatic pegasus, she seems brash and a little cocky when she talked about her flying skills, but he did agree to come watch her practice when he had some free time. He did enjoy watching pegasus fly. Rarity, the white unicorn, with a high class attitude. She generously offered him a suit that, in her words, would look absolutely marvelous on him. He tried to refuse it but she wouldn't take no for an answer. He would have something to remind himself of his time here. Fluttershy, the shy pegasus, she didn't really speak much. She seemed overly shy and what he did find out about her was from Twilight was the fact that she cared for animals on the outskirts of the town. Then there was Applejack the blonde mane mare with a country accent. Like him she was a farmer just like he was back in his world and the way she carried herself reminded him of a girl he used to know back home. Like Rainbow, he agrees to help her out on her farm when he had time to.
After the introduction, Ardent walked around and introduced himself to everyone he met. He found it strange that virtually everypony here was a mare and on more than one occasion he caught a mare checking him out. He didn't mind though. He was having a good time at the party, the only thing that worried him, was when he walked by Twilight and overheard her being asked by a green unicorn if she got anymore books about human mythology. When word got out that he was a human he could probably figure that, that green unicorn will be the first to come find him.
Meanwhile, outside the library, a red unicorn with a black cloak that covering his entire body was walking by the library only to stop when a symbol on his right forhoof lit up. So Celestia finally brought the masters back to Equestria. He thought as an evil smile crept onto his face. As he neared the library the reaction of the symbol became stronger. Peering into the library, he recognized all of the ponies in the room, except the black unicorn with the orange shield cutie mark. That must be him and it looks like they finished that seal. He continued to think as he started to walk away from the library, the evil smile never leaving his face. And now my plan can finally be put into motion.