//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: The New Ponies 
// Story: Sides Of Two 
// by CakeHatColt 
//------------------------------//

The morning started with the sun shining high upon Ponyville. A scrawny yellow stallion appeared high on a small hill. Lifting his light blue top hat with fake candles, CakeHat Colt stood on the hill staring down to the town, exhausted from the walk all the way from Canterlot. He had with him a big cart of luggage twice it’s size.

"Haha! Finally made it," CakeHat spoke to his body sharing companion, Shield Strong. "Told you we didn't need a map, Shield."

"The only reason why we made it was because I memorized it before you stupidly dropped it in the lake," Shield retorted, "And now that we made it to Ponyville I guess we should get to the house now and unload our stuff."

"Or," CakeHat responded, "we can find somewhere to eat and find the house later."

"It'll be better if-"  Shield said before Colt cutted him off with, "Yeah food!"

Shield gave an irritated sigh, "Of course…"

"Hey Flame Cloud!" Colt said to his other friend accompanying him, a white pegasus, with long messy orange hair, in the sky laying on a cloud of smoke. "You coming or what?"

She yawned and then replied, "Nah, I'm gonna have to pass this time, Colt." She lowered her cloud over to him. "How about I just take the luggage to the house and unpack a bit?"

Colt closed his red eyes and opened them with Shield’s brown eyes, to signify that Shield had taken over.

"Alright, that's fine," Shield responded to Flame. "Just be careful. We're new here so the residence will notice us."

"What's wrong with that, Shield?" Flame asked. "I thought the point coming here was to explore Equestria and meet new ponies!"

"Yes," Shield agreed, "but we still don't know anyone here yet and I don't want to give a bad first impression."

"Oh pff," Flame retorted. "You make it sound like I'm gonna burn half of the town down."

"Oh yes," Shield replied sarcastically, "because you never did that before."

"Come on Shieldy," Flame wraps her foreleg around him. "Trust." With that, Flame Cloud picked up the luggage with her smoke and went off. "See you guys later."

CakeHat's eyes turned back to red and he shouted to Flame, "Have fun!" Then he referred to Shield, "Alright, let's get some grub!" They processed to walk down the hill and enter the town.

CakeHat Colt is an odd guy. He's the only earth pony in his family, which consists of mostly unicorns and some pegasi. What made him even weirder was that he wasn't born with a mane or a tail. He didn’t even have his cutie mark. He always wears his cakehat, along with a necklace of a shield that is colored half white and black vertically.

With him, in his mind lies, Shield Strong. He considered himself as Colt's common sense; telling him the rights and wrongs half the time and the other half discussing what to do next.

As Colt walked through town, he is astounded by almost everything. The building structures were very new to a city pony like him. He saw the streets get busy with children playing, merchants selling, and even restaurants that weren’t fancy or served the same food. It was a nice change to see these things to both Colt and Shield.

"This place looks amazing," Colt spoke to his friend, "don't you think, Shield?"

"Well to be honest," Shield responded, "It looks more peaceful than I expected and seem more preferable than Canterlot... But looks are often deceiving. So give me some more time to make a final conclusion.”

“Alright.” Colt responded and looked to his right to find the perfect place to grab a bite. “Ah ha! Found it.”

They walk up to a sweet shop called "Sugar Cube Corner". Colt enters the shop to find Twilight Sparkle, the new princess, and her friend Pinkie Pie. Indeed Colt and Shield knew who they were from Celestia but they never really met any of the Elements of Harmony. Shield really didn’t want to meet them.

"You did this on purpose," Shield said seeing Twilight with his usual annoyed tone. "you knew they're going to be here."

"What?" Colt pretended to be confused about Shield's complaint.

"You know exactly ‘what’," Shield explained, "you knew the Elements of Harmony would be here."

"So what?", Colt asked in response, "Shield, you seriously worry too much. You need to relax sometimes."

"I worry for good reason," Shield defended himself, "I am done working for Celestia and her government. I don't want to be involved with her underlings either."

"Well," Colt said, "Who said we had to? We're passing by getting something to eat. There's nothing to worry about." Colt walks over to the counter Pinkie Pie was behind of and states his order. "Hello," Colt said, "Can I get a blueberry muffin, if you have any?"

Pinkie Pie gasped back, "You must be the new pony moving in?!"

"I told you guys the residence was going to notice us." Shield said with a irritated groan. "I bet she's also going to say…" Shield was cut off by Pinkie.

"I could tell because I know everypony in Ponyville," Pinkie explained, "And I don't know you, which can only mean you're new, and I heard that the spooky house at the top of the hill was sold so that must've meant somepony was moving in! Ah I'm so excited! What's your name? I'm Pinkie Pie!"

"Yeah that sounds about right." Shield said again in his previous tone.

"My name," CakeHat lifted his hat and bowed to greet them. "is CakeHat Colt, insert made up title here. It's nice to meet you, uh…Pinkie Pie right?" He tilted his head to see her face.

Pinkie stared at her reflection through Colt's bald head, "Ooo, shiney!"

"I'm Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight walked up to greet herself as well.  “It's nice to meet you, CakeHat Colt.”

"Nice to meet you, too. Princess Twilight." Colt responded. He puts his hat back on. He then stares at Pinkie Pie with a grind and placed his hooves on the counter, "Now about that Blueberry Muffin I tried to order a second ago. Do you have any and if so may I have one?"

"One Blueberry Muffin!" Pinkie shouted, "Coming right up!" She heads to the back to grab it.

"So Colt," Twilight asked, "What made you come to Ponyville?"

Colt stared to the upper left corners of his eyes to think. "Well let's see…"

"Please don't tell her too much," Shield pleaded, "I don't want to her know about me."

"Hmm…" Colt was still thinking, considering Shield's request, "To put it simply, I've been sitting around waiting for life to give me something to do. And now I got something and I got the resources to do that something, so why not do it?"

"And…" Twilight asked again, "What is this ‘something'?"

"To travel," Colt pulls a map from his hat showing all the cities of Equestria with Canterlot crossed out and Ponyville circled, "I want to see all of Equestria!"

"Wait?," Shield said in shock turned anger, "You had a second map this whole time!"

"I've already seen Canterlot, of course," Colt continued, ignoring Shield, "but I haven't seen this place, Appleloosa, Manehattan, the Crystal Empire, and everything else. I want to see these places; I want to see how other ponies live. And when I'm done with Equestria; I'll go explore the rest of the world."

"Wow…" Twilight looked surprised, "That's very admirable, CakeHat, but why start here, and buy a house instead of renting a room in an inn?"

"Two things," Colt explains using the map, "One: Ponyville is at the center of Equestria. So if I go somewhere like Appleloosa, instead of wasting time and money on taking a train there from Canterlot, I can take a train from here and back. Making the trip easier, faster, and cheaper for me. Two: Since I've been stuck in Canterlot, I'm so bored of it. I've already seen everything Canterlot can offer, and for me, it's not much." He rolls up the map and puts it back in his hat. "So I decided, 'hey, I'm gonna move here!', and thus, here I am."

"One blueberry muffin," Pinkie said to Colt giving a muffin to him. "Here you go!"

"Alright!" Colt grabs the muffin with a thank you and starts to head out. "It was nice talking to you guys. See you around." Twilight and Pinkie also say their goodbyes and Colt exits the building.

When Colt walks out of Sugarcube Corner, he said to Shield, "See it wasn't that bad."

"I get it," Shield responded, "As long as they don't find out about me, I'm fine."

Colt starts to walk towards the direction of the house as he devours his muffin. His joyus
expression showed he loved the taste of it.

"I still can't believe you had another map," Shield said angrily but sternly. "We could've used that on our way here."

"I didn't want to use it," Colt responded. "It's my 'Plan Map'. I use it for planning; not traveling."

"That sounds stupid…" Shield said with a plain expression. "Let's just get to the house. I'm starting to get tired."

Colt agreed and headed to the house. As they were walking, behind them were three mysterious figures, with cloaks covering their whole bodies, walking into Sugar Cube Corner. Neither Colt nor Shield noticed them as they continued along their path.

"Hmm…" Colt started to wonder. "Hey Shield, do you think we made a good first impression? I mean, so far."

"I would say so," Shield answered, "They don't seem to ridicule you by the way you look, so…"

Before Shield could finish his statement there was a blast of magic destroying the front entrance of the sweet shop they were just in. Colt turned to see what happened and saw Twilight looking like she was caught in the blast and was attempting to stand. Then another blast aimed for her but she flew up just in time, dodging the magic. She continued to fly away and Colt saw the three cloaked ponies chase after her. One of them in a female voice shouted, "Get her!" They processed to run past Colt, leaving him in confusion.

"Hey umm…" Colt questioned, "That's not good, right?"

"Of course not," Shield stated, "The better question is: should we be involved? Because I prefer not to be."

Pinkie then came out the destroyed shop. "CakeHat!" She shouted in worry. "Which way did Twilight go?"

Colt pointed in the direction Twilight went and Pinkie ran off thanking him. Before Colt could even ask what happened she was already miles away.

"WAIT!" Colt attempted to shout to Pinkie, running to her, "WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"I still prefer to not be involved." Shield said.

Somehow Pinkie heard Colt's question and ran back to him backwards and processed to run back at his speed. "Some meanies in black cloaks came in after you left and said to Twilight…” Pinkie shaped her hair as a hood covering her eyes to reenactment  what happened.  'Hey we came to kill you, prepare to die!'” Her hair turned back to normal. “And blew a hole in Sugar Cube Corner!"

"What?!" Colt shouted in surprise. He then sprinted faster than Pinkie Pie's previous speed, leaving her behind. "Shield we have to do something about this!"

"What do you mean by 'we'?" Shield replied, "I'm going to be doing all the work."

"I was trying to convince you to help…" Colt clarified before being cut off by Shield with:

"I said 'I prefer'" He restated, "But if she can't handle this herself I'll just have to step in."

They reached town square, where they see a battlefield. Burnt marks from deadly magic blasts, couple buildings missed some pieces to their walls, and there was Twilight on the ground, too injured to even stand, at the mercy of the three hooded ponies. Ponies were running away but one, in particular, was fighting back. However it was too difficult to do anything without getting shot. This pony was Rainbow Dash.

"You're not gonna get away with this!" Shouted Rainbow Dash.

"Oh really?" Said the one with the female voice. "What can you do to stop us?" She said as she shot another beam of magic at her. Rainbow jumped out of the way, dodging the blast. "Hmph." She chuckled, "Thought so."

Rainbow just growled angrily towards her.

"Alright boys," The hooded mare spoke to her fellow members with a grin on her face, "Let's finish this." Together they charged their magic to shoot one final beam that'll destroy anything in its path, of course directing it towards Twilight.

As the beam was shot, everything felt like it was in slow motion. You could see Rainbow's face having a look of terror, watching her friend die right before her, Twilight's eyes closing, gradually accepting her fate, the three hood ponies who can just hear their pay check, but suddenly, right before the blast could reach its target. A figure, looking a lot like CakeHat Colt, shadowed by the bright beam of death jumped in between them. Then BOOM! The blast hit impact and blinded everyone in the area. Smoke rose giving everyone a slight cough.

"Was that," One of the other hooded ponies with a voice of a male coughed and continued, "suppose to happen?"

"If you're talking about the smoke," The hooded mare spoke, "then no." As she spoke the smoke started to clear a bit, "but as long as the alicorn's dead, it doesn't matter."

Once the smoke cleared everyone was in shock, along with Pinkie Pie, just arriving to the scene. Instead of seeing Twilight, there was a purple stallion, with a black and white mane and brown eyes. He was positioned as if he took the magic blast head on, with him standing on his two back legs and his front legs were rose to the sides, but he had no trace of damage dealt to him.

"YOU!" The voice that came out of the stallion was Shield Strong, shouting at Rainbow Dash, "ELEMENT OF LOYALTY! GET THE PRINCESS OUT OF HERE! NOW!" Rainbow disappeared from her original spot.

“Already on it!” Rainbow shouted. She was high up in the sky with Twilight on her back unconscious. Apparently Rainbow decided to risk her own life to swoop in and grab Twilight before the blast of magic came in contact. She was then on her way to the hospital but noticed Pinkie was here too. She dived down and grabbed Pinkie, then went to the hospital as quickly as possible.

"Hey!" the hooded mare shouted to Rainbow. She turned her attention to Shield, "What's your deal?! You made our paycheck get away!"

Shield stood there in silence analyzing the situation.

"Hey!" She shouted again, "I'm talking to you!"

"So what?…" Shield finally said, "You three are mercenaries or something? I didn't expect for that kind of job to still be around here."

"What's it to you?" She asked, which pretty much answered Shield's question.

"Speed," the third one of the group said to her, "we don't have time to deal with this punk."

"Don't you get it?" Speed whispered back, "That guy's an earth pony, who just went head first into a blast of magic fused by three highly trained unicorns without a scratch. Whatever he has is something we want, Dark."

"We can deal with that later." The other hooded male responded, "Our main priority should be the alicorn."

"Hey who's the leader here, Rookie?" Speed whispered, again, angrily.

"Excuse me?," Shield said to interrupt the arguing three, "Pardon my rudeness for getting in between your bickering but I'm only trying to understand the situation here." The three paid their attention to him, "So you three are mercenaries, who are clearly not from Equestria, which is pretty much one of the most, if not the only, peaceful place in the world. And what you three decide to do is disturb that peace and attempt to kill a leader of the land you're stepping on right now. Am I correct?" As he spoke he walked up closer to them.

"Your point?" Speed said in an annoyed tone.

"My point…" Shield continued, "is that this is a place of peace and I'll not allow a trio of disrespectful idiots try to ruin that peace."

"Is that so?" Speed said with a cocky smile. "So how do you plan on stopping us?"

"Two ways," Shield proposed, "Either the equestrian way: to polity ask you to leave…"

"That's cute," Speed giggled. "And the second way?"

"…" Shield remained silent for a second. "Or the second way: I'll force you to leave." He said with a stern face, his eyes squinted and eyebrows furrowed downwards.

Speed saw his face and realized he was serious. She started to chuckle, while her partners put on their own serious faces. "I'm not exactly sure how you survived our combined magic, but I do know for sure that you can't fight the three of us alone." Her cocky smile grew as she spoke.

"Is that so?" Shield asked. He then positioned himself in a fighting stance, ready to strike. "Well, to be honest, I don't know myself if I can handle the three of you. But I've fought tougher things before."

Without a second to react, the three saw Shield disappear. Then Shield reappeared in front of Speed, who wasn’t quick enough to react, punching her in the face. (What they didn't know was that Shield had a number of magic infused gadgets up his sleeves, and the one he used to trick them was a hologram projector.) She flew back by a few feet as Shield continued by then spin kicking the one previously called "Rookie". Rookie stepped backwards shocked by how quick that happened but still stood his ground. The one called "Dark" kept his distance and went to care for Speed, as Rookie retaliated by trying to punch back, causing his hood to fall off his head. Shield swerved Rookie's hoof to his side and went around him to land another kick. Rookie was starting to get pissed.

"You piece of shit…" He murmured with his head turned and standing on two legs.

His horn started to glow, looking like he was about to use magic. Shield was getting ready to go on him again but he noticed that the glow started to spark. Electricity started to flow through Rookie's vain and forming on his hooves. Shield never expected a unicorn to be able to control thunder, but he knew it wouldn't really change anything in the fight. Rookie went all out. Throwing punches left and right with a few kicks, as Shield just kept dodging. Eventually he had to block one punch, but as he did they were locked to each other. Rookie noticed that the electricity from his hoof was being drained and flowed to Shield's chest where he noticed the necklace.

"I see…" Rookie said, "So it's that necklace that allows you to not be affected by magic."

Shield just stood silent. He didn’t want to give any information that will cause him to lose this fight. As they stayed locked in their position Speed teleported behind Shield with sharp daggers attached to her hooves ready to stab him in the back. Shield reacted quickly and rolled out of range.

"Congrats earth pony," Speed said floating in the air by magic. "You got me to stop underestimating you. Too bad you're going to die now." She rose her blades up.

"He has a necklace that allows him to suck magic from us." Rookie informed. "If we take that I can fight him with my lightning."

"Is that so?" Speed said with a grind. "You hear that, Dark?" She shouted at him, "Anti-magic! That's something worth our time."

"Alright then," Shield said, "I believe it's time to change strategies." He threw a smoke bomb to the ground surrounding himself with it. This cause the three to lose sight of him.

"What is he doing?" Speed wondered.

Dark just stood there, not joining in the fight. Just watching what's happening. He was actually intrigued of this mysterious fellow with such skill in fighting. He can tell that he was hiding more than he leads on.

Shield jumped out of the smoke faster than he was before. They couldn't even see him clearly; he was literally a blur. But Dark could see him. Shield was circling them waiting for a good moment to strike.

"He's fast." Dark said following his movements.

"We can see that, Dark!" Rookie shouted in anger. He then shot a blast of lightning to a random spot hoping it would hit Shield. Shield dodged it before hand and then went in.

He jumped in the air and face kicked Rookie with his back hooves. On his hooves were two wheels, one on each hoof. Rookie fell to the ground covering his face from the pain. As Rookie fell, Speed took the chance to stab Shield when he reached the ground. She got him. A precise stab through the back to the lungs, but there was no blood. No reaction from Shield then he started to distort, the three were shocked to discover he was a hologram. Even Dark was surprised he had postion of such advanced technology and able to use it so quickly.

"What?" Speed asked in confusion.

Shield appeared behind them on his two back legs with the wheels keeping his balance.

"That's not possible!" Rookie said, "How can a third world country have such advanced technology?"

"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Shield stated really not knowing what a "third world country" is, "But Equestria doesn't have access to what I have. They use love and caring fueled magic to fight."

"Ew." Speed said is disgust, "gross."

"That sounds stupid." Rookie said in disbelief.

"It is." Shield agreed, "The alicorn you just tried to kill is titled 'The Princess Of Friendship'."

"What?!" Speed asked, "Why?"

"Because she saved the country about 3 times," Shield answered, "then another couple times after she got her title."

"That doesn't sound such a honorable title for doing something so great consistently." Dark finally spoke.

"Over here it does." Shield responded. He brought back the situation at hand. "So are we still fighting?"

"Of course we are!" Speed said instantly. "You've literally kicked two of us in the face and you're still alive. I hate you now!"

"How unfortunate…", Shield said ready to fight again.

Speed and Rookie got in there fighting stances for another round. Rookie noticed that Dark wasn't getting in his fighting stance like they were and turned to him.

"What?" Rookie asked. "You aren't gonna help?"

"Not really," Dark replied. "I'm gonna sit this one out."

"It's fine," Speed told Rookie, "We can handle him ourselves anyways!" She flew into action and Rookie followed.

Rookie and Shield went into another fist fight, throwing punches at one another while Speed teleported to Shield's back to try and stab him. Shield moved out the way and continued to dodge Speed's slashes. Because of the increased speed he had with the wheels he ended up not having a single scratch on him and ready to keep going. Speed and Rookie on the other hand, were already tired and knew they won't last any longer.

"God…dammit!" Speed said out of breathe, "why…is he… so fast!"

"Those damn wheels…" Rookie said also out of breathe, "on his back legs."

"Do you guys give up yet?" Shield asked with his front legs crossed. "Because I have things to do today other than dealing with you two idiots."

"All you've done…" Speed said to him, "is dig your own grave." She jumped at him for one last attempt to at least scratch him. Shield simply moved to the right of him at normal speed and she fell to the ground. He went back to all fours and bent down to check her breathing. She was still alive.

"Alright," Shield said getting back up. "So do you want to join her with nap time or do you want to take her home?"

"Hehehe…" Rookie laughed, "if we met in a different situation, I would like you because you said that." He could barely stand.

Dark walked to Speed and put her on his back. Then he went to Rookie,
"So…" he asked, "can you walk or should I also carry you?"

"I can walk on my own thank you!" Rookie said to him refusing help. He took one step and almost crumbled to the ground. "Or maybe not…"

With that Dark placed Rookie next to Speed on his back. "You did quite a number on them," he spoke to Shield. "It's been awhile since we've fought somepony like you."

"I see…" Shield replied. "So I'm guessing you guys are stilling going after the princess?"

"Yes," Dark answered, "and most likely we'll be going after you as well."

"Oh lovely," Shield replied sarcastically. He turned away from Dark, "Well, good luck trying… I'm going home." He said walking out.

"Oh!" Dark remembered to ask, "Who are you again? I didn't catch your name."

"My name?…", Shield looked at him with his head turned towards him. "It's Shield Strong." He continued to walk.

"Shield Strong…" Dark whispered under his breathe. "Haven't I heard that name before?" With that he left with his two partners.

Afternoon was approaching. The sky began to change from blue to orange. The sun lowered itself little by little. And Colt and Shield has finally reached their destination. The house was a bit banged up. The windows were cracked, there were a few holes here and there, but it seemed easily repairable. The lights were on, clearly Flame Cloud was inside fixing up the place. Colt walked up to the door and knocked.

"Hey Flame!" Colt shouted, "It's me, CakeHat! You there?"

"Hey guys," Flame opened the door, "Had fun exploring the town?"

"It was awesome!" Colt walked on inside. The living room seem straightforward: a couch on the back end of the room, a couple chairs on the side, and a rug. Colt jumped on the couch, "We came across the Elements of Harmony, saved the Princess of Friendship from some mercenaries, then I walked around town square trying to search for the house, Shield went to sleep, I got lost, and…", He paused, "…let's see… what else did I do?"

"That's cool," Flame said then had an realization, "Wait, that means…" She laughed towards Shield, "haha…that mean you're a vigilante now, Shield." She laughed even harder knowing that was the exact opposite he ever wanted to do.

"Unfortunately yes," Shield said, taking control, "however only for the time being, this is not going to be a permanent thing."

"Come on, Shieldy," Flame rebuttals. "It already is, except this time you're not in some kind of secret organization working for the equestrian government."

"Yeah," Colt replied, taking control, "can't really argue back there, sonny, she has a point."

"Colt," Shield takes control again, "Shut up."

"But hey," Flame said flying next to Shield and processed to sit. "Bright side, this time you got me to back you up."

"Actually," Shield responded, "about that…I actually am going to need your help." He explained, "The mercenaries that was sent after Princess Twilight, weren't completely ordinary. They mix magic with their physical combat skills. And now they’re after me because I stopped them."

"Say no more," Flame said, "I got you."

Shield smiled, "thank you, Flame."

"Besides…" Flame said with a sinter expression. "it's been awhile since I've hosted a barbecue!" You could see a fire burning in her eyes.

"We aren't killing them." Shield informed.

"We aren't?" Flame said with her joy turned to sadness, "Ahhhh…Shieldy! You're no fun…"

"I don't want them to die," Shield explained, "I want them to leave."

"Fine…" She sighed, "I won't kill them." She shrugged, "I'm gonna go unpack some more. Hey Colt, wanna help?"

Colt took control, "Sure. I'll unpack the boxes for the bedrooms…" Colt went on telling Flame a plan to split up the work while Shield went into deep thought.

He thought about today, thinking what to do next because of it. Yeah the two hotheads weren't a challenge at all to him, but what about the third one. He was calm, mostly, through the whole thing. He didn't really complain about his tactics, nor does he say he wants to fight him. Maybe he's the strongest of the three; maybe as strong as Shield. He doesn't know it as a fact but it's just a feeling he had. "Maybe I'm going to need more than Flame's help for this?" He thought. With that he just tried to sleep it over, hoping he'll come up with something in the morning.