After a few minutes of riding in an almost eerie silence, we arrive at the capital city precariously hanging off the edge of the mountain. Getting out of our carriages the group reconvenes together before a group of guard come by for us. Checking my phone, I see that is only around 3 o’clock in the evening. After I see that I have to do a double take as my phone is different. It looks and works like a scroll from RWBY. I put that thought on the back burner for now as we begin to walk though the castle, the guards tense at the sight of my sword and proximity to the princesses.
After a few minutes our group makes it to what appears to be the throne room. The princesses take their places on their respective thrones, the guards taking up position next to them and by the doors. The girls seem to be non the wiser, but I can see their tensed muscles and hands hovering over their weapons, as well and that most of their eyes are on me. We stay there maybe a minute before the door opens and two more ponies walk in.
One is an ‘alicorn’, as Scootaloo says, like the princesses. She has a pink, yellow and purple striped mane and pink fur. She is wearing a pink and purple dress shirt and a pair of blue pants. Oddly casual for an Alicorn.
Next to her is a male unicorn. The dude appeared to have a slightly larger build than most of the guards with the same white fur and a blue two toned blue mane. He is wearing a blue dress shirt and a pair of simple black pants. Looking between the two, I could just feel the love from the two. My guess is they are either marrried or soon to be engaged. A quick glance at their hands shows that it is the former.
“Shining! Cadence!” The purple one, Twilight, yells and rushs over to the two of them.
“Twily!” They say in unison, brining the shorter unicorn mare into a small group hug. They break apart and Twilight and Cadence do some wierd, childish song and dance. After they finish the stallion noticed me watching them, my silver eyes covered by my mask once more, and immediately gets a defensive look on his face.
The others notice our staring contest and begin to worry. “Adam? Are you ok?” Scootaloo asks from my side. I look to her and raise my mask and wink with a smile.
“Don’t worry Scoots, I’m good.” I say to her. She nods, but stays by my side. I look forward again and look to the two newcomers, the mare looking at me with curiosity and the stallion looking to me with caution. I suddenly get a realization of something important.
“I just realized something.” I say aloud, the gathered ponies looking at me. “I only know some of your names and stuff from Scootaloo and the other two of the CMC. We haven’t had any proper introductions.” At this most of the mares from Ponyville get sheepish expressions and blushes.
“Well, if that is the case, perhaps it would be best for me to start our introductions.” Celestia says standing from her seat and spreading her wings. “I am Princess Celestia, alicorn of the sun and co-ruler of Equestria.” She says with a warm smile and nods to her sister.
“I am Princess Luna, alicorn of the night and co-ruler of Equestria alongside my elder sister.” Luna introduces herself properly before looking to the gathered mares.
Twilight steps forward from the stallions side. “I am Twilight Sparkle, wielder of the Element of Magic and personal protégé of Princess Celestia.” She says with pride, the sun alicorn looking at her with a motherly smile.
Applebloom’s sister step up next. “I’m AppleJack, wielded of the Element of Honest and farmer of Sweet Apple Acres.” She says, tipping her hat at me.
Sweetie’s sister comes up next. “My name is Rarity Belle, Element of Generosity and proud owner of Carousel Boutique, where everything is fresh, unique and magnifique!” She says, her slogan ringing a tune in my head.
The yellow pegasus from before walks up and begins to speak. “Um, my name is Fluttershy and I am the Element of Kindess and the animal caretaker of Ponyville.” She says in a soft voice. I just smile to her and nod.
“Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty and only mare to pull of the Sonic Rainboom.” RD says in a rather annoyed voice. Everyone looks to her worried then to me and Scootaloo. We both shrug at them, not knowing what is going on with her.
My vision is suddenly filled with blue as the pink one suddenly appears in my face. “HiI’mPinkiePie!IrepresenttheElementofLaughter!Iwannaknow,whenisyourbirthday?Whatsyourfavouritecakeflavor?Andwhydoyouhavehorns?” She says quickly. The others look at her in embarrassment, before I start chuckling and hold up my hand.
“Hi Pinkie. My birthday is January 13th, my favourite cake flavour is red velvet and I have horns because I am a bull Faunus.” I answer her question while counting them off with my finger. The other look to me in shock that I could understand her. Even Pinkie looked surprised. I just smile and explain, “I had to babysit a lot of hyperactive kids back home so I know how to listen to people who speak fast.” The others nod at my explanation.
The newer alicorn step up and spreads her wing like Celestia. “I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but I prefer Cadence, Alicorn of love, wife to Shining Armor and former foalsitter to Twilight.” She introduces herself. After she finishes I take my right hand and place it on my heart before giving her a bow. She just laughs at my response.
The white stallion, Shining, walk up to his wife, slightly more relaxed but still on guard. “I am Shining Armor, former Captain of the guard, older brother to Twilight and husband to Cadence.” I raise my mask and look to him, then nod in respect. He nods back after a second.
I smile for my turn. “For those who don’t know me, I am Adam Taurus, professional huntsman, formerly a normal 18 year old and now one of the most powerful swordsman in the many stories I have seen.” The two newcomers look confused so I give them the abridged version of what I told the others back in Ponyville, complete with the photo of me, Lex and Nat.
“Well, now that we are all acquainted, shall we proceed with the report of the attack on Ponyville?” Celestia suggests, a mare with a white coat and brown mane in a receptionist uniform walks out with a notepad and quill. Shining and Cadence’s eyes widen at the declaration.
“Attack!?! There was an attack on Ponyville!?!” Shining shouts. I quickly turn to him.
“Yes, Ponyville was attacked by a pack of Grimm. Luckily I showed up before they could overstrain Twilights shield.” I tell him. The group soon get confused expressions on their faces. I raise a brow. “What?”
“Pardon me Adam, but what is a Grimm?” Cadence asks, my eyes widening at the question. I sigh and look to the new mare in the room.
“Be sure you take notes on this.” I tell her, the mare nodding her head and readying her quill.
“The creatures of Grimm are the black monsters that attacked Ponyville. They come from the same world as me or more accurately my character. They are manifestations of darkness, animosity. They are, as far as I can tell, the only creatures in the world that literally lack a soul.” There were a round of gasps at that declaration. “The Grimm come in a variety of forms, from standard animals like bears, or Ursa to birds or Nevermores. They can also come in more fantastical forms. A twin headed snake: the King Taijitu and even a large sea serpent: the Sea Feilong.” I look at the others to see their shocked and slightly disturbed faces.
“While they come in a large variety of forms, most Grimm share a few common characteristics. They are attracted to negativity. Anger, hatred, envy, loneliness and most of all, fear. They have a common goal of hunting down and consuming sentient life, however they rarely, if ever, attack wild animals. Perhaps for territory, but that is it. Their only goal in their lives are to find and kill human, Faunus, and from what it looks like, Ponies.” Princess Celestia suddenly stands up with a fierce expression on her face. The other begin to worry, while I just remain standing and look to her, lowering my mask so she can look at me in the eyes.
Luna and Cadence go to her and begin to help her calm down from her anger. She looks to me. “What else do you know of the Grimm?”
I nod to her and continue. “The Grimm do not age like most. The way to tell the difference between say, a Beowolf alpha and a ‘cub’ is their size, scars and spikes. The bigger and more battle worn a Grimm is, the older and stronger it is. Take the Deathstalker I faced. Young, inexperienced Deathstalkers are only about as big as me. The one that showed up in town was at least a couple decades in age.” The other think about this then look to me in shock.
“B-but you took that thing down in one hit! And the thing was the size of a house!” Twilight exclaimed, the guards and royalty looking to me in shock. I just nod to her.
“True, but remember. That was after I absorbed one of your strongest magical blasts, making my technique, Moon Slash, powerful enough to do so.” I tell her, Twilight blushing at the reminder of her own assistance in the fight. I look to the others and then to the note keeping mare. She nods to me after getting a new page for notes.
“The last thing I know about the Grimm, is they actually have a Queen.” This immediately gets everyone’s attention. “Her name is Salem. No one knows how long she has been alive, how she became the queen of Grimm, where she is, what she does, or how she does it. All we know is her name and only few more know her appearance.” I look to the princesses. “Do either of you know a spell that can project an image from my mind?” They look to one another then nod, their horns lighting up, before nodding to me.
Literally everyone asides from me took a step back from the image of Salem that was project. “Sweet Faust...” Luna muttered breathlessly. The others numbly nod in agreement before I make the image disappear.
“That is all I know of the Grimm. What I do not know is how they are getting into Equestria. Hell, I don’t know how they appear in Remnant, the world their story is based in!” I say. Looking to the note keeper, she nods that she got everything. I turn to the princesses, who look slightly disturbed by all the information I just gave them a nod in apology to them.
Then I feel a small pair of arms wrap around my waist. Looking down I see Scootaloo shaking in fear, likely from all this info. I gently pick her up and hug her to my chest, the small pegasus beginning to calm in my arms. “I’m sorry you had to see and hear all this Scoots. You too AB, Sweetie and Spike.” The two other members of the CMC hugging their sisters, and Spike by Twilight.
Cadence looks to me as I hug the pegasus and without anypony noticing, casts a spell she calls ‘Loves Sight’ on herself, her blue eyes gaining a barely noticeable pink ring around them. She sees a stream of pale blue energy being passed to Scootaloo from me. One she recognized as similar to her husbands to his sister. ‘Brotherly love.’ She thinks to herself and smiles.
Though it turns into a frown as she sees a pale green stream directed at me. Looking to its source, she is shocked to find it is coming from Rainbow Dash. ‘Jealousy?’ She thinks in shock. She quickly dismissed her spell as the hugs break apart. ‘I am going to have to tell the others later. This could be serious.’
After the mare in charge of notes gets a fresh batch we begin to detail the attack itself. Apparently the Grimm gave off several loud roars and howls before attacking so the townsfolk had plenty of time to get to town hall and for Twilight to raise her shield. I had arrived at the edge of town less than two minutes later.
After that revelation, the CMC and I began to detail our own side of things, from me finding them in their treehouse, to setting up the traps and Scootaloo getting into the barrier on her own. The Princesses were shocked and amazed that I put so much faith into a young filly I had just met maybe a few minute prior. I told them I could tell she had a brave aura around her and just knew she could do it. The group was further shock upon hearing how the three of us took down a Boarbatusk.
After that the elements took over and detailed my fight with the remaining Grimm and the Deathstalker before their arrival. After all that was taken care of I check my scroll again and see it is about 4:30 in the evening.
“Well, is that everything that needed to be done?” Celestia asks the gathered ponies, only for her sister to raise her hand. “Yes Luna?” The night princess gets up from her seat and walks to me. She is only a few inches shorter than me if you don’t count her horn.
“Adam, I have a request of you.” She says. I lift my mask and raise a brow at her. “I have now heard of your strengths and feats, but I wish to see it for myself.” She says to me. Celestia and Cadence tense and their eyes widen, while the others look confused. It takes a second before I realize what she is asking.
“Are you challenging me to a duel?” I ask, to which she smirks and nods. Celestia immediately teleports to her sisters side and takes her arm to get her attention.
“Luna what are you doing?!? We both know that you cannot just ask someone to a duel witho-“ “Alright.” I interrupted Celestia’s scolding and the two princesses look to me in shock. “What?”
“I said alright. Truthfully since I saw you had some armor on when you arrived in Ponyville, I have been curious what you can do.” I lower my mask and leaned towards her, the guards grabbing their weapons. “Just don’t expect me to go easy on you just because your royalty.” She smirks and puts on a face of mock confusion.
“What and not because I am a mare?” I just laugh at her response.
“Princess, I know at least a dozen females that could kick my butt around the block. I don’t discriminate.” I tell her, the two of us laughing while everyone else looks at us like we have lost our minds. “So, how do you wanna do this?” I ask her.
“There is a arena in the guards training hall we can use. I’ll give you an hour to get ready. Just keep your promise and don’t be late.” She says.
“Likewise.” After I say this Luna teleports away, likely to get her armor and weapons. I turn and immediately have a pair of rose eyes staring at me. Celestia looks to me in complete confusion and shock.
“I do not understand. Why did you just agree to battle my sister?” She asks. I just smile to her and take my mask off.
“I have heard the best way for to warriors to learn about one another, is to test the others prowess. I can tell just by looking at you two, Luna has more desire to fight, while you are always looking for the peaceful solution. We both know the way of weapons in a way most do not. This is the best way for us to get to know one another.” I tell her before reaching up and patting her shoulder. I begin to walk away from the group before pausing and smiling sheepishly. “Umm, where is the training hall?”
Almost an hour later, everyone is at the arena. And by everyone I mean our group and practically the entire castle staff and some nobles. Apparently nopony heard of something discretion. Less than half an hour after Luna and I left the throne room, word got around quickly and practically every pony in the castle heard and showed up in at the arena waiting to see their princess beat ‘something’ senseless.
I was sitting at one side of the arena, legs crossed and eyes closed, going over my techniques with my sword. For some reason, despite the fact I only took kendo for a few years and am a blue belt in judo, I remember so many different fighting techniques. In spite of not remembering the fights I could easily remember the scenario. A group of people pinning us down and shooting us. A bunch of robots in a factory. More of the robots on a train with Blake-.
My eyes widen at the realization that I came to. These are Adam Taurus memories. I begin to worry that the other Adam may somehow take over before I dismiss the thought and focus on the fight as I hear a teleport on the opposite end of the arena. Getting up from my spot and putting my mask on, I wait as Celestia comes down to the arena.
“Mares and Gentlecolts! We are gathered here today to witness the duel between two very powerful warriors. Now allow me to introduce our fighters! On my right, we have the returned Princess of the night and the guardians of dream, my little sister: Princess Luna!”
Luna walks out of the shadows of her side and the gathered crowd erupt into cheers, though I do see some nobles staying quiet. She is wearing what looks like a dark blue combat skirt and black leg armor and breast plate with shoulder guards and leather arm guards. In one hand she holds a broadsword and in the other a large dagger.
(Like this but anthro)
“And now for her opponent. A huntsman from a kingdom unknown who has already defended the town of Ponyville from an attack by several vicious monsters. Please welcome, Adam Taurus!” I walk out of the darkness of my side, only about a third of the gathered crowd cheers, the girls from Ponyville, Scootaloo in particular make the most noise.
“Go For It Adam!” The young pegasus shouts out to me. Me and Luna meet in the middle with Celestia by our side.
“Please you two, don’t do anything too extreme.” Celestia pleads to us quietly, to which we look to her then smirk in unison.
“No promises.” We say together. Celestia just sighs at us and flies to her spectating box where Cadence and the girls are watching. She nods to Shining Armor who raises a shield around the arena to prevent collateral damage to the ponies and structures.
‘Here we go.’
The two of wait for the signal from Celestia. She looks to the two of us, me being crouched low, right hand on the handle of my sword and the left on the sheath itself. Luna crouched as well her wings tensed ready to send her flying to me. She raises her right hand and pauses, before quickly dropping it.
https://m.
. (Loop)
At the drop of her arm, Luna and I burst forward. We clash barely a second later, my blade midway though the sheath blocking as Luna tries cutting in an X with her sword and dagger. We stay locked for a second before I pull the trigger in my sheath, shooting the sword into the air and knocking Luna back.
She doesn’t get a chance to recover as I am on her with a firm roundhouse to the gut before I jump and catch my sword on its way back down. Luna quickly recovers and sees me falling and tries to shoot me as I am on my way down. She fires several bolts of magic, which I just slash though.
Landing, I immediately jump left as Luna charges again and we begin to trade blows, me blocking both her weapons with my one. This goes on for a bit before, on one swing with the dagger, Luna leaves an opening and I grab her hand holding the dagger. She can’t recover in time to block the sword handle to the gut followed by a right hook to the muzzle. She teleports out of my hold and reappears on the opposite side of the arena again.
Her horn glows and she tries shooting a rapid fire barrage of magic bolts at me. I take my sword out of the sheath and spin it in front of me like a pinwheel, blocking all of the bolts but one that I lean my head to the side to dodge. As I stop spinning my sword Luna appears in front of me and slashes with her broadsword to my chest. I almost leaned back enough but still get a cut on my chest. Luckily my aura protected me.
We begin another close range bout but with Luna adding in some point blank magical blast that I mostly avoid with a few exceptions. We go like this for a bit before I get some room and swing at her with both hands on my sword to add more power than normal. Luna quickly casts a shield spell in front of her to cushion the blow, but the magical backlash from the force of my strike does cause her to wince.
She looks to me and her eyes widen as I aim my shotgun at her. She senses she is in trouble and focuses on her shield as I fire shot after shot into the shield. Crack soon begin to appear before I stop the barrage of shells and just slash at the shield. Luna dismisses the shield before it can shatter and quickly blasts me back with her magic.
The entire audience watches the fight in baited breath and anticipation. Each blow from both of us causes them to pause, each strike sending chills down their spines. The one watching the closest was Celestia, seeing her sister give it her all in a duel against someone who appears to be her equal in swordplay and speed, Celestia began to feel something grow within her. A fire long since extinguished, the embers burning brighter as the fight goes on. A desire...to fight!
‘This feeling. This...excitement! I had forgotten this feeling.’ The solar princess soon gains an exited grin as she watch’s our match.
Cadence meanwhile was using her magic to see our emotions during the fight. What she finds is both very surprising and not surprising in the slightest. While we both are taking this fight as seriously as we can, there is the overwhelming feeling of excitement and happiness emanating from the both of us.
‘They both are so happy to just let loose and fight each other.’ She thinks to herself, before noticing a small, almost imperceptible pale pink stream going between the two of us and her eyes widen, before smirking at us. ‘This is quite the development.’
I quickly recover from the blast and get back to my feet. Luna sees this and quickly charges a magical blast and condenses it down, making it more concentrated before firing. I see the bowling ball sized, galaxy shaped magic blast coming to me...and I smirk. ‘Thanks for the boost.’ Raising my sword I block the blast, every unicorn in the arena looking at me in pure disbelief and shock as the blast is dissipated into my sword, the reds of me turning white with red outline.
The group from Ponyville look to me in worry seeing that I just got the boost. Luna looks dumbfounded, that blast should have beaten me! Before remembering something I said in the throne room earlier.
“B-but you took that thing down in one hit! And the thing was the size of a house!”
“True, but remember. That was after I absorbed one of your strongest magical blasts, making my technique, Moon Slash, powerful enough to do so.”
Realizing that she just gave me a boost, Luna did not panic or worry. Instead, she grinned. Sheathing her dagger, she crouched down, both hands on her sword and focused. Soon, the blade itself seemed to take on the same characteristics as her mane. A calm night sky appeared to replace the blade, before the calm night turned into rapidly swirling galaxies and began to give off a faint purple glow.
I see this and see that it is time we end this. I, too, crouch and get ready, the sword sheathed and behind my back as I focus all the absorbed energy into the blade.
The audience sees us crouching and believes the fight is going to be ended in the next blow. The girls hearts all begin to beat rapidly, Celestia’s in particular after sensing that we are focusing our energies into our blades. Cadence adds her own magic to the shield Shining Armor is holding up just in case.
Once ready the both of us run forward. Time seemed to slow for everone. They see each step we both take, the energy pulsing within our blades, the air we both exhale. And in a flash, Luna and I are on opposite sides of each other, swords extended after slashes.
For a few seconds that felt like eternities, nothing happened. Till there is the sound of cracking and coming from both of use. In that instant, Luna’s breast plate explodes outward as my aura becomes visible and shatters with it. Still, we remain in the same positions for a few more second, Shining Armor and Celestia noticing blood slowly dripping down both our blades. We both move an inch up and then fall to the ground together.
There was an instant uproar of voices from the crowd as Celestia and Cadence teleport to me and Luna and turn us over, seeing a large slash mark on both of our chests.
“Medical!” Celestia yells out, and in the next instant a dozen medical ponies arrive and check on both me and Luna. They quickly take the both of us away to the castle medical wing for treatment. Celestia stands and looks to the gathered ponies.
“Mares and Gentlcolts!” She yells out, looking to the gathered ponies as they quiet down. “We have a DRAW!” The arena erupting into cheers for me and Luna. Celestia go’s and picks up mine and Luna’s weapons, then looks the direction we were taken.
‘I should have made them promise.’