Cain POV
No one said a word for the longest time, various reasons I would assume. A dead guard, an unconscious, likely soon to be dishonorably discharged guard, fear, I honestly don't care. I shifted the red Mortal Blade so it could be drawn from the side with a reverse grip and kept my hand where the pommel would be as to warn the others not to try anything. Minutes passed and the edge of the forest was in sight, another group of guards as well. I ignored them and sat against a tree as the princess did her thing. The body of that one guard apparently lived in this town initially until he enlisted, so the body was left here with his wife and children. The fool, it's amazing how often people are wrong about how to act towards others. To my experience, being the asshole gets my point across and gets better results more efficiently than being nice to everyone, I'll refer to our introductions as proof enough.
Eventually everyone started loading up into carriages and the ones with wings strapped themselves to the harnesses at the front. When they were finished, one of the guards, specifically the one who intercepted me first, walked over to me.
"We're leaving, get in." He ordered.
"The only one of you worth talking to is your princess, unless I hear it from her, I'm not doing that." I said defiantly. He glared and growled at me.
"I'm Captain of the Royal Guard, so-"
"You're a shit captain then considering how poorly you and your men handled first impressions." I interrupted as he tightened his grip on his sword. "Tell me, do your men frequently make mistakes or ignore warnings when they're out on missions? Especially when they're with you? Their princess? I have reason to believe this happens often considered the MANY red flags you all ignored. If you're losing at least one guard every time to the stupidest, most avoidable ways to die, then that speaks VERY poorly of your capability as a leader of any kind."
"Don't make m-"
"Don't make you what? Force me into a carriage? I'd like to see you try. Before you do that though, you might want to consider thinking back to the still unconscious guard and how well that ended for him. Though by all means, feel free to ignore my warnings again, though I can't promise there won't be casualties if you do." He was now clenching his fist enough to bleed. He turned away and went to the princess's carriage, she stepped out shortly after and made her way to me.
"I hear you're giving my captain trouble, Cain. May I ask what the problem is?" Celestia asked, displeased with my refusal to cooperate.
"He thinks he can order me around, I simply told him he's not worth me wasting my breath. You however, are a different story. Say the word and I'll get in." She didn't say anything for a few moments, she just stared at me, unblinking for that time frame.
"You will be riding in my carriage." She said as she turned and walked away.
'Your carriage? Hehehe, that certainly won't make anyone even a little uneasy. Okay then!' I thought to myself. I took my time, hoping someone would start trouble by the time I reached her carriage. I felt EVERYONE'S eyes on me, in the end, I was disappointed when no one did anything. Once inside, Celestia kept looking between me and the swords as if she wanted to say something, but kept silent. A few minutes after take off and nothing changed, slightly annoyed by this, I broke the silence.
"You get one question." I told her as I stared out the window.
"Pardon?" She asked.
"One question, ask." She didn't say anything for a minute, I almost zoned out as a result, but she spoke up just before I did.
"What did you mean when you said those swords can only be used by those who they were made to kill?" She asked, I can't say I'm surprised.
"Let's answer that question with another question. To those who seek it, it is a blessing, those who have it, it is a curse, what is it?"
"I'm...not sure." She responded.
"Well let me know when you figure out the answer then, because I'm not going to give you a straight answer on this topic. I'm likely the only one who can wield these, I wouldn't trust anyone with these, especially if I can't kill them with a normal blade." She looked at me as if she was taking note of my choice of words, but said nothing.
The trip was silent for a while longer, I'm not sure what to make of this world, though not much can surprise me now. Mythical creatures everywhere, sapient, humanoid animals, now they can defy physics and whatever other laws that state this should be impossible. Let's not forget the self-res immortality, two immortal killing blades, and all the physical changes like the enhanced reflexes. There had better not be any guardian/ headless apes, giant snakes, or God forbid demons. On second thought, the apes were worse than the demon, I never used firecrackers because bosses tend to be immune to crowd control effects and I didn't know headless enemies or demons counted as wraiths. Fucking misleading descriptions.
"Do you have any idea why we were in the Everfree?" Celesta asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.
"Me I'm guessing?" I asked in turn.
"You were part of it, yes. The other reason was because I sensed not one, but two ascensions. Both times, I believe I saw you in the Astral Plane, but you left before anything could happen." That's definitely worth checking out. "Ascension has only happened three times that I know of in my life with the most recent being my niece, and as rare and amazing such an event is, it's not without it's risks."
"Risks?"
"If something were to go wrong, there would have been a good chance of a magic overload which at best will fire random spells everywhere until all the magic in the pony is drained. At it's worst, there was a chance for a magic explosion. You can understand my concern when two happened in a very short time in one of the most dangerous forests in Equestria." She continued.
"I can...understand the concern then." Probably not a good idea to mention I saw something resembling her when I died, the dying part as well. "While I'm thinking about it, how is that forest, the Everfree I think it was called, why is it considered so dangerous? The only real threat was a manticore and that's because I was in a weakened state." Her eyes shot open with concern. "Before you ask, no, I didn't get stung, actually it didn't even touch me." I lied.
"The land tends to itself as does the weather and wildlife, to put it simply, it's untamed." She answered. I think I'll respond to that using Ashina as my "home".
"I'll ask about how it being untamed is a problem later." I said quietly to myself. "So basically it's like back home. If you think that forest is bad, try valleys with giant snakes with eyes almost as big as you, apes that somehow learned to dual wield swords effectively, giant man eating carps, or my personal favorite, giant centipedes that make the host damn near impossible to kill, or keep dead anyway, especially when they find themselves in creatures that are already extremely hard, if not impossible to kill." She looked at me horrified as I continued. "Have you ever seen a decapitated anything pick up it's head and scream at you while swinging a sword that's 5X your size? That is bullshit, and that's one of the reasons I have these swords, because I'm tired of dealing with everything I had a hard time killing getting back up."
"What sort of place do you come from?" She asked, afraid of the answer.
"... I don't have an answer that can accurately describe it so let's put a pin on that. When the fucked up wild life isn't trying to kill you nowadays, it's monks seeking immortality, soldiers, undead/ undying, and a few more I'd rather not think about. The only real safe place was a shrine, and the only person there eventually turned into a demon and had to be put down."
"You shouldn't have to worry about such things here." She assured me.
"I'll be the judge of that." I said as I thought of what other weapons/ tools I should get. First though, I should probably introduce these idiots to real armor and weapons, I don't care about them, but I can't have them dying without being capable meat shields first.