"Ouch!" Sapphire winced at the sting of the ointment touching her open wound on her left shoulder. She'd never been hurt like this in her homeland so she was surprised at the amount of pain it could cause being almost stabbed by a sharp splinter of thick wood.
"Hold still, nearly done. You're lucky you only have one." Zecora said as she placed the white bottle of ointment onto the table next to the chair, picking up the roll of bandage she started wrapping over the mare's shoulder and under her right foreleg and around the back of her neck towards her wounded shoulder while repeating it a few times to secure it tightly to stop the small bleeding. The zebra secured it with a bit of healing cream to make it stick together and help with healing the cut. "Who was that stallion by the way? He seemed to know you from somewhere wouldn't you say?" She stared at Sapphire with curious eyes.
Sapphire sighed in defeat, "Yeah he kinda does. He's practically a celebrity where I'm from but I learnt in that encounter, that he's secretly a mad man er pony looking to control our world through his dark magic tricks he's disguising as magic shows for paying audiences in my land. He called himself "Black Knight" but at home he's known as Khalil Shade owner and founder of The Dark Fortress that is a well known theatre for magicians. And of course he's the main attraction of the shows."
The mystery mare who was with the fillies when they found Sapphire after the fight spoke up, "Black Knight you said? I've heard of that name before! I'll be right back!" She raced off out of the room. The mare had taken them all to her large castle that looked like a crystallised tree with around 5 mane branches supporting each section of the upper parts of the palace. Sapphire suddenly realised she didn't even know who it was.
"Um Zecora, who is the winged purple unicorn that helped us?" Before Zecora could answer Scootaloo piped up for her.
"Are you kidding? That's Twilight Sparkle! She's Equestria's newest princess! The Tree of Harmony rewarded her work of being Princess Celestia's star pupil and apprentice. Princess Celestia is the highest ruler of Equestria!"
"HOW many Princesses do you ponies have in this land?" She was stunned they had 2 princesses in the same land and kingdom. Most kingdoms she's heard of in fairytales would have either a royal family or at least a King, Queen, Prince or Princess! But More than one Princess that's not part of the same family? Almost impossible in her books.
"Haha.... In total Equestria has 4 Princesses and 1 Prince. It's a long story. There's even an evil Queen that tries to take over Canterlot every couple of years but hasn't succeeded of course!" Sweetie Belle explained a bit more but it only left Sapphire with more questions. But that was when the Princess Twilight came back into the room.
"I knew I heard of that name before!" She slammed the heavy brown leather book onto the table in front of every pony. "He's part of the Wizard organisation known as The Protectors. This book says..." She flips open the book with her hot magenta pink magic mist as she spoke and opened it to the middle of the book. "The Protectors use to rule Equestria before the first Queen of Canterlot was coronated. It says that the queen was called "Queen of Love, Queen Chrysalis."
"WAIT A MINUTE!!!" Apple Bloom hollered spooking every pony in the room. "Queen Chrysalis? It doesn't mean the same Chrysalis that tries to take over Canterlot every couple of years?? B-but she's EVIL! She FEEDS off love of other ponies and traps them in her gooey; slimy green cocoons! She almost succeeded in ruining Cadence and Shining Armor's big wedding last year!"
"Don't remind me...." Princess Twilight said while rolling her dark purple eyes. "And to answer your question, yes it seems like it's the same queen. I read that in the early days of the kingdom she was known as one of the most generous and kind rulers they've had. They've had leaders before but only for seperate parts of the land and not as a whole. It wasn't until she fell in love with a King of another far land that she began to change. But before that happened, she formed a group of 4 ponies for each corner of Equestria to live under their protection of their powerful magic. They were each given a mystic item to help boost their power for when they needed it most. The 4 items were uniquely designed staffs with different types of magic: The Staff of Light, The Staff of Healing, The Staff of Defence, and The Elemental Staff. The Staff of Healing was also known by another name: The Sapphire Staff. Apparently they were kept locked up in an old temple named The Sapphire Temple."
"Wow..... So the Ancient Sapphire Staff that Zecora told me about was actually the Staff of Healing? Then why did it teleport me here?" Sapphire leaned closer to have a better view of the page Twilight was on. There were hand/hoof drawings of the staff designs with labels below them. But there was one extra staff that the Princess didn't mention. "H-hey what's that one?" Princess Twilight spun round and looked to where the mare was pointing at with her hoof on the old stained paper.
She almost flinched at the sight of the black and silver staff. "Oh that's the Staff of Darkness. It's a forbidden staff that's been lost for centuries. The others are still hidden in different locations like with the Staff of Healing. That one that you found must've been hidden in the Human World in so that the queen's king couldn't use them against Equestria."
"I don't recall a Queen ruling our land, it must've been before I settled down in Equestria since Chrysalis has now been banned." Zecora thought aloud putting a hoof to her chin. "If that is all we know about The Protectors, we may need to find the queen herself so that we can learn how to help our friend get back home sector." The zebra pointed out and Twilight seemed to agree.
"I'm afraid you might be right Zecora. We'll have to make a journey to the Forbidden Desert where she's been outcasted to. I heard she runs a hive of changelings that are forever growing in numbers even now." The princess shuddered at some thought, "I remember fighting those things... we must be careful. Their ability to change into any form can become dangerous. But since it's on the very outskirts of Equestria, we have to get permission from Princess Celestia first since she is the main ruler of our land."
"EEEEEEK!" Every pony startled at the sudden burst of excitement from Sweetie Belle as she bounced around Sapphire. "Sapphire gets to meet Princess CELESTIA!!!!" the other mares and fillies burst out giggling including Sapphire even though she felt kinda awkward at the same time with all the attention. She never got that kind of attention at home as she did in this new world. It felt kinda nice actually.
"Hm that's a good point Princess Twilight. How are we to explain the arrival of Sapphire Stone? It might come as a fright...."
"Well Zecora, we'll deal with it when we get to Canterlot Castle. Right now, we have a train to catch!"