//------------------------------//
// Chapter III: Meeting The Locals II 
// Story: Equestria's Light: A Realm Reborn 
// by The Warrior Of Darkness 
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"What was that?" 

That was the words that repeated in Skye's head as he registered that they had not known about a class change. How far off had he been placed within Hydaelyn's light? After all, even the First knew of such transformations as they surely would have dealt with Thancred's inevitable change to Gunbreaker. Thinking more on the question, he began to formalize a response to the growing query of his company. 

"Well, it's essentially just a class change, nothing special. Before you ask, a class change is when a being comprised of a great quantity of aether can simply rearrange their skills toward a certain path. In this case, I changed from Dragoon, a class fit for fighting draconic enemies, to Gunbreaker, a class that specializes in the use of a gunblade to not only protect oneself, but also others. The weapon that when in normal use, the aetherically-charged bullets enhance cutting and striking power. The powder coalescences into a defensive barrier that-" 

He looked up to see an arrangement of two amused faces, from the slightly amused look from the princess now known to him as Luna, to the very well hidden smile of Celestia. Turning his head to look at the other 'ponies' around the table, he soon noticed that quite a few of them had a look of being lost, except for the lavender one. She seemed to have eaten up every word he had said, and committed it to memory. A scholar no doubt, and her aether alone was quite high, almost to his level. To be honest, all of these smaller beings had higher aether counts than the others in the room, almost equal in power to the princesses, but still smaller than his. What was that inner light coming from them? It was nearly similar in nature to his. 

It felt like light was gazing back at him, not threatening but more along the line of wary. It reminded him of the crystals of light when he had first acquired them. Except this "light" whatever it was, had it's attention directly on him. It wasn't hard to tell, but since his aether-sense was quite weak considering he couldn't see as well as Y'shtola. 'I wonder how long it's been since I've been gone, considering this is a completely different world. Is it the same as the Source? Y'sh... wait for me ok? 

Skye soon decided to focus on his current situation instead of what he could do, instead of something that would be far from his reach at the moment. Tapping his foot on the ground he slowly began to speak. 

"Hmm. Anyway, it seems like I've gotten off track, sorry. On another subject, may I be introduced to your... entourage?"  Focusing on the group of ponies, he simply put a arm up in a gesturing pose, trying to get the attention on them. As soon as he did so however, some of them seemed to get uncomfortable, well one in particular. The yellow and pink pony caught his eye because of her soft demeanor; perhaps she was just very shy. It would not surprise him however, if she were a beast of a white mage, and would be the one to bark orders and be the aggressive healer.  His eyes soon flowed to the next in line, going up the order that he had spotted them originally. As silence dawned over the table, it would have seemed that the lavender pony would be the first to speak. 

"Um, hi! I'm Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and Princess Celestia's student. I study all things magic and unknown and-". She suddenly stopped, taking in large amounts of air before she seemed to calm down and begin again. 
"Nice to meet you Skye, I'm Twilight Sparkle, but you already knew that already cause I said that earlier anyway, I work as a librarian in Ponyville and sometimes save the world from villains like Discord!" 

As Twilight began to talk more and more about her positions and what she did, Skye happened to hang back on the part earlier, 'Element of Magic? Is that some kind of title for proficiency of an ability?'. He noticed only briefly, but when those words were spoken that 'light' he had detected earlier spiked, if only for a moment, had glowed a bit brighter and seemed stronger. Perhaps it was this world's method of those that had the Echo? He soon shoved the thoughts back down to listen the final pony that had decided to speak. Taking note of the names to the ponies in the order of introduction: Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie 'An unusual name', Apple Jack, and at the behest of Rainbow, Fluttershy. 

All in total they had unusual names, but it wasn't unlike some he had heard from in Eorzea, recalling some of the party members he had been paired with during certain dungeons. While Skye had not been listening too closely into the lives that these ponies wished to share, he found that the other princess, Luna, had not talked much since his entrance. He wasn't one to judge but perhaps she was mute or more soft-spoken than Fluttershy, but just so happened to have a hard exterior to pair with it. Most likely however, it was her distrust for him. Hero or not she had not been their to see his deeds, nor had he the ability to share these experiences with her at all. 

Very soon had the sun ended up setting down over the edge of the horizon, the day had been spent ruminating his thoughts while exchanging greetings and tidbits of his life with his acquaintances, all the meanwhile he had not noticed that they had indeed noticed his lack of speaking, giving them ample opportunity to steer the conversation.