"Indeed." Matthias smiled, and he bowed. "Pleasure seeing you again, Princess Cadance, Captain... or do you prefer Prince Shining Armor?" he added, smirking.
Shining Armor looked at him in a similar way as Twilight often did, although after a moment he chuckled.
"You really don't need to use our titles." Cadance said, smiling. "We're all friends, aren't we?"
"Of course, Princess." Matt replied, still smirking, as he moved away to let them come in.
"Who is it?" he heard Twilight shout from the bedroom.
Shining Armor was about to reply to his sister, but Matt signaled him with his hoof to be silent. He cleared his throat, and took a deep breath.
"Hear ye, hear ye!" Matt shouted. "Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor cordially invite Twilight Sparkle to stop reading her books and come to greet them!"
As soon as he finished, he heard a 'shish' noise behind him, and he glanced behind to see Twilight, who teleported herself.
"Hi!" she greeted them as she hugged her brother, then she turned to Cadance.
Matthias was expecting to see Twilight hugging her as well, but instead they both started hopping from leg to leg.
"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" they recited, while clapping their hooves and shaking their flanks, ending with laughter.
"Wow." Matt said, still staring at them with a raised eyebrow. He shook his head. "Remind me to tell Applejack she was right about the dance thing."
Twilight scowled at him, but quickly returned her attention to her guests.
"You could have sent me a letter to tell me you would be visiting. How was your honeymoon?"
"Oh, it was great." Cadance answered her, and went on telling her about the past month.
"So, ready to get back to duty?" Matt asked Shining Armor, as they trotted away a bit, letting the mares gossip.
"We still have a few days left before we need to get back to Canterlot." replied the unicorn, and glancing at Twilight and Cadance, he added quietly: "Thanks, by the way."
"No problem." Matt said, knowing what he was referring to.
"What are you two whispering about?" Twilight asked them.
"I was just complimenting how his wife seems to radiate with beauty after the honeymoon." Matt quickly answered, bowing to Cadance.
"Thank you." she replied, blushing slightly.
"Do you have a prepared response for every situation?" Shining Armor whispered as his wife and sister stopped paying them attention.
"No, it's just quick wits." Matt replied, winking.
"Why are you winking?" Twilight asked him, glaring.
"Your brother asked me if it was hard living with you under the same roof." Matt replied, smirking. "I answered with a joke."
"And what would that joke be about?" Twilight asked.
"Oh, you know, about your temper."
"My what?!"
"Exactly."
Shining Armor and Cadance’s gazes shifted from one to another as they argued.
"Wow, you two are bickering like an old married couple." Cadance joked. That made both Matthias and Twilight blush and stopped immediately.
"Excuse me, we weren't bickering." Twilight said.
"Well, one of us wasn't." Matt corrected her, moving away from Shining Armor, who didn't appear to be amused by his wife's joke.
Twilight silenced him with a glare, and cleared her throat.
"Anyway, why don't we go for dinner?"
"Great idea, Twilight." Cadance said happily. "Maybe we could get the rest of your friends to come as well?"
At that moment, somepony knocked at the door.
"I'll get it." Matt said.
He opened the door to see Pinkie, and behind her the rest of their friends, which looked a bit confused.
"So what's this 'bout some dinner Pinkie Pie practically dragged us for?" Applejack asked.
Watching the pink pony jump up and down, Matt couldn't help but ask:
"How..."
"Well, at the morning, my ears were flapping, tail itching, and knees aching!" Pinkie replied, showing her body parts' spasms respectively. "That usually means that some friends are gonna come over for a dinner!"
Matt rolled his eyes.
Soon nine ponies and one dragon were seated by the table at the restaurant. They didn't have a table big enough for that many ponies, but once the restaurant's staff realized that there was a princess and a prince with them, it quickly turned out to be a little problem.
"They didn't have to run and buy a table..." Cadance muttered, slightly embarrassed.
"Oh, come on, that was hilarious!" Rainbow Dash chuckled, recalling how three waiters ran to the nearest store, while the owner himself took their orders as they waited for the table.
"Why wouldn't they have to?" Rarity asked Cadance. "After all, royalty, such as you two, deserves some privileges, right?"
Cadance was about to reply, when the waiters and the owner brought their orders, along with salads, appetizers, two bottles of wine and few others with either apple juice or water, glasses and napkins. They quickly moved to serve their guests.
"Would you like some wine, sir?" the waiter asked Matthias.
"Yes, white wine, if you would be so kind."
"Of course." replied the unicorn, pouring him wine.
"Thank you."
Matt took a napkin, unfolded it, and put it on his lap.
"What ar'ya doin'?" asked Applejack who was sitting next to him.
"Following a dining etiquette." Matt replied.
"Oh." Applejack said. She glanced at the plates in front of her. "Do you know which is the main dish, which is the salad and which is the appetizer? And which am I supposed to eat first?"
"Your order - daffodil and daisy sandwich - is the main dish, the salad is the green one, and the bite-size apple fritters are the appetizers." Matt explained. "I would advise you to eat the salad first, and then the main dish. You can eat the appetizers whenever you want."
"How do you know so much about the formal etiquette?" Twilight asked him as the waiters left, while she sitting by his other side.
"I might've had to bear through it back on my world." Matt replied, winking.
"Well, that was certainly a delightful dinner." Rarity exclaimed one hour later as they all were leaving. "We should get together like this more often."
Matt guessed by the expressions on the faces of Rainbow and Applejack that their opinion on the matter was different from Rarity's.
"So, how long do you plan on staying in Ponyville?" Twilight asked Shining Armor and Cadance.
"About five days." her brother replied. "We would stay longer, but I'll have to return to my duties in the Royal Guard."
"Pity." Twilight said, saddened. "Still, though, five days is plenty of time."
"Enough for a party!"
"Pinkie, you've already thrown them a party." Matt reminded her. "It was called 'reception'."
"Yeah, but now I have to throw them a 'Welcome to Ponyville for five day' party. Duh."
Matt sighed and shook his head. He noticed Rainbow Dash glancing at him, her eyebrow raised. Matthias nodded and cleared his throat.
"If all of you wouldn't mind, I wanted to talk to you about something." he said, gaining everypony's attention. "Can we all go back to the library?"
"Err... sure, I guess." Twilight answered, confused, and the others nodded.
They all made their way towards Twilight's library, all giving Matthias curious glances. He still wasn't sure what to say, but he was pretty certain that if he had problems, Rainbow would probably just tell it bluntly. He barely kept himself from chuckling at the thought of how everypony would react to that. They were walking through the middle of Ponyville, when suddenly, Pinkie's tail started twitching.
"Oh no! My tail is twitching!" she shouted and hid herself under a roof of a nearby building.
"Twitchy tail!" Spike shouted, as he, Applejack, Rainbow and Rarity followed her.
"Twitchy tail was things falling from the sky, right?" Matt asked, while looking up, preparing to pray to Light for protection.
"What are you all talking about?" Shining Armor asked, as he and Cadance watched them, confused by their behavior.
Twilight, who was nodding at Matt, turned to them and started explaining her brother and sister-in-law about the Pinkie Sense, when suddenly, a strange burst of light erupted above the town, startling everypony. It disappeared as soon as it had appeared, and suddenly, everypony could hear terrified shouts coming from a figure as it was falling from the skies.
Matthias was about to jump and try to catch it, but as soon as the shape of the being registered in his head, he stopped, staring at it with wide eyes and his jaw dropped, as the being fell right on his face in the middle of Ponyville.
"Ow, that's gotta hurt." Pinkie said as she and the rest joined Matt, Twilight, Shining Armor and Cadance.
"By my grandfather's beard," the being exclaimed as it rose up, "why did that blasted..." the being, about 130 cm high with a bushy ginger beard, clad in brown leather clothes and a hat, armed with mining pick, rifle gun, and whatever he got in a bag on his back, stopped talking and stared with a dumbfounded expression at the ponies surrounding him.
"This won't end well." Matt thought, facehoofing himself.
"What the..." the creature was about to say, but was interrupted.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Shining Armor shouted at the being, stepping in front of him and lowering his head threateningly.
The being's eyes widened even further as he heard the pony talk.
"Easy there, horsie..." the creature said, raising his hands, and taking a step back as he noticed Shining Armor's horn glow.
"Matt, is that somepony from..." Twilight asked him, but trailed off as he nodded to her.
Hoping this wouldn’t end with a disaster, Matt walked up to the being.
"Shining Armor, I will deal with him." he told the captain as he passed him.
The unicorn glanced at him, and after a moment he nodded. Matthias continued to walk towards the being, whose facial expression would be hilarious to him if this situation wasn't so serious.
"Where the bloody hell am I?" the being asked, looking around and aching from pain that the fall had undoubtedly caused.
"You're in the land of Equestria, in the town of Ponyville." Matt replied as he stopped a meter away from him.
"Equestria? Ponyville?" he asked, his confusion deepening.
"You are far away from Azeroth, Brann Bronzebeard."
If Brann's eyes could go any wider, they would probably pop out from his skull.
"How in the name o' Madoran do you know me?"
Matt could hear the same question being repeated among his friends.
"I'm Matthias Lehner." he said to Brann. "We've met twice, although both times happened many years ago."
"Matthias Lehner? I heard somebody mentionin' that name to me..." muttered the dwarf. "Wait a second: I know yer voice, and those eyes..."
Brann stumbled back as he found the answer.
"You..." he said, surprise, fear and rage in his eyes, and his hand prepared to reach for his Trusty Pick.
"That won't be necessary." Matt told him as he noticed the slight twitch of his hand.
"Oh? And how do ye figure?"
Matt allowed himself to chuckle.
"Look around this place." he told Brann, gesturing with his hoof. "I've been here for three months. If I was as you think, would this place look like this?"
Brann gazed from side to side, making sure that Matt was some distance away from here. No doubt he realized how peaceful the town was, until he fell down, at least, and that ponies were more afraid of him than Matthias.
"Also..." Matt added, and opened his heart to the Light.
"What are ye..." asked the dwarf, but trailed off as the Light enveloped him and healed his injuries from the fall. That seemed to calm Brann a bit. At least, he wasn't reaching for his weapon anymore. "Okay, ye got my interest."
Matt nodded and glanced back.
"Twilight, do you mind if we take him to your library? I would prefer to talk in a bit more private area." Noticing uncertainty in her eyes, as well as everypony else, he added: "Don't worry, he's not going to harm anypony. Right?"
"Of course." promised the dwarf, bowing to his friends. Twilight looked at Matt and after a second she nodded.
"Follow me." he told Brann, and made his way towards Twilight's library, with the dwarf and his friends at his hooves.
Thankfully, they were already close to it, so they didn't need to pass by too many ponies staring at the strange bipedal creature that appeared in a unique way in their town. Matt was curious how in Light’s name did the dwarf do that, but he could wait a couple of minutes to get his answers.
In a few moments, they all were inside Twilight's library. Matt could see Brann glancing curiously at the books, while his friends were glancing either at the dwarf, or at Matthias, urging him to start explaining.
He cleared his throat.
"Everypony, I would like to introduce to you Brann Bronzebeard, Prince of Ironforge and High Explorer of the Explorers' Guild, younger brother and heir apparent of Muradin Bronzebeard, High Thane of the Bronzebeard clan and Bronzebeard representative in the Council of Three Hammers."
The ponies gasped as they realized they were dealing with royalty of Azeroth, although they didn't know what was the Explorers Guild or the Council of Three Hammers. Also, Matthias noticed that Rarity had winced, probably at the clothes he was wearing. He suppressed a chuckle and turned to Brann.
"Brann, this is the owner of this library, Twilight Sparkle." Matt told him, introducing the hostess first. "Next to her is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza - or, as she prefers, Princess Cadance" he added, noticing the look the alicorn gave him, "niece of the sisters ruling over Equestria, Princesses Celestia and Luna. That's her husband, Prince Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard, and Twilight's older brother. Over there is Applejack, her family runs the apple farm called Sweet Apple Acres. Next to her is Fluttershy, an animal caretaker. The one flying above the floor is Rainbow Dash, Ponyville's weather manager. That's Rarity, fashion designer and owner of the Carousel Boutique. The little one next to her is Spike, a baby dragon that is Twilight's assistant..."
Brann, who until now was taking his hat off and bowing his head politely to each pony Matt introduced to him, frowned.
"Wait, that's a dragon?"
"Hey!"
"You know, I would scold you, but you had a similar reaction to mine when I met him." Matt smirked. "And yes, he is a dragon."
"Hmm. No offense, little guy." Brann apologized to Spike.
"And the last one is Pinkie Pie, baker at Sugarcube Corner..." Matthias trailed off as he noticed that she had disappeared.
"... and party thrower extraordinaire!" Pinkie shouted, appearing on Brann's shoulder. "Now that you’re in Ponyville, we need to throw you a welcome party as well!"
To Brann's relief, Twilight grabbed Pinkie with her magic and lifted her away from him. The dwarf glanced at Matt, who shrugged his arms.
"She didn't hover a few inches away from your face while you woke up after a fight with a pack of timberwolves, so don't whine." he told him.
"Hmm. Well, nice to meet ye all." Brann said, bowing once again.
"Nice to meet you too, um, Prince Brann." Twilight replied for everypony, unsure how to address him.
"Bah, nobody called me 'prince' in ages. Just call me Brann." the dwarf said, winking.
"Okay then, Brann. Could you tell as how did you come to Equestria?" glancing at Matt, she added: "I guess by the fact that you didn't become a pony that unlike Matt you didn't die."
"If ye all don't mind, I would like to hear first about this one." Brann replied, frowning at Matthias.
"As much as I wish I could explain everything to you, I can't. All I know is that about two months after my death - three days before the Cataclysm, if you want to be specific - I was brought back to life in this body, and that's it. I have no idea why, how or who did that."
"How do ye know about the Cataclysm?" Brann asked, confused. "And about the Council?"
"A part of my soul was left in... with Bolvar." Matt replied, knowing that the dwarf without a doubt knows about the current Lich King. "We can communicate through this link that my soul shares. As a matter of fact, I can shift my conscious there and tell Bolvar you said hi." noticing the dwarf wasn't much amused, he went on. "I know thanks to him about most important things that happened on Azeroth. I'm sorry about Magni." he added, saddened.
The mention of his brother's name made the usually cheerful dwarf look at the floor, seeming sad and... guilty?
"Never have I expected to hear that from you." said Brann after a few heartbeats. "Or about this brother." Matt winced slightly at his words. Glancing at his friends, he noticed that they were looking at him confused.
"I have no rights to ask him to keep the truth of a secret if he decides to tell them." he decided, knowing that they probably won't want to have anything to do with him.
"There is more." he confessed, figuring he might as well tell his friends what he planned. "Medivh is here."
"Medivh?" Brann asked, his eyes widening at the mention of The Last Guardian of Tirisfal's name.
"Yes. He talked to me shortly after I came here, and day after that he... sent me a message." he glanced at his friends, and sighed. "And he also came to talk to me today, while Rainbow and I were about to have a sparring fight."
Everypony glanced at him and Rainbow, who nodded.
"So that was what you wanted to talk to us about." Twilight said.
"Yes. Medivh told me earlier that there is something I have to do here." he turned to Brann. "He also told me that I need first to heal the 'wound within within me', before I could do whatever this is I'm supposed to do. I thought that I already healed that 'wound' when I restored my connection to the Light, but, as Medivh kindly informed me, that was just 'step one'."
"'Step one'?" everypony asked.
"How many 'steps' are there?" Twilight asked.
"Medivh said there are five, but I already passed two: the first one, before I healed Applejack, and the second one, before I broke free from Chrysalis' prison." he said, not really wanting to explain to everypony all that about shedding true tears. "As for the others, I have to figure that one on my own." he rolled his eyes.
"I'm beginning to understand what you meant about prophets and shamans not being 'specific'." said Twilight.
"There is also one more... thing." Matt told them, closing his eyes, not able to look at them. "Medivh told me that if I fail at passing any of those steps, my nightmare will repeat, and I'll become evil once again."
He heard everypony gasp, and one dwarf snort:
"Well, ye're boned."
"Gee, thanks for helping." Matt scowled at Brann.
"What? I'm just being honest." Brann replied, shrugging his arms. There was no malice in his voice. "Face it, lad, ye're a monster."
Matt winced at his words.
"Face it, lad, ye're a monster."
Twilight watched as Matt winced as the creature - dwarf, if she remembered Matthias' description correctly - called him a monster.
Technically, she's not a monster...
"You have no right to call him a monster!" Twilight said, looking at Brann with a stern look. "He's done nothing but help everypony since he came here!" Brann, as well as everypony, was startled by her outburst.
"Listen, girlie, you don't know..."
"Barely a few moments after he woke up, he saved three fillies from a pack of timberwolves!" she interrupted the dwarf, coming closer to him. "A day later he chased out three dragons from Ponyville, and a day after that, he healed our friend after she got her throat ripped open! And a month ago, he battled to a standstill a queen of a shapeshifting race that feeds on love when they invaded Canterlot! And I will tell you one more thing - I have long since lost track of times I saw him sulking or grieving whenever he thought about his past! I'm sure that whatever those other steps are, he's gonna pass them, and he won't became evil ever again! So," she summed up, flashing her horn, "I want you to apologize to him. Right now."
She still continued to gaze at the dwarf, who appeared to be surprised, but could hear everypony behind her support her.
"You know, Brann, you should listen to her." Twilight heard Matt said, amusement returned in his voice. "Trust me, you don't want to see her really angry."
Twilight shot him a glare, but turned back to Brann when she heard the dwarf laugh.
"Looks like ye managed to find yourself some loyal friends, lad." Brann told Matt. "I see ye haven't lost yer charm. Fine, since this lady insists, I apologize for calling ye a monster, lad."
"Thank you." Matt replied.
Twilight and Matt looked briefly into each other’s eyes.
Thanks.
Don't mention it.
Matt turned his attention back to the dwarf, warmed by Twilight words. He hoped that she was right.
"You still haven't told us how you got here." he asked Brann.
"Ye still haven't exactly explained to me everything. I mean, can you affect Azeroth in any way?"
"Well, to be honest..." Matt stammered; he completely forgot to mention to everypony about his encounter with Ysera. "About a month ago, I've been told in a dream that I still have a role to play in Azeroth by Ysera, the Awakened."
"The Dragon Aspect?" Brann asked, surprised.
"Yes, she…”
"Wait a minute." Twilight interrupted him, "Why didn't you tell us about this?"
"Well, I was going to, of course." Matthias carefully replied to her, knowing all too well that she could turn on him in any moment. "But then I kind of... forgot about it."
"You forgot about it?! How can you forget about something like a Dragon Aspect talking to you in a dream?!"
"Well, excuse me, but considering the way I was woken up that day, you can't really blame me!" Matt barked back at her, getting annoyed by her mood swings.
"Oh," interjected Spike, "you mean when the two of you slept together?"
Matt's and Twilight's eyes went wide as they slowly turned to the baby dragon. For a moment, which seemed long like eternity, everypony stared at Spike. But soon, a couple of things happened. Twilight blushed, and was closely followed by Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy and Applejack, blushing both on her behalf, as well as because Spike's comment made them remember their own embarrassing moments, Cadance and Shining Armor stared at Twilight, with Shining Armor asking:
"What!?!"
At the same time, Brann bursted into laughter, while Matt facehoofed himself.
"This can't be happening..."
"Shining Armor, this isn't..." Twilight started to explain.
"Oh, I know! It was when the two of you kissed, right?" asked an excited Pinkie.
"Well, I see now why she defended ye so fiercely, lad." Brann laughed. "Looks like my brother managed to teach ye a few things besides fighting, after all."
"Light, please, get me the hell away from here!" Matthias pleaded.
As if to answer his prayers, the door bust open, and Big Mac entered, panting heavily and sweating.
"Big Mac?" Applejack asked, surprised to see her brother look as if her run all the way from Sweet Apple Acres. "What happened?"
The big stallion took a moment to catch his breath. Everypony having forgotten about the commotion from earlier and looked at him.
"Apple Bloom..." Big Mac panted. "... at the farm... something wrong..."
"That sounds serious!" Matt said immediately, getting up, passing Big Mac and running towards Sweet Apple Acres. "Let’s go everypony!"
As he ran, Matthias wondered briefly if it was bad that he was almost glad that there was a problem.