//------------------------------//
// Chapter Five - Jack Attacks 
// Story: The Butterfly and The Beast 
// by Lobisomen616 
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 It was early in the morning and all seemed rather peaceful. Then, without warning, there was a massive ruckus in the courtyard outside. From what I could gather there was an intruder and the guards outside the room I was staying in would not permit me to leave. When everything had calmed down and I was allowed to leave my room I asked the guards what had happened. They told me that the intruder had apparently walked right up to the front of the castle, knocked out the guards, and forced the gates open by himself. Once inside he went on a rampage, destroying everything he could get his hands on and attacking every guard he came across. It took several hours to finally subdue him and by then he had managed to take down more than thirty guards and practically turned the courtyard into a war-zone.  I went to go see for myself who would be so bold as to attack Celestia's own castle on his own. What I saw was a man chained up to a large cross in the middle of the ruined courtyard with a line of archers aiming directly at him. Despite his situation there was an almost amused grin on the man's face. I walked over and stood next to the officer in charge. He paid me no mind and started to speak.
"You are charged with the crime of assaulting this castle, its personnel, and threatening Celestia herself. These charges are severe and will be treated as an act of war against Equestria and its people. Princess Celestia has already determined your sentence and given me the authority to carry it out. However, in light of the fact that no one was killed or severely wounded during your assault she has given you the privilege of being able to choose your sentence. Your choices are immediate execution or imprisonment for the rest of your days. Which do you chose?"
"Execution."
"As you wish then. Do you have any last words?"
"None that you need to hear."
"Then may you rest in peace. READY!
AIM!
FIRE!"
On his order a volley of arrows flew through the air, each one of them finding their mark. His entire body tensed up in pain then went limp, his face still wearing the same content smile. The guards relaxed, confident the execution was succesful. All at once they turned back to face the officer. When they did so a look of immediate shock appeared across all of their faces. At first I thought it was me that had suprised them but as I looked to the officer I quickly discovered what had spooked them. The man that they had just turned into a pincushion was standing behind the officer with his hand over the officer's mouth.
"Excellent work boys."
He was speaking with the officer's voice.
Confused we all looked back at the cross. The chains hung down loosely, the arrows were imbedded deeply into the wood, and the man who was supposed to have been dead and shackled to the cross was standing right beside me.
"You are all perfectly trained to deal with a conventional threat. However I think you'll find I am nothing of the sort."
As he spoke his voice shifted back to his own, or at least the voice he had used before. He took his hand off the officer's mouth and once he did so the officer dropped to the ground. We all gasped at the sight.
"Relax. He's just unconscious."
The archers all prepared to loose another volley. As they did so the man raised his hand. They all fired at roughly the same time and all the arrows flew towards him and would have surely hit, but they didn't. They hung in the air surrounded by a blue aura, the same as the aura around his hand. The aura faded and the arrows all simply dropped to the ground. 
"I thought I told you to relax."
Seeing that the arrows were useless the guards all drew swords and charged in a very reckless manner. The blue aura appeared around his hand again and also around the guards. He made a downward-pointing gesture and in an instant all of the guards dropped to the ground and dug themselves into the dirt.
"That was your last chance."
The guards tried to get up but no matter how hard they struggled they could not even raise their heads.
"Don't bother. I increased the weight of your armor by roughly ten times and Celestia herself couldn't undo that spell. Plus it will only last about three minutes anyways so there's no need to worry. Now then don't you think it's about time you stop enjoying the show and calm these boys down Tia?"
Celestia's familiar chuckle came from nowhere.
"You're right. I've had my fun. Guards, stand down"
Then she appeared, seemingly out of thin air, and began to speak.
"I suppose I should explain what's going on here. This man here is an old friend of mine. His name is Jack and around four-hundred years ago he gave me the idea for this prank."
"PRANK!?"
To be honest, having been around Celestia for a while, I'm amazed the guards were that suprised.
"Yes, a prank. One we play on the guards every few decades."
"I really wish you wouldn't insist on calling it that."
"My apologies, but that's what it's become don't you think? Now where was I? Ah, yes. Jack here got the idea to see how well my guards reacted when presented with an emergency situation. Equestria had been in a state of peace and prosperity for several centuries and he wondered whether or not the Royal Guard had gotten soft in that time. So, after announcing his intentions to me and getting my approval, he did then what he did here today; staged a mock attack on the castle. He would do his best to cause mayhem, without severely hurting anyone, and see how long it would take for the guards to overpower him. And I must say you all did rather well. The first time we did this it took the guards nearly three days to restrain Jack and you did it in around three hours. A new record!"
"That said none of the times we've done this have the guards ever assumed I could use magic. It's an easy mistake to make, due to my appearance, but that's no excuse."
"You have a point but they did well and should be rewarded for it. In the meantime please return to your regular duties."
"I believe you're forgetting something."
"Oh right! Silly me."
Celestia's horn began to glow and the aura spread over the entire courtyard and it began to revert to it's former appearance, as if time itself was being turned back.
"That's not what I meant."
"What else could you possibly-? OH! Please inform Lieutenant-Officer Lance of what has happened when he wakes up. In the meantime please take him to the infirmary."
When the guards had taken the lieutenant away and it was just the three of us Celestia spoke again.
"Jack, you do know we didn't plan on doing this for another year, right?"
"It's been a while since we've seen each other so I figured I'd make our reunion a little more interesting."
"It may be for the best actually, but that's another matter. Now then I think it's time we discuss why I called you here."
I think I know where this is going.