//------------------------------//
// 77. Meeting the initiaties 
// Story: Rebirth of the Damned 
// by Borsuq 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight sighed as she ate her breakfast and read some books, wondering why she felt so down this morning. The answer came to her as her gaze shifted from her book to an empty seat on the other side of the table.
This was the day Matt would move out.
“It came sooner than I expected.” Twilight thought, pushing her cereal away. She lost her appetite.
Only a few days after they’d returned from the Crystal Empire, the construction of the Everfree Abbey began. Asked by Matthias, she and their other friends didn’t go to the site, as he wanted to show it to them in its full glory once it was finished, which happens to be today. Of course, due to the Abbey being located between Ponyville and Everfree Forest, Applejack and Fluttershy had to look the other way whenever they went in or out of town. As for Matt, he spend majority of his time at the construction site, overseeing everything. Coupled with Twilight’s increased level of studies, this meant that they saw each other mostly twice a day. The longest they talked was when Matt asked her to hold on for him books he had ordered from Canterlot for the chapel’s library (until the workers finished said part of the construction). Twilight did so happily, as those were in majority history books, and even included few notes from the time of the only war Equestria have ever been part of: the Equestrian-Griffonian War that erupted barely few years after the founding of both countries.
For all her lust for knowledge, Twilight knew little about it, as most documents about it were lost - like many others - during Discord’s reign. And supposedly, even before his origami involving prank they were lacking, as their contents ‘left out’ the last year of the war almost completely. It was only known that in the final battle over New Griffenburg (which served as the capital of Griffonia by then), Commander Hurricane defeated and captured King Friedrich the First, resulting in Equestria’s victory.
Returning her mind to the present moment, Twilight pondered how often she would see Matt now.
“Likely even less than now, as he will be busy with training paladins...” the unicorn mused unhappily, shifting pages of ‘Nature of changing matter’ absentmindedly. “But maybe it’s for the best? That way, we might finally stop being in love, and finally be one hundred percent friends. I most certainly don’t need a repeat of events of that night.”
Twilight twitched uncomfortably as she recalled how the two of them found themselves in a bathtub, not to mention that they were seen by Spike. Thankfully her assistant, who just now entered the kitchen, kept that to himself.
For now, anyways. Only Light knows when he’ll accidently blab it up.
“I finished cleaning the basement and the bathroom.” the baby dragon reported. “Was there anything else I am supposed to do today?”
“Well, we were going to pick up few things for the last evening with Matt...”
Spike cheerful expression turned to sadness: like her, he forgot that the paladin would move out today. And even though he would still be in Ponyville, it wouldn’t be the same. Twilight, despite her own mood about this matter, couldn’t help but feel sorry for her young assistant. While Spike never complained about it, he was spending most of his time hanging around with mares and fillies, which he must have found a little bit annoying at times. Having Matt here, a stallion he could talk to and look up to on daily basis was great for his growth and generally state of being. Twilight even suspect he started to think of him as a big brother figure.
“You know, Spike.” she started, trying to cheer him up, “I’m sure if you would ask, Matt would let you sleep at the Abbey from time to time.”
To her surprise, the dragon shook his head.
“Why would I want to do that? Matt is great to hang around with, but I like living with you a lot more.” Spike said, making her smile fondly. The dragon, on the other hoof, smirked, in oddly familiar fashion. “Besides, without me, you won’t be able to keep this place clean.”
Making a mental note to pull Matt by his ear for letting Spike learn that from him, she coughed.
“Anyway, as I was saying... we will need to pick up few things for last evening with Matt, and then for slumber party with girls.”
“Wow, girly stuff five seconds after Matt leaves.” Spike rolled his eyes, but once he caught Twilight stare, he chuckled. “Sorry, couldn’t help myself.”
“But before any of that,” Twilight continued, “we are supposed to welcome with everypony else to the four ponies that Matt will train to become paladins once they arrive in Ponyville, and then finally see the Everfree Abbey.”
“Right, I totally forgot about it.” the dragon exclaimed, excited by both ideas. “What do you think it looks like? And what kind of ponies are those guys?”
“Guess we will have to wait and see.” she replied, although personally, she was as curious as he; after all, one of those four was supposed to be the pony she saw trapped in a block of amber-like-crystal for over a thousand years. “In the meantime, let’s go and find Matt.”
 
As she busted the last cloud for today, Rainbow Dash spotted Twilight and Spike leaving the library. Having nothing better to do for a moment, she flew down to them.
“Hey guys.” Dash greeted them. “Where are you off to?”
“We wanted to get Matt before we would all go welcome the paladin candidates. Do you want to tag along?”
“Uh, sure.” the cyan mare replied, slightly nervous.
Ever since she and Matt did that in Twilight’s house, she felt a bit uncomfortable around her friend whenever the stallion was mentioned. While Dash didn’t thought so back then, and even had unicorn’s permission for that, it seemed to her now... as if she betrayed her.
“Good thing he will now have his own place.” she thought as the three of them set off.
Dash recalled how she pondered the idea of having Matt spend night at her house, but decided against it, as it would require asking Twilight to cast spell at him enabling him to walk on clouds. While her friend never showed having any problem with their ‘activities’, Rainbow considered that to be pushing it.
Not to say that doing it on the ground was bad or anything, but it did require of them to go further away from Ponyville, and with Matt being busy with the construction...
“Hey, wait a minute!” Dash exclaimed, stopping. “Weren’t the workers supposed to pack it up today? Why is Matt there?”
“Probably, he isn’t.” Twilight replied, continuing to trot.
“Then where-” the cyan mare began, but stopped as it hit her. Facehoofing, she muttered: “For Pete’s sake...”
And indeed, they found Matt at his pondering place beside the river by the edge of Ponyville. Dash, Twilight and Spike assumed he came here to meditate, and it appeared that they were right, but what exactly they saw made them stare in silence for few heartbeats.
Encased in golden light, Matt was hovering few inches above the ground.
“Hi everypony.” he greeted them as he swirled around, despite his body not showing any sign of movement.
“Are you... flying?” Rainbow asked him, dumbfounded.
“No, but I am levitating.” Matt replied, amused.
Rainbow shook her head, and was about to ask him to explain how exactly it worked, but Twilight beat her to it.
“Are you using the Light to do it?” the unicorn looked at him with wonder in her eyes.
“More or less; it’s more on the lines of being in permanent state of deeper connection with Light than actually using it... although, truth be told, it’s pretty much useless. Anyway, what’s up?”
“We were supposed to go welcome your new paladin wannabes, remember?” Rainbow Dash said, still a bit put off by Matt continuing to levitate.
“Paladin initiates.” he corrected her. “Or rather, they will be initiates, starting tomorrow. And yes, I do remember. The train with the one from Crystal Empire is due in half an hour; the three from Canterlot should be ten minutes later.”
“Let’s go get the others then.” Twilight suggested. “I’m sure Pinkie Pie is dying to meet them.”
Rainbow suppressed a snicker at the sight of Matt’s pouting. He spend a lot of time past this month talking to Pinkie, trying to explain to her that the four ponies were coming to Ponyville on an official business. They are to learn the ways of the Light, so that they might protect Equestria from evil. As such, throwing them a party would be rather inappropriate, and they wouldn’t have time for it anyway. After a while, he succeeded, but in exchange Pinkie demanded that they would go welcome them.
Which brought about this moment.
“Let’s go, then.” Matt replied Twilight, and began to move... still hovering over ground.
“... Matt?” Dash asked, pointing hoof at the ground beneath him; this was starting to irritate her.
The earth pony chuckled, and the glow disappeared, making him drop and stand on his hooves.
“Better?” he asked, visibly amused that he irritated her.
 



 
Finding everypony didn’t prove much of a challenge - especially since they had Ponyville’s fastest pony on their side - and soon, all eight of them waited at the station. Twilight couldn’t help but enjoy what she knew what it’s likely be one of the last moments they would all hang out together in a long time. She could see others were probably thinking along the same lines, as every now and then somepony would frown for few seconds. That didn’t stop them though from chattering about the ponies they were going to meet.
“Speaking of...” Twilight thought as the train from the Crystal Empire rolled into the station.
Ponies began pouring out of it, both crystal and non alike. The first group consisted mostly of tourist, who wanted to see how Equestria had changed during the thousand years they missed out on, while in the other were the opposite ponies - the ones who just returned from sightseeing the Empire that was lost for the millennium. Shining Armor and Cadance wrote to her in one of the letters that their kingdom was practically getting swarmed with tourist, which proved to be good for economy once they invested in tourism, by rebuilding the old train station, building a lot of gift shops, enabling the crystal castle for tours, and other things like that.
Suppressing a chuckle at the thought of her brother dealing with budgeting for an Empire, Twilight glanced around to see if there was anypony coming in their direction. And soon, she spotted-
“A mare?” she mused, slightly surprised.
Indeed, walking up to them was mare, appearing to be their age. “Then again, she is technically a thousand years old.” Twilight recalled. She had bright yellow coat, with mane of slightly brighter shade. Her cutie mark appeared to be a lily, at least from the angle Twilight could see.
“Greetings, Serenity.” Matt spoke up once the crystal pony reached them. “I trust you had a pleasant ride.”
“Yes, quite-” the pony called Serenity began as she put her luggage on the ground, but was cut off by a large explosion of confetti and, as one could expect, Pinkie Pie appeared immediately beside her.
“WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!!!” she exclaimed to the very confused mare.
“Umh, thank you.” Serenity replied, while the pink pony receded back to her original place between Fluttershy and Rarity.
“Okay, I’m done.” Pinkie Pie told Matt with a wide smile.
The stallion visibly put some effort to not dwell on the matter, as Twilight did to not ask where did the confetti came from, and turned to regard all of them.
“Everypony, may I introduce to you Serenity. Her curiosity and interest in the Light, as well as the compassion I sensed in her, made me offer her a place in the Order.”
“Hello everypony.” Serenity greeted them, smiling a bit shyly. “It’s a pleasure to see those that my homeland owes so much.”
She bowed her head a little, making Twilight feel a bit uncomfortable. Granted, they did helped to save the Empire, but that didn’t mean they should be treated like anypony special.
“The pleasure is all ours, Serenity. But please, you don’t have to treat us like some sort of important figures.” she told her, hoping to make her more comfortable.
“Beg your pardon, Lady Sparkle, but you are the sister of the Prince...” Serenity began, but Twilight stopped her (not missing the amused smirk on Matt’s face).
“Perhaps, but I do not wish to be treated like royalty because of that, nor either of us wishes any reverence for helping the Crystal Empire.” Twilight added. “We just did what anypony else would do: helped ponies in need.”
Her friends all nodded in agreement. Even if they went there because of Celestia’s test, they all agreed that helping Crystal Ponies was most important.
“I see.” Serenity said thoughtfully. “I will try to bear that in mind, then.”
A quiet ‘ahem’ from Matt made them all turn their head to regard him.
“The three other recruits will arrive here shortly.” he told them. “Once they’re here, I will explain few things to you and them, and then we will proceed to the Everfree Abbey. Until the train arrives, feel free to continue socializing with everypony.”
 
“So, Serenity, tell us something about yourself.” Rarity encouraged the crystal pony, genuinely curious.
She was excited about a prospect of getting to know a crystal pony; they were all simply magnificent! Their shining coats, their crystallized manes, sparkling eyes... Oh, how she envied her!
“There’s nothing much to say, I’m afraid.” Serenity replied as the other mares and Spike huddled around her. Matt, on the other hoof, continued to observe the platform, but Rarity’s sharp eye spotted his ear twitching in their direction. “Before King Sombra came to power, I lived with my older brother, Sentinel. Our parents died in accident when I was little, so he took care of me.”
“Oh my, I’m so sorry.” Twilight said, and everypony else offered her sympathies as well. “It must have been hard for you.”
“It was, but Sentinel was there for me.” Serenity replied, but her voice then broke, and she looked on the ground. “I’m sorry, I’m just...” she mumbled, trying to explain to them her sudden change of mood. “He was one of the crystal guards...”
Serenity cut off, but she didn’t need to finish. Rarity shared a sad look with Twilight, as they and their friends recalled Matt’s words:
… the ponies who were guards of the Crystal Empire fell in battle against King Sombra thousand years ago.
Before any of them could say or do anything, Pinkie Pie immediately crept to Serenity and hugged her. The crystal pony glanced at her, a bit surprised that she would just hug a pony she just met, but then smiled shyly and returned the hug.
“Thanks, but I am over it... mostly.” Serenity said, pulling away. “I... knew he was dead when Sombra enslaved us, anyways. My brother would never have allowed him to harm anypony otherwise. Sentinel was really compassionate towards ponies in need. He even earned his cutie mark for that, similar to mine.” she added, pointing at her flank. “A Lily of the Valley, symbolizing purity and sweetness of heart, that would not stand to see misfortune of others.” A smile crossed her lips: “I remember how other colts teased him for having flower for a cutie mark...”
“Yar brother sounds like he was a great fellow.” Applejack told her sympathetically as others murmured their agreements. “Ah wish we could’ave met him.”
“He was. Sentinel inspired me to join the crystal guard so that I could protect ponies too. But before I could sign for training, that thing-possessing King Sombra came and, well, you probably know the rest.” Serenity finished, obviously not wanting to recall those days. “I still wish to help ponies, to uphold memory of my brother, so when Sir Lightbringer offered me to join his order...”
“Excuse me, who?” Rarity butted in, confused.
“Oh, sorry, I meant Matthias, that is, Sir Matthias.” Serenity corrected herself, glancing in the direction of the said stallion, as if fearing she offended him. “We began to call him ‘Lightbringer’ in Crystal Empire after witnessing his powers.”
“I see.” Twilight said, smirking at Matt. “That name actually suits him. You know, I think it was also the title of his mentor.”
“Yes, Sir Matthias mentioned that to me back in the Crystal Empire. He... seemed a bit displeased when I called him that. I hope that name isn’t offending him in any way. I heard that Princess Cadance was pondering the thought of building him a statue and signing it ‘Lightbringer’, in honor of his battle with Sombra.”
“Of course she would think of something like that.” Matt said with slight annoyance, for the first time speaking up and making Serenity and few others jump up a bit, as they didn’t think he was paying attention. Turning to the crystal pony, he continued, “Her Highness is a bit displeased with me addressing her by her title even during more casual situations, so I suppose it’s to be expected that she would try to get back at me, as I too don’t really like this. While we’re at it, when you are off-duty, like now, you don’t have to address me per ‘sir’.”
“I’ll try to remember, Si-, I mean, Lightbr-, I mean-”
“You can call me Lightbringer, if you find it easier.” Matt told, her, smiling reassuringly. “It doesn’t really bother me that much.”
Despite his words, Rarity spotted a shadow cross his features.
“I wonder why being called by his mentor’s title upsets him so.” she pondered, but at the same time, the train from Canterlot arrived. All of her thoughts were put aside at the prospect of meeting the other three paladin candidates who, as she knew from Matt’s comments, are all stallions. “I wonder if they are like him...” Rarity thought wistfully.
While she would never try to approach Matt in similar manner as Rainbow Dash - both due to her belief that he and Twilight were meant for each other, as well as firm stand on that lady shouldn’t... offer herself so hastily, even for a stallion like him - there was no denying in her mind that he was the most charming stallion she had met. Only few came close to his bar. Rarity, while after the disappointment that was Blueblood realized how far dreams could be different from reality, still harbored hope of falling in love with a dashing stallion; one that would protect her damsel from everything that would seek to harm her...
“Mother shouldn’t have read me so many bedtime stories.” she thought, suppressing an embarrassing chuckle, as she glanced at one of the doors of the train.
From the inside, an aqua unicorn stepped out, and once he spotted them, immediately brightened and trotted towards them. Rarity winced as she recognized him from Matt’s description. That was the pony that he, Twilight, Shining Armor and Brann found within that horrible ruined facility in the Everfree Forest, trapped in some sort of crystal prison. She’s been told that he’s a compulsive flirter who constantly used such uncouth words.
Rarity made a mental note to not let Sweetie Belle anywhere near him.
“Why, hello there, ladies.” he - Rarity believed his name was Tucker Out - said as he approached them.
Deciding to not pay much attention to him, the white unicorn glanced at the door he came through, and saw a sturdy looking brown earth pony follow him. Unlike Tucker, who’s younger than she and the rest of her friends, this one was much older. Close to his forties by her evaluation. That did not made him displeasing to eye, of course; he was quite charming, his body lined with firm muscles, mane gray (Rarity could easily tell that it was his natural color, not the mark of aging), and stood tall and proud.
“If you all came to greet me, please, take a number, and I’ll-” Tucker continued, but was abruptly cut off.
“I thought we agreed that you would behave yourself.” Matt told him sternly, and Rarity glanced at him. His face was that of pure displeasure, bordering on disgust. “That’s one of the conditions for letting you be part of society after only a month.”
Rarity returned her gaze to the train, spotting the last paladin candidate coming out of it.
“Oh, sorry, dude, I didn’t know they were all yours. Congrats, guess I was wrong about you being-”
This time his words were cut off by Matt’s hoof, making everypony relieved that they didn’t need to hear him for a moment. In the meantime, Rarity was extremely glad that they attention was concentrated on Tucker.
Thanks to that, they missed her quiet shriek of fear.
The pony that followed his companions is a pegasus. His coat dark gray, almost black, and his short mane are purple. Overall, there wasn’t anything in his appearance that would make Rarity or anypony else react like she did, he was even quite handsome, save for one part of his body.
His jaw was crooked.
The moment Rarity spotted the pegasus face, with his jaw slightly leaning towards the right, making his otherwise handsome features become disharmonies. She couldn’t help but instinctively yelp in fear, at the thought of him coming closer to her.
Ashamed at her reaction, the white unicorn quickly glanced at her friends. Thankfully, their eyes were still at Tucker, who was getting lectured by Matt on staying quiet in the presence of the ladies. Rarity sighed with relief. She didn’t want ponies to think she was judging others solely by appearance. She knew that it was highly unfair from her to react like she did, it was just... instinct.
Happy that nopony witnessed reaction, she glanced up... and saw the pegasus looking straight at her. He quickly shifted his eyes to regard Matt, but for that split second that their eyes were locked, Rarity could easily read what was in his.
Hurt.
 
“Well, you’ve already met Tucker Out.” the earth pony, clearly annoyed, said to the surrounding him mares and one dragon baby. “The other two are members of the royal guard, recommended by Princess Celestia herself: Guard Shield and Storm Clash.”
Storm Clash stood in attention at the mention of his name, doing his best to ignore the white unicorn. Her reaction, while not really new to him, was still hurtful. The other ponies, while glancing at his jaw either curiously or uncomfortably, at least refrained from shrieking.
“I believed we haven’t met face to face before.” his new commanding officer and mentor (easily recognizable by the two crossing scars on his chest) continued, look at him and Guard. “I am Matthias Lehner, Grand Master of the Celestial Light, which you agreed to become part on upon being offered to do so by Princess Celestia. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
“Likewise,” Guard replied, bowing his head respectfully to the younger pony.
Storm wasn’t surprised. Pleasantries and protocols aside, Sir Matthias emanated respect. He reminded him of Shining Armor in that manner: the calm, decisive determination and passion that made ponies follow you even into the heart of battle.
“I’m sure I’ll speak both for myself and Storm when I say that we were deeply honored when Her Majesty presented this offer to us.” Guard continued.
“We hope we won’t fail yours or Her Majesty expectations.” Storm quickly said, not wanting them to think that he was mute to boot.
Although, he did felt uncomfortable speaking to his superiors.
“I’m sure you won’t.” Sir Matthias replied with reassuring smile. Glancing towards Tucker, he continued: “I trust that on your way here you’ve become acquainted with Tucker Out.”
“That’s an understatement.” Storm mused, having mixed feeling about the younger stallion.
While he proved to be annoying beyond belief, on rare occasions that he wasn’t speaking about sex (a subject Storm found a bit unnerving), he was actually pleasant to talk to. The pegasus also knew that Tucker had an amnesia, and that he was trapped in some changeling-like prison for about a thousand years, making him feel sympathy for the unicorn.
“The other pony that will train beside you three to become paladins is Serenity.” the Grand Master Matthias finished, nodding his head at the yellow crystal pony mare, who smiled shyly at him and Guard (Storm doubted she did so for Tucker as well). “As for the other ponies here-”
“We came to WELCOME YOU TO PONYVILLE!!!” suddenly somepony shouted.
This proclamation was followed by an explosion of confetti, courtesy of the pink mare, apparently, who smiled widely at them.
Sir Matthias sighed and carried on before Storm had a chance to ask what that was about.
“The other ponies here are - from left to right - Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. The young dragon over here is Spike.”
The names finally clicked in Storm’s head, making him realize why he felt that they looked familiar, even before Grand Master said it.
“As you probably know, those ponies are responsible for saving Equestria over three times, and are Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. As such, in an event of emergency or danger, they have the same priority status as the Princesses.”
He paused, noticing the look the mares were giving him; Twilight Sparkle’s being the most annoyed one. Storm did his best not to chuckle.
“Don’t pay attention to that.” the lavender unicorn spoke up, although her sight didn’t leave Grand Master’s face. “Please, treat us as if we were normal ponies.”
“First: that is just in case of an emergency.” Sir Matthias replied, visibly annoyed as well. “Second: you are Bearers of Elements of Harmony, the most powerful mean of defense for Equestria...”
“You sound like a broken record.”
“... Third: you are a sister of a prince. Four: You are Celestia’s student...”
“Geez, get a room already.” Tucked interrupted them, rolling his eyes out.
That made few of the mares chuckle: Storm assumed that this must be an often joke about those two, although he wasn’t certain. The baby dragon, on the other hoof, looked at Tucker, confused.
“Why would they-” Spike began, but was cut off as Twilight Sparkle grabbed him with magic and put him beside herself.
“You do realize that you’ve just been assigned to be training dummy for tomorrow’s fight practice, right?” sir Matthias asked Tucker.
“Well, if this is Serenity who will do the fighting, then I can be her ‘training’ dummy.” Tucker replied, winking at the crystal pony. “All night long, even. Bow-chicka-bow-wow.”
Looking at Serenity’s face, Storm guessed that she wasn’t exactly thrilled with his proposition, but refused to react to it in any way. Sir Matthias glanced at her quickly, then once more at Tucker - and this time the unicorn shrinked under paladin's gaze - before he returned to addressing them all.
“Now then, why don’t we go see your new home, the Everfree Abbey?”