• Published 21st Nov 2013
  • 4,196 Views, 198 Comments

Pantheon, the Artisan of Baking - Hawattie



"My profession?! You know, now that I think of it, I've always wanted to be a baker. Yes, a baker"

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A Casual Visit

The fanciful architecture showcased in Rarity's Carousel Boutique were but a shadow of the splendor of the ponies' capitol city of Canterlot. Even the poorer districts, what would be called "slums" in other -lesser- cities, displayed an attention to detail the likes of which Pantheon had never seen.

The man spent most of his time being lead through the city's streets admiring the sights and pointedly ignoring the many stares and whispers he received from the ponies he passed. If Ponyville and Canterlot were any judge of pony society, Pantheon could expect the stares wherever he went.

Eventually the quartet of guards lead Pantheon to the center of the city where Canterlot Castle resided. He barely had time to gawk at the castle before Flash Sentry ushered him inside and into an ornate throne room. A dozen guardsponies in shiny golden armor lined the walls leading up to a modest golden throne. A burly unicorn clad in shining purple armor stood next to the throne, likely an adviser of some sort, and seated upon the throne itself was a large white pony, large enough that Pantheon would mistake her for a horse if not for the colorful mane and intelligent eyes. A golden tiara adorned the white pony's head, who Pantheon idly noticed had both wings and horn, and she held herself with a grace befitting royalty.

"Thank you, Flash Sentry," she said. Flash Sentry and Pantheon's three other escorts bowed once before moving to the side and joining the line of guards along the wall. The white pony, Pantheon remembered Flash Sentry referring to a princess on their way here and wondered if this was who he was talking about, took a moment to study the visitor to her castle. Pantheon returned her gaze and for a moment their eyes locked. Behind the regal airs of leadership Pantheon saw vast amounts of power, more power than he had ever seen in an individual, along with the skill and experience required to wield that power effectively. In short, if the two were to fight Pantheon would be severely outclassed.

Silence weighed heavy in the air for a moment until it was broken by the pony. "Greetings," she said, "I am Princess Celestia, regent of Equestria, and I would like to extend to you an official welcome to our lands."

Pantheon bowed his head respectfully. "Well met, Princess. I am known as Pantheon, mightiest warrior of the Rakkor and champion in the League of Legends." A thought came to Pantheon. Was he still a champion in the League? He didn't know how summoning magic worked or if it could reach to whatever world Ryze had banished him to.

Celestia for her part merely nodded in acknowledgement to Pantheon's greeting before jumping right into the reason she called him there. "I hear you come from a world of violence," she said, "I trust you won't hurt my ponies?"

"I will not harm any pony unless they give me reason," Pantheon immediately replied. "Besides, aggression would interfere with my studies." Celestia raised an eyebrow in confusion, prompting Pantheon to continue. "I'm learning how to bake. I believe you know my teacher, one Pinkie Pie, national hero."

"You're learning to bake?" Celestia asked with mild amusement.

"Yes, to bake," Pantheon deadpanned.

Celestia let out a small chuckle before saying, "Never the less, I will be forced to take action if you do end up harming any of my little ponies, regardless of your friendship with Miss Pie."

"I would fully expect you to," Pantheon said. "As regent of this country it should be your duty to protect your people, and honestly, you're the only pony I've seen so far that would stand a chance against me in combat. Single or otherwise." One of the guards lining the walls let out a disbelieving snort. Pantheon glanced at the offending pony to see that it was none other than Flash Sentry.

"What about my guards? They're the best trained fighting force in the world."

Pantheon's eyes met Flash's and both focused their best glares at the other. Not two seconds passed before Flash looked away. "Training only goes so far," Pantheon said, not taking his eyes off of Flash. "I can see in their eyes that they lack experience."

"What of Captain Shining Armor?" Celestia asked motioning to the purple clad unicorn standing next to her. "He repelled an invading army almost on his own. That has to count for some bit of experience." From her tone Pantheon couldn't tell if Celestia was enjoying their conversation or preparing to turn him to paste.

Hoping for the former, Pantheon decided to continue being honest. "'Shining armor' in and of itself is a sign of inexperience," Pantheon explained, "through trials a knight's armor becomes dirtied and dinged up, each blemish shows a lesson learned and a battle won. Unless I see evidence to the contrary I have confidence that your guard poses no threat to me."

Princess Celestia smiled. Pantheon nearly sighed in relief when he realized she wasn't about to smite him. "You have more wisdom than you let on, Pantheon of the Rakkor."

"My wisdom was earned through experience." Pantheon motioned to the many small dents and scrapes covering his armor. 'Shining' was the last adjective anyone would use to describe the enchanted bronze. "And it doesn't extend much beyond the field of battle."

A thoughtful look crossed the Princess's face for a brief moment. She motioned Shining Armor closer to her and the two conversed softly for a short time. After a few seconds Celestia sent him away. Once again addressing Pantheon she asked, "What would you think about sharing your 'wisdom' with my royal guardsponies?"

"Are you asking me to train them or fight them?" he asked. Celestia opened her mouth to answer but Pantheon cut her off. "Because if you're asking for training then I'm afraid you're out of luck."

Celestia's face remained impassive, but Pantheon could detect a slight bit of disappointment lining her voice. "And may I ask why that is?"

"My people, the Rakkor, begin training our bodies for combat as soon as we are able to walk." Pantheon's voice held no trace of boast or exaggeration, only a statement of fact. "By the age of six a child is expected to be proficient in at least one manner of melee weapon or martial art, preferably more. Upon coming of age, two teens battle to the death for the right to bear a relic-weapon."

Pantheon's eyes gazed coldly out from underneath his helmet. "If I were to train one of your ponies, I would have to do it right. So unless you are willing to give me infants to train or are able to turn back the clock for one of your existing guards, then I will not be training any pony."

"I see..." Celestia was silent for a moment, obviously thinking hard. "And you are adamant about this?"

Pantheon gave a single sharp nod.

"Then I believe that just about concludes our business together." Pantheon nodded again and prepared to leave. "Oh, and Pantheon!" Celestia added. "Since you are technically a threat to my ponies, I'm going to have to assign a guard to watch you. To make sure you don't bring harm to anypony and... who knows, he might learn something if he pays enough attention. I hope you understand."

Pantheon could see the smirk on Celestia's face as clear as day. While not as good as formal training, watching the man in action could still improve a guard's fighting skill. What's more, he couldn't protest without incurring the ire of the one pony he seriously did not want to piss off. "Of course I understand," he said through gritted teeth.

"Wonderful!" she said. "And I know just the pony for the job. I believe you're already acquainted with him." Pantheon furrowed his brow. The only guardspony he had said two words to was Flash Sentry. Pantheon glanced to the orange pegasus. The look of dawning realization on Flash's face let Pantheon know he wasn't alone in his conclusions.

Author's Note:

I think Celestia would be a good judge of character. Since she has (at least) a thousand years of experience she should be able to tell a pony/person's intentions very swiftly. This is my reasoning for her trusting Pantheon's word when he says he won't attack the ponies. Having Flash keep an eye on him is less about not trusting him and more about trying to train Flash to fight better.
I see a lot of fics where Celestia is paranoid and suspicious of the main character just because they're human and therefore unknown and I think Celestia should be portrayed as better than that. I'm not saying she's infallible, note A Canterlot Wedding, but her thing is "love and tolerate" so I feel she would be too trusting of the unknown as opposed to erring on the side of caution. Of course, when someone reveals themselves to be a bad guy she does not hesitate to (attempt to) smite them, again note A Canterlot Wedding.

Soapboxing aside, I should address the hiatus this story has seen. Until now nothing I've written has gotten any form of popularity. Until I posted this my most "popular" fic received 18 upvotes and 15 faves over the course of eight months, then this gets hundreds of each in the first couple days and even made it to the featured box. I'll admit, I was thrilled to have the attention and used that happiness to pump out a couple more chapters. And then life caught up to me. I am a lazy schmuck who can/will only write when motivated, and I just haven't had any motivation to write at all for the past three months. I've tried, I got about half of this chapter written a month ago and squeezed out a few hundred words for my other story, Destination: Thataway!. And that brings me to my other point, I don't enjoy writing this story as much as Thataway. Something about it just doesn't mesh with me, and I feel like I've lost track of the initial focus on baking. Now I don't want to just cancel this story, and I won't. But I'll probably update infrequently and don't expect it to go for too much longer before I draw it to a close. Sorry if this disappoints anyone, but I just don't have it in me.