Lost with Friends: A New World

by TheBronyMatrixFilms

Chapter 8: The Test of Trust

Chapter 8:

The Test of Trust

“Have we landed?”, I asked shakily as I held on for dear life on the side of the chariot with my eyes closed shut tightly.

“Close, but dude you should really see this!”, exclaimed Rosa.

With great hesitance, I slowly cracked open my eyes but then open them wide in surprise. Now first things first: we were about three miles in the air and going about 50mph. And second: our destination ahead was the city of Canterlot that was sitting on the cliffside of a mountain with a river flowing through the city.

The city itself was a mixture of alabaster, purple and gold and on the portion that was hanging off the cliff was the castle itself and was being held up by giant beams, which was not really reassuring, but overall it was an amazing sight especially with the rising sun coming over the horizon.

“Brace yourselves, we’re about to land”, said a gruff voice of one of the pegasi guards.

True to his word, moments later we landed, but it wasn’t exactly a smooth one. When we came to a full stop, I stumbled off the chariot while Rosa jumps down and starts kissing the ground, “Land! How I’ve missed you!”

“Pull yourself together Rosa! You’re making a fool of yourself”, scolded Felipe.

“Ahem!”

We all turned to see another guard but this time it was a unicorn, “I’m here to escort you four to the princesses, please follow me”

I looked back at my friends and shrugged and followed the guard down many corridors. “How does anyone know where their going in here?”, I wondered out loud.

“Once you’ve been here long enough, you’d memorized the castle and know it like the back of your hoof, or claw”, replied the guard while still keeping a stoic look on his face.

“Oh, and these are hands”, I said while wiggling my fingers. He didn’t reply and kept leading us through the castle.

“Any idea on what the princess wants?”, asked Ishmael.

“I think I have an idea, but I’m not exactly sure”

“Well, are you going to tell us or not?”, asked Felipe.

“On second thought my idea was stupid, so no, I have no idea, well actually maybe is to check on us and to see if we are not dangerous”, I said with uncertainty.

“Ha! What so dangerous about this fabulous face?”, said Rosa as she put her hands on her cheeks.

“Watch it Rosa, you might give someone a heart attack”

“Because I’m so cute and fabulous?”

“No because on how ugly you are”, Felipe and Ishmael snickered and I thought that the guard was also holding back his laughter.

“What if the princess found a way to send us home”, suggested Felipe.

“God can only tell then”, I replied as we stopped in front of a large double door, which I assumed was the throne room. To my surprise it was a large study room with bookcases on the walls and a window with the morning sun shining through it. In the center of the room was a round coffee table and a bunch of cushions around it and on the other side of the table was the alabaster alicorn Princess Celestia and next to her was a smaller alicorn but her coat was a dark blue and instead of a rainbow flowing mane like Celestia, her mane was a flowing cobalt blue with sparks here and there that looked like if there were stars twinkling in her mane.

“Good morning Mr. Anaya, Ms. Rosa, Mr. Ishmael and Mr. Felipe, and welcome to Canterlot, I hope you enjoyed the ride here”, welcomed Princess Celestia.

Out of respect we gave her a slight bow, “Morning princess, and please just call me Leo, and as for the ride here can I suggest at least a back and some parachutes?”

“Just call me Rosa”

“Felipe”

“Ishmael”

“Very well then Leo, Rosa, Felipe and Ishmael”

Cough Cough

“Oh sorry, how rude of me, Ahem! This is my younger sister Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria and bringer and mistress of the night and moon”

“Hello Princess Luna, nice to meet you”, I greeted the lunar princess.

“Hello, tis’ nice to meet thou as well”, she replied. Huh old english dialect.

“So, why have you called us Princess Celestia?”

“Have you found a way to send us back home?”, asked Ishmael.

“Sorry but we still haven’t found a way to send you four back, but as for what I called you four here is to help convince me if you four are a danger to my little ponies and if I should allow you to live with the public”

We stood there in silence letting both the news of going home and what she was asking us to sink in. Until Ishmael spoke up, “How would we prove to you that we mean no harm to your subjects?”

“That is what I asked myself when for a while until my sister came up with a way, Luna?”

“When our sister asked us for advice, I told her that to be able to prove thyselves is to send thou on a quest!”

“A quest to where exactly?”, asked Felipe.

“And will there be snacks?”, added Rosa. I just facepalmed.

“Shut up Rosa”, I sighed, “Sorry about that princess, just ignore her for now, you were saying something about a quest”

“Yes, well actually this quest will be separated into separate parts but thou art only required to do only one part to prove thyselves to us but you four can do the rest later if thou want. I digress, Ahem! Long ago we had some artifacts of power that when together, anypony who wields them have the power that can rival the Elements of Harmony”

Now from living with Twilight for a while she has taught me about Equestria, including the Elements of Harmony. And from what she has told me, they were Equestria’s most powerful defence weapon. Now Princess Luna is telling us that there are magical artifacts that when they are together or something like that, they are as powerful as the Elements.

“So… you want us to retrieve at least one of the pieces so at least no one can accidentally get all of them and use them to take over?”, I asked.

“Correct”

“And how many artifacts are there in total?”

“Five”

“Ok where is the first one and how does it look like?”

“For the first one you don’t have to go that far, in fact we are not that far from the temple in which it is resting in. The temple itself is inside this mountain. As for how it looks like, it looks like this”, and she showed us a painting with an old gray unicorn with a long beard, large blue hat with bells on the rim and a blue cloak with stars and bells holding a staff that looked like the one that Gandalf the Grey had in The Hobbit. “This is the Staff of Star Swirl The Bearded”, explained Luna, “Almost everypony doesn’t know about this artifact, or the others for that matter, reason being is that they are a closely guarded secret of the crown and only a selected few know that they exist and only us and our sister know where they rest, well until now that we hath told you four”

“If it is such a guarded secret then why would you tell us here where someone can be eavesdropping?”, asked Ishmael.

“Before you four came here, I’ve cast a spell on this room to make sure nopony can ‘accidentally’ hear what is said in here”, answered Celestia with a mischievous glint in her eyes. ‘Oh I think I’ll like this one’

“Ok, what will we need to go dungeon diving cause’ I highly doubt that we can just simply walk in and grab it”, I said with a smirk knowing what I lead her to say.

“Thou art correct, one does not simply walk in and grab it”, ‘Yup, today is going to be a good day’, “The temple is actually not just the resting place of the staff but also of Star Swirl himself, so the whole temple is littered with traps to ensure that grave robbers don’t defile his resting place. We don’t know where are all the traps, but we know of a passage that is free of them”

“Well then… that’s convenient”, I said.

“Yes it is, it is actually a passage that is for ponies to give their respects to Star Swirl but, the temple has long been forgotten by our subjects and all the maps of the temple have crumbled to dust except for this one”, Luna then teleported a piece an old piece of paper (or was it parchment since it is who know’s how old?) and handed it to me.

“How old is this temple again?”, I asked as I felt the material of the map. ‘Yup, this is parchment’

“The temple is just under a thousand years old, unfortunately he passed away not many years after my banishment”, said Luna with a somber tone.

Celestia then nuzzled Luna, “Don’t dwell too much on the past dear Luna, Star Swirl would be proud to see you now”, Luna then nuzzled Celestia back and whispered something in her ear. Celestia then nodded to Luna and turned back to us as we stood around awkwardly.

“Well”, started Celestia, “You four will leave for the temple an hour after sunset and we’ll provide your equipment, for the rest of the day you are free to explore the castle but please try to stay away from the public parts of the castle, I’ll have some guards escort you four around and take you to your rooms”

“Thank you your majesties for letting us prove ourselves” ‘Even if it’s pretty unnecessary’

“Your welcome”, moments later a guard knocked on the door and told us to follow him to our rooms.

When we got to our rooms, let me tell you, it was a huge decked out palace suite. Hehe get it? Palace suite, because this is a pala- oh shut up that was a good one! Anyway the first thing I did was throw myself onto the emperor-sized bed (it was hell-lot bigger than a king-sized bed) and groan in relief because my legs were starting to throb in pain. I knew I would regret not bringing my crutches, I was holding in my pain since we were meeting with the princesses, and luckily I was able to not show my pain… much. Hopefully either princesses haven’t noticed me in pain.

So as I layed on the bed, I decide to take a short nap.

---

“Why do you bother?”, asked Bianca, “No one wants you around. Now I would say to go away and not come back, but I’ll do everyone a favor and take out the trash”

From my kneeling position I looked up with tears running down my eyes with hatred glaring at her as she walked up to me and stared at me with those purple eyes that for a second shone and revealed blue serpentine pupils but then as fast as they showed they disappeared and returned to it violet color.

She then pulled out a Beretta M9 pistol from behind her and placed the barrel between my eyes. I felt as if there were chains holding me in place denying me the ability to move as her finger squeezed the trigger.

---

My eyes shot open then squeezed right back as the bright light from the sun streamed in. I then with caution opened my eyes and pulled out my phone and checked the time. ‘Damn 2:25! I slept almost the whole day away!’ I was then interrupted by a loud growl. I looked down as my stomach growled again. “Ok, ok I’ll get something to eat”, I got up and limped to the door and saw two guards standing… well, guard on either side of the door. The one on the left was a dark grey pegasi and the one on the right was a white unicorn.

“Umm… excuse me?”, they both flinched slightly and turned to look at me.

“Do you know anywhere where I can get something to eat?”

“S-sure, Ahem! Please follow me Sir”, said the one on the right.

We went down many corridors and staircases (which were a pain in the ass or if you want to be a smart-aleck about it, a pain in my legs, to walk down), until we reached the royal kitchens. The chefs were surprised and shaking a bit in fear when they saw me, but when I asked for an apple they scrambled to go get one. Then when I walked out the door, they slammed the door behind me a bit too hard.

“Do you know where any of my friends are?”, I asked a bit hopeful. The guard just shook his head, “Well do you know anywhere where I can relax and enjoy the rest of the day?”

“Sure thing sir, I know just the place”, and then he lead the way down another corridor and another set of stairs, until we reached a set of doors what had a forest with a moon behind the trees carved into the wood. When I opened the door, it revealed a dark forest. It wasn’t a forest because I could see the castles walls surrounding it, “Hey what is this place?”, I asked the guard.

“This is the Lunar Garden”, he said simply.

“That would explain why it’s kinda dark, so it’s ok for me to walk in?”

“Yes, the Solar Garden and the Lunar Garden are open to everypony”

“Ok thanks then”, he nodded and stood post at the door waiting for me to come back.

As I walked through the garden, instead of giving me a creepy feeling that the Everfree gave me it gave me a peaceful feeling, like sitting on a hill looking up at the stars. I could see flowers that glowed and had dark and crimson colors to them here and there. I then reached the center of the garden which had a couple of benches and at the center was a fountain with a crescent moon engraved in it.

I walked to the fountain and sat on the edge as I munched on my apple. ‘Not as good as the one I got from the hospital, but still not bad’ I stayed there for an unknown amount of time, letting my mind wander. My thoughts kept on focusing on one thing. ‘Why am I getting these nightmares? I’ve had like one or two nightmares every couple of months, but I’ve had more nightmare these two months than I’ve ever had’ My train of thought was then interrupted by someone.

“Hey Leo”

I turned to see Felipe on one of the paths, “Sup’ bro. How’d you find me?”

“I just did, how you doing?”

“Not bad for a cripple”, I said with a smirk.

“Do they still hurt?”

“I would say no, but that would be a big pile of shit”, I chuckled.

“Where are your crutches? Shouldn’t you be using them?”

“Left them at the Library by accident”

“Sure, by ‘accident’”

“Oh go shove it, pinche guey. Anyway, why are you looking for me?”

“Do you even know what time it is?”

“Uhhh… no?”

“It’s dinner time, I came looking for you, I’m sure you’re hungry”

As if on cue my stomach growled loudly.

“Hehe. Well then lead on bro, to raid the food!”

We then left the garden by the way I came in, while there were two guards waiting by the door instead of one, “I’m guessing he’s your escort?”, in which Felipe nodded.

Me and my guard escort followed Felipe and his guard to where the dining room was at, with Ishmael, Rosa, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, and a white unicorn with well-groomed blond hair and he had a look on his face like ‘what-are-these-things-sitting-with-us’ as he looked at me and my friends as I walked in. I knew I’m not going to to like him much but, I’m not going to judge him much, I try to give everyone a chance. ‘Just like how you gave Applejack a chance when you first arrived here?’ ‘Oh you can go shove it’

“Sorry I’m late! Was lost in thought”, I called out.

“It’s alright Leo, we haven’t ordered anything yet as we all just go here not too long ago”, replied Celestia.

“Those good for nothing servers are late! They should of been here when we arrived in the dining room!”, whinned the white unicorn, “I say that they should be fired”

“Blueblood, we will not fire our servers”, said Celestia coldly but tried to hid it.

When Felipe and I sat down, I sat next to Celestia, who was at the head of the table, next to her was Luna, then the unicorn now known as Blueblood, then Ishmael, then Rosa, and Felipe sat next to me. Across from me was Blueblood who when he looked at me or my friends kept giving us a disgusted look.

Two minutes later a server came and took our orders. I asked for a sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, avocados and pepper-jack cheese with some orange juice. ‘Not sure if they have soda here’

When the server left, Celestia broke the ice at the table, “So, how has your day been?”

I was about to say something until I was interrupted by Blueblood, “Well Auntie, my day was simply horrid! When I went to the royal masseuses I asked them to get rid of the knots on my back, and when they started they were too rough on me so I fired them for hurting the prince”

“You know it hurts when someone massages a tense spot but it will go away”, I commented as the server came back with our food.

“And who told you to talk you hairless Ape!”, he sneered.

“No one but I’m just sayin’ because you wrongly fired someone”, I said with a calm tone.

“How dare you talk that way to me! I am Prince Blueblood! You should not be talking to me at all you filth!”

I looked down at myself then back at him, “Look I know I haven’t showered today but I’m not that dirty, you sure you don’t need any glasses?”, I said with a small smile forming.

“My vision is perfect! I don’t have a need for glasses! Unlike the garbage that is sitting at this table!”

When he said that I was at mid-bite on my sandwich. I then lowered the sandwich down on my plate and gave Blueblood a murderous glare. I know my friends were also mean-mugging him too.

“Blueblood! That is not how you treat our-”, scolded Celestia, until she was interrupted by me.

“No, no. It’s ok. But let me give you a warning Prince Blueblood!”, I spat out, “I don’t care if you insult me, I’ve heard most of them anyways so it’s like water on a duck’s back to me. But you never, EVER, insult my friends again. You have no idea what I’ll do to you if you do. And if you try to hurt them”, I then leaned over the tabled and said in the most, dark, sadistic, murderous tone, “Let’s just say that you’ll be lucky to either have your body found or alive even on life-support”

Blueblood was sweating bullets and gulped deeply and looked like he was going to piss himself. I then leaned back and continued to eat my sandwich. He then got up and hastily left, leaving his food half eaten.

I turned to face the princesses, “I’m sorry about that princesses. Just wanted to make my point across to him, it’s rare that I have to threaten someone like that, I’ve only had to do it once before”

“It’s alright Leo, and I would like to apologize for Blueblood’s actions”, replied Celestia.

“We agree with our sister, but tis was quite humorous seeing the spoiled brat being put in his place”, laughed Luna.

“You don’t have to apologized for what that motherfucker did”, I replied, “Excuse my language please but I can’t find a nicer word to describe him right now”

“Yea, you don’t have to apologize for him”, agreed Ishmael.

“I hate spoiled people, he reminds me of snooty white kids in private schools”, said Felipe.

“You sure he’s not actually a girl? Because he whines like one”, said Rosa.

“Well, thank you for understanding, Blueblood can be quite… Difficult”, said Celestia.

“Why’d you keep him around then?”, asked Ishmael as I finished my sandwich.

“He’s family, or at least distant family”, sighed Celestia, “But enough of that, now that I see you four have finished eating, can you please follow Luna and I to get you equipment”

We all then stood and followed the celestial sisters to what seem like a blacksmith. They then floated four sets of armor to us and had the smiths help us into them. My armor was a some kind of dark metal with boots, leggings, chestpiece, gauntlets and armguard and a greek style helmet and chainmail under. My friends all had the same armor as me and they seem to be all the same size. But when I put on the armor it seemed to fit me snuggly and seem to be weightless.

“We have cast a numerous of enchantments to make it easier for you four, especially with yours”, said Celestia as she looked at me when she said that last part, “Dont think we couldn’t see you hide your pain when we met this morning, so to help you support your weight, we have put a strength enchantment on your leggings. The other enchantment you four have probably noticed were the weightless and one-size fits all, both kind of self-explanatory. And here is the standard swords that the royal guard have and the letter of the royal guard if you are stopped by anyone”, she then handed (hoofed?) us four swords in their scarabs and a rolled up scroll.

“You have us pretty decked out princess, is there a particular reason?”

“The temple hasn’t been visited or entered for over five-hundred years, who know’s what you’ll encounter. Oh I almost forgot to give you the lanterns”, she then levitated four oil lanterns and some tinderboxes and extra oil.

“Ok now you four go to the Lunar Garden and wait for us there”

We all nodded and walked out to find a guard ready to escort us to the garden. The armor was kind of uncomfortable to wear at first but then I got used to it like if it was part of my normal clothes. I thanked God for having Celestia put the strength enchantment because I didn’t feel much pain when I walked.

“How’d you think she had our body type build to make the armor?”, wondered Felipe.

“Probably had some templates from Rarity, seeing that she’s made us some clothes”, I replied.

Moments when we got to the garden we found Celestia and Luna already waiting for us there.

“Wow you guys are fast, what did you do?”, asked Rosa.

“Our sister just simply lowered the sun and and we raised the moon”, replied Luna.

“Well then… I still find that hard to believe”, I said.

“Art thou think we are fibbing?”

“I said it was hard to believe not a lie. Keep in mind that in our world, the sun and the moon rise and set using the laws of the universe and do it by themselves”

“Such a strange thou live in”, mumbled Luna.

“Well how are we going to go to the temple?”, I asked.

“We will teleport you four to the entrance of the temple and we will send a chariot to wait for you and bring you back to the castle”, said Celestia.

“Ok then”, then both Celestia’s and Luna’s horns were glowing with a golden and light blue aura, respectively, “Beam us up Scotty”, the princesses gave me a strange look before they disappeared.

---

We appeared in front of a rock wall in bright flash of gold and blue. Immediately I felt my head spin and stomach to flip. I held a hand to my mouth and rant to the nearest bush and emptied the contents of my stomach. I heard three more reches as my friends also threw up.

“Ah! Well that was a new experience”, I said wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

“Never… Again!”, gasped Felipe.

“Well we’re here but where’s the temple?”, asked Ishmael.

“We’re standing in front of it”, then Rosa pointed a finger to the wall, which the section we were standing in front of was carved to look like the entrance of the Parthenon.

“Woah…”, was all that escaped my mouth.

“Well now what?”, asked Ishmael.

“Well, we knock and say that their Girl Scout cookies are here”, I said with a smile.

I then walked over to the huge stone doors and gave them a pull, but they wouldn’t budge. “Yo! Guys, get over here and help me open this!”

“C’mon! A… Little… More!”, I strained as we all pulled on the great door.

Then with another pull, we managed to open the door wide enough for us to fit through. When we entered the temple, we were meet with darkness.

“Take out your lanterns”, with that I unhooked the lantern from my side and lit the wick in it, my friends doing the same as I did. With the now semi-lit temple we saw that there were columns on either side of us at about a ten-foot interval. Opposite to where we were stranding was a corridor. I pulled out the map that Luna has given us and look at the corridor then back at the map.

“Not down there”, I said with a frown, “Poison-dart trap with a pitfall half-way down. Although it’s the most direct way to the staff”

“Then where? It’s the only way I see”, asked Ishmael.

I then walked to a wall and looked at the map then reached out to touch the wall, but instead of touching the stone my hand went through it, “We go here”, and then walked through the veil. On the other side there was another corridor leading to two opposite directions. My friends joined me and looked down both hallways.

“Which way?”, asked Rosa.

“I say it’s left, It goes to the direction of the staff”, reasoned Felipe.

“Nope, it’s right”, I said.

I then lead the way with my lantern in front of me and looking down at the map and looking where I’m going with the edge of the top of my vision.

Every once and and awhile I warn them of various traps that we walked by but as Luna said, not all the traps were marked on the map, as a giant galive almost speared us and nearly gave us a new asshole to shit out of. We encountered many rooms, one room was full of stone statues of various creature like, a wolf that looked like it was made out of stone twigs instead of stone fur, another one was a hydra, another was a… Shudder… a manticore, well, there were too many to name and some I had no idea what they were. After about an hour exploring the temple, we finally reached the resting place of both Star Swirl and the staff.

“Ok, lets rest for a minute, my legs are killing me!”, I huffed as I sat down and rubbed my sore legs. My friends follow suit as they sat down.

“Other than those traps and that one room, this place is not that bad”, said Rosa.

“Well what time is it?”, asked Felipe.

“It is…”, I pulled my phone out, “8:55”

“Damn, well let’s get the staff and get out of here”, huffed Ishmael. He then looked around, “Umm… where is the staff?”

I looked at the map and pointed to the stone sarcophagus that was on a dias on the edge of the light of our lanterns, “It’s resting with it’s owner”, I said with a groan.

“I don’t really want to touch anything dead”, said Rosa.

“I’ll grab it but help me push the top off”, I said as I got up and walked over to the dias. Rosa, Felipe and Ishmael all stood next to the sarcophagus and with a great heave we pushed the top just enough to be able to open the oaken coffin within. When I open the coffin I was met with the grinning milk-white skeleton of the dead Star Swirl, with his spine to the bottom and one hoof wrapped around a wooden staff with a white crystal within the top in wrapped in the wood.

“Sorry about this old man”, I apologized to the skeleton and I reached in and carefully removed the staff. When I grabbed the staff it’s crystal lit up for a second then went dim.

“What just happened?”, asked Ishmael.

“I don’t know but I don’t want to stick around to find out what it did”, I then closed the lid of the coffin and we place the top how it was before we disturbed it.

“Ok we got the staff now let’s get out of here!”, urged Felipe.

When we reached the corridor we came in we were about to walk into it until we were interrupted by the sound of stone cracking. We stood still and turned to see the source of the sound. All we could see was a silhouette of… something and glowing red eyes.

“NOPE! I’M NOT GOING TO SEE WHAT THAT IS! RUN!”, I yelled as I ran with my friends at my heels. We speed down the corridors not caring that we were setting off the multiple traps and luckily we weren’t hit with any, but hoped that they did hit the beast behind us. All was going well until we reached to statue room. When we ran into the room all the statues’ heads turned to see us with their eyes glowing a crimson red. Oh. Hell. No… I ain’t dealing with this shit!

We quickly ran to the exit with the many statues chasing us. Luckily the some of the bigger statues couldn’t fit in the corridor so, instead they decided to roar into the corridor, causing the corridor to shake and dust to fall from the ceiling. I then had an idea. It was crazy. It was stupid but hopefully it will work.

“Guys! Run ahead I’ll catch up!”

“What are you going to do?”, asked Ishmael.

“Something stupid, now go!”

They then sped ahead and I stopped, unsheathing my sword and putting the lantern on my belt and grabbed the staff with my free hand. ‘Hope this will work, cause’ I’ve always want to say this’ I then turn to face the oncoming statues and mustered in the loudest voice I could and then, shouted with both sword and staff above my head, “YOU! SHALL NOT! PASS!”, then slammed the butt of the staff on the ground. The crystal then glowed brightly, and white lines spread from the butt of the staff to the ceiling above the not dazed statues. The ceiling then cracked and fell down on the statues.

“Holy Shit! That actually worked!”, my cheering was cut short, by a roar and some of the stone moving, “Nope! I’m outta here!”

I then ran to where my friends went and reached the main room in five minutes with the now very angry, and pissed off statues not too far behind. My friends were waiting for me by the giant stone door.

“OUT!”, I yelled as I neared them. They got the message when the statues rushed out of the illusional wall. We then ran out of the temple and rushed to shut the door on the statues. There was a chariot with two waiting pegasi guards near the entrance. “You two, come help us quick!”, shouted Felipe.

With two great heaves, we shut the giant door and heard something slam into the other side of the door, but the door didn’t budge, thank God. We all then slumped down against the door hearing the statues roar in anger that their meal just got away.

“Well I should've seen that booby-trap coming, no artifact is just there without a trap”, I huffed.

“Well… You know what they say; Booby-trap backwards is Party Boob”, said Rosa with an idiotic grin on her face.

“Shut up Rosa”, I huffed.

“Umm… when you four are ready we will take you back to the castle”, said one of the guards that were breathing pretty heavily.

“Okay thanks, just let us catch our breath”, I huffed. They both nodded and hooked themselves to the chariot and wait for us.

“Bro… what time is it?”, asked Ishmael.

I pulled out my phone and read the time that appeared, “9:25, heh, we cut our time in half coming back here”, I joked.

“Well we weren’t being chased into the temple, and I think I lost ten pounds back there”, said Ishmael.

“Touche”

We then picked ourselves up and walked onto the chariot which took off as soon as we got on it.

---

We reached the castle in ten minutes and limped after our escort who greeted us and lead us to the princesses. Instead of knocking I just simply pushed the doors open and walked in. Celestia and Luna were sitting and drinking tea.

“Oh, hello Leonardo, I see that you got the Staff of Star Swirl The Bearded. I hope you four didn’t get hurt”, said Celestia with a motherly tone as she put her tea down.

“Just tired after being chased down by a horde of bloodthirsty statues”

“Bloodthirsty statues?”, asked Luna with a confused look.

“When we grabbed the staff, it glowed briefly and then the statues around the temple came to life and chased us down, someone must have put a spell that activated when someone removes the staff as a defence mechanism”

“Oh well, we will seal off the temple so nopony can accidentally release the statues”, she then took the staff and put it in a chest with an indentation of the staff on the bottom and locked it, “Well then, you four must be exhausted, go back to your rooms and rest, oh here you go”, she said while she levitated four scrolls. I opened up the scroll she handed me. It was the acceptance of citizenship of Equestria.

I looked at the scroll, then to my friends, then to Celestia and Luna. Scroll. Friends. Celestia and Luna. I then rolled up the scroll and slightly bowed to the royal sisters, “Thank you, your highnesses”, my friends followed my example.

“Welcome to Equestria, you four, and please there is no need to bow, and call me Celestia”

“And call me Luna”, added Luna.

“Well thank you anyway, but now I want to go to sleep. There is a bed in a palace suite with my name on it”

“Ok then”, giggled Celestia, “Good night you four”

“We shall see you four very soon”, called out Luna as we left the room.

When we reached the hallway with our rooms, I bid my friends good night. I then stripped my armor and crawled into the sheets and fell to sleep. ‘Ahhh! Now this bed feels like it’s made out of clouds’

Author's Note:

Longest chapter so far! I was really happy with this one. See if you can spot the references!

Anyways if you liked the chapter and the story, go on and give the story a thumbs up and fave! If you want to read stories like this in the near future go on and give me a watch (or follow, whichever way you like to call it)!

As always, Peace!
-TBMF

Comments

[Ninjagobrony]

I spotted a Lord Of The Rings reference. Gandalf's most famous quote

[lady Phoenix]

So let me get this straight, in order to trust them. The princesses are sending them after 4 items, that are not only powerful but can rival the elements. Don't you see the stupidity in that. And one of them is still injured i think.