It was a beautiful fine evening for Princess Celestia as she strolled down by the rivers that flew at the bottom of the waterfalls that spewed out of the edges of Canterlot and flowed off into the horizons of Equestria and beyond. The river was nice and smooth flowing, her sister had raised a beautiful night sky with the moon in view, and the wind blew a smooth breeze on her sparkly colorful flowing mane, but what she didn't know was that this night was fixing to turn from beautiful to shocking. As she continued to walk down by the river, she heard a strange sound, a sound that nopony would ever hear at night. Celestia opened her ears wider and followed to where the sound was coming from, some brush in the thicket that was to her right side while the river flowed on the left.
"What could cause such a sound?" she asked as she followed the sound closer towards the brush, once she was in front of it, she glowed her horn, pushed it aside, and continued digging through the brush until a brown colored object at the bottom of the bushes caught her eye. At the bottom stood a brown basket with a red blanket and something underneath the blanket was squirming and even crying loud. This is wht the strange sound was that she heard while she was walking by the river, Celestia lifted the red blanket off the top and what it revealed underneath made her gasp in surprise.
"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed, inside the basket lay a small blue Pegasus colt with wings that looked liked they hadn't been preened in over 30 years. His mane and tail were black and ruffled up, and lastly the basket that he was lying in was soggy and covered in mud, the baby colt was lonely, hungry, and hurt inside and out. Celestia looked up and wondered if there was any clue or information about this colt that she had just encountered, but a sudden feeling of the fact that this colt's parents were nowhere to be found and that he was all alone soon got to her heart, she then looked down at the scared and crying colt, levitated him with her magic and gently held him in her hoof.
"Shhh, it's going to be okay little one." she said while the colt continued to cry.
"Shhh, do not cry, I'm here." she said still soothing, after nearly a few second of rocking him, the baby managed to seduce to a small whimper, he then looked up at Celestia's beautiful, smiling face and touched her snout with his cute little forehooves, managing in her getting a little mud on her nose, but she didn't really care as her mind was focused on this colt that had suddenly come into contact with her view and later her life.
"What might your name be dear one?" she asked looking down at the colt again. She walked back over to the basket that he had been lying in to see if there was any information, but as she searched and searched, there was no sign of a written paper or note anywhere to be found. That meant that this cute little bundle of joy didn't even have a name. She then looked once again back down at the little baby colt, who was still shaking from the cold non-stop breezes that were blowing constantly through the trees. Celestia couldn't bare to even sit out here and even watch this poor thing freeze out here nor see it being all alone.
"What pony would be so cruel enough to just leave an innocent child out here all alone?" she asked, looking down at the baby colt again, she smiled down and nuzzled him, calming the colt down just enough. The little colt could soon feel a sense that this pony that was holding him and smiling down on him had even no intention of harming him, so he reached a hoof up to Celestia's snout and rubbed it, making her giggle.
"You're just the cutest widdle thing!" she cooed, kissing him. She then levitated him onto her back and wrapped the red blanket that he had been bundled under earlier and covered him up to keep him warm.
"Come on dear, let's head back to my castle and get you cleaned up, you shouldn't be out here by yourself." she said walking out of the thicket and back onto the route that she had used when she left for her evening walk.
It was nearly half past 9:00, the guards that were working the graveyard shift were pacing through the hallways worried about Celestia, she had been gone for nearly four hours, it had never taken her this long to even do just a simple nightly thing for her to do, not even a simple walk by the river because she only did these things for about 30 to 40 minutes.
"Geez, Celestia has never been this long on her evening walks before." one guard said.
"Surely she'd be back by now." another guard said.
"I just hope nothing bad has happened."
Suddenly they heard hoofsteps approaching them from the far end of the hallway that they were patrolling and guarding, they saw a familiar looking shadow getting bigger on the wall when the shadow that the moonlight was reflecting on came into full view, it was Celestia, the three guards sighed with relief.
"Ah, your highness." one guard said bowing to her before the other guards did, Celestia looked at them. The guards then rose back up.
"We were worried that something happened."
Celestia chuckled, "Well, I guess I did go a little......off course." she said, turning to her side and showing them the still sleeping baby Pegasus colt that she had found earlier, the guards were surprised.
"Where did you find this little lad?" a guard asked.
"Shh, don't scare him." Celestia warned, looking at the baby.
"Sorry, your highness."
"I found this poor thing in the forest by the river outside Canterlot, his parents were nowhere to be found, I think he's an orphaned child."
The guards gasped at this.
"Now, return to your duties, I need to go and give this poor baby a bath and get it to sleep."
"Yes, your majesty." they said walking away while Celestia trotted off to her chambers with the baby colt.
"Say, since Princess Celestia found that child all alone, should Princess Luna be notified?" one guard asked.
"As a matter of fact, yes." another answered.
"Let's go and inform Princess Luna about this." the third said as they departed to the direction of Luna's area of the castle.
Meanwhile, In Celestia's Chambers.....
Celestia was in her bathroom using her aura from the magic that glowed on her horn to turn on the water in the bathtub to at about right room temperature, the baby colt was now in pure nude as he excitedly saw the water running and giggled like any other baby would, Celestia smiled and levitated him gently into the warm foamy bubble water and started cleaning all the mud and twigs on him off his body. As she was bathing him, she heard a knock on her bedroom door outside the bathroom, she let out a small sigh.
"I'll be right back sweetie." she said leaving him to waddle in the bath water, she then went outside the bathroom and towards her closed bedroom door, she opened and there stood Luna with a worried expression.
"Oh hi sister." she said, "What brings you to my side of the castle?"
"Well your guards had informed me that you found a baby all alone out in the forests outside Canterlot, is it true?" she asked walking inside the room.
"Well, yes, he's in the bathroom right now, I was giving him a bath when I heard you knock."
Luna was confused, "Sister, I had never thought you would ever encounter such a thing, I..." she was about to say until she approached the bathroom and soon saw the cute little colt for herself, when she saw the colt, she was in awe and started stroking his shampoo covered mane.
"Who's a cute widdle baby!" she cooed, making the baby giggle.
"Sister, he really is cute, but where are his parents, they must be worried sick."
That's when the sudden shock of the way she found him soon came back to her head, Celestia lowered her head, Luna could quickly sense something was wrong.
"Sister, are you okay?" she asked, suddenly she saw a tear going down her face, Luna walked up to her and rubbed her cheek with a hoof.
"Tia, something tells me that you found him in a way he shouldn't have been."
"You are told correct, Luna, I'm afraid his parents are nowhere to be found, because when I found him, he was crying and all alone in a cold basket, I don't know who put him there, or how he got there, but my intuition tells me he's an orphaned baby."
Luna gasped in shock at hearing this, "Sister, I had no idea." she said looking back at the baby who was still covered in soap and bath water.
"Well, I'll just leave you two together for about an hour, when you're done with his bath and he's cleaned and dried, come over to my room and we'll talk over this."
Celestia leaned overand kissed Luna on her head, "Thank you sister."
Luna then left the room to return to her side of the castle to wait for the arrival of Celestia when she was done, meanwhile, Celestia returned to cleaning up this little colt. Pretty soon than she had started, the baby was now all clean and ready to be dried off, Celestia levitated a couple of towels off the wrack that hanged on the door and then levitated the baby over towards them and started drying him off, she then wrapped him up in one of the towels and levitated him back onto her back, lastly, she drained the bath water and then exited the room for departure to her sister.
As Celestia walked through the corridors of the castle, she looked on her back and saw that the baby had fallen asleep, she smiled and saw that he was quickly taking a strong liking to her and since he was all alone when she found him, thoughts on adopting him as her son soon came to her heart because she was too starting to develop a bond with him as well.
Later......
Luna was sitting in her bedroom looking at her crescent moon shaped bed and slipped on her slippers even though she was still wearing her silver shoes while waiting for the arrival of her sister to talk about the future of this baby Pegasus colt that she (Celestia) had found earlier that evening. Just in the neck of time did she hear a knock on her bedroom door and opened it, when she did, there stood Celestia with the now sleeping Pegasus colt curled up in her hoof.
"Come in sister." Luna said stepping aside to let her in, Celestia put the baby in Luna's bed and tucked him in temporarily while Luna waited in a room where they usually had their sisterly like conversations, after Celestia had tucked him in, she then walked into their talking room and gently closed the door.
"Sister, it's still really hard for me to find out how somepony could just leave an innocent child out there all alone."
"I know, Tia, it's especially hard for me as well from the way your guards told me the way it happened, but still what are we going to do, we can't just leave him back out there, I mean all the orphanages are filled here and the foster homes are...." Luna was quickly silenced by her sister who was now smiling.
"Shh, Luna, don't worry I've got it covered, I'm going to be his mother now."
Luna gasped, "Does that mean I'm..."
"Yes, Luna, he is going to be your nephew, you're going to be his aunt, but you'll be an aunt that actually is close enough for him to play with."
Luna giggled, "Well, I guess it's time for me to turn in, I'll take the baby with me." Celestia said exiting the room and finding that the baby was fast in a deep sleep, Celestia smiled and gently put him onto her back, but not before turning around and kissing her sister good night.
"Good night Luna, sleep well, I love you." she said.
Luna hugged her and then kissed her soon-to-be nephew good night as well.
"I love you too, sister." Luna replied with a smile, Celestia then opened up the door and left to return to her side of the castle while Luna silently chanted and cheered that she was going to be an aunt.
Celestia had managed to bring the baby back to her chambers where a nice warm fire was well lit and prepared for relaxing an sleeping by, Celestia then gently put him down onto the rug that was placed in the center of her room and propped his cute little head onto the giant pillow and used her magic to poof up two blankets and bundled him up. Once she had done that, she went over to the same bathroom that she used to bath the baby, only instead, she brushed her teeth and stroked her flowing mane to where it wouldn't lose it's shine over the night.
Now Celestia had always slept with her crown, necklace, and gold shoes on, so she just plopped down onto the carpet and lay right next to the baby Pegasus colt, she could still tell that something was trouble the poor colt deep down, even though he wasn't even crying.
"There, there, sweetie, it's okay mommy's here," she said wrapping a hoof around him and pulling him up to her chest while wrapping her other hoof around him, "Mommy's got you. I promise, I will never let anything happen to you............Zodiac."
"First day of school!" it said again, a full face appeared to reveal Zodiac now five years old, he wore a blue and yellow wonderbolt like outfit with green hoof shoes and his mane had been cut down a little.
"Wake up, wake up, come on, it's the first day of school!" he exclaimed jumping on Celestia who was still sleeping on her floor, her head resting on the pillow.
"I don't want to go to school, five more minutes!" she whined in her sleep.
"Not you mom, me!" Zodiac said, he then nudged her head, "Get up, get up" he then started flapping his wings and flying all around the room in excitement.
"Time for school, time for school, time for school!"
Finally Celestia managed to wake up, "All right sweetheart, all right, I'm up."
Zodiac was still flying around the room in excitement, "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy....whoa!" he said, suddenly hit his head on a stand where a vase managed to fall on his head and get stuck.
"Zodi!" Celestia exclaimed.
"First day of school!" he said with a muffled tone due to his head full stuck in the vase, he started trying to take it off with his hooves.
"Grrr." he said trying to take it off, luckily, Celestia had approached and quickly got to his aid.
"Zodi, don't move, you'll never get that off your head, I'll get it!" she said, Zodiac managed to do his best to remove the vase from his head but had no luck, Celestia however managed to remove it easily with one grip of her magic aura. She then brought him back to the center of the room.
"Alright, where's the break, you feel a break?" Celestia asked.
"No." Zodiac answered.
"Sometimes you can't tell because fluid is rushing into the area, now any rushing fluids?" she asked examining him.
"No." Zodiac answered.
"Are you woozy?" Celestia asked, lifting him with her magic and turning him upside down.
"No." Zodiac answered getting annoyed.
"How many stripes of colors do I have on my mane?" she asked pulling down her mane with her hoof and putting it in front of Zodiac's face.
"I'm fine!" he whined.
"Answer the color question!" Celestia exclaimed while getting into his face.
"Four." he answered, but Celestia didn't even hear it right, "No see, something's wrong with you I have one," she then pulled her mane down again and counted, "two, three, four, that's all I have?"
She was now calm and cooled, "Oh, you're okay, how's the lucky hoof?"
"Lucky." he said, showing her his left forehoof, about a year ago, Zodiac was flying around and goofing off, when he was struck down by a herd of griffins heading back to Griffinstone. The knockout managed to tear his forehoof backwards and had to be sent to the hospital where the doctor said that he would be alright and could still fly, but it would take a long time for his hoof to fully be functional again. Anyway, he did his best and gave his mother a hoofing.
"Are you sure you're ready for school this year, cause there is no problem if you feel like you're not." Celestia said.
"Come on Mom, it's time for school." Zodiac said, trying to pull Celestia out of the room.
"Ah, ahahaha, forgot to brush your mane and teeth." she said, Zodiac sighed.
"Do you want to be a handsome looking prince starting now?" she asked, Zodiac pondered and quickly realized she had a point because he was going to be a prince one day.
"Yes." he answered.
"Then brush." she said, Zodiac then went into her bathroom that she and him both used and used his toothbrush to brush his teeth and then after 10 minutes of cleaning his teeth, he then brushed his mane with a comb.
"Okay I'm done!" he said running out of the bathroom, he almost made it to the door until....."Whoop, you missed a couple of spots!" Celestia said picking him up with her magic.
"Where?" Zodiac asked.
"There!" Celestia answered, poking his belly and making him giggle.
"And right there!" she said booping him on his nose, it soon turned from giggling to laughing.
Later on, after breakfast, Celestia walked over to her carriage flown by the typical number of royal guards to take Zodiac to school. Zodiac put his saddle bag on the front corner of the carriage and stood next to his mother, before too long, the guards flapped their wings and flew the carriage right up into the sky towards the direction of the school that Zodiac was going to attend.
"Mom, what's my school going to be like?" Zodiac asked Celestia.
"Well, I'm pretty sure it will be a nice place, besides my former student Twilight also attended this school when she was a filly."
"You mean I'm going to the School for Gifted Unicorns, but I don't even have a horn Mom, how can I do magic?"
Celestia giggled, "Not that school, you're going to Canterlot Elementary, you won't go to the School for Gifted Unicorns until you get your horn."
"What, you mean I'm going to be an alicorn?!" Zodiac said with excitement.
"Yes, but not until you're 7."
"Aw man!" Zodiac whined, "But that's forever!"
"Enjoy right now, sweetheart." Celestia said.
"I will." Zodiac said, pretty soon Canterlot Elementary soon came into view and the guards landed the carriage right in front of the entrance. It was a gold and purple striped two story building lined with thousands of fillies and colts lined at the entrance, Zodiac managed to get his saddle bag on his back along with his lunch.
"Now listen Zodi, you do what your teacher says and don't do anything foolish today while you're here, understand?" Celestia asked.
"Yes Mom." Zodiac said, Celestia then kissed him on his head and hugged him, "Have a good day sweetie, I'll see you back here after school, I love you."
"I love you too Mom."
Zodiac then watched his mother take off back to the castle and then followed the rest of the fillies and colts into the building, his classroom was the fifth door on the right and in it had one of the best and probably the most fun teachers in the whole school, probably in all of Canterlot and her name was Red Rose, Zodiac couldn't even be more happier to even feel the fact that he was getting a pretty good teacher. Anyway, he went into his classroom and sat down in the desk that was made for him and put his saddle bag by his chair and waited for Red Rose.
"Psst, hey." said a male colt's voice, Zodiac turned over to see a white unicorn colt with a red mane and tail and had a cutie mark of a tidal wave.
"Are you Zodiac, Princess Celestia's son?" he asked.
"Yes," Zodiac answered, "But you can call me Zodi for short."
"Well, Zodi, my name is Wave Runner and the other colt sitting in front of me is Time Bandit." another unicorn colt with a black mane and tail, a cutie mark of a pocket watch, and wearing big brown glasses looked at Zodiac also.
"Hi, Zodi." he said in a cool voice.
"We figured that since today is the first day, Time Bandit and I were going to start a homework friendship club, and we were wondering if you would like to join."
Zodiac was perked up about the idea, "Are you kidding, of course I would!" he said giving them a high hoof.
"Cool, then we're already friends." Time Bandit said.
"Welcome, Zodi." said Wave Runner, suddenly they saw their new teacher walk into the room, she was a red unicorn with a big puffy mane swirled up in a bun and had a long mangled tail, she wore glasses that were attached to strings and had a cutie mark of a red rose, hints her name. She stopped at the chalkboard and stared at her new class with a warm welcome smile.
"Good morning my new class." she said.
"Good morning Mrs. Red Rose." said the whole class including Zodiac.
"That's right class, I'm Mrs. Red Rose, and my is it a privilege to welcome you all to this fine first day here at Canterlot Elementary." And thus she continued on with what they were going to learn throughout the year as Zodiac listened.
The bell had rung signaling all the fillies and colts that the first day of school was over, now even though today was only the first day, it was actually the weekend and the real school work didn't even begin until Monday, which meant the kids had at least two final days of summer to enjoy before then. Anyway, all the fillies and colts had manage to exit the building and go about their separate ways and talking with one another about what their weekends will be like and what they would be doing and everyone of them seem to have excited looks on their face, however, for Zodiac who was in the crowd, had a different expression, an expression of sadness, not only that but his nose was stained from what appeared to be a nosebleed and a black eye.
As he stopped at the bottom of the stairs, he saw his new friends Time Bandit and Wave Runner stop beside him looking concerned for him.
"Hey, Zodi, is something wrong?" Time Bandit asked, Zodiac then turned and showed them the blood stained nose and black eye, they gasped in shock
"Well, remember at lunch how I took so long to get to the cafeteria?" Zodiac asked, "Well this is what happened..."
Earlier that day at lunch......
All of the fillies and colts had exited their classrooms because the 11:00 bell had rung, which was the lunch break bell, Red Rose's class was the fifth class to respond to the bell and out came the fillies and colts chattering and yakking at each other about the subjects that they were going to be going through in the year, Zodiac was in the very back of the group with his lunch bag that Celestia had made for him towed in his mouth, his new friends Wave Runner and Time Bandit had managed to save a spot for the three of them. But as he was approaching the cafeteria, he felt a thud or a shove on the back of him, causing him to fall over and hit the floor, there was soon the sounds of laughing and snickering approaching him.
"Well, look who we have here!" said a black unicorn by the name of Thunder Clash with a cutie mark of lightning strikes who picked up Zodiac with his magic and pulled him closer to his face.
"Listen young prince, here at Canterlot Elementary, I am in charge and I will not let some snot nose prince butt take it all away from me!" he said through clenched teeth.
"How did you know......"
"Oh some of the fillies said it, some other colt said it, and uh, well I reckon the whole school would know by now, I mean we all know you're Princess Celestia's son!"
Zodiac took this to his heart as he finally got the courage to stand up, "Yes, and as her son I order you to release me this instant, you don't want any trouble with her!"
Thunder Clash refused and just laughed, "Yeah right, like I'm really going to take orders from a little squirt like you!" he said deliberately ramming his hoof twice into Zodiac's face, soon resulting in a black eye and a bloody nose, he was soon hardly dropped to the floor as Thunder Clash laughed at him.
"Top that, Prince!" he said as he continued to laugh.
"Hey, leave him alone Thunder Clash!" said a female voice, Thunder then turned and saw two Pegasus fillies staring at him angrily, popping their hooves and ready for defending Zodiac in case Thunder tried to pull something else on him.
"Oh, Forget it, I have better things to do anyway, but fair warning squirt, if you give me or ponies that I protect, even one royal order, I'll be eating your guts for dinner!" he said walking away, the girls who stood up to Thunder Clash then walked up to Zodiac and helped him up even giving him his lunch, which was still fresh in the bag.
"You okay, Zodi?" one girl asked, while the other girl gave him some napkins to pinch his nose to stop the bleeding.
"I'm fine, thanks." he said walking towards the lunch table with the blood covered napkin in one hoof and the lunch in the other , but he then looked back at the direction that Thunder Clash had managed to walk and trembled in fear.
END OF FLASHBACK
"Oh come on Zodi, so Thunder Clash got a little jealous, he really didn't mean it." said Wave Runner
"Yeah, I mean, he's just a big bully." Time Bandit said.
"But look what he did to me!" he said showing them his injured face again.
"Hey, man look, we're your friends now, and it will be our decree to defend you if he ever does that again."
"Really?" Zodiac asked.
"Sure man." answered Wave Runner.
"So you want to do something with us this weekend?" Wave Runner asked.
"I'd love to, but I've got stuff to do with my mom." answered Zodiac.
"We understand." said Time Bandit with a smile on his face, suddenly there was the sound of distant whinnying coming from the sky, Zodiac and his new friends looked up and saw Celestia's carriage coming into view.
"Well, I'm hoping that she'll do something about him." Zodiac said, "maybe I can tell her when it's preening time."
"Preening time?" Wave Runner asked.
"Yeah, every night after dinner and my bath, she'll have me wrapped in her hooves and her wings and she'll start removing the feathers from mine."
"You must have a really cool life with having a mother like Princess Celestia." Time Bandit said.
Pretty soon Celestia's carriage had landed right in front of the entrance and she hopped off, hoping to see a smile on her son's face, but when she saw the black eye and blood stained nose, her smile soon disappeared.
"What happened, Zodi?" she asked in horror, that's when Zodiac started crying.
Time Bandit decided to speak up for him, "Princess Celestia, there's this kid in school named Thunder Clash, he always thinks he's king of the school, but he somehow got word about the fact that Zodiac was a prince and was getting extra attention more than him. He got jealous and physically hurt him when he was coming into the cafeteria for lunch today."
Princess Celestia was very boiled at the moment, how could anyone possibly bully a nice boy like her own son?
Celestia then looked down at her son and wrapped him in her aura and put him on her back.
"Well thanks for telling me what happened boys, it was very generous of you, I'll take it from here." Celestia said climbing back into her carriage with Zodiac on her back still trembling and crying over what had happened to him earlier. Wave Runner and Time Bandit watched their new best friend take off into the sky back to the castle, suddenly they heard the doors behind them slam open.
"Ow, but dad!" said a voice, Wave Runner and Time Bandit turned and saw that Thunder Clash was being tugged on his ear in blue aura by his father who was not pleased over what he had just done because right after Thunder Clash had been reported and sent to the Principal's office.
"No 'buts' young man," said his father angered, "You are going to be in a world of pain when we get back home!" he said.
Celestia and Zodiac had finally reached the entrance to the castle where the evening duties were about to take place, but these were different evening duties that Celestia and Luna had to take care of. Anyway, the carriage had landed in front of the entrance to the castle where unbeknownst to Celestia her sister Luna was awaiting for them because she had a sense that something had happened to her nephew while he was in school, Celestia hopped out of her carriage with Zodiac still on her back, grabbed his saddle bag, and then walked in front of the guards that flew her carriage.
"Thank you for the support guards, you make unhook yourselves and go on with your evening duties now." Celestia said.
"Yes your majesty, I hope your son gets to healing soon." one guard said referring to Zodiac, he heard this and turned to the guard that referred to him.
"Thank you guard." he said with a weak smile.
"You're welcome kid." said the guard as he and the other guards undid themselves from their harnesses that they strapped themselves into when they were flying the carriage, meanwhile Celestia and Zodiac walked inside the castle as Celestia slammed the doors shut and started down the corridors into her house part of the castle, she then looked back onto her son looking concerned about him.
"Zodi, you want to tell me what happened today dear?" she asked.
"I...I don't w-want to r-right now." Zodiac sobbed
"Zodi, come on dear, you always talk to me or Aunt Luna whenever something bad happens to you."
"Mom, this was totally different."
"How different?" Celestia asked.
"Well, there was a colt named Thunder Clash, he somehow heard about me and knocked me onto the floor because he thought I was doing something to him."
"Just as I thought!" said a sudden voice from the very end of the corridor, Celestia and Zodiac looked over and saw standing at the far end opposite from their side of the hallway was Princess Luna with a concerned look of her own.
"I had a feeling something bad happened to you Zodi, and it look likes I was right!" she said running up to them.
"Aunt Luna I...." Zodiac was soon yanked off by Luna's blue aura he soon felt himself being hugged tightly by her.
"I'm so glad you're safe, but we must get you healed." Luna said.
"Aunt Luna, I'm fine." Zodiac said.
"Not from that black eye and blood stained nose you're not." Luna responded.
"Aunt Luna..."
"Zodi, she's right, we must go and heal you this moment." Celestia said as they walked towards the direction to the room where most of the small medicines and healing remedies for small injuries were kept.
"Okay now you want to calmly tell me what happened?" Celestia asked as she was cleaning the blood stains of Zodiac's face with a warm wet cloth, Luna had managed to lift the swelling on his black eye up a little bit to where he could see a little better, but it was still red and purple and was going to be like that for the next couple of days.
"Okay, again, there a colt in school named Thunder Clash and he thinks that he's in charge of the whole school but every time a new colt or filly joins the school, he goes and picks on them because they don't fit what he wants or he gets jealous because they're getting all the attention because he thinks he should have it all to himself."
"I see." Celestia said as she went over to grab a dry cloth to wipe off the water on his face.
"Well how did come to this?" Luna said rubbing his back.
"It all started just after the lunch bell rang, I was walking behind the rest of my class to the cafeteria with my lunch bag in tow, as I got close to the edge of the lunch line and walk in for the students who brought their own lunches, I soon felt something trip me over and make me fall. I saw that what tripped me was a black hoof and then I heard somepony laughing at it, I looked up and saw him staring at me evilly and then he picked me up and smashed me into his face."
"Is that how you got this black eye sweetie?" Celestia asked.
"Yes, mom." Zodiac answered.
"Well I'm going to have word about this if he ever does this again." Celestia said.
"But mom, he......"
"Zodi, I promise you everything is in good hooves, so don't worry about a thing." Celestia said.
"Mom..."
"Zodi, that's enough." Celestia said.
"Sorry." Zodiac said.
"Good, now come on, it's nearly time for your preening." Celestia said lifting him onto her back with her aura.
"Zodi, I'm really hoping you do something next time so that this doesn't happen again." Luna said watching him leave.
"I will Aunt Luna." Zodiac said.
"Farewell, for now." she said departing for her side of the castle, "bye sister."
"See you later Lulu." Celestia said walking in the direction to her chambers with Zodiac in tow.
It was nearly 10 after 7 in the evening as Celestia plopped herself onto the floor where her giant pillow sat and a warm fire was lit and burning in the fireplace. She had managed to take Zodiac off her back and place him in front of her.
"All right son, go into the bathroom and take off your clothing." Celestia said.
"Yes mom." Zodiac said back walking into the bathroom and closing the door using every bit of his strength. He unzipped his wonderbolt-like outfit and took it off but managed to keep his hoof shoes on, he then went back outside into the bedroom where Celestia waited for him with a smile.
Zodiac walked towards his mother and crouched himself snugged close to her chest to get comfortable and ready for his evening preening, Celestia wrapped her forehooves around him while he spread his wings up to her snout.
"Okay hold still sweetie." she said as she opened her mouth, as she pulled the first feather out from his wings, he still thought about everything Thunder Clash had said to him earlier, what if he was right about everything?
"Zodi, are you still upset about what happened at school?" Celestia asked while gently pulling another feather from his wings.
"I can't get it out of my head." Zodiac answered, "What if he's right, what if I'm not meant to be a prince?"
This stopped Celestia in full force, "Did he really say that?"
"Yes he did." Zodiac answered with tears going down his face, Celestia looked down at him saddened that anypony would be that cruel enough to even say something like that. She pulled him closer to her and kissed him on his forehead while keeping him hugged and warm in her forehooves.
"Now, Zodi, you know you shouldn't let anyone say get to you like that, you may have been nothing to him, but you know what you are to me and your aunt?" she asked.
"What?" Zodiac asked back.
"A handsome prince." she said with a smile, Zodiac could now start feeling a warming trend start to develop in his heart, he knew that he had a mother that loved him and an aunt that would be willing to risk her own life to save him due to the fact that she helped him heal his eye even though it was still black from the punch that Thunder Clash had caused, so this warmed him up even though he was still feeling down and hurt over what Thunder Clash had said to him.
"You're right mom." he said.
"That's good to hear, now how about giving mommy a smile." she said, Zodiac refused, luckily, Celestia had a solution for that because she wanted a smile and she was going to get one from him whether he wanted to or not, so she gave a playful evil smirk, this scared Zodiac.
"M-m-Mom, why a-are you looking at me like th-WHOAA!!!!" he screamed as he soon felt himself being pulled by Celestia's aura, he now found himself locked and trapped in the grasp of his mother's forehooves with his back snugged against her chest, he tried to free himself, but Celestia's grasp on him was firmly in place and she was much stronger than he was, so there was absolutely no chance of even thinking about trying to break free.
While Celestia still smirked down at him evilly, Zodiac could soon feel her hooves starting rubbing up and down his sides and his tummy, he soon started snickering, he was very ticklish and Celestia knew it.
Finally Zodiac could hold it in any longer, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA MOOOOOMMY STHAHAHAHAHAHAP IIIIITTT HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, PLEAHEHEHEHEHEHEHESEEEE STAHAHAHAHAHAP!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Tickle, tickle, tickle Zodi!!!!!!" Celestia exclaimed, it went on like this for another two to three minutes until Celestia stopped, Zodiac stopped to catch his breath.
"Finally." he said, but Celestia gave yet another playful evil smile, "Oh it's just beginning." she said placing a hoof on him.
"WHOA!!!!" Zodiac said, he was now finding himself on his back with his front hooves curled up and his back hooves doing the same as well. Celestia had her forehooves wrapped around him once again, only this time she wasn't going to preen him, but rather do something that was even more laughable for a child than ever.
"You can't escape the wrath of the tummy monster she said, Zodiac started giggling as Celestia took in a very heavy deep breath then she lunged at his belly and blew a raspberry on it, making him laugh again. One raspberry, and another, another, at least 10 to 15 times Celestia was blowing raspberries on his belly with him laughing the whole time, finally she stopped and let him catch his breath once again, after he had caught his breath, Zodiac pounced onto her back and stood his front hooves on her head, he was now cheerful again.
"Don't you worry mommy, I'm going to be the best prince you'll ever see." he said taking her crown of her head and placing it on his, Celestia looked behind her and smiled while raising an eyebrow. Because of the fact that her crown was so big for a small head like his, it slipped down off his head and landed in front of his eyes, Celestia chuckled.
"You've still got a ways to go dear," she said using her aura to take her crown off him and put it back on her head as Zodiac jumped off her back and snuggled next to her chest again, Celestia wrapped her hooves around him again and pulled him closer while using her magic to pop a blanket and pillow and tuck him in, "but I know you'll become a great prince for Equestria one day, now get some sleep."
Celestia then looked at him happily, closed her eyes, and started singing him a lullaby.
"Hush little baby, hush now it's fine." "For now and forever, you are mine." "Sleep now and dream on about your life." "And dream on will you in your sleep, sleep tight."
As soon as she finished, she opened her eyes and saw Zodiac was sound asleep.
"Sweet dreams my love." she whispered.
Chapter 5: Meeting New Ponies.....And A Human Part 1
It had been a good peaceful night's sleep for Zodiac since his mother and aunt had convinced him that no matter what anypony said, it wouldn't change what he was to them and that made him just as happy as Pinkie Pie was always, anyway, he was opening his eyes fully to see that he was still wrapped underneath the blanket that Celestia had made for him last night.
"Good morning M-" he was soon cut off to the sudden surprise that she wasn't even in the room at all, so he undid himself from his blanket and started looking around for her.
"Mom, mom, where are you?" he said looking around the entire room, but no luck, so he exited the room and walked all over the corridors of the castle hoping that he would have some slack that she would be in any of the rooms throughout the hallways.
"Mom, are you in here?" he asked looking inside one of the rooms, but no matter where he looked, no matter how far into the castle he reached, Celestia was nowhere to be found.
"Mommy, where are you?!" he screamed with tears forming in his eyes, he was crying so hard he didn't even hear hoofsteps approaching behind him.
"Zodi, what's wrong?" said a familiar voice, Zodiac soon turned and saw Celestia standing there with a worried look on her face, he soon ran up to her and nuzzled her leg.
"Mommy, I couldn't find you." he said, "Where were you?"
"I had to go raise the sun, I'm so sorry, I should've told you." she said, pretty soon he was calmed down.
"It's okay Mom, so what's happening today?" he asked looking up at her now smiling face.
"Well I came up here to get you, because we have company coming over today, so you need to come with me downstairs and eat your breakfast." Celestia answered wrapping Zodiac in her aura and placing him on her back.
"Company, what kind of company?" Zodiac asked.
"You'll see soon enough." Celestia answered as they soon approached the stairs that led down into the lower levels of the castle for that's where the kitchen and eating area would always be located, as soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs, they soon approached the door that led into the kitchen/eating area room. Celestia opened the door with her aura and saw that Luna was there waiting for them with a greeting smile of her own.
"Hi Zodi." Luna said.
"Morning, Aunt Luna." Zodiac said, that's when she opened a hoof.
"Well, are you going to come and give your aunt a big hug?" she asked, caving in, Zodiac reached out to her, Celestia soon released him off her back with her magic and floated him over to her waiting hug.
"And did my Zodi sleep well last night?" she asked still hugging him.
"Yes." he answered.
"That's good to hear, because our chefs are making pretty yummy breakfast items for us this morning."
Zodiac then smelled the scents of everything good coming from the kitchen right next door to them, so he sat down right next to Luna while Celestia sat at the corner right end of the table, and in a matter of minutes, the chef with the cooks came out with about every single kind of breakfast food you could ever think of: omelets, pancakes, French toast, etc.
"Breakfast is served." said the chef who had his cooks place the breakfast items on the table.
"Bone appetite." he said as they walked back into the kitchen, Celestia placed an omelet on her plate while Luna put some scrambled eggs and cinnamon sprinkled toast and butter on hers. Zodiac wanted the pancakes on the center, so he tried to reach them, but they were too far out of his reach, Celestia quickly took notice of this and smiled as she put her utensils own with her aura that she was using to help her eat and then wrapped four pancakes around her magic over to Zodiac's plate.
Once she had set them on his plate, she then poured syrup on them and then cut them to pieces to make it easier for him to eat since they were big, then lastly, she poured milk into a cup for him.
Finally, Zodiac dug in.
"Aunt Luna, Mom said we have company coming over today, who is it?" he asked with mushed pancakes in his mouth, Celestia smirked at hearing this.
"Zodi, don't talk with your mouth full." Luna said.
"Alright sweetie, we're having Twilight Sparkle and her friends coming over to meet you, plus my niece and her husband and kids."
"Twilight Sparkle?"
"Yes, she's my former student who is now the Princess of Friendship."
"Wow, I thought you and Aunt Luna were the only princesses, I didn't know there was another one."
"Actually, Zodi, there's four princesses." Luna interrupted before taking a bite of her toast.
"Whoa." Zodiac said surprised.
"The fourth is our niece, Mi Amore Cadenza, but she goes by Cadance for short, she's the princess of love and married to Twilight's brother who is the captain of the royal guard, Shining Armor. They have three kids, but one is not a pony, but rather a human, and they rule the Crystal Empire up north of here."
"A human, I heard at school yesterday morning about a human in Equestria, but Time Bandit said they were just legends."
"Well, it's very true, there is a human here in Equestria, but he's about your age, and I think you two will get along with ease because he's very nice."
"Really?"
"Yes dear." Celestia said, "now finish your breakfast dear they'll be here any minute."
"Yes, mommy." Zodiac answered resuming to eating the pancakes that Celestia had cut up for him.
As soon as Zodiac was just about to finish though, two guards approached the kitchen door.
"Princess, they all have arrived." one guard said.
"Let them in guards." Luna ordered.
"Yes your majesty." the other guard said bowing.
About not even a second later the sound of the doors outside the dining and kitchen rooms opened up and the sounds of hoofsteps and chatter soon came into full audio, the first pony Zodiac saw was a purple alicorn with a mane and tail that had a pink stripe on both and a cutie mark of a pink spark with six white stars and a white star behind it, he gasped at how she looked.
"Princess Twilight, welcome." Celestia said.
"Thank you, Celestia." she answered back with politeness.
"Come on in everypony." she said, pretty soon there was a multitude of five other new faces and colors of ponies Zodiac had never met throughout his first five years of his life, the first was a cyan blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail and a cutie mark of a rainbow lightning bolt shooting out of a cloud.
The second was an orange earth pony with a blonde mane and tail that were both pulled back, wore a brown Stetson cowboy hat and ahad a cutie mark of three apples.
Third was a white unicorn with a swirled dark blue mane and tail, had sky blue mascara surrounding her eyes and had a cutie mark of three diamonds.
Fourth was a pink earth pony with a puffy mane and tail and had a cutie mark of three balloons.
And lastly was a yellow Pegasus with a long pink curly mane and tail with a cutie mark of three pink butterflies, and they were all showing greeting smiles as they were welcomed by Celestia and Luna, as well as a purple dragon named Spike.
"It sure is a good morning to come here to Canterlot and join you all for breakfast." said Twilight.
"Yeah, it sure looks like you've made enough for all of us." said Fluttershy.
"Well everypony sit down and dig in." Luna said, that's when she felt Zodiac wrap himself around her, Luna could tell he was a bit nervous about meeting ponies he had never met before.
"Aunt Luna, I'm scared." he said, Luna smiled at him and petted his mane with one hoof while rubbing his back.
"It's okay Zodi, they won't do anything to you." she said, but right on cue, as Twilight took a bit out of an omelet she had gotten off a platter, she quickly took notice of Zodiac trying to hide his face from them.
"Say, Luna, is that your nephew and Celestia's son we've been hearing about?" she asked as she walked up slowly towards them.
"Yeah," said Applejack as she too approached cautiously to him, this made Zodiac bury himself even deeper into Luna's chest. "We did hear about you two adopting for the past five years, but I'd never thought we'd meet him."
Knowing that Zodiac was becoming more nervous about these new ponies, Luna looked at them with a frown, "Yes he is, and I suggest you all step back, I really don't want you all scaring him, he's a bit shy."
Applejack did what she said and went back, but Twilight was not so sure, so she stayed to try and reason with Zodiac.
"Hey, what's your name?" she asked, Zodiac looked at her with a small portion of his face and saw she was smiling at him. Slowly, but shyly, he unburied himself and fully showed himself to her and the rest of the gang.
"uh...um..well...." Zodiac stuttered, but Twilight gently stroked him with her hoof.
"It's okay sweetie, don't be shy." she said sweetly.
"M-My name's Z-Zodiac." he stuttered, Twilight giggled.
"It's nice to meet you Zodiac." she said sweetly with a smile, Zodiac quickly perked up and gave a small smile of his own.
"Well, you can just call me Zodi, because that's what I like to go by." he said.
"Well, Zodi, my name is Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship." Twilight said, Zodiac was actually starting to take a bit of a liking to her affections towards him.
"Twilight, um, can I ask you something?" he asked softly.
"Sure." Twilight answered.
"Can I um..Can I...hug you?"
Twilight giggled, "Of course you can." she said opening a forehoof, Zodiac fully smiled, let go of his grasp from Luna and went over to Twilight and hugged her, Celestia and Luna smiled at this.
"I knew we'd meet soon, let alone get along." Twilight said picking him up and holding him.
"Yeah, I figured we'd get to meet you little buddy." Rainbow Dash said biting into her breakfast.
"Who are you all?" Zodiac asked.
"Well sugarcube ah'm Applejack."
"My name's Rarity."
"Rainbow Dash, best flyer in Equestria."
"I'm Fluttershy."
And right in front of Zodiac's face popped..."Pinkie Pie, BEST PARTY PLANNER!!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed causing Zodiac to bury his face in Twilight's chest, Twilight stared at Pinkie with an angered look.
"Pinkie, don't do that!" Twilight scolded.
"Precisely Pinkie Pie, you really need to control your greetings." Celestia said.
"Sorry, I didn't realize." Pinkie Pie said disappointed over her little hyper greeting.
"I..It's okay Pinkie, it's sure is a pleasure to meet you all." Zodiac said now smiling fully as he kept his grasp on Twilight.
Chapter 6: Meeting New Ponies......And A Human - Part 2
Zodiac had resumed to eating his pancakes as everypony else continued to eat their breakfast, he had already struck up a really strong interest and friendship with them, but still he was waiting for Cadance and Shining Armor to arrive with their kids because he was eager to meet this human and see if he was what they said he was, it did feel kind of cool to actually discover a real human being for once due to hearing stories at school about it.
Zodiac was just about to take a sip of milk when the sudden approach of two royal guards approached the door.
"Your majesty, the Crystal Empire Train has just pulled up to the station." one guard said, Celestia and Luna knew then quickly that Cadance and Shining Armor had arrived with their children.
"Very well guards, escort them in when they exit." Luna said.
"Yes." The other guard said.
Just outside the gates the entered into the city, at the train station, the crystal train had pulled right up and came to a complete stop with steam departing from the bottom, the doors on it opened and out came several crystal pony guards to greet the royal pony guards of Canterlot with such gratitude, one crystal guard approached them and saluted, the others saluted back.
"Welcome crystal guards, Celestia and Luna have been expecting your rulers to get here." one guard said.
"Very good guard." the crystal guard said, pretty soon, Flash Sentry came out and following him out were Cadance and Shining Armor.
"Good morning to you Captain." a guard said saluting Shining Armor while the rest bowed to Princess Cadance.
"It is a pleasure for you all to invite us for a gathering, ever since Flurry Heart was born, we've rarely taken any time to spend with our friends." Cadance said as she fed Flurry Heart some formula she had made for her , she then turned to the train to wait for Nathan and Skyla to come out.
"Nathan?" she called out to him.
"Comin' Mom!" Nathan said, he was soon out of the car as well wearing blue jeans, Nike shoes, a long sleeve Dallas Cowboys shirt and a denim vest around it, he had spiked his hair up and wore a purple and silver necklace.
"Sorry y'all, ah' had to change Skyla's diaper, she took a pretty big dump." he said, holding Skyla in his arms.
"And good morning to you young captain." the guard said bowing their respects to him since he was the next captain.
"Thank you guards." Nathan said, feeding Skyla some juice.
"Thanks for the cover son." Shining Armor said, "We sure couldn't handle duo changes." he let out a small nervous chuckle.
"No problem Dad, ah' figured y'all needed a break." Nathan answered with a smile.
"Well let's head on, don't want to keep them waiting." Cadance said as they departed the train station and walked towards the entrance to Celestia and Luna's castle.
As the mane six were enjoying their fresh breakfast choices and just chatting, Zodiac stared helplessly and impatiently at the open door that led out into the corridors of the castle hearing for any sound of the human that he wanted to meet so bad, or at least a shadow approaching.
"Mom?" Zodiac asked.
"Yes dear?" Celestia asked.
"When are they going to get here????" he whined.
Celestia giggled, "Be patient sweetie, they'll be here soon."
"Precisely Zodi, patience is a virtue." Twilight said.
"Now finish eating your breakfast before it gets cold." Celestia said.
"Yes mommy." Zodiac answered before resuming to eating his food.
Cadance, Shining Armor, and their kids had managed to approach the entrance where two more guards awaited them and this time, it was Nathan who was the first one to approach them, the guards bowed before him since he was their next captain in line.
"Greetings future captain, we've all been expecting you and your family." one guard said.
"At ease guards." Shining Armor said taking over giving the orders.
"Yes sir." they said, opening the door and taking them inside.
As soon as they entered the castle, they were soon down the hallways that led right into the dining room, Nathan could soon not only smell the freshness of the cooked items coming from there, but he could also hear familiar voices, excited about this, he smiled.
"Dad, hold Skyla." he said, giving her to Shining Armor.
"Why bud?" Shining Armor asked.
"Because, ah' have somepony to greet first." Nathan said, running towards the open doors that led into the dining room, there he saw, the mane six, with Celestia and Luna just enjoying their breakfast.
"AUNT TWILIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nathan screamed, Twilight quickly took notice of Nathan standing at the door and running up to her, as well as the rest of the gang seeing him, she smiled and opened her hooves as he reached her and then jumped into her hooves wrapping his arms and legs around her.
"How's my #1 nephew?" she asked.
"Must you always call me that?" Nathan asked with a giggle.
"Of course, I mean you really are." she said, "I see you got a new hair style."
"Yeah, ah' decided to change mahself." he said, he then felt a hoof tapping him, he then turned and saw the other five smiling at him.
"Hey don't we get hugs too?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Nathan soon let go of his aunt and hugged the rest of them, then he went over to Celestia and Luna and hugged them as well.
"How's our young prince doing?" Celestia asked.
"Ah'm fine." Nathan answered, that's when Cadance and Shining Armor came in with smiles of their own.
"Aunt Celestia." Cadance said, embracing her and then Luna.
"Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, it is so good to have you all here to join us." Luna said.
"Well it sure is good enough to actually just take a break and enjoy a morning with you all." Shining Armor said as he set up portable high chairs for Skyla and Flurry Heart while Nathan went and sat next to Applejack. He then put out a plate and put on it pancakes, biscuits and gravy and poured a glass of milk and apple juice into two cups and dug in.
"Hi Nathan." Zodiac said whom Nathan didn't know was sitting beside him, he quickly turned and saw Zodiac smiling at him with pure excitement as he finally got to meet this human, Nathan swallowed his food and put on a smile of his own.
"And you must be Zodiac, ah've heard a lot about you." Nathan said.
"You can call me Zodi." Zodiac said.
Nathan chuckled, "Well you can call me Nate if you'd like, because that's what's ah' go by."
Zodiac then quickly took notice of the bat wings on his back.
"Um Nate?"
"Yeah?" Nathan asked back while putting another bite of biscuits and gravy into his mouth.
"How come you have bat wings?"
"Well let's just say ah' beat the shit outta somepony."
"Nathan, watch your language!" Shining Armor scolded.
After Nathan had told his origin story to Zodiac from coming to Equestria from Dallas as an orphan, befriending the mane cast, beating Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and getting his wings as a way of a reward for standing up and being brave, to Cadance and Shining Armor adopting him as their son, lastly becoming a big brother to Skyla, Zodiac was surprised.
"So you got those wings after teaching Diamond Tiara a lesson?" Zodiac asked.
"Eeyup, ah' basically put her in her place, told her not to pick on them gals anymore." Nathan answered.
"Wow, I never thought you were tough." Zodiac said with joy.
"Well the good news is that they've been reformed, thanks to Applebloom and the gals, nopony gets through me!" Nathan scowled.
"Which is exactly why I have chosen him as the next Captain in line from me." Shining Armor said. "He's got precisely what it takes."
"And not to mention, he's the bravest next to Rainbow Dash." Pinkie Pie said.
"Pinkie, this isn't about me." Nathan said.
"But, Nathan.." Fluttershy said, "We saw how you were able to take her on."
"Yeah, but still, ah' jus' came to have breakfast with y'all, not to be bragged about." Nathan said.
As Nathan and the ponies were talking, Zodiac started to think for a minute at how he could actually get back at Thunder Clash, and Nathan may have been a good solution to his plan, so he tapped Nathan who was still talking to the ponies to get his attention.
"Yes, Zodi, what is it?" Nathan asked after feeling the tap.
"Nate, can you meet me outside for a minute, I need to talk to you about something." Zodiac answered.
"Sure," Nathan then turned to Cadance, "Mom, ah'll be right back, Zodi has to talk to me."
"Okay son." Cadance said, and thus they both got up from the table and went out into the corridors of the castle where nopony could hear them.
Pretty soon, they were out of the dining area and before long a part of the corridors where the main cast couldn't hear them.
"Okay, Zodi, what do you need?" Nathan asked.
"Okay, that story you told me about you facing up to Diamond Tiara.."
"Yes, did you have something similar happen to you, cause ah' quickly noticed you have a healing patch on your eye." Nathan said, taking notice of his left eye.
"As a matter of fact yes." Zodiac said gently undoing the taped patch and showing him a black eye that he got from his horrible encounter with Thunder Clash yesterday.
"Whoa ponyfeathers!" Nathan exclaimed, he had never seen a black eye bad like he was seeing right now, Zodiac then covered his eye with the patch again.
"Okay, there's this unicorn in my new school named Thunder Clash, and he thinks he deserves all the respect and attention in the entire school." Zodiac then froze for a moment, but Nathan put his hand on his shoulder.
"Go on." he said.
"Well anyway, yesterday was the first day of classes and me and two other guys were walking with everyone else to lunch, Thunder Clash somehow knew I was a prince since my mommy and aunt found me and raised me, and because of that, he thought that I was going to get all the attention and respect and he wouldn't be the 'cool' one anymore, so as I got close to the cafeteria line, he deliberately tripped me making me lose my lunch and then started beating me but not before telling me that he didn't care if I was a prince or not."
"Go on." Nathan said.
"He then told me that if I gave him orders that there would be trouble and everything, and I'm afraid that he'll be making history repeat itself on me."
Nathan fist popped his knuckles, "Well the only respect he's gonna get is the learnin' kind, you tell me where he is and ah'll give him the drop on it."
Zodiac pondered, and then it quickly came to him, "I think I know where, follow me."
"Okay." Nathan said.
Now even though Thunder Clash had been punished by his father for all he did to Zodiac, it sure didn't stop him from continuing to show his evil side towards all the fillies and colts of Canterlot because here he was back out on the streets being mean and violent. Anyway he had his eye on a colt and his fillyfriend who were walking towards a candy store for a lollipop as they were inching close towards the entrance, the filly was soon knocked over by a black hoof and then the sound of evil laughter, she soon saw a black Pegasus colt with two of his henchmares with him smiling evilly.
"Well guys what do we have here, a couple of rich brats?" he asked.
One henchmare laughed, "I believe so." he said yanking the colt off the ground.
"Hey, put me down you idiot!" he yelled, but the henchmare instead started shaking him for any bits, and just as he predicted at least ten bits fell out of the sack that he had on him.
"Well what's this, free money!" he said.
"Hey that's mine, give it back!" he screamed, but the three bullies just laughed wickedly.
"Forget it kid, it's ours now, thanks for the tip." they said as they walked off leaving the colt crying.
However they were so caught up in their fun, they didn't even realize they were being watched by Nathan and Zodiac from a nearby rooftop, Zodiac quickly pinpointed which on of the trio was him.
"There, Nathan, that's him!" Zodiac exclaimed.
"Yeah, and not only him ,but that jerk head friend of his is going ta' learn what ah' do to ponies that take things that don't belong to 'em, come on Zodi!" he said flying down to the direction they were walking.
"Right behind you, Nate." Zodiac said flapping his wings and following Nathan.
Thunder Clash and his buddies were strolling down the sidewalks of mid-Canterlot snickering and hoof bumping for their terrible act they had just committed to a colt and his filly friend, they had stolen money from them and now they were plotting to do it again to another kid, Thunder Clash couldn't have felt more cooler about himself since he thought he had all the respect and attention given back to him even though he had been punished by his father for trying to force it by beating on Zodiac, but that didn't really seem to stop him since he was determined to be #1 in Canterlot and wanted to keep it that way.
"Did you all see the look on that little dork's face, I thought he was gonna explode." One buddy said.
Thunder Clash snickered wickedly, "Yeah, he's probably crying home to his mommy."
They snickered and laughed until..........
"Ahem." said a voice from behind, they suddenly turned and saw Zodiac staring angrily at them.
"Well if isn't Prince Poopiac!" Thunder Clash said as he and his buddies walked up to him.
"What do you want loser?" one of his friends asked.
Zodiac stuttered, but kept his place, "I-I saw what you did to that colt."
Thunder Clash grabbed Zodiac and pinned him to the ground, "Listen Prince Tattletale, I told you not to give me orders, but it seems you're asking for it, and now you're gonna get it!"
Thunder Clash raised his right forehoof up and was about to pound Zodiac until......
"HEY!!!!!!!" said another strange voice, this time they looked into an alleyway and in the shadows stood a silhouetted creature that had what looked like bat wings, this creature stepped out of the shadows and revealed himself, it was Nathan with an angry stare of his own.
"Ah' believe y'all have somethin' that belongs to those kids." he said, Thunder Clash and his friends were amazed, they had never seen a creature before.
"Guys do you see what I see, a talking two legged monkey with wings?" Thunder Clash asked.
"Yep, but he's not going to be around to see us do our next round, to him that is!" one of his friends said as he walked up to Nathan and attempted to grab him with his hoof, but Nathan managed to evade his grasp by flying away from him.
"Ha, missed me!" Nathan teased as he landed back down to the ground, they were even more surprised that his wings were real and he could actually control them, but Thunder Clash actually managed to not let it stop him, so he picked up Nathan with his magic and pulled him closer to him.
"Listen, I don't know who you are, what you are, or where you came from, but unless your deaf, you should just back away and forget what you saw because I will not be losing anymore to ponies or creatures who take my respect away."
"After what ya' did to Zodi the other day and taking that colt's money, ya' think ya' have the audacity to get respect?!"
"You're darn right I do!" Thunder Clash scowled, gluing his eyes and snout straight into Nathan's, but luckily Nathan still wasn't scared and Zodiac couldn't believe it, he was actually being brave!
"You show him Nathan!" he screamed, he managed to get Thunder Clash's attention though.
"Hey squirt, when I'm done pounding this dork, I'm striking you a second time!" he warned.
"Over mah' dead body!" Nathan said managing to stand his ground, that's when Thunder Clash and them soon managed to draw a crowd including the colt who's money he stole and his fillyfriend.
"You're in Tartarus little dork!" he said striking Nathan with his hoof, Nathan soon landed on the ground, but Thunder Clash picked him back up.
"And I am the Cerberus!" he said taking another buck at Nathan.
"Come on Nate." Zodiac said, he soon saw Nathan get right back up at his feet and stare down Thunder Clash.
"You ain't the Cerberus...."
Thunder Clash turned away for a second to spit on the ground then he stared back at Nathan.
"You're practice."
Thunder then tried to take a third swing at him, but this time, Nathan was able to dodge it with quick reflexes, he then head butted Thunder once to back him away then another one to where he actually fell backwards onto a table behind him causing a cup of sticks to fall off and collapse on top of him.
But it only got worse over that, for Thunder Clash's henchmares tried to go after him as well, but Nathan kicked them both to the curb and they fell onto the street.
But just as Nathan and Zodiac thought they had won, it only got worse for they had accidentally started a brawl as Thunder Clash grabbed Zodiac and attempt to beat him, but Nathan kicked him out into the crowd that was watching and fall on top of a Pegasus, causing the crowd to go crazy and thus a fight was on.
Meanwhile back in her chambers, the mane six, along with the four princess and Skyla and Flurry Heart were still peacefully eating their breakfast even though it was almost 10:00 and yet they were starting to grow concerned about not only Nathan, but Zodiac as well because ever since they went out that door they didn't hear a peep out of both of them and they were gone for over an hour. As Celestia finished up the last of her breakfast, she soon felt a tap from Luna.
"What is it Luna?" she asked.
"Sister, I'm really getting worried about Zodi, he's been gone for over an hour."
"Yeah, I'm starting to get worried too."
"Well not just him, but Nathan too." Cadance said.
"Napphan gone." Skyla burbled.
Flurry Heart let out a little worried whimper over her big brother being out for so long.
"Don't worry Flurry Heart," Cadance said picking her up and comforting her "I'm sure your brother is fine."
"Come on everypony, let's go find them."
But just as they were to depart to go out and find them, they were soon stopped by two guards covered in spit and dirt as if they had just escaped from a riot.
"Your majesty, we need you outside right now, it's urgent!" one guard said.
"What seems to be the problem, and where's my son?" Celestia asked
"We have been worried." Luna said.
"I'm afraid he's been involved in a fight, along with our future captain." the other guard said, Cadance and Shining Armor gasped while Flurry Heart and Skyla bawled over the thought that their big brother might have been hurt.
But before they could continue on talking, there was a sudden crash from around the corner, followed by the sudden sound of glass shattering from around the corner, they soon approached and saw a table flipped on it's side and it somehow had been thrown up and in through the window, with glass shattered and a damaged table in her castle, along with a screaming crowd of fighting ponies the main group was now stunned over what was going on outside.
Applejack ran up towards the broken window and saw the crowd of ponies wreaking havoc in the streets, and soon Twilight and the other main three approached.
"What in tarnation is going on out there?"
"Looks like a fight, but what about?" Twilight asked.
"Come on!" Celestia exclaimed, motioning for everypony to follow her.
Meanwhile in the streets of the city, windows were smashed, tables were flipped over, and ponies were screaming, ranting, and fighting as Nathan and Zodiac were caught in the middle of it.
"LET'S SEE HOW MUCH YOU LIKE TO MAKE OTHERS MISERABLE YOU LITTLE TERD!!!!!!" Nathan screamed as he grabbed Thunder Clash by the leg and spun him around until he was so fast at the spin that he threw Thunder straight into a wall. On the other hand, Zodiac had managed to pick a fight of his own as he managed to wrestle with a group of colts.
"Who do you think you are?" one colt asked as an alarm system from the building beside them sounded.
"I'm a future prince, you little piece of shit!" Zodiac exclaimed.
The colts were shocked.
"Dude, did he say what I think he said?" one asked another.
Suddenly, like rapid fire from an assault rifle two bright magic whisks zoomed by, freezing everypony that was fighting for about 5 minutes, now the only thing they could manage to move were their heads because they soon turned to see the mane six, Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Shining Armor staring at them in great anger, Zodiac turned his head as well to see his mother and aunt showing angered expressions alongside Nathan, who gulped in horror.
"ALL RIGHT, WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!" Celestia screamed.
"AS CO-RULERS OF EQUESTRIA, WE DEMAND TO KNOW WHO STARTED THIS ATROCITY!!!!!!!!" Luna screamed.
"Uh-oh!" Nathan said, knowing he would be in for it, he then looked at Zodiac who was up on top of a colt about to punch him.
Celestia and Luna soon walked down the street of frozen ponies with guards following them.
"All right, Luna, let's free them." Celestia said as she and Luna blasted a second magic whisk setting them all free.
"All right, now speak up, who started this?!" Celestia asked in a demanding tone, Nathan knew that he would be in for it soon.
But as for Zodiac, he could quickly guess the types of punishments that could be thrown at him for being a part of it.
But Thunder Clash soon woke up from being thrown at the brick wall, and could soon see police ponies cowering over him, one levitating hoofcuffs as he was going to be arrested for theft of another's property.
Meanwhile, Nathan soon approached the princesses with respect.
"Ah' started this fight." he said. "But, it was for..."
Suddenly he soon felt himself being pulled harshly in pink aura right in front of Shining Armor.
"Nathan Elisha, I am very disappointed in you!"
"Dad, ya don't understand ah......!" Nathan said.
"This is the fourth time this month you've started trouble, we are going home and you're grounded for a week!" Shining Armor said as he levitated Nathan onto his back.
Meanwhile, Thunder Clash saw the angered expression on Shining Armor's face as they walked towards the train station and smirked wickedly, thinking he won, but as for the pony who saw him steal the colt's money, he quickly looked at a camera video from outside his store recorded earlier and decided to go to the Crystal Empire later on that evening and tell Shining Armor and Cadance what really happened and that it wasn't Nathan's fault.
Zodiac gulped as his mother and aunt walked towards him with great disappointment.
“Mom, I.....’
“Zodi, I am very disappointed in you!” Celestia scolded.
“As am I!” Luna said, Zodiac then hung his head low in shame.
“There will be a punishment for this.” Celestia said she then turned to her guards who quivered in fear of her.
“Guards!” she said.
“Y-yes your majesty?” they asked.
“Take Zodiac back to the castle, and make sure he stays in his room, we will deal with him later.”
Zodiac gulped again, “yes ma’am.” they said as they escorted Zodiac back to castle, now there was no telling what was about to wait him, but he knew it would most likely be worse than what Nathan was probably going through soon.
It had been nearly three hours since Zodiac and Nathan had been caught fighting and causing mayhem in the streets of Canterlot, Nathan had already gotten his, but as for Zodiac, the thoughts of whatever awaited him made him tremble since he was the son of a princess and he figured that royal punishments must be harsher than regular punishments. Anyway, he was pacing around in his bedroom with two guards guarding the door that went out to the corridors of the castle to make sure he didn't make a move.
"Oh what's going to happen to me?!" he asked himself as he walked around the same direction over and over again.
"What if they spank me?"
"What if they forbid me from talking to ponies for a month?!"
He gasped at his upcoming third question "What if I can't ever go back to school again?!"
Well, his questions were about to be answered when the knob of his bedroom door glowed in yellow aura, twisting, and the door opening to reveal Celestia who in her stage, still had an angered look on herself. Zodiac continued to tremble in fear of what could await him since he was blocked by guards and now her from going anywhere.
As Celestia entered the room, she turned back to the guards.
"Thank you guards for doing your duty, leave us." she said
"Very well." one guard said while the other stayed silent and left. Celestia then closed the door and wrapped Zodiac in her aura to place him on his bed where he looked up at her still disappointed expression she gave him, he laughed nervously at her.
"Zodi, what is the matter with you?!" she asked with a high pitched voice.
"I...I..." Zodiac stuttered.
"What did think you were doing, causing such an atrocity?!"
"Mommy I....." he said, but Celestia kept interrupting him.
"Zodi, not only are you my son, but you are a future prince, and I do not expect that behavior from a prince!" she said.
"And I figure that this will teach you that!" she raised a hoof and just as he predicted in his first question, she popped him three times on his butt leading to him crying.
"I EXPECT YOU TO BEHAVE IN A CERTAIN WAY!!!!!!!!!" she yelled.
"Mommy..." Zodiac whined.
"I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR A WORD OUT OF YOU YOUNG COLT!!!!!!" she screamed.
"I really don't know what drove you into doing such a dreadful thing, but it will never come about again!"
"But...." Zodiac said.
"No 'buts' young colt, you too are grounded for a week, you are not to leave this castle except to go to school!" she yelled, "Now you are to sit here and think about what you have done."
"Mommy, it wasn't my fault." Zodiac said, but Celestia didn't buy it for she took what he said as a lie.
"Young colt, don't you dare lie to me!" she exclaimed, walking out of the bedroom and slamming the door shut.
"Mommy, I'm not lying, please." Zodiac whined, but it was too late, Celestia was long gone and off into the corridors that made up the whole castle, Zodiac then felt his emotions get the best of him as tears started to form. He then flung himself onto his bed and started crying.
The guards standing outside who were hearing him crying stared at each other in sadness, feeling sorry for the little colt, they began to ponder.
"I don't know how Princess Celestia could do that, I've never heard her enraged like that before." the first guard said.
"Poor kid, I don't know what would drive her temper like that, I mean he really wasn't fighting, I mean what if it really wasn't his fault?' asked the other guard.
"It isn't his fault." said a voice, the guards looked to see a white mid-aged unicorn with glasses on, grey mane and tail, and a cutie mark of a lollipop.
The guards approached him, "Identify yourself."
"My name is Candy Crave, I am the owner of the Candy Shop right where the fight started."
"Do you have proof that he nor Nathan had anything to do with it?"
"You mean that human boy with the bat wings, no, both of them had nothing to do with it; the evidence is on this tape." he said levitating a footage tape recorded from his outdoor camera.
"Come with me back to my store, I'll show you all the whole event, I've already shown this tape to Cadance and Shining Armor."
The guards soon followed him out of the castle and back out into the streets where shop owners and citizens were still cleaning up the mess from the big thug fight.
...Meanwhile in Celestia's Chambers...
Princess Celestia was sitting in her bedroom saddened over all she had experienced, but still greatly disappointed over seeing her own son being a part of it and thinking everything he told her were lies (even though she didn't know yet that he was telling the truth.). Anyway, she stared into the lit fire of her fireplace and then looked up to see a picture of her and Zodiac, she wrapped the picture in her yellow aura and levitated it up to her face.
As she stared at the picture, she felt a knot in her stomach, a knot of shame as if her picture had already been hung on the wall of shame. She then put the picture down and sighed sadly before staring out the window.
"What am I, a princess, or a monster?" she asked herself.
"Perhaps a little of both!" said a familiar voice behind her, she turned to see her sister had enter the chambers with a very disappointed expression of her own.
"You know, don't you?" Celestia asked sadly.
"You know I do sister, what were you thinking, blowing up at Zodiac like that?!"
'I know Luna, I know I shouldn't have yelled at him like that, but you saw what he and Nathan did out there today; causing all that trouble!"
"Sister," Luna explained as she walked closer to her and sat with her, "Yes, and we did have the right to know what happened, but I think we jumped to conclusions."
"But what makes you say that, Nathan and Zodi were fighting a crowd." Celestia said.
"Sister, they were a part of it, but I don't think they are responsible, I think they were framed." Luna answered, they were into their sisterly conversation so deeply, that they didn't even hear hoofsteps approaching from behind them.
"Your majesties?"
Celestia and Luna turned to see three guards with a pony who had a cutie mark of a lollipop and was levitating what appeared to be a video tape of some sort.
"Yes guards, what do you need?" Luna asked.
"This unicorn showed us the video tape he has there about what really happened, and I think you and Luna should watch it."
"Is this video evidence?" Celestia asked as she levitated the video from the unicorn candy mare into her magical grasp.
"Clearly, it is." the unicorn answered, "And I would like you two to come back to my candy shop tomorrow morning so that I can show you what happened."
"Very well, return to your business, we will check in with you first thing in the morning." Celestia said. Just after the unicorn left to return to his candy shop, Celestia and Luna then turned to the guards.
"Guards, return to your posts immediately." Luna ordered.
"Yes ma'am." they said as they departed into separate sections of the castle.
The next day, Celestia and Luna were at the unicorn's Candy Shop just as they had promised they'd be at inside a surveillance room that contained video monitors from 6 cameras, and he had them watch the video from the camera that recorded Thunder Clash and his thug friends stealing the bag of bits from the colt and his friend and taking off, then the video switched to the other camera that showed Nathan and Zodiac fighting him for the bit bag to give back to the colt, apparently the small crowd that was watching just wanted to use that fight to start some action because they were bored.
"And that's what really happened, I also showed this to Cadance and Shining Armor in the Crystal Empire."
Celestia gasped in horror, what had she done, jumping to conclusions like that yesterday?!
"What was I thinking!?" Celestia said, "I've got to set things straight with Zodi.
"Yes sister, and while you take care of that, I will talk to Cadance and Shining Armor about Nathan's real reason for fighting, and see to it that that Pegasus that took that colt's money gets a trial and sentence!" Luna said.
"Thank you for showing us this proof." Celestia said, "We need you to stow it away because we're going to have a trial made for that awful Pegasus!"
"Yes you majesty." said the unicorn.
Soon, Celestia and Luna went about their separate missions.
Luna to set the court trial and chat with Cadance and Shining Armor about Nathan. Celestia to apologize to Zodiac for jumping to conclusions and being so hard on him last night.
The next morning, Celestia and Luna had made everything set in motion for the court and sentencing for Thunder Clash, he was supposed to be due for this upcoming Friday at noon time for he was to be charged with robbery, child endangerment, and causing mayhem throughout Canterlot. Now they had managed to bring Thunder out of the CPD's holding station where they were keeping him throughout yesterday when he was arrested, but now he was going to be tried as one of the most evil unicorns in Equestria and fined as a traitor as well, needless to say he was a bully and had was about to get what was coming to him.
Anyway, as the preparations for his court session were getting into place, Zodiac still felt like had been disowned and betrayed due to his mother not believing him and the tongue lashing she gave him the day of the fight. He was so disheartened in fact that he didn't even want to forgive her after all she did to him.
He he had just come home from school after a long day of tests from lessons he had learned and was about to put his stuff away when Celestia approached him with grief, however, he wasn't too sure about her.
"Zodi, I have something to say to you." she said
"What, to say you're sorry, that won't cut it!" he snapped.
"Zodi, I understand that you're mad for what I did but...."
"Leave me alone!"
Celestia now felt the guilt eating her alive she knew now that she really messed up big time, but she was going to try and push it aside.
"Zodi, I have to talk to you."
"I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!"
Celestia snapped, "Young colt, you do not raise your voice at me I am your mother!"
"YEAH WELL I WISH YOU WEREN'T!!!!!!!!!"
Celestia was shocked by what he just said, as for Zodiac, he was now on the verge of wishing he had never been adopted and that being the son of a princess was not good enough for him anymore.
"Zodi I...."
"Go away!" Zodiac exclaimed, as Celestia headed out the door he slammed it shut, Celestia could now feel tears forming in her eyes as she left the corridor and headed back to her throne room. Meanwhile, Luna, who had been secretly listening in on the attempted apology thought otherwise because she was not pleased with what he said to her but didn't feel the need to yell because she felt it would only make things worse for him.
She calmly and quietly walked up to his bedroom door and softly knocked on it.
"Go away!" muffled Zodiac's voice, but Luna opened the door anyway and walked in.
"It's just me sweetheart, Aunt Luna." she said with a smile on her face, however instead of walking out the door, Zodiac just flopped onto his bed. Luna jumped on as well and sat next to him, even draping her wing over him.
"Zodi, you know no matter what happens, your mother and I will always love you." she said.
"I know Aunt Luna, it's just that I can't believe everypony would just jump to conclusions like that." he said with a sulky voice.
Luna put a hoof on his chin, "Zodi, look at me, I know it's hard to suffer going through things that are hard and not worth dealing with. But you also have to understand that no matter what the cause, ponies are going to make mistakes and get punished for them."
"But why jump to conclusions like you did with me?" Zodiac asked still sulking.
"It's not that we jumped to conclusions," Luna said, "It's just it made us all crazy, especially me seeing my only nephew out there in a fight causing such destruction to society. I mean I have seen it happen to most ponies they think they know what they're doing, before they know it, they've messed up everything, that's why I am so proud of you for standing up to Thunder Clash like that and you and Nathan defending that colt and his friend."
"You are?" Zodiac asked looking up to his aunt with a sad smile.
"Of course I am." Luna answered with a sad smile of her own.
Zodiac then hugged her, "I love you Aunt Luna." he said.
"I love you too Zodi." Luna said returning his hug, "But I think you owe somepony an apology."
Zodiac gave a nervous laugh, "Yeah, I guess I do."
Zodiac then jumped off his bed feeling refreshed and a lot less strained than from earlier, "I'm going to go into the throne room and apologize to mom."
"That's a merciful thing to do, Zodi, I'll come with you for guidance." Luna said, and then she and Zodiac went out the door closing it behind them.
Meanwhile in the newly designed throne room, Celestia was sitting on her throne hurt and shameful for what her son said to him earlier, she had never been said stuff like that in her life, nor even yelled at. Her sulks were soon interrupted by the sound of the throne door opening and in popped Luna.
"Sister, I believe our dear Zodiac has something he wants to say to you." she said firmly.
"Very well, Zodi come in here sweetheart." she said even though she was hurt from what he said, thus, Zodiac popped in as well slowly and calmly walking up to the top of the throne towards his mother.
He was scared of her stern look at him due to his hurtful backtalk from earlier, but he stood firm on his ground and faced up to it all.
"Mom, I'm sorry for what I said to you earlier, I really didn't mean it." tears were now forming in his face once again, "I love you so much mommy, I do want you as my mother, I really love you so much, please forgive me." he then collapsed on the floor of the throne seat and sobbed in sorrow. Just then, he felt himself wrapped up in yellow aura and was now face to face with his mother who was giving a sad smile, a smile that meant what he thought.
"Oh Zodi, you're my son, I'll always forgive you." she said hugging him, Zodiac returned her hug.
"Thanks mom." he said as he tightened his hug on her, he did not want to let go of her due to how much love and forgiveness had entered his heart, nor did the same thing go for Celestia as Luna watched in happiness and joy, the feud was over and thus their relationship was back to the way it was, now it was time to focus on Thunder Clash's punishment in his court session.
The time had come for the punishment made for Thunder Clash for the crimes he had committed against Canterlot, he had been sitting in a juvenile cell at the CDC (Canterlot Detention Center) for the past three days griping and pouting that he didn't get the respect he thought he deserved, yet because of the way he treated everypony, he wasn't going to get anything but a dose of reality. As he sat in his holding cell, he looked out the window and pouted at the fact that all the ponies were laughing and giggling at stuff, yet he wanted to be out there wanting to make them miserable so he could get all the attention again.
"That pathetic candy eating fool, getting me busted!" he snarled. "I'm going to make everypony pay for all the garbage they gave me, I am Thunder Clash and I deserve respect!" sadly he was interrupted by the sound of his cell door being unlocked by a royal guard with an angered expression.
"Thunder Clash, your court session is ready, let's move." he ordered, intentionally shoving him out of his cell and into the corridor.
"Hey, don't you shove me you punk!" Thunder yelled, only to be shoved again.
"You do not talk to royalty with that tone of voice, plus you do not talk unless spoken to!" the guard ordered, Thunder Clash growled in anger as he was being escorted out of the holding center with his guard, followed by a posy of other guards to surround him in case he tried to pull one.
As they reached the entrance to the courtroom for his trial, they were surrounded by angry ponies and Thunder's family as well who were also not to thrilled with him. Thunder Clash was soon face to face with a judge and juries standing, plus a lawyer they had hired for him and his family.
The judge, a powerful unicorn who had a voice identical to Chancellor Neighsay, used his magic aura to pick up a gavel that lay on the side of the booth and banged it.
"Order in the court!" he said, "You may be seated." and everypony did what he said and they sat down.
"Thunder Clash, you have been brought here under three counts of abuse, robbery, and treason towards Canterlot, do you have anything to say about it?" the judge asked.
Thunder Clash pounded his cuffed hoofs on a pedestal, knocking it over, "Does that answer your stupid question?!" he was suddenly tackled down by royal guards and shackled in a chair.
The judge then pounded the gavel again, "Thunder Clash, I will not accept that selfish attitude you are putting on me, you will answer my questions without disrespect, or you will be held in contempt of court, therefore you are not to say anything unless I say so."
Thunder Clash huffed in annoyance, "whatever" he muttered.
"Now it's time to bring out the witnesses for these crimes, Prince Zodiac you may speak about your horrific encounter with this monster."
Zodiac did what the judge said and walked up to where the witness would usually sit and began his story.
"Well my first encounter with him began on the first day of school which was last week. The lunch bell had rung and I was among the 500 to 600 other fillies and colts walking to the cafeteria, as I approached it myself, he knocked me over."
"Liar!" Thunder Clash protested, the judge pounded his gavel.
"Silence!" he ordered, he then turned his attention towards Zodiac, "You may continue."
"Anyway, he figured that since he was the tallest and best one in the whole school, he figured that he deserved anything and everything. However, he got word about me being a prince and thought he was going to have everything taken away from him, he picked me up and said that if I ordered him to do anything he'd have my butt and left, he had been caught for it and got punished by his father but apparently that didn't stop him."
Thunder Clash snarled.
"Because just a couple of days ago he was right back at it again, only this time he had henchmares to back him up, so here he was still thinking he's the center of Equestria and decided to bully a colt and his friend out of money and took off. That is until me and Nathan, the human son of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, caught up with him; he told me that I was going to ask for it because he thought that I was going to give him orders."
"Ha!" Thunder Clash scoffed.
"I SAID SILENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!" the judge screamed.
"But that's when Nathan came in and fought him down, but somehow that managed to create a frenzy for all of Canterlot, and then my mom and aunt came down to see what the trouble was and when they saw me fighting, they thought me and Nathan were the ones responsible while he got escorted away!"
"So I see, and he thought he won when he saw you and Nathan get led away." the judge said.
"Yes." Zodiac
There was sudden shock and commotion going on throughout the courtroom.
"Does the jury have to say?"
A pegasus stood up, "We the jury plea Thunder Clash guilty of all charges."
"WHAT?!" Thunder Clash exclaimed.
"So the verdict is....life in Tartarus where you will be guarded by the Cerberus, and there will be no freedom for you ever!" said the judge as he slammed the gavel down one last time.
Thunder Clash snarled and growled heavily really hard as if he wanted to knock out that judge hard, but since he was cuffed, there was nothing he could do as royal guards escorted him out of the court room and to the place where prisoners would be held until they could be transported to where their punishment would await them.
As Thunder Clash was being escorted out by the guards, he looked over at Zodiac with a defiant scowl.
"I HOPE YOU GET DEVOURED BY A HYDRA YOU LITTLE TWIT!!!!!!" he screamed, then the doors slammed shut behind him, Zodiac felt offended by this, however, he felt a hoof touch his shoulder and looked up to see his mother smiling at him, yet he felt frightened on the inside.
"Eaten by a hydra?" he asked in fear.
"Don't worry sweetheart, he's just lost in his own selfish ways." Celestia said.
"Court adjourned." said the judge as he slammed the gavel down.
As the ponies exited the court house, Zodiac looked up at his mother who was saddened.
"Mom, what's the matter?" he asked as they stopped out in the streets of Canterlot.
"Well, remember when I yelled and spanked you the other day?" she asked.
"Yes." Zodi answered.
"Well the reason I snapped like that is because, it just, it made me crazy seeing my only child out there in the middle of a brawl fight. I mean, I've seen it happen before, ponies getting into brawls and causing mayhem and chaos that they stop and don't even realize what they're doing is putting harm on not only on their rivals, but also innocent ponies."
"Really?" Zodiac asked.
Celestia smiled down at him and scooped him up in her hooves to give him a big hug.
"Zodi, I'm so sorry for jumping to conclusions like I did the other day, I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, I don't know what I was thinking, please forgive me."
Zodiac then nuzzled closer to her, "You're my mommy, I'll always forgive you." he said.
"Aww, Zodi." Celestia said as she gave him a kiss on his cheek.
She then looked up and saw Luna waving at her from the castle which meant it was time to raise the moon, so she put her son on her back and walked towards the castle, what she didn't know was that Zodiac had already fallen asleep on her.
It had been nearly two weeks since Thunder Clash's sentencing and had since been put in Tartarus where the Cerberus would keep a close eye on him just as they had said it would, Zodiac on the other hand was now in an even bigger pickle than before because Celestia and Luna decided to enroll him at Twilight's School of Friendship because they felt he should learn friendship as well even though he already made two friends at his regular school. Anyway, here he was at the breakfast table eating chocolate chip waffles and a cup of milk that Celestia had made for him, he may have been enjoying his breakfast, but he was not looking forward to being at a new yet different school.
"Come on Zodi, eat your breakfast, you've got a big day ahead of you." Celestia said.
"Mom, I'm already in school, why do I have to go to another one?" Zodiac pouted while consuming another bite of his waffles.
Celestia shook her head in annoyance, "Zodi, we've already been through this, your aunt and I figure it's best if you learned the magic of friendship as well."
"Mom, I already have friends, why do I need to learn friendship if I already have friends?"
"Zodi, not another word out of you, you're going to the School of Friendship and that's final, now finish your breakfast!" Celestia said.
Zodiac gave an annoyed growl and finished his breakfast right down to the syrup covered plate.
Now even though he was already attending his own school, going to two schools would mean double assignments, double testing and quizzing, and the worst; double homework, and he was not going to be thrilled about that at all. Anyway, as soon as he finished his milk along with his breakfast, he gave his dishes to the chef that had made his food and took it to the kitchen as he went over and grabbed his book bag that he used for regular school.
Zodiac bid his aunt with a goodbye hug and kiss as he went out the door with Celestia as she walked with him to the royal chariot, inspected, hooked up to two royal guards, and ready for transportation to Ponyville.
As the chariot began to pick speed and lifted up into the air, Celestia then turned to her son who was still nervous about this, she put a comforting hoof on his back and rubbed him gently while smiling affectionately at him, as for Zodi, the least he could give in return was a small smirk.
"Now Zodi, I know it's been painful what you've been through these past few days and I also know that you have friends already, but friendship is more than just becoming somepony's friend and I believe that you should learn about the steps of friendship."
"Mom, what if I...." Celestia put her hoof on his mouth.
"Zodi, I promise nothing will happen to you, you'll be safe and besides you'll get to meet new creatures as well, because when this school first opened, I helped reach out to all the kingdoms and lands beyond Equestria since other creatures in these lands didn't even know a thing about friendship because we ponies were the only creatures abroad that had been taught everything about it."
"Really?" Zodiac asked.
"Yes, and the better news is Nathan is going to be there too."
"What?!" Zodiac asked with excitement.
"It's true sweetheart, Princess Cadance and Shining Armor enrolled him there too and he's going to be the first human there."
"Aw cool!" Zodiac said.
"I think you're going to have a great time." Celestia said giving her son a big hug.
The town of Ponyville sat just beyond the horizon with Twilight's castle in a good and picturesque view with the city showing in full beauty, now this really surprised Zodiac because up until now, he had never seen Ponyville before since he had never even left Canterlot over the fact that Celestia felt that something bad would happen to him if he did, but that phase of her had been pushed out and she was more open minded over it.
Anyway as the School of Friendship came into full view from below, the guards began making their descend and before time, they had landed in front of the pond that surrounded the whole school. Zodiac was mesmerized by the looks of this place, it looked just like Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, even like Canterlot Elementary, only it was bigger and had more space to it, it was nothing he had ever seen before.
"Wow, this place is big." he said.
"I knew you'd take a liking to it." Celestia said, hopping off the carriage and levitating her son onto her back they walked stone path that you hopped over in order to get to the entrance to the school, luckily there was a massive crowd of not just ponies, but also yaks, hippogriffs, griffins, changelings, and dragons, Zodiac had never even seen such creatures before.
Zodiac then continued on, but he was soon interrupted by a sudden greeting by Cadance and Shining Armor who were actually there to greet Celestia.
"Aunt Celestia!" Cadance exclaimed as she and Shining Armor embraced her.
"It's so good to see you Princess Celestia." said Shining Armor.
"Well I can certainly say it is a pleasure to see you all again." Celestia said, they soon switched their attention towards Zodiac and embraced him as well.
"It's good to see you as well Zodi." Cadance said as she picked him up and held him in her hoof.
"Hi Princess Cadance." Zodiac said hugging her and returning their love, but he soon took notice that Nathan wasn't beside them.
"Hey where's Nate?" he asked.
"Oh he's loafing around here somewhere." Shining Armor said, and it didn't take long to realize that the somewhere was closer than they thought. Zodiac quickly took notice of Nathan leaning against a support beam that held up the building with ear buds covering his ears and an iPod touch clutched in his right hand and his wings tucked and folded behind his back.
"NATE, NATE!!!!!!" Zodiac said with joy as he freed himself from Cadance and ran over to him, now even though Nathan had both earbuds in his ears, he could still hear what was going on in the building. He heard the sound of hooves rapidly approaching his direction, he turned and saw Zodiac running to him, Nathan soon gasped with excitement.
"Zodi!!!!!" Nathan said, they were soon embracing each other.
"Ah'd never thought you'd be attending this school as well." he said.
"Well my mom told me that your parents enrolled you." Zodiac said,"Say where are Skyla and Flurry Heart?"
"They're at Day Care." Nathan said.
"Okay boys, everything is about to start." Celestia said.
"Yes, Mom." Zodi obeyed.
They had now found themselves standing in a massive crowd of all creatures big and small and right in front of them was a stage where Twilight Sparkle and her friends walked up on, now Zodiac and Nathan had already known them, but a seventh one that joined them by the name of Starlight Glimmer who was the guidance counselor for the school of friendship.
"Attention ponies and creatures of all, welcome to day three of your lessons here at the School of Friendship, now as you all may have heard, we have two brand new students joining us today."
"What, Mom they know?" asked Zodiac.
"Yes sweetie, I notified Twilight about you and Nathan coming here." Celestia answered.
"Will the new students please step up here." Starlight said.
Zodiac felt nervous about this as he quivered with fear because he was just as shy as Ocellus was, luckily, he felt a hand touch his back and saw that it was Nathan who was showing a friendly smile, Zodiac smiled back and they walked from the crowd and up to the stage where they were now facing the crowd as Twilight and Starlight stood beside them, some of the creatures however were used to seeing ponies, but were just as surprised to see a human in this world as well.
"May I introduce, Nathan Cadenza my nephew who will be future captain of the royal guard after my brother Shining Armor." Twilight said.
Starlight then stood before the stage, "And may I introduce Zodiac, son of Princess Celestia and nephew of Princess Luna." she then put her hoof on his back.
"Let's take the time to introduce them to you all." Twilight said.
Zodiac now felt a touch of sympathy as he could tell this place would be better than what he experienced a few weeks ago.
It had come time for Celestia, Cadance, and Shining Armor to go about their ways and move forward with their duties therefore they could not stay long enough for the upcoming fun activities and classes scheduled for today, so as Cadance and Shining Armor approached Nathan, Celestia approached her son.
"Now Nathan we have to go, so you listen to your aunt and do what she says, and listen to what's ordered to you." Cadance said.
"Yes Mom." Nathan obeyed as he hugged her then he turned and hugged Shining Armor as well.
"Bye Dad, Bye Mom." he said.
"Oh Nathan, one more thing, please don't start any trouble, if you have a problem tell your aunt about it okay?" Shining Armor asked.
"Ah' can't promise anything, but ah'll try." Nathan said.
As Nathan watched his parents leave Celestia embraced her son as well.
"Zodi, I'm hoping nothing bad will happen to you, so let's hope you can get along well here with all the creatures." she said.
"I'll be fine Mom, I have Nate with me." Zodiac said as he gave her a good bye hug and kiss.
"Have a good day sweetie." said Celestia as she followed Cadance and Shining Armor out the door, he and Nathan were now together, but were soon joined by Twilight and her friends.
"Well boys, what do you say, you want to come and meet the others?" Twilight asked.
"Sure thing Twilight uh ah' mean Principal Sparkle." Zodiac said.
"Aunt Twilight, who are these guys we're going to see?" Nathan asked.
"You'll see Nate." Twilight answered to her nephew and they walked away from the entrance and down the corridors that led to the classrooms and gymnasium. There was also a cafeteria that was run by some of the best cooks in Equestria, for Nathan it looked like the comforts of Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Dallas, only bigger. As for Zodiac, it was just as identical to Canterlot Elementary at home.
As the group entered a gymnasium, Nathan and Zodiac were mesmerized at how huge it was, there were balls of all kinds, hoops for flying through, and a resting bench for taking breaks and drinking water, but as for the creatures in here, they were just as surprised, not by seeing Zodiac, but seeing Nathan because they had heard about humans, but they never actually thought today would be the day they would actually see one in person.
"Everyone, we'd like you meet Zodiac and my nephew Nathan Cadenza." Twilight said, soon they were cornered in curiosity by an orange dragon with antlers, a yak, a blue griffon, a khaki brown colored earth pony with a turquoise blue mane and tail with a cutie mark of three sea turtles, a hyperactive and excited hippogriff, and a shy blue and pink changeling.
"Hi it sure is a pleasure to meet y'all." Nathan said.
"As it is for mEEEAHHH!!!!!!" Zodiac screamed, he felt two fur covered arms pick him up off the ground and was now in mid air these arms then pulled him close to a chest and hugged him tightly.
"YOU ARE JUST THE CUTEST THING I'VE EVER MET, I could just hug you to death!!!!!!!" said the voice of the hippogriff, Zodiac looked up and saw that she had a sensitive yet excited look of joy over his cuteness.
"I'm Silverstream, I'm from Mount Aris and Seaquestria I was sea pony, but now I'm a hippogriff, I'll explain my story later." said Silverstream as she continued to hug Zodiac, she then pulled him closer to where his face was buried in her chest.
"How can I ever be friends with a cute guy like you?!" she said as she squeezed him.
"Stop trying to break me in half?" muffled Zodiac, he then let out a small cough from the pressure being put on him by her hyper hug.
"Silverstream, put him down, you're choking him." Twilight ordered.
"Yes, Principal Sparkle." obeyed Silverstream, and she gently put him back onto the ground.
The next one to an introduction was Gallus, "Nice to meet you two, I'm Gallus from Griffonstone."
"I'm Ocellus of the Changeling kingdom." said Ocellus which caught a sudden eye of Zodiac.
"I'm Sandbar from Ponyville." Sandbar said.
"Me Yona of Yakyakistan, Yak love meeting new creatures." said Yona as she embraced Nathan, Nathan choked from the power of the young yak's embrace.
And last was none other than Smolder, "And I'm Smolder of the Dragon lands."
"So mind telling us your names, Principal Sparkle said that you all would introduce yourselves as well." Sandbar said.
"Oh yeah sorry." Zodiac apologized, "I'm Zodiac from Canterlot, I am Princess Celestia's son and Princess Luna's nephew, but you can call me Zodi for short."
Then Nathan stepped up, "And ah'm Nathan of the Crystal Empire, orginally ah'm from Dallas, Texas in the United States of America."
"United States of America, where is that located?" Smolder asked.
"Let's just say ah'm from another world." Nathan answered.
"Well the professors told us about a human, but we've never thought we'd see one in person." Ocellus said.
"You all should see his moves." Zodiac said, "He's taken down at least two bullies, he's tough."
Smolder was equally surprised, "Really, tougher than dragons?!"
She then got into Nathan's face, "Let's see you prove it."
"No Smolder, it's not a good idea to do stuff like that him because he'll take it as a challenge." Twilight said as she turned to her nephew with a serious expression, "And I don't want any violence in this school Nathan, do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Aunt Twilight." Nathan said with a gulp.
"Good, now it's almost time for exercise and games, so why don't you all head on down to the gym and play." said Twilight.
Nathan and Zodiac were inside the gym with the young six, but instead of playing hoops and balls like they do, they just sat on the floor and talked.
"So Zodi, when did Celestia give birth to you, because I've never heard about Celestia having children until now." said Sandbar.
"Well, technically, I wasn't born." Zodiac said, this confused everyone.
"What do you mean?" Ocellus asked as she walked up to Zodiac.
"I was adopted, my mom told me once that she found me in a basket by the river and that I was covered in mud and was crying deeply." he said as he looked down with sadness.
"What cruel creature would leave such a cute thing like you all alone like that?!" exclaimed Silverstream.
"Yona hate mean creatures responsible!" growled Yona.
"Yeah, besides you're too cute to be abandoned." Ocellus said kissing him on his cheek, this made Zodi blush.
"Not to mention that like me, you've got a loving aunt and mother that care deeply fer' ya." said Nathan draping a hand on his back and smiled at him.
"You're going to make a good pony to me." said Ocellus as she hugged him, the rest could definitely tell she already had a romantic interest in him since she was the first one to set a loving smile, Gallus, Nathan, Sandbar, and Smolder snickered while Silverstream and Yona stared in confusion.
"Ocellus and Zodi sittin' in a....." Nathan said, but Ocellus glared back at him and the others.
"Hey, I just think he's cute okay, we are not in love, I'm just trying to be a fine influence for him because that is what he needs desperately." Ocellus said.
"Hey Zodi, bottom line is, you're not ignored here, and we'll see to it that you have more friends in every way." said Ocellus, Zodiac smiled and gave her another embrace, but this time he felt a kiss on his forehead, Ocellus had kissed him.
"And that is a symbol of our new friendship." she said.
"I knew things wouldn't go wrong here." Zodiac said.
"So what do you say kid, friends?" Gallus asked as he held out his clawed hand, Smolder, Yona, Sandbar, and Silverstream soon joined in putting their hands and hooves on top of his, Ocellus joined in and then Nathan.
"Come on Zodi, it'll be fun." Smolder said.
Zodi felt his heart move up to love mode and decided to join in.
"Friends till the end!" he exclaimed as he was the last one to put his hoof in, then they all raised their limbs together.
"GO FRIENDSHIP!" they yelled, then they giggled and laughed, suddenly without warning, Twilight popped in.
"Hey you all better get to your first class, the bell is going to ring in 10 minutes." she said.
"Yes Principal Sparkle." they all said as they exited the gym and back out into the hallways to their first class, while Nathan walked in front with Smolder and Yona, Zodiac walked beside Ocellus since she was the first one to develop quick feeling to him.
"Hey Zodi?" she asked as she turned to him with another smile.
"Yes Ocellus?" Zodiac asked back.
"How about I take you with me to the Changeling Kingdom the day after tomorrow,my leader and his brother would take a big liking to you." she requested.
"Well, let me see if it is okay with my mom first." Zodiac answered.
Ocellus giggled, "Of course silly, we wouldn't want you gone!" she said as she tickled him making him giggle, Zodiac then hugged her once more.
"And remember, you can hug or kiss me whenever you want to because you are officially mine." she said.
"Hey," Gallus interrupted, "Why don't we take him to all of our Kingdoms."
"That's a great idea." said Nathan, "I'd love to take him to Texas, it's huge!"
"He'll do more better in the Dragon Lands." said Smolder.
"Yona take Zodiac to Yakyakistan to meet leaders." Yona interfered.
"Aww, but I think he'll have a much more better time at Mt. Aris and Seaquestria." said Silverstream as she wiggled his cheek with her right talon.
"Come on everyone," Ocellus interferred, "Let's let him make the first choice."
"Okay." Zodiac said, "I choose for my first kingdom tour...The Changeling Kingdom." Zodiac said.
"Second one will be this Texas place."
"Third will be Yakyakistan."
"Fourth Mt. Aris and Seaquestria."
"Fifth will be Griffonstone."
"Lastly will be the Dragon Lands."
"Well if that your list of orderly trips, then we abide to it." said Ocellus and they walked away to their class.
However, just outside of the school watching from the shadows, a certain racist unicorn hell bent on wanting nothing more than to shut down Twilight's school stood and faced the window looking straight at Zodiac with an evil look, a look that posed that he had a way of making not only Twilight cooperate to what he wanted, but Celestia as well.
"Just you wait kid, soon I'll have you in my grasp, only then will Twilight surrender her school up." he then gave a quiet evil laugh and stepped through a portal back to his chambers where he would advise a plan to kidnap Zodiac by surprise and hold him as a hostage in a place where nopony would save him.
Zodiac had already gotten used to meeting his new group of friends and was now on the verge of getting to meet other species of these creatures that he had befriended, and it all was starting with Ocellus taking him to the Changeling Kingdom to see how changelings did in their days and all that good stuff. Anyway, Zodiac was flapping his wings really hard and doing his best to keep up with Ocellus because she was a bit of a faster flyer than him and her home was the first choice of where he wanted to go since he wanted to see the lands beyond Equestria.
As Zodiac finally got a boost of speed and caught up beside Ocellus, the Changeling Kingdom stood just over the horizon surrounded by trees and a beautiful tranquilizer field with nice green grass and flowers of all kinds surrounding what looked like a half destroyed nest. Zodiac and Ocellus landed on the cliff that sat towards the entrance, Zodiac was surprised at how really good they were at taking care of this place.
"Wow Ocellus, you all really take a lot of pride and hard work to make this place spick and span." he said.
"Yeah." she said as they jumped off the cliff and walked towards the entrance.
"So has it always been like this?" Zodiac asked.
"Well not exactly, we used to have another ruler who was wicked and very corrupt, her name was Queen Chrysalis."
"What did she look like?"
"Well she was black with holes in her legs, ripped green wings, a green mane and tail, and had a small crown on her head; of course, that what the changelings used to look like too. And because she was wicked and corrupt, we were forced to obey her every command and we fed off of love, but when Thorax found all the love he had when he went to the Crystal Empire because of a baby alicorn being there, he discovered a way to actually share love and therefore he reformed and his wings sparkled because he shared love."
"Wow, so how did he become the new leader?"
"I'll let Thorax tell the rest because we're almost at the entrance."
As if right on cue, the entrance to the Changeling Kingdom was in front of their vision and they walked inside, after following Ocellus through a few tunnels and stairs and exhaustion, they were at the top of the old hive where they were surrounded by even more beauty of green plants and flowers, and changelings flying all around them.
"Talk about epic." Zodiac answered, "I think it's going to be a good day finally going to see new places and with special permission from my mother."
"Yeah, I figured you'd like it." Ocellus said as they walked.
With all the changelings flying, flowers, green plants, and chattering surrounding Zodiac, he couldn't have felt any happier, even though he was going to spend the entire day with creatures he had never seen or met before. But not all the changeling were small and had diamonds on their necks, because at the center of the hive, sitting in a throne chair was Thorax and beside him, his brother Pharynx.
"Hi, Thorax!" screamed Ocellus, surprised by the sudden greeting, he and Pharynx turned to see Ocellus and Zodiac approaching them warmly.
"Hi Ocellus." Thorax said as he walked up to her and hugged her. "What a surprise to see you back here today."
Thorax then turned his attention to Zodiac, "and who might you be?"
"Thorax, this is Princess Celestia's son Zodiac, he is a new student at the School of Friendship along with a human named Nathan who is the son of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor."
"Well, I must say Zodiac, it sure is pleasure to meet you, welcome to the Changeling Kingdom." he said.
"Thank you Thorax, but you can call me Zodi for short." Zodiac said.
"Well Zodi, there is one thing you need to know about me." Thorax said, he then scooped up Zodiac and pulled him into his chest.
"I am a hugger, and a very big hugger too." he said, Zodiac returned the hug.
"Ocellus, I can see why you hugged me so much yesterday at school." Zodiac said with a nervous laugh, Ocellus giggled.
"So how about I introduce you to the rest of the hive." Thorax said as he held Zodiac in his hoof.
"Cool." and he took Zodiac and Ocellus and went further into the hive.
As Thorax held Zodiac and Ocellus walked with them, he was surprised at how much fun and activities had been made and planned for the entire changeling population, they had everything from square dancing and crafts, to entertainment and potluck dinners which contained stuff that not a pony would even dare to eat. But Zodiac decided that he wouldn't be a burden because he knew that if he coped an attitude, Celestia would spank him and ground him, and he went over and sat by Ocellus and dug in to some potluck food, to his surprise, it was actually good.
"Wow, Thorax, you really know how to keep a good day in a good day." Zodiac said as he dug into his food, "Cause this is some good gourmet cooking."
"Well thanks kid, cause I was afraid you'd won't eat it." Thorax said.
"Not to mention you'd have a weird stomach." Pharynx said, only to be shoulder bumped by Thorax.
"Ow, hey!" Pharynx exclaimed.
"Pharynx, I told you, no more jokes!"
"Whatever, anyway kid, how's life going in royalty?" Pharynx asked.
"Well being the only child of a princess, it's kind of hard to actually have your own life." Zodiac answered.
"How's that so?" asked Ocellus.
"Well, while you can still do what you want as a colt, you've still got to go through a lot of learning and experiences if you're becoming the heir to the throne. Because I'm going to inherit the kingdom of Equestria when I grow up. Right now, I'm at the School of Friendship because not only does my mother want me to learn about it properly, but so that I can achieve the aspects of friendship, plus rule and treat the kingdom with deity."
"Well, I suppose that is a good thing to learn in order to become a ruler." Pharynx said giving him a noogie.
"And I think you do deserve to be the next heir." Ocellus said.
"Well I'm afraid of it though." Zodiac said.
"Why?" Ocellus asked.
"Because what if I never can get something right on a report, or what if a major threat comes to Equestria and I'm not prepared?"
"Well, I think you'd do better to ask that in the Feelings Forum." Thorax said.
"Feelings Forum?" Zodiac asked in confusion.
"It's where changelings go to discuss their feelings and fears to one another and get some relief by talking about it."
"Wow, I'd never thought I could actually express how I'm feeling in a group, because usually I've always feared my thoughts would be ignored."
"Sometimes I feel like eating bugs, sometimes I feel like eating leaves, but sometimes I feel like eating neither." said a yellow changeling at the feelings forum. Thorax sat on all fours, he had Zodiac wrapped up in his forehooves, snug to his chest and listened while Ocellus sat next to them.
"Well eat both if you choose, eat a plate of bugs one and leaves another, or have a plate with both on it." said the forum leader changeling who wore 60's style apparel and behind her stood a gong that signaled the start and end of the forum.
"But then it would be harder for me to make the decision." said the changeling.
"It sure is a nice thing for you to expose your feeling," said the leader changeling,"Is there anyone else who has a feeling they would like to share?"
"I guess I do." said Zodiac who raised his hoof.
"Ah yes, Princess Celestia's son, Ocellus mentioned you the other day, what is it that you'd like to share Zodiac?"
"Actually, he goes by Zodi." said Pharynx.
"Okay then, what is it that you'd like to share Zodi?"
Zodiac jumped off of Thorax's back and positioned himself in the center of the perimeter they had made together and began to speak.
"Well in case Ocellus didn't tell you all, I am going to be the heir to the throne when my mother and aunt move on, I will not only be in charge of raising the sun and the moon at the same time, but also helping those who truly need it. But I feel like I don't know how I'm supposed to handle it or what to use when I am handling it. Plus when or if a threat comes to Equestria I feel like I wouldn't have what it take to stop it since I can't control all six of the elements of harmony."
Zodiac looked down to the ground, but the forum leader put a hoof on his back and stared at him with a smile.
"I think it's perfect good of you to share this feeling, if you're having these fears of failure, always count on your friends to help you, plus you have a heart of strength as your mother does. I feel it in here that you can persevere and reign as a good ruler after her."
Zodiac smiled.
"Thanks for exposing, the feelings forum is over." the changeling said ringing the gong.
After all the changeling went about their separate ways, Zodiac went back with Ocellus, Thorax, and Pharynx.
"Well Zodi, that was our feelings forum." Pharynx said.
"I was really impressed with how you all expose your feelings toward each other."
"Well we were impressed at how you were able to expose your feelings about being a future ruler." Thorax said.
"Really?"
"Of course." Ocellus said, hugging him, "We are very proud of you."
Zodiac felt warmth, he had just made his first group of friends outside Equestria.
"Well kid how about we have one more round of fun before Ocellus takes you home." Pharynx said
"Of course." Zodi said, and he went on throughout the hive to see what else the changelings did.
Zodiac had recently returned from the Changeling Kingdom and had now found his very first crush which was none other than Ocellus, but not before returning to Canterlot did he get a letter from Nathan claiming that he wanted him to come over to the Crystal Empire to meet up with him because his second trip was to Dallas and see how humans lived, but he didn't even know that this trip would be one that he would actually not forget because it was going to be a frightening day. Anyway, he had just gotten off the train, which was the very first one he had ever ridden on since most of the time he had only ridden in Celestia's carriage as transportation and flew everywhere since he was a Pegasus, but anyway he was on approach to the Crystal Palace to meet up with Nathan.
As he walked through the city, he was quite astounded at how beautiful and shiny this place was, even the ponies here were crystal and shiny as well, as was the roads, houses, businesses, etc. he couldn't have seen so much beauty and wonder put into one whole kingdom. But he couldn't picture the looks of it during King Sombra's reign for he saw it as horrific and evil.
"Wow, I've never seen such a beautiful state of the art kingdom in my life, why didn't Mommy or Aunt Luna take me here before in the first place?" he thought as he edged closer to the Eiffel Tower like palace that Cadance and Shining Armor ruled from, he approached the entrance and knocked, the door soon opened and he was greeted by not Cadance and Shining Armor nor Nathan, but rather just two crystal guards who stared down at him.
"Hi there." said the guard.
"Hi, I'm Zodiac, Princess Celestia's son, is Nathan there?" Zodiac nervously asked with a gulp afraid that the guard wouldn't let him in.
"Hmm, I did hear about you, but I don't remember getting any notice about you coming over here to see the future captain." This made Zodiac tremble, but luckily behind him approaching was Shining Armor with Flurry Heart in his hoof and he had a smile on his face.
"At ease guards, he's fine, he's just here to see Nathan." he said, "Return to your duties."
"Yes sir." one guard said and they went into the deep corridors of the palace as Shining Armor approached Zodiac and his smile not leaving his face.
"Well it sure is a pleasure to welcome your first visit to the Crystal Empire Zodi." he said.
"Thank you, Shining Armor." Zodiac said before Shining Armor motioned him to come on into the castle.
"I take it Nathan invited you here so he'd take you to Dallas right?"
"Yes sir, as a matter of fact, I have a bag here full of snacks in case it would be a long trip." Zodiac said showing a snack bag to him.
"Here, Zodi, why don't you keep an eye on Flurry Heart for me while I go find him, okay?" Shining Armor said as he handed little Flurry Heart into his hooves, Flurry was really excited to have Zodiac hold her.
"Okay." Zodiac answered as he watched Shining Armor head up the stairs and vanish temporarily, as he was waiting for Shining Armor to come back with Nathan, he looked down at Flurry Heart who stared at him with giggles and a happy face as usual.
"Hi Flurry, remember me?" he cooed, Flurry Heart reached her forehooves up to him signaling she want him to hug her, Zodiac could quickly see she had already starting taking to liking him so he wrapped her in his forehoof and hugged her.
"You love me don't you, you little timberwolf." he said as he tickled her backhoof making her laugh, that's when he heard laughing coming from the top of the stairs, he looked up and saw Shining Armor with Nathan walking beside him.
"Hi Nate." Zodiac said.
"Hey there Zodi, ah' see Flurry's taken a likin' to ya'." Nathan said.
Zodiac looked down to see Flurry Heart playing with his Wonderbolt outfit and giggled, "Yeah Nate, I think you're right."
"Well you ready to experience a day of human ways?" Nathan asked.
"I've been waiting for this for a week."
"Well, let's get going." Nathan said, Zodiac gave Flurry Heart back to Shining Armor.
"You all have a good time." Shining Armor said.
"Yes Dad." Nathan said, and he and Zodiac went out the door, as they stood in front of the Crystal Heart that held the portal of which only Nate could activate, he stood ground because he needed to set some things straight with Zodiac because Zodi was heading for a different world and thing were going to be different.
"Now Zodi, before we depart, ah' need to set some rules with you because ah' took mah' parents and the others here once and did the same with them. First of all ah'm going to have to change your name because human names are not like pony names and if everyone there heard your real name they will laugh at you, so your name for today will be Zack Langley."
"Okay." Zodiac answered.
"Secondly, the way humans thrive is not the same as ponies do, the weather there is not made in a factory, it's made by drafts and currents in the atmosphere and you will not be able to sit on clouds there. Thirdly ya' will be a human yerself and therefore will have to walk on two legs like me and you will not have any wings and neither will ah', lastly you will see some things that you will not find here in Equestria, so ah've made arrangements to have mah' former nuns from mah' old orphanage help guide ya' through it and you will get to meet two of mah' friends there as well, understand?"
"Got it Nate." Zodiac said.
"Okay, ah'm about to activate the portal." Nathan said walking up to the Crystal Heart and placing his right middle and index fingers on it, after he touched it, the heart shot out a swirling tube of light and it flashed all around Nathan and Zodiac.
"Zodi, ya' might want to cling on to me tightly, this is going to be a fast takeoff." Nathan said. Zodiac could feel the strength of the portal shake the ground beneath him, so he did what Nathan said, ran up to him, and clung to him as tightly as he could. Suddenly, they lifted off the ground and began to pick up speed as they entered the tube.
"Hold on tight, Zodi!" Nathan screamed and they were soon sucked in out of the Crystal Empire and onto Dallas.
The street that the Lone Star Orphanage rested on was going through a typical afternoon, people in their cars driving by the building and a new generation of orphaned children that were being taken care of by Amber and Lucy, now the years had passed and they had now reached middle age around their 50s now, but they still had the power of God's love and planned to keep spreading His word and put it in the minds of children until it would be time for God to call them home to Heaven.
Anyway, it was a typical afternoon, but there was a low pressure system developing in the west and was going to produce a really severe thunderstorm that would bring hail, damaging winds, and even the possibility of tornadoes to the Dallas area, so Amber and Lucy decided to make best of whatever time they had before the storm hit they hoped though that the storm would just dump some rain only though. As they were lining up all the children from playing outside and back into the building for Bible lessons, they were interrupted by a vibrating sound, which scared the kids, but then a portal light appeared and out came Nathan and Zodiac.
"Nathan, is that you dear?" Amber asked.
"MS. FANNING!!!!!!!!!!" Nathan said with joy as he ran up to her and hugged her, as well as Lucy.
"My goodness, you've gotten tall." Lucy said.
"So how's Equestria coming along?" Amber asked.
"Well, ah've brought a new kid with me, Zack come here, ah' want ya' to meet mah' old nuns." he said, Zodiac looked in a mirror that was in a playhouse and saw that Nathan was right, he was a human, he saw that he had no wings and was wearing shorts and a tank top that resembled the Wonderbolt outfit he wore in Equestria and had on Z striped sneakers and black socks, he was stunned at this body he was in that he didn't even hear what Nathan said, that's when his surprised trance was snapped out when he felt a hand touch his shoulder, he looked over and saw Nathan smiling at him.
"Didn't ya hear me, ah' said mah' old nuns want to meet ya', come on." Nathan said, but just as he predicted, Zodiac was having trouble balancing on his legs and couldn't even move his feet, so Nathan had him lean on him for support and helped him walk over to Amber and Lucy.
"Ms. Fanning, Ms. Brown, this is Zack Langley, he's new." Nathan said trying his best to not make them know that Zodiac was a pony that he had brought from Equestria, but they were not buying it because they knew he had been there for so long and that anything or anyone he brought with him for visits would be from there.
"Nathan, we can actually tell he's from Equestria, so you don't have to cover for him, but we'll keep his human name so the children don't pick on him okay?" Amber said.
"Yes Ms. Brown." Nathan said, Zodiac then smiled at him.
"Nathan you sure are a great friend." he said.
"Thanks Zodi." Nathan whispered.
"Okay, why don't you two come on in and get something to eat with us before I take you all out." Lucy said.
"Sure thing." Nathan said, Zodiac was hungry too, but he'd never experienced the stuff that humans eat, especially meat products since there was no meat in Equestria.
As they walked inside with the others, Zodiac could quickly smell the spicy scent of what appeared to be some kind of stew, Nathan knew what this stew was because it was his most favorite thing to eat, it was gumbo and the person that was cooking it was born and raised in New Orleans and got a job as the orphanage's cook. Now Nathan loved this, but since Zodiac was new to the human world, he was going to get a first glance at how the humans ate.
Once he and Nathan found a place to sit, they were served bowls of fresh gumbo right out of the pot and smelling good of herbs and spices and before too long everyone else got their share of the gumbo as well, however as usual, the nuns always had the kids say grace before eating.
"Alright everyone, let's bow our heads and close our eyes." Lucy said.
"Nate, what are we doing?" Zodiac asked.
"We're blessing the food, do what she says." Nathan answered, Zodiac was not sure why it had to be blessed, but did what Nathan said and went on bowing his head and closing his eyes with him and the rest of the children.
"Lord Jesus, we come to you today on behalf of this meal that has been made, we pray that it gives the nourishment and strength that we need. An we pray that this storm that is about to hit will not be a bad one, that it will just rain and give the plants good life and nourishment as well dear God, and we pray these things in Your Son's Holy name, Amen."
After the prayer was said and everyone dug into their gumbo, Nathan pondered about something that Lucy said, something about a storm about to hit the city. Zodiac on the other hand was enjoying his fresh bowl of gumbo, he had never had it before or even tasted it, but it was delicious much to Nathan's surprise. Just as he was about to dig into his food, he heard the sound of thunder rumbling outside and looked to see that the sky had turned a scary blackish-blue color, Nathan sure wasn't notified about this, so he turned over to Amber.
"Ms. Brown?" Nathan asked, Amber walked over to him.
"Yes Nathan?"
"Ah' thought ya' were gonna take Zack and ah' around the city so he could see how humans thrive, ya' didn't tell me that there was a storm today though."
"Well dear, I'm sorry, I know I should've told you before, but there was just no way I could send a message to you about it though, sorry Zack, but I'm afraid we might have to cancel until the storm is over."
"What?!" Zodiac asked in horror, "I didn't come here to hear you throw away a good time."
"Sorry sweetheart, but we can't cope with the weather." Amber said, "now come on dear, eat up."
As he and the other children were eating, Lucy switched on the TV to the local news where they were covering the severe weather that was about to hit.
"Covering Fort Worth, Dallas, and all of north Texas, CBS 11 news at noon starts right now."
"Right now we are tracking severe weather rolling in, let's tune in to Larry Knight in the CBS 11 Weather Center."
"Hey Nathan, why weren't we told about this?" Zodiac asked as he ate.
"Ah'm not sure." Nathan said as he stared at the TV.
"As you can see on radar, these storms are producing massive cells which will bring quarter to golf ball sized hail and now we've just gotten word that this storm has spawned rotation and looks to be very tornado productive."
Zodiac was now scared, he was used to seeing storms rolling through Canterlot from the weather factory, but he was not used to hearing or even seeing storms predicted to be this bad, nor did he ever hear about hail, he didn't even know what hail was.
"Hey Nathan, I heard them say something about hail, what's that?"
"Hail, mostly referred to as hailstones, are balls of ice formed when thunderstorm updrafts are strong enough to carry water droplets to above the freezing mark in the level of the storms, but hailstones are not typical ice balls, they are like rocks falling from the sky and strong enough to break windows and even kill people."
Zodi gasped, "So if you ever see hail fall, always seek shelter."
As if right on cue, lightning flashed outside and thunder began to rumble loudly, then everyone could hear the rain beginning to fall, now this was weather Zodiac was used to, but then suddenly there was a flash of lightning and then a loud boom of thunder that caused a power surge in the room then the TV showed a black screen that popped up a message, then the Emergency Alert System played, Zodiac cringed in fear at what was happening, he was not hoping that a trip that was supposed to be good suddenly turn scary, as for the other children, they were panicking and crying at what was happening as well, but the nuns did their best to try and keep them calm.
"The National Weather Service in Fort Worth has issued a tornado warning for, northeast Denton county in Northeast Texas, northwest Dallas county in Northeast Texas, and southeast Collin County and Northwest Texas, effected until 4:30 PM Central Daylight Time." said the announcer, and much to Nathan's horror, they were in Dallas county which was one of the counties that had been placed under the warning, then suddenly, the storm sirens outside began to wail loudly as the rain began to pour even harder like a waterfall.
The NWS announcer continued, "At 12:30 PM Central Daylight Time, National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado and destructive winds up to 90 miles per hour, if you are in the path of this storm, seek shelter immediately and stay away from windows and doors."
Just then there was big bang and then the power went out, all the children began screaming as Zodiac went to Nathan's side of the table and cling to him in fear, Nathan wrapped his arms around him and did his best to comfort him, that's when Amber came up with flashlights with which she gave one to Lucy as the children, along with Zodiac continued to scream in terror.
"Alright children, don't panic, stay calm, we're going to line up calmly and head to the storm cellar." Lucy said as Amber gathered them all up one by one. Zodiac was so frightened though, that he couldn't even get up, so Nathan had him lean on him in comfort again.
"Shh, it's okay Zodi, we're going to be fine." Nathan said as he held him against his shoulder as they walked with the other children and the nuns to the shelter, suddenly............
"BOOOM!!!!!" there was a loud crash, Nathan turned around to see a tree branch had busted one of the windows open and fell into the room causing two tables to get knocked over and spilling food on the floor also breaking bowls and cups as well. Nathan could sense that the tornado they just mentioned was rapidly approaching the area the orphanage was in, Zodiac could get the same sense as well as he stayed cling to Nathan.
"It's coming, EVERYBODY GET TO THE SHELTER, QUICKLY, QUICKLY, GO, GO, GO, GO!!!!!!!!!!!" Nathan screamed as the children started running to the double doors that led into the shelter. Amber quickly unlocked the doors and opened them, she then waved her arm having all the panicked and terrified children down the stairs until the last three in were Lucy, Nathan, and Zodiac she then closed the doors and locked them. Still carrying a flashlight, she followed the rest of the crowd into the shelter, once there, she stood beside a lantern with a box of matches and struck one on the box and lit the lantern which was powerful enough to light up the entire shelter.
Up above them, the winds increased speeds and there was soon a loud rumble like a stampede of elephants, the children including Zodiac were really scared now, but as the nuns sat with the frightened children, Nathan sat beside Zodiac and did his best to comfort him the same way the nuns comforted the others.
"I want my mommy!!!!" Zodiac whined, "I'm scared!!!!"
"Shh, it's going to be okay Zodi." Nathan said.
"No, it's not okay!" Zodiac exclaimed.
Nathan stood strong in his bravery because he knew along with the nuns one thing, "Zodi, as scary as it looks, you have to have hope."
"Hope in what?" Zodiac asked as tears went down his face.
"Hope that no matter what we go through, God is watching over us."
Zodiac suddenly felt warmth as Nathan gave a warm smile.
Soon, Nathan had everyone get into a circle and he prayed.
"Lord Jesus, we come before ya' today in this terrible storm, we pray that ya' will watch over us and keep us safe as this tornado blows through that it'll hopefully miss us and that this storm will blow over quickly, amen."
As they sat in the cellar and waited it out, the rumbling from the winds above outside grew stronger and soon they could feel it, a strong tornado EF2 to be precise was right on top of them and just like that, the whole building was engulfed in winds and lightning as Zodiac held onto Nathan tightly as Amber and Lucy kept the other children safe around them as the tornado moved right above them and feeling its mighty power shake the whole building and then a chunk of the ceiling suddenly collapsed and fell on the floor, luckily, no one got hit.
But suddenly, the winds died down and the rumbling stopped.
Zodiac and the other children were still extremely terrified at what they just went through, so Lucy decided to be the first one up on her feet and walk up to the door and unlock it, but when she unlocked it and took a look, she was shocked to see so much damage to the orphanage.
"Amber, you better come and look at this." she said, and Amber soon got on her feet and saw the damage as well, they had never seen such damage in their lives.
The ceiling tiles on top had collapsed and were not only showing broken and snapped wires, but also water from the rains leaking through, the children's rooms were covered in broken glass and flipped furniture, and the room they were eating in earlier had flipped tables and broken bowls and tons of spilled gumbo all over the floors. The walls were cracked and the insulation inside were hanging right through the cracked pieces of wall.
Amber and Lucy were awestruck and wanted to hold back tears over the fact that their orphanage was completely destroyed, they then turned their attention towards the children.
"Kids, it's okay you can come out now, it's over." Amber said as she started crying, Lucy comforted her. As for the other children, including Nathan and Zodiac, they were no better as they looked at the damages and horror that was brought upon their home by mother nature. Some of the children started crying as they saw the damage done to their orphanage while Nathan and Zodiac went outside where it was worse as it poured rain. Telephone poles were snapped and had fallen causing wires to scatter everywhere, cars were toppled and stacked up on one another, houses were flattened as families who lived in those houses could only stare at their now destroyed homes in grief and anguish, the sounds of crying and agony could be heard as far as the interstate while police cars, fire trucks, and ambulance sirens wailed and lights flashed, this was the most terrifying day for Zodiac, but for Nathan it was worse because he started crying at the look of his former home.
Zodiac saw Nathan on his knees crying at what had just happened and because of this he felt that he should return a favor and walked over to him, he then put a hand on his shoulder.
"How could this happen, mah' first five years of mah' life ruined, taken away!" Nathan said as he cried.
"I'm sorry Nate." Zodiac said.
"It ain't yer fault Zodi, ah' think it was just not a good time to come here." he said, then they hugged and both started crying as it zoomed away from the now destroyed Dallas and back into Equestria where Chancellor Neighsay could feel that the first part of his scheme worked and chuckled evilly.
"Good, now that storm I created for the human world has worked, Zodiac is now miserable for his poor monkey friend, and tonight, it'll be worse as I complete my vengeance on Twilight and Celestia."
He then cackled as the camera zoomed out of his quarters.
Zodiac and Nathan had managed to finally make it back to Equestria after nearly three hours of trying to get his portal watch to work, as the portal hole closed back into the Crystal Heart, Nathan turned to Zodiac who was still traumatized over what he and Nathan just went through, this was a bad day for not only him but Zodiac as well. Nathan would now never see or even the feel the happiness of his old orphanage again because not only was it destroyed by the tornado, but the use of him seeing children getting adopted by families and living happy lives would be gone as it would take months to repair the damage done to the city.
"Nathan, will you take me home please, I'm still too scared over what happened to go home alone." Zodiac said.
"NATHAN, ZODI!!!!!!" screamed a female voice from the door that led into the palace, Nathan and Zodiac turned to see Princess Cadance with a look that had a mixture of relief and worried at the same time, she and Shining Armor following behind ran up to the two boys and hugged both of them, even though clearly Zodi was not one of Nate's family.
"Thank goodness you all are okay, we were so worried!!!" exclaimed Cadance, that's when she quickly took notice of Nathan's face covered in scratches and bruises, and Zodiac who had transformed back into his Pegasus body have a scraped back from all the damaged wood and tiles from the orphanage when the tornado hit.
"What happened to you two, you look like you've been attacked by a vicious animal." Shining Armor said.
"We weren't, we went through a terrible storm and it spawned a massive tornado that destroyed the whole city!" screamed Nathan as he cried again and hugged his mother tightly.
"WHAT?!" yelled Shining Armor in horror.
"Why weren't we notified?!" asked Cadance.
"That just it mom," Nathan explained, "Ms. Fanning and Ms. Brown tried to get a signal all the way over here to remind y'all of what was about to happen."
"But they couldn't because the drafts from the storm before it approached blew out the signal." finished Zodiac.
"Hmm, I see." Cadance said, "Listen Zodi, because of what you all just went through, I'm going to request your mother that you stay with us for the night because I understand that you are still horrified over what happened."
"Yes Princess Cadance, I am, that's why I asked Nathan a minute ago if he could take me home."
Nathan shook his head, "Sorry Zodi, but ah'm with mah' mother on this one, it's just too risky to have you go home at a time like this."
"WHAT?!" Zodiac whined.
"Sorry kid, but we think it's best if you stay with us and ease the traumatizing." Shining Armor, "Now come on in with us."
"I'll send a letter to Aunt Celestia." Cadance said as Shining Armor put the two boys on his back, meanwhile from atop the hills that viewed the Crystal Empire, Chancellor Neighsay glared down at Zodiac as he rode on Shining Armor's back with Nathan and smiled evilly.
"Finally part three of my trap is complete, tonight kid I will have you in my grasp!" he said going back through his portal again. Meanwhile, inside the Crystal Empire Palace, Shining Armor had placed Zodiac on a couch while putting Nathan on a chair then he went upstairs to see Cadance who was in the middle of writing a letter to Celestia and Luna that Zodiac was going to stay with them for the night to what had just happened to him and Nathan, as she rolled up the letter and magically sent it away, Shining Armor approached her.
"Cadance, I'd never thought such a disaster could affect them." he said.
"It is strange because Nathan talked with me about him going through a storm like that once, but I'd never thought one could decapitate a whole city just like that." Cadance said.
"Mommy, Daddy." said a voice at the door, they turned to see Skyla who looked saddened.
"What's the matter pumpkin?" asked Shining Armor as he levitated her and held her.
"Napphan sad." she said, she was downstairs playing with two dolls when she saw the boys in the living room, saddened and heart broken, so she went upstairs to find Cadance and Shining Armor.
"Yes sweetie, I know your brother is sad, he went through a horrible thing at his world." Cadance said as she rubbed Skyla's mane.
"What bad?" Skyla asked.
"Look sweetie, why don't you just go back downstairs and give the boys some comfort because they could use it right now."
"Okay Daddy." said Skyla, but she had a plan of her own, she went over to the bedroom that she shared with Flurry Heart and flew up to her then pulled her out of her crib where they both giggled, Skyla may have been a tot, but she had a good grip when she held Flurry.
"We go make Napphan happy." Skyla said, Flurry held on to her big sister as they walked downstairs and approached the disheartened boys, Zodiac and Nathan saw them and smiled.
"Hey tiger." Nathan said as he picked up Skyla while Zodiac picked up Flurry Heart.
"You sad." Skyla said.
"Yes, sweetie, we are sad." said Nathan.
"Can me help?" Skyla asked.
"Ah'm afraid not tiger." said a disheartened Nathan, meanwhile as Zodiac was hugging Flurry Heart, they heard a knock on the front door.
"I'll get it." shouted Shining Armor from upstairs, he then walked downstairs and opened the front door to reveal a worried Celestia and Luna was with her as well.
"Where is he?!" exclaimed Celestia, Zodiac could hear her and put Flurry Heart down on the couch.
"MOMMY!!!!" screamed Zodiac as he ran up to her and hugged her.
"Thank goodness you're okay." she said.
"The moment we got the letter, we came as quickly as we could." said Luna.
"Are you okay Zodi, cause your back look's torn up." Celestia asked as she picked him up as Zodiac screeched in pain.
"Mom today was the worst day of my life, me and Nathan went through a tornado." he said causing his mother and aunt to gasp in horror.
"Princess Celestia?" Nathan said as he approached them.
"Yes Nathan?" Celestia asked.
"I feel like this is all mah' fault, Zodi really wanted to see how humans thrive and live and ah' wanted to show him that, but ah' never got notified that there was going to be a really bad storm rolling through, nor would there be a twister involved with it, ah' feel like ah' put him in danger."
Nathan hung his head in sorrow, but Luna approached him and put a hoof on his shoulder.
"It's not your fault Nathan." Luna said, "It's nopony's fault."
"Listen Zodi, due to what has happened to you today, I agree with Cadance's decision to have you stay here for the night because from what I see, you are too traumatized to go anywhere right now."
"Yes mommy." said Zodiac.
"Now listen sweetheart, you listen to Cadance and Shining Armor and do what they say, I'll return to pick you up first thing in the morning okay?"
"Yes mommy." Zodiac answered, Celestia then gave him a good bye kiss then put him down, then Zodiac went up to his aunt and hugged her as well.
"Bye Aunt Luna." he said as Luna returned his hug.
Later that night after they had eaten dinner together, it was time for bed as Cadance and Shining Armor manged to get Skyla and Flurry Heart down while Zodiac shared Nathan's room, which Nathan got a little uncomfortable with, but managed to accept it since he and Zodiac were best friends. Nathan had just finished his evening bath and his teeth were brushed, all that was left to do was head to his room and pull out his pajamas, as he entered his room, Zodiac was inside with a set of pj's on that Cadance had given to him.
"Hey, Zodi?" Nathan asked.
"Yeah Nate?" Zodiac asked back.
"Ah've got a suspicion that that storm we went through today was not created by pressure, reason being is because ah always check the forecast on mah' iPod for the Dallas area before ah' go there, and they said it was supposed to be sunny.
"But I thought you said the weather handled itself there." Zodiac said as he climbed into the guest bed.
Nathan climbed into his bed as well, "Yeah but ah'd never seen one twister decimate an entire city that quickly, usually only half of Dallas would be destroyed, but not the whole city, ah' think somepony is tryin' to set somethin' up."
Zodiac trembled, "You-you think so?"
"Yes, and ah' think this somepony is after another somepony, but ah' don't know who." said Nathan.
"What if this somepony is.......me?!"
Nathan shot up out of his bed and gasped, "Why in tarnation would you say that?!"
"Well from hero books that mommy used to read to me, the one that the bad guy is after is always the one who's young and helpless to fight."
Nathan walked up to Zodiac's bed and put his hand on his back even though it still hurt, "Zodi, ah' promise you, nopony is coming after you because as long as you're in God's hands, nopony will stand against you."
Zodiac smiled and hugged Nathan.
"Well g'night, Zodi, hope yer' back gets to feelin' better in the mornin'." Nathan said as he turned out the lights and climbed back into his bed.
"Yeah, good night Nate." Zodiac said getting comfortable and falling asleep.
12:00 midnight, just outside of the palace entrance......
A gust of wind rolled by the entrance into the palace and soon a quiet sounding portal opened up and out came Chancellor Neighsay looking to fulfill his evil scheme of Twilight giving up her school to the EEA, he had just managed to successfully trigger another seal, not like the one that Twilight destroyed when she declared the School of Friendship open again because this new seal he triggered on the entrance doors, he had made magic proof so that nopony, not even Twilight could take it down, now all he had to do was take Zodiac as a hostage and force her to give it up to the EEA.
Neighsay walked up to the door and quietly unlocked the door with his magic, then he entered into the hallways in search of his young and helpless victim as Zodiac quoted to Nathan earlier. He searched door after door, but had no bit of luck at least since this palace was huge.
"Where are you, you weak creature?!" he snarled, that's when his evil luck came about as he crossed an open door to reveal two little boys asleep. One was the human child that he had successfully made miserable and the other was none other than Zodiac, his target, with an evil grin, Neighsay undid the covers and lifted him up into his hooves and exited the room but not before knocking over a pedestal with a vase on top of it. Neighsay looked shocked as it woke Zodiac.
When Zodiac was fully awake, he looked up to see an angered unicorn with a black mane and beard and wearing a red robe with a ribbon that had some kind of a logo of a foundation on it and this unicorn stared at him angrily, Zodiac screamed in horror and tried to escape, but this unicorn had him firmly in his grasp.
"HEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" screamed Zodiac, but Neighsay silenced his mouth with his hoof.
"Silence you fool!" he said as he started to flee, but suddenly.......
"HEY YOU, PUT MAH' FRIEND DOWN YOU UGLY CREEP!!!!!!!!" Neighsay turned to see an angered Nathan, along with Cadance and Shining Armor and Cadance along with some guards he had alerted.
"Release him now!!!!!!!" Ordered Cadance.
"By order of Princess Celestia!" Shining Armor said, but Neighsay had some words of his own.
"If you follow me, this colt gets fed to the kraken!" he said as he started to flee.
"NOOOOOO, HELP ME NATHAN!!!!!!!!" Zodiac screamed, Nathan tried to give chase and free Zodi, but was knocked to the floor by Neighsay who laughed evilly.
"You think a kid like you would be brave enough to stop me, you're so pitiful, farewell!!!!!!!!!" Neighsay said re-activating his portal.
"NOOOOOOO, ZODI!!!!!!!!!" Nathan screamed, just as Cadance, Shining Armor, and the guards approached, they were too late, Neighsay was in his portal.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Zodiac screamed as the portal closed up.
"Who was that?" a guard asked.
"I'm not sure, but whoever he was, he's not getting away with this, guards get Princess Celestia here immediately!" Shining Armor ordered.
As Nathan watched his parents and the guards flee to summon Celestia over, he turned back to the area where the portal was.
"Just remember Zodi, God is watching over you." he said softly.
Those were the thoughts that floated through Celestia's mind right now as she stared at the empty bed that Zodiac was sleeping on, covers undone, pillow flattened, she really wanted nothing more now than to execute Neighsay for what he had just done, she had never been this angered in her life. Luna couldn't have been better to hear her nephew had been taken to a place that they don't know where, but they couldn't just stand there.
"What are we going to do sister?" Luna asked, "We can't just let that monster torture him."
"Ah'll tell ya' what we're gonna do!" Nathan said, "We're gonna locate where he's taken Zodi to, and when we do, we'll send our best of creatures to that location and rescue him."
Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Shining Armor looked very proud at his bravery, he may have been only 7, but he was talking like a future captain should.
"Don't you worry Celestia, we will find him, and we will get him back." Shining Armor.
"Thank you all, I just can't bare to lose my only child." Celestia said, now even though it was late, they had to waste no time, Zodiac was missing and they needed to find him one way or another.
"Be strong Zodi!" Celestia said, "Mommy's coming for you!"
Meanwhile....
Zodiac had been put in a deep sleep by Neighsay as a way of getting him to shut up because he didn't want Zodiac to see what he was about to do to him. Zodiac woke up from his deep sleep and saw what appeared to be metal bars, in fact whichever way he turned, he was surrounded by nothing but metal bars, he tried to run only to find that his backhooves had been cuffed in in place.
"HELP ME MOMMY, NATHAN, SOMEPONY, ANYPONY!!!!!!!!!!" he screamed, he then looked out to see big sharp rock like stalagmites and stairs along with what appeared to be a Cerberus guarding them, he struggled and struggled, only to hear the sound of evil laughter and the same unicorn that took him from his home approach him.
"Who are you, what do you want with me?!" Zodiac asked in terror.
"Well, if I may introduce myself, I am Chancellor Neighsay of the EEA or the Equestrian Education Association, I had recently closed up Twilight Sparkle's School of Friendship since all those filthy creatures nearly killed us ponies and ditched their own classes."
"But what does that have to do with me?" Zodiac asked.
"Well after she destroyed my seal without approval of me, I told them that I did that because it was for the greater good since it was disorganized and they caused a section of the school to fall and collapse."
"But Twilight said that her school would protect Equestria, but it has done nothing to protect it, not only that, but that worthless rat with wings Princess Celestia cut off funds from me because she thinks I'm a racist."
"Hey, that's my mother you're talking about!" Zodiac said offended.
"She's an alicorn, you're a Pegasus!" Neighsay fought back.
"So what!" Zodiac screamed only to be slapped in the face by Neighsay, causing Zodiac to stumble backwards, only to get back up on his hooves.
"Maybe my mom was right, maybe you are a racist." he said.
"Well it doesn't matter," Neighsay said, "This is part of my revenge on her for cutting funds and basically it's like this: with you as live bait and my hostage, Celestia and her foolish pupil Twilight will have no choice but to give up the school and send the horrible creatures back to where they came from, and one last thing, you are in the pits of Tartarus."
Zodiac gasped, this was the same place that Thunder Clash was sentenced to!
"Now if you don't mind, I've got a score to settle!" he said jumping through yet another portal leaving Zodiac all alone.
"Mommy help me!" he whined.
The next morning.......
Twilight had struggled to try and undo this new seal that somehow appeared on the doors that led into her school, but had no luck no matter how hard she tried, it would not budge.
"Twilight, it's no use!" Starlight said.
"There's got to be a way to get in!" Twilight fought back.
"For the last time, it is pointless, that there seal is obviously magic proof and we cannot get in!" said Applejack.
"Well, how are we going to tutor if the school is closed?!" asked Applebloom.
"Yeah, we've got to teach friendship." said Sweetie Belle.
"And coach it!" whined Scootaloo.
"Who could've done this?!" demanded Rainbow Dash only to be glared at by everypony and Spike.
"Who do you think, Neighsay, remember I told him that this school would protect Equestria then turned around and said 'or destroy it', I figure he meant by this." Twilight said looking at the magic proof seal. From the hills atop Ponyville where the School of Friendship could be seen, Nathan and his new friends stood there, he had recently told them what he and Zodiac went through the other day and they were just as flabbergasted at it, but he had to drag them down to the school because they didn't believe him about how he may have re-closed the school permanently plus taken Zodiac as a hostage.
"Come on Nathan, I'm pretty sure everything is okay." Smolder said.
"Yeah, I mean it's not like Neighsay could've done something bad here." said Sandbar.
"Nathan, I don't think anything is wrong." Gallus said.
"No, it's a confirmed suspicion, ah've got to know, one way or another!" Nathan said, flapping his wings and floating in the air, as he was about to depart, he looked back at his friends.
"Come on y'all, we don't have much time!" he said, even though they doubted him, they followed; Smolder, Gallus, Ocellus, and Silverstream all flapped their wings and flew with Nathan while Sandbar and Yona ran on the ground below them, they were soon all in front of the school as the mane 6 turned to see them.
"AUNT TWILIGHT!!!!!!!" Nathan screamed as he landed with the others and ran up to her.
"Nathan, thank goodness you're alright." Twilight said in relief to see her nephew still alive because Cadance had written a letter to her and the other as well about what had happened on Nathan's world with the bad storm and the massive tornado that destroyed not only his orphanage, but all of Dallas.
"Aunt Twilight, ah' think we're being played." Nathan said, that's when he saw the new and improved magic seal locking the entrance to the doors.
"See, what did ah' tell y'all?!" he said, now that he had complete proof of his suspicions.
"Okay Nathan, you were right, something weird is going on." said Ocellus.
"Hey, where's Zodi?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Pinkie ah......" Nathan then hung his head low, they quickly figured that something bad just happened to him and Neighsay may have had something to do with it.
"You don't mean he was......." Ocellus said in a shocking tone.
"Yes." said Princess Luna out of nowhere, she had landed in front of the crowd.
"We believe Chancellor Neighsay has vowed revenge not only on you for destroying his first seal and rewriting the rule book, but on Celestia for cutting funds off of him because of his racial attitude towards you all."
"But why put a new seal on the door?" Twilight asked.
"Well if he thinks it's for the greater good like he mentioned before, it isn't." said Applejack.
"Why would he just close up shop on us?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Because, Apple Bloom, he's nuts." said Applejack.
"EVERYPONY!!!!!!!!!!" screamed Celestia out of nowhere, she had managed to re-gather the leaders of the kingdoms once again for help because from the looks of it, this was bad and had to require big time help. Anyway, Celestia had managed to approach the crowd and join in.
"What is it Princess Celestia?!" Nathan asked in panic, "We've got a bit of a situation here!"
"Yes, that is why I have gathered all the leaders up from the kingdoms because this requires help."
"But we still don't know what happened to Zodi!" Ocellus said as she started to weep, but Thorax picked her up and held her soothingly.
"Shh, don't worry Ocellus, we'll find him." he said.
Suddenly there was a low rumble, followed by the sound of an evil laugh, everyone turned to the front of the school to see a portal opening through the door and out came Chancellor Neighsay looking quite proud yet disappointed to see all the "creatures" he despised seeing there standing in front of him with angered expressions of their own.
"This will be the last time I say this, classes will not start at all, you pathetic creatures nearly destroyed all pony kind!!!!!!!" he shouted, that's when Twilight stormed up to him.
"All right Neighsay, this has gone far enough!!!!!!!" she yelled, only to have strong magic aura wrapped around her throat, she started to gag and choke as Neighsay growled angrily at her.
"IT'S OVER TWILIGHT SPARKLE, YOUR SCHOOL IS CLOSED FOREVER!!!!" Neighsay screamed back, luckily, he was blasted to the wall by yellow aura that came from Celestia.
"Chancellor Neighsay, I have had enough!" Celestia said, but instead of accepting what he got, Neighsay got even more aggressive and stormed up to Celestia, then slapped her in the face making her fall to the ground and causing everyone to gasp in shock.
"That was for cutting funds off me just because you thought I was a racist!" he scowled, Luna then approached him.
YOU ARE A NOT ONLY A RACIST, BUT A MONSTER!!!!!!!!!" Luna said with her RCV.
"All right, what have you done with our friend?!" Nathan demanded and being backed up by an angered young six and the CMC's, Neighsay knew who he was talking about and gave an evil grin.
"Oh, you mean this friend." He said chuckling evilly and using his horn to show a screen of poor Zodiac shackled up in a cage in Tartarus being tortured by a hypnotized Cerberus, Celestia what really outraged now seeing her only child getting mauled like that.
"You release my son immediately!" she ordered.
"I will release him, only if Twilight surrenders this whole school to the EEA." Neighsay said under his one conditioning tone.
"Never, I wrote the rules and this school stays in place, Neighsay, and if you don't release Zodi this instant, I'll have Celestia banish you from Equestria forever!" Twilight warned.
"Hey, I don't take orders from nopony, farewell!!!!!!!!!" he said once again jumping back into the portal.
"No!" Nathan said kicking a rock into the lake that surrounded the school, "The School of Friendship is permanently closed, Zodi is locked up in Tartarus, and now that monster gets away again!" Nathan then started to cry out of anger seeing Neighsay going through all that trouble.
"It's okay Nathan, we'll get him back." said Scootaloo.
Apple Bloom kissed him, "Yeah, it ain't the end of the world."
"Whatever goes wrong, we stick together." said Sweetie Belle.
"Because we're friends." said Smolder putting a hand on his shoulder and smiling at him, Nathan felt comfort as he knew they were his friends.
"As am I." said a voice behind them, they turned to see a changeling.
"Merlin?" Ocellus asked as Thorax kept her held in his hoof.
"What are you doing here, Merlin?" Thorax asked, "Aren't you supposed to be helping Pharynx with the hive?"
"Yes, but I had been having some really bad suspicions taken from another world."
Nathan approached him from off the ground, flapping wings, and in his face, "Ya' mean mah' world don't ya', because ah' want to know how a storm would just come outta nowhere and wipe out a whole city just like that."
"Well actually kid, it was your world, and I think I know what caused it, I think that Neighsay guy had managed to test your misery and sorrows by magically transporting a storm from the Cloudsdale Weather Factory over to the human world and had this storm targeted to your home city."
Nathan was surprised and in shock at the same time,"So ah' was right, somepony did send that storm to Dallas!"
"Can you give us proof of this?" asked Luna.
"Oh well I'll have to give it later, right now we need to focus on getting your son back and work out a plan to bring Neighsay down." said Merlin and they left to go back to Canterlot, but not before turning back to the young ones.
"We need you all to stay here." Celestia said.
"But why, he's got Zodi and you want us to do nothing?!" asked Sandbar.
"Yeah, you can't just tell us to do nothing." replied Silverstream, "He's got my poor Zodi trapped!"
Thorax had managed to put Ocellus back on the ground and she joined in, "Yes, we want to do something too!"
"Yak want to help too!" said Yona.
"Sorry you all, but this very dangerous for you, stay put until further notice!" Celestia ordered, leaving with the others. As soon as they left, the young seven groaned and wobbled.
"Man I can't believe this, our friend is in danger, and Celestia doesn't want us to help with anything with it!" griped Smolder.
"Yak hate this!" snarled Yona.
"I may never get to see my poor Pegasus again now!" whined Silverstream, only to be nudged by an angered Ocellus.
"FYI Silverstream, I'm the one that has the big love for him." she whispered.
"ENOUGH Y'ALL!!!!!!!!!" screamed Nathan, "Ah' don't care what Celestia said to us because we are going to be a part of this mission whether she wants it or not!"
"What do you know?!" snapped Sandbar, "Neighsay is too powerful for us to handle."
"Ah' know he's most likely up to somethin' illegal, and the first clue to me would be the way he used his magic to overpower everyone, unicorns haven't had that kind of power since Starswirl the Bearded banished the Sirens away."
"How do you know this?" asked Gallus.
"Because Gallus, Headmare Sparkle is mah' aunt, and ever since ah' was adopted, she had taught me everything about magic and how the spells of the books work. Neighsay's magic ain't typical."
"Would you know where we can get any proof that he's breaking the law."
Nathan sighed because of what he was about to say next, "We're gonna have to get to the bottom of this and that means an unannounced visit to the EEA headquarters. We can use the map in the castle to find it, come on y'all." the young six then followed the seventh to the unlocked castle.
"Don't you worry Zodi, we're gonna do whatever it takes to get you outta Tartarus and back to your mother." Nathan thought.
Nathan and his friends were in the throne room seeing if they could try and use the map to locate the EEA headquarters, they had searched all over the map from Mt. Aris all the way to the Dragon Lands, but no matter which section of the map they looked at, there was no sign of it anywhere. Nathan on the other hand, was just about ready to call it off and just find a way to help save Zodiac from the pits of Tartarus when all of a sudden, his hands started glowing and without warning, body parts of the young six began glowing as well, from Smolder's scales to Gallus's front claws.
"Whoa, what in tarnation?!" Nathan asked surprised.
"What is this!?" exclaimed Smolder.
"Yak find this weird." said Yona.
"Guys look at this!" Silverstream said pointing to the map, it had an emblem of all their body parts floating around what appeared to be Canterlot, and then the map zoomed in to the location of where the EEA headquarters was. Nathan knew this map would only be used to summon ponies to friendship problems across Equestria, but it never helped them lead a mission before.
"This is peculiar." said Nathan.
"What's so peculiar?" asked Smolder.
"Well ah've already known that the map would call out somepony to solve a friendship problem somewhere in Equestria, but it seems like the map is directing us to where the EEA is!"
Gallus was surprised, the professors had taught them about the map and how it called the ponies to help with a friendship problem before they built the school, but it had never navigated for them nor called creatures like them to help.
"Hey, it looks like the map is showing us where the EEA headquarters is." said Ocellus.
"And from the look of it, it appears to be right on the edge of Canterlot, not far from Celestia's School for gifted Unicorns." added Nathan.
"Well there is just one problem, how will we get in?" asked Silverstream causing everyone to ponder because she did have a point.
"You just leave that up to me." said Nathan, "Ah've got a plan, now listen carefully....."
Later that evening in Canterlot.....
"Okay so you want me and Smolder to distract the leaders and trick them into leaving, by having us dump rodents and bugs on them and saying the whole building is infested?" asked Silverstream.
"Yes and while y'all have 'em distracted, Gallus and ah' will sneak into Neighsay's quarters and inspect, Yona, Ocellus, and Sandbar will keep watch, while Gallus and ah' are inspecting, are we clear."
"Just one question," interrupted Smolder as she got in Nathan's face, "what if this ends up being nothing more than a wild goose chase, find nothing, and end up locked up for breaking and entering?"
"Then, we'll just have to suffer through it." answered Nathan, "Now let's get to our stations; Smolder, Silverstream, get to the main entrance, the rest of y'all on me, we're locatin' Neighsay's quarters."
"Gotcha!" said both Silverstream and Smolder and they flew off into an open window as the rest stayed outside and hid beside the entrance.
"Wait for the signal." whispered Nathan.
"Wait for it." he said again, and right on cue, they heard smashing, rattling, and banging coming from inside. Nathan turned his head to see thousands of EEA employees running out the door and into the night with the last two being Silverstream and Smolder.
"AND STAY OUT UNTIL WE TAKE CARE OF THE RODENTS!!!!!!!!" screamed Silverstream as she and Smolder turned to the others.
"Did they fall for it?" asked Sandbar.
"Sandbar, I'm pretty sure what we saw would answer that." replied Ocellus.
"Now, let's get in." said Gallus, but once they were inside, it was huge.
"Holy crud, this place is bigger than the Galleria!" said Nathan, with his voice echoing through the corridors.
"How are we going to find Neighsay's quarters in a place like this?!" screamed Ocellus.
"We're gonna have to split up." Said Nathan, "Yona, Ocellus, Silverstream, and Sandbar will take the upper level while me Gallus, and Smolder take the lower section. Now let's get to the bottom of this."
As Silverstream, Yona, Sandbar, and Ocellus headed to the second floor of the building, Gallus, Smolder, and Nathan took the bottom.
Upstairs.....
"Look at all these doors, it would be much more simple if these doors had names on them." griped Ocellus.
"Yak think this is stupid." grumbled Yona.
"Maybe Smolder was right, maybe this whole thing is just a wild goose chase." said Sandbar.
Meanwhile in Celestia's chambers.....
"Look Merlin, I couldn't understand how you could even find out about pony magic being that absorbing enough to send to another world, a spell like that hasn't happened in forever." replied Princess Luna.
"Look, somepony developed a storm at the weather factory and managed to teleport it to Nathan's world, I found it in this book I recovered from Neighsay's quarters." answered Merlin as he pulled a spell book out from a bag he had been carrying around his waist and flipped to the page that showed the teleportation spells, then showed it to the others.
When Thorax saw the spell, he was shocked, "How could Neighsay manage to do this?!"
"Yak hate pony that send storm to human world!!!!!!" growled Prince Rutherford.
"What a complete disgrace!" said General Seaspray.
"When I find Neighsay, I will burn him to dust for doing this to that child!" screamed Ember.
"He's going to be hearing from every griffon!" yelled Grandpa Gruff.
"This is rather uncanny," said Celestia as she flipped through page after page of this magic book that Merlin found, "Because from the look of it, I'd say he has found a way to rewrite every single one of these spells and make them what they are not supposed to do."
Every creature gasped in horror.
"What about Zodi, what will become of him?!" screamed Pinkie Pie.
"Don't you worry, I've got a plan that just might work." answered Thorax.
Meanwhile, back at the EEA headquarters, the young seven were almost having no luck finding Neighsay's quarters.
"Aww come on, we've searched every door and hallway in this building!" grunted Smolder.
"Come on Nathan, can we just call this whole thing off and focus on rescuing Zodi?" asked Gallus, only to accidentally bump into Nathan who was staring at something in complete surprise.
"Nathan, what...." said Gallus, he walked up to Nathan's face and saw his wide-eyed surprised look.
"Guys, we finally found it." he said, right in front of them stood two massive doors that had a sign on each that read.
Office of Chancellor Neighsay, Associate Head of EEA.
"YES!!!!!" cheered Smolder, "You guys find a way to get in, I'll go get the others." she said flying into the corridors.
"Well Gallus, it looks like it's just us now." said Nathan as he put his hand on the door knob, much to his surprise though, it opened easily without any lock problems or even typing in a code to unlock it.
"That's weird." said Gallus, "what kind of pony or creature would leave his own quarters unlocked like this?"
"Beats me, on mah' world no one leaves a door unlocked when they're not around." Nathan said, but they opened the doors all the way, turned on the lights, and were shocked by what they saw; books and tons of them.
"Well what are we waiting for, let's get down to work." Gallus said as he and Nathan flew up to the books, Gallus opened one that was written by an old wizard similar to Starswirl the Bearded but his magic was just as powerful as Starswirl's was.
"Who's Ice Breaker the Great?" he asked, Nathan suddenly came to thought of the name because the story went that Starswirl and Ice Breaker were rivals in magic competitions when they were in magic school, they never got along and always fought up until one day right after Starswirl befriended Scorpan, the brother of Lord Tirek, a creature known as the leviathan had managed to escape the Celestial Sea and the power of his magic was totally inoperable against a giant of the seas, as for Ice Breaker the Great, he too had to fight the Leviathan. At first, he and Starswirl never wanted to fight together because of their rivalry and complete hatred towards each other.
But due to the fact that neither one could defeat the monster alone, they both blasted their magic and defeat the leviathan into the ancient abyss of the ocean.
"Wow, a leviathan defeated by two of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria and went from enemies to friends." said Gallus.
"Ah' know, but what's Neighsay doing with all these books?" asked Nathan reading through one of them.
"Hey guys what did you find?" asked Smolder who had entered with the others.
"What's with all these books?" asked Sandbar.
"Oh my gosh." exclaimed Ocellus.
"Yak find things strange." replied Yona.
"Found anything Nathan?" asked Gallus.
"HOLY CRUD!!!!!!!!" screamed Nathan as he was in the air reading another book and flipping through the books, from what he could tell.......
"Ah' think ah' did find somethin', this is one of Starswirl's curing spell books, but the real spells that he wrote have been scraped off and replaced, the same thing is in this book too." said Nathan as he flew down and landed in front of his friends.
"But how?!" exclaimed Sandbar.
"Guys, ah' think he's deliberately rewriting all the spells in these books in order to defame Starswirl so that the EEA gets full control of all the magic lessons which means he gets to control what spells should be taught in each school."
"Isn't that against Equestrian law?" asked Sandbar.
"Yes!" shouted Nathan.
"Well I must say I am very pleased to see you pathetic creatures discovering my true plans for the Equestrian Education." said an all too familiar voice, the young seven turned around to see Chancellor Neighsay with an evil smile on his face and they stared at him with angered expressions.
"I feel it is best for me to make Starswirl's magic look less important that way my version of his spells will work better for the sake of future magic and the power I seek to build in the EEA's positions."
"Oh you can have all the power ya' want Neighsay, within the law, and in Equestria there is a law against defaming magic!" said Nathan showing him one book that he read a minute ago.
"And your not going to be writing anything when I burn you to a crisp!" growled Smolder while breathing fire from her nostrils.
"Yak smash unicorn!!!!!" screamed Yona.
Suddenly, Neighsay blasted up his horn and wrapped a rope around all seven of them, they were now tied up and thrown into a corner.
"Your gonna lose everything when Princess Celestia sees this!" yelled Nathan, Neighsay laughed.
"She will never know because she'll have no proof, now if you don't mind, I've still got a bone to pick with her for taking my funds!"
"You won't get away with this!" said Silverstream.
"I already have, so get comfortable and accept your detention for breaking into my quarters." said Neighsay and he closed the door behind him, now every kid was captured by Neighsay.
"What do we do now?" asked Ocellus.
"Just hope for the best." answered Nathan with tears in his eyes.
Meanwhile back in Tartarus, Zodiac was on the floor of his caged prison with his hooves covering his face and crying because he was afraid of what would be coming to him since he was all alone in here.
"Where are you mommy, Thorax, Princess Ember, anypony any creature?!"
"Face it kid, no one is coming to save you!" exclaimed a voice behind him, Zodiac turned to see Lord Tirek in his weak form but staring evilly at him, he had gotten word somehow that this pegasus was Celestia's son and wanted revenge as well on the ponies for banishing him back into this dump prison.
"Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life!" he said while laughing evilly as his shadow lured over poor Zodiac's body.
Back in Canterlot the leaders had it all figured out, when Celestia and Luna would distract the hypnotized Cerberus and lure him away from the cage that Zodiac was imprisoned in, Ember would melt down the bars and then melt the chains on his legs with her fire breath since a dragon's fire breath was strong enough to melt metal. The main six would alert the students that Zodiac had been rescued and then they would give him the medical attention he needed in case they found him wounded since he was inside a prison full of caged monsters willing to eat any creature they saw.
"Okay, so once I melt the bars and chains, I'll grab Zodiac when the Cerberus isn't looking?" asked Ember.
"Yes, and you hand him to me, I'll signal Celestia and Luna, and we make our escape." reassured Thorax.
"And then we notify our students about him in injuries if he has any." said Starlight.
"Exactly Starlight," said Twilight, "The other kingdoms have treatments for injuries that are just as good as Equestria does."
"I'm afraid we can't find the students!" said a guard out of nowhere. Cadance and Shining Armor, who were in this meeting as well were confused.
"What are you talking about?" asked Cadance.
"They're at the school." said Shining Armor.
"Not the case now, I'm afraid they've fallen into the same fate as well."
"But how?!" asked Rainbow Dash, that's when the guard used his magic to display a magic screen that showed an image of Neighsay tying them up and then throwing them aside, they all gasped in horror because now this was an even bigger mission to complete as well and now they had to save not only Zodiac, but the students as well.
"What?!" said Twilight.
"Oh great, now our son is in danger?!" screamed Cadance.
"That monster is really in for it now!" exclaimed Shining Armor.
"Then let us waste no time." said General Seaspray.
"I'll make him pay if he hurts Smolder!" yelled Ember.
"Yak destroy pony!" screamed Prince Rutherford.
"Let's go!" said Twilight and they all went out to rescue Zodiac and the students and hopefully capture Neighsay and punish him for his crimes that he had put on. But just as they were about to exit through the doorway, a portal opened and out came Neighsay confronting all and they too stared at him angrily.
"All right Neighsay, you've caused more than enough trouble for us," said Princess Celestia her horn glowing in a way to attack him, "As co-ruler of Equestria, I command you to release my son and the students plus remove that seal from Twilight's school this moment!"
"Do it now, or you will suffer terrible fates!" warned Twilight with a defiant snarl.
"I TAKE ORDERS FROM NOPONY!!!!!!!!!!!!" yelled Neighsay as he blasted magic at them, only this time he was overpowered by Celestia.
"No Neighsay, you will threaten us no more!" screeched Celestia, "Now for the last time release every creature, INCLUDING MY SON!!!!!!!!!"
"I SAID NO YOU WORTHLESS RAT WITH WINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Neighsay snapped, "Twilight will surrender her school up and she has three hours to do it or I'll send all the students, including that hairless monkey boy with bat wings to Tartarus where they will all be eaten by the Cerberus, now what's it gonna be, Princess Fake?!" he said before leaping back through the open portal one last time.
"Come on, we don't have much time, let's go now!" ordered Starlight as they went out the door to rescue everyone.
Back at Neighsay's headquarters, the seven students just sat there in the corner of the dimly lit room tied up and helpless, Neighsay had completely overwhelmed them by surprise and managed to remain one step ahead of them, but there was a small victory as they had managed to discover his plot to defame all magic in Equestria and turn it into something it wasn't.
As they coped, they heard Nathan crying.
"This is all mah' fault, how could ah' have been so stupid?"
"Hey kid, calm down, at least you were right about him doing something illegal." said Smolder smiling.
"But ah'm the one who got us into this, how are we going to defeat him now?"
"Don't worry Nathan, I've a solution for that." said Smolder, she then let out a small breath of fire that was strong enough to burn the rope in half and just like that, they were freed, Nathan quickly dried his tears.
"Smolder, ah'....." but before he could finish, Smolder rubbed his head.
"Kid, look you did the right thing by having us see your suspicions and they were confirmed."
"Yeah, not to mention all we did to help you." said Sandbar.
Nathan and the others engaged in a group hug, "I love you all, y'all are the best friends ah've ever had!"
"GO FRIENDSHIP!!!!!" they all cheered, that's when the door flung open, they turned to see the rest of the crew from the school sighing in relief, as Cadance and Shining Armor hugged their son.
"Thank goodness, you all are okay." said Twilight, "But we told you to stay at the school."
"Headmare Sparkle, Zodi is our friend, we can't just have you telling us to not worry because you need help rescuing him." said Ocellus.
"Yeah, it was not right of you to tell us to stay and do nothing." said Gallus.
"Beside you told us from day 1 of friendship lessons that we're supposed to be there for each other til the end."
The teachers now realized how hypocritical they were.
"Girls, they're right, we too have been taught to be there for each other as well." said Fluttershy.
"What were we thinking?" asked Luna.
"Listen every creature, we only did that because we thought you would be put in danger if you did anything and you actually were, but since you didn't give up and stuck together, you all are off the hook just this once for your bravery."
Silverstream then hugged the headmare, "Thanks Headmare Sparkle."
"Now all that's left to do is......wait what are all these spell books doing in here?" asked Twilight, that's when Nathan and Smolder flew up and showed one book that belonged to Starswirl and showed her the pages that had been scraped off and replaced with phony spells that didn't work.
'Aunt Twilight, ah' think we've figured out what Neighsay is up to, he's defaming Starswirl's magic and replacing it with phony magic that won't work. Neighsay wants to corrupt all the magic of Equestria and put his own name above Starswirl." said Nathan.
"What?!" asked Princess Celestia in shock as she saw the book and read it herself, "This is obscene!"
"Not to mention against equestrian law!" replied Luna.
"Once we rescue Zodiac, we will lure Neighsay in and capture him, I have had enough of is abusement!" growled Ember.
"Let's go, all of us!" ordered Twilight and they fled to the pits of Tartarus.
Meanwhile in Tartarus, Zodiac was being thrown around and tossed by Tirek like a two year old tossing his toys around his bedroom as Zodiac sat there in pain and suffering, Tirek laughed evilly at him thinking he'd be all too weak and young to stand up against him.
"Look at this, a poor and weak little pegasus all alone no help and no friends to protect him." he taunted, that's when Neighsay jumped out of his portal and back to Tartarus where he and Tirek met up.
"Looks like everything is going according to plan." said Tirek.
"Yes, and Twilight will not only be giving up her school, but also her powers of friendship forever!"
"No they won't." intervened Zodiac as he got back up on his hooves and had the courage to stand up to the evil duo, "They know where I am, and when they find me, you two will be sorry to put me in this rat cage."
Neighsay and Tirek laughed, "Nice try kid, but what makes you think they'd save you, the Cerberus is under my control, and as long as he is, I can have him devour your friends and family and you'll have nopony to save you!"
Zodiac quivered with fear as Tirek and Neighsay approached him and cornered him when all of a sudden....
BOOM there was a loud crash from above, Tirek and Neighsay looked up to see silhouettes of creatures and ponies who had managed to blast open the entrance.
DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY SON!!!!!!!!!!! said a royal Canterlot voice, the creatures then appeared in full form and it was none other than Princess Celestia and Luna with the crowd of students and the mane six, Zodiac gasped in surprise.
"MOMMY, HELP ME!!!!!!" Zodiac screamed.
"Hold on Zodi, we're almost there!" Celestia yelled as they all got to the bottom, but then they were blocked by the hypnotized Cerberus.
"Forget it Princess Rat!!!!!!" Neighsay yelled, "The Cerberus is under my control!"
"Yeah and Zodiac in under mine!" snapped Tirek.
Celestia and the others were shocked.
"Wait you two were in this together?!" asked Ember.
"Yak smash both creatures!!!!!"
That's when the Cerberus charged, luckily yet finally, Celestia and Luna managed to get one step ahead.
"Now sister!" Luna said, that's when she and Celestia blasted their horns and shot the Cerberus up into the air to undo the spell, as they were busy with him, the others managed to confront Tirek and Neighsay.
"No!, No it can't be!" said Tirek as he looked at the Cerberus getting snapped out of his trance, suddenly, pink fire blew right at the locked door to where the lock completely melted off, Ember was the one doing it for she had managed to undo the door and then melt the chains off of Zodi.
"Thanks Ms...."
"Princess Ember of the Dragon Lands." said Ember.
"Thanks Ember."
"Come on kid, let's get out of here!" exclaimed Thorax as he managed to grab a now free Zodiac, but then Tirek managed to swipe him from Thorax.
"No, Thorax, help!" he whined.
"Forget it kid, you're never leaving this wretched prison EVER!!!!!" said Neighsay, suddenly, he was blasted away by Twilight.
"That's enough Neighsay, you have caused more than enough damage to everypony today!" she said.
"Oh, but the game has just begun.
"Wrong again!" said Rainbow Dash, pointing to Celestia and Luna for they had managed to undo the hypnotism spell on the Cerberus, that's when the Cerberus turned to see Tirek holding a scared Zodiac, Tirek now had no choice but to put him down.
"NO, CERBERUS, THIS COLT IS NOT LEAVING!!!!!!!!" Neighsay yelled, bucking Zodiac towards a rock wall and knocking him out.
"ZODI!!!!!" screamed Celestia, that's when her eyes then boiled red, her temper grew hotter than the sun, and she was becoming a lot like The Incredible Hulk only she exploded with fire, just like Twilight.
"THAT'S IT NEIGHSAY, YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR, THIS TIME YOU HAVE LOST AND YOU AS WELL TIREK!!!!!!!!!!" she said and she and Luna, along with Twilight and Cadance blasted magic at them.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO, THIS CANNOT BE!!!!!!" exclaimed Neighsay as he tried to protect Tirek with whatever powerful magic of his own that he had, but four and one would not go against power and Neighsay's magic proved to be no picnic against the alicorn princesses and soon he was blasted into the cage and a magic chain was wrapped around him and Tirek to prevent them from continuing their fight.
As the others wrapped up their battle, Celestia then turned to see Zodiac's motionless body lying by the rock that he had been knocked on.
"ZODI!!" she screamed, she ran over to him.
"Zodi?" she said, "Zodi?" she said again with tears in her eyes as she sat down and cradled him close and then a quick flashback came to her of when she found him when he was still a baby.
"It's okay mommy's here, mommy's got you." then the flashback ended.
"Is he...." said Silverstream.
"My first crush." sadly replied Ocellus.
"Yak sad." said Yona.
Neighsay and Tirek laughed evilly, but were silenced by cloths.
"How could you Neighsay, he was my son, my only child!!!!!" snapped Celestia
"MMMPPHHH!!!!!" muffled Neighsay, suddenly out of nowhere, some guards who were secretly notified of the whereabouts of what was happening came down to see Celestia in extreme anguish then saw Zodiac lying unconscious but they thought he was dead.
"Guards, take Neighsay to Canterlot's royal prison and keep him there until such time that we will make a trial for him, but as of right now, he is no longer Chancellor!" demanded Luna.
"Yes your majesty!" they said, then they shackled Neighsay and took him away as Luna sealed up the cage to keep Tirek in.
"Come on sister, there's nothing more we can do now." Luna grieved, but as they were about to give up and leave, a crack of light from heaven shined down on Zodi's body and he soon woke up to see his mother, aunt, and his friends about to leave and spoke up.
"Mommy?" he asked, that's when they froze and turned to see Zodiac struggling to get back up and managed to successfully stand up on all four of his hooves.
"ZODI, SWEETIE, YOU'RE OKAY!!!!!!!!!" Celestia exclaimed as she ran up to him and picked up, and soon all of the students and the mane six approached him with great joy.
After Celestia and Luna had their turns hugging and kissing him, the second one to embrace him was Nathan, who was just as overjoyed to see him still alive.
"Hey Zodi, snap out of it!" said Smolder as she shook him.
Zodiac then shook himself out of his hypnotism and got back to reality, before too long Silverstream picked him up and held him close.
"I was afraid you were long gone."
"We all were." said Twilight.
"Well it's good to see all of us and the magic of friendship powerful enough to take down another threat to Equestria." said Celestia. Suddenly the young seven's body parts glowed, all this they had done was none other than their first friendship mission that was summoned by the map, they were all surprised at this.
"Guys, we did it!" Nathan said.
"Did what?" asked Gallus.
"You all have just completed your very first friendship mission, you all really do have the magic of friendship in you after all." said Twilight
"Ha, they would do better as mince meat!" replied Tirek, he had somehow managed to break free of his restraints and remove the gag from his mouth, but Luna managed to restrain him harder with chains and cuffs.
"Just you wait you worthless fools, I will return!" Tirek warned.
They all ignored his threat and went off to deal with Neighsay for all the misery and pain he had forced upon not only Zodiac, but also all the students in Twilight's school.
Chapter 21: Neighsay's Trial, Comfort from a friend, and Re-Opening the School of Friendship
It had been a rather miraculous victory for every creature and pony as the young eight had experienced not only their first big adventure by defeating the most hated unicorn of Equestria, but also they completed their very first friendship mission by showing their motivation and perseverance to rescue somepony they greatly loved and cared deeply about and was willing to risk anything to save him from utter danger. Anyway, it was triumphant and they were now on the edge of the only passageway that entered or exited Tartarus, once they were out and back into the good side of life, Luna and Celestia turned around and sealed the passage shut so that no one could get in or out, Cadance and Shining Armor had left to go back to the Crystal Empire to check on Flurry Heart and Skyla since they were put in the care of Night Light and Twilight Velvet, but before they did, they told Nathan to stay with Twilight and the others for safety sake.
"Now listen up, every creature, my sister and I have got to set punishments up for Neighsay in order to pay for his crimes, so we will be back first thing in the morning, in the meantime, Zodi you stay with Twilight and the others and help with whatever damages he caused, understand?" Celestia asked.
"Aw, mom, can't I just go with you and Aunt Luna?" Zodiac whined.
"No, son." answered Celestia and then she and Luna took off.
"I never get to help with royal duties." Zodiac griped.
"Oh don't worry," said Silverstream as she picked him up and held him in her right talon arm, "One day you'll be ruler and when you are, you can help with all the royal duties as you please."
"The same replies with me." said Nathan, suddenly he too was picked up.
"WHOA!!!!!!!!!" he exclaimed, the one that picked him up was Smolder who had a friendly smile on her face.
"Kid, you don't know how proud we are, you had the guts to save a friend from certain death." she said, Nathan now cried tears of joy and just hugged Smolder, but instead of putting him back down, she decided to just keep him in her arms and the same thought came to Silverstream as well to just have Zodiac stay in her arm too.
"Aww, Yak thinks this is sweet." said Prince Rutherford.
"Talk about pure friendship." said General Seaspray.
"Ugh, why here, why now?!" growled Ember.
"We'll see more of this later, why don't we just go up to Canterlot and help Celestia and Luna with Neighsay." said Grandpa Gruff.
"Yeah, it's time we dealt with him once and for all." agreed Thorax and they all left leaving the students in the care of the mane six.
"Listen every creature, it's getting late, we've had a long day of all this, so let's just head back to my castle and spend the night, for tomorrow we all go to Canterlot for Neighsay's trial." Twilight said.
"Good idea, Aunt Twilight." replied Nathan.
"Yeah, besides, we need to get back to the EEA tomorrow so we can gather up all those books for evidence." said Sandbar.
And they all departed out of the thicket that led to Tartarus, and headed for Twilight's castle.
The very next day......
Everyone, including the mane six and the students, along with Nathan and Zodiac sat in the Courthouse of the Royals awaiting the trial of now Ex-Chancellor Neighsay to hear the charges and sentences for his heinous act of crimes upon Equestria. Plus as a bonus for proof of his crimes, Gallus, Smolder, and Nathan managed to gather all the books out of his office and show them the spells that he had rewritten in order to defame magic as a charge, also Merlin the changeling was there as well to back up Nathan with a video of the teleported storm that spawned the tornado and destroyed his old orphanage plus left thousands of people homeless.
The door on the right opened up to reveal two royal guards transporting Neighsay who was now wearing an orange jumpsuit rather than his EEA robe and was heavily shackled so he couldn't pull anymore hurtful or damaging stunts on anypony or any property like he did the past two days. The judge then came in with his black robe and levitated his gavel onto his position and took his place.
"This court is now in session, please take your seats." he said banging the gavel and everypony sat down as the judge gently did some stacked papers then turned his attention towards you know who.
"Neighsay, you have been brought before the order of royalty and have been charged with one count of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated assault on a princess of Equestria, and defamation of magic!"
"You have no proof of that charge." Neighsay said.
"Oh yes we do!" said Nathan as he walked up to the front and showing the books that contained all the spells that he had rewritten.
"Well, then perhaps you can explain this, the poison spell; three blasts of magic, when it is supposed to say the poison curing spell, one blast of magic."
"Neighsay, because of your crimes and your heinous acts upon ponies and creatures, you shall be banned from the EEA ever again." the judge said.
"Not to mention that storm you brought upon mah' home city!" yelled Nathan.
"What storm?" asked the judge.
"Your honor, with your permission, ah'd like to bring up Merlin to the stand."
"Very well, will Merlin please step up?" asked the judge.
Merlin the changeling walked up to the front like the judge said and stood beside Nathan, he then lit up his horn to show a video of the storm that struck Dallas, the first clip he showed was how the storm quickly developed.
"Freeze the frame." said Zodiac, "Zoom it in." it zoomed in to reveal pink sparkled aura that glowed behind the storm clouds."
"See."
"Illegal teleportation." replied the judge, Neighsay growled in anger that his storm was being viewed to the entire room.
"Oh, but there is more to that." said Merlin as he fast forwarded the video using his changeling magic to about thee minutes later when the storm built strength and developed a funnel cloud that quickly grew into a strong EF2 tornado making a quick touchdown.
As Nathan saw the whole video of the twister damaging his old orphanage, the sting of sorrow rebuilt itself inside his heart and he started crying. The young six, who were also watching this from the stands, were just as shocked and bewildered over this atrocity that Neighsay had brought upon the human world, as well as Celestia and Luna, who saw the last part in which the orphanage leaders came out with the children behind them all in tears. The one creature of the young six who was not only sorrowful for the humans, but also really saddened for Nathan was Smolder, for she had developed feelings for him and was willing to just pick him up and comfort him right now.
As the video evidence clip came to an end, the judge stared down at Neighsay with blood red fury.
"How could you Neighsay, causing such pain and suffering on innocent children and families?!" asked Celestia.
"Or all those poor children!" said Cadance, suddenly Neighsay spat on her, Shining saw this and was now boiled with rage, so much rage that he picked up Neighsay in his aura and pinned him to the wall.
"NOPONY DOES THAT TO MY WIFE!!!!!!" he yelled.
"I COULD CARE LESS ABOUT YOUR RAT WIFE OR YOUR BIPEDAL APE SON!!!!!!!!!!!!" Neighsay yelled back.
"ENOUGH, ORDER, ORDER!!!!!!!!!!!" the judge snapped banging the gavel on the booth that he sat in, Shining Armor put Neighsay back on the ground and they both returned to their posts.
"Does the jury have the verdict?"
A pony stood up, "We the jury condemn Neighsay guilty of all charges."
"So it is settled, Neighsay, your are hereby sentenced to your whole life in the dungeons below this city where you will have no form of magic ever again, plus you will be doing community service by helping the citizens of this little boy's hometown clean up the damages that you caused upon not only his former orphanage, but also the pain and suffering of all those children, but before you have your magic drained, you will remove the seal from Princess Twilight's school. Lastly, you will turn every spell that you defamed and turn it back to the way it was and then return the books back to Starswirl, this court is adjourned!" he then slammed the gavel one more time, but as the guards took him out he stared at them angrily as if to say "I'm gonna get you all one day, you're all gonna pay for doing this to me!"
All the students cheered, but quickly took notice that Nathan was gone.
"Hey where's Nate?!" asked Cadance, they quickly took notice of an open window, they looked out to see him already far away in the sky.
"NATHAN WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!" shouted Smolder as she flapped her wings and took off after him.
"Wait Smolder!" screamed Silverstream, but she and the others were stopped.
"Not now every creature, right now we need to head back to the school and make sure that Nieghsay removes his magic proof seal, let Smolder handle Nate alone, they'll catch up to us." said Twilight
"But Headmare Sparkle...." Zodiac was about to say something, but was silenced.
"No Zodi, Twilight's right, some things are meant for only one friend to handle." Celestia said picking up her son and holding him and then they all left to head back to Ponyville to make sure Neighsay was about to do his first task letting Smolder take care of Nathan.
Meanwhile, high above the grounds outside Canterlot and close to Ponyville, Nathan sat on top of a cloud with his arms wrapped around his legs and crying while looking at the view of Ponyville afar, he was sitting here crying because of all the pain and suffering Neighsay had put everyone through, plus the fact that Neighsay destroyed not only his orphanage, but also caused so much misery upon his home town.
"Why, Why?!" he asked himself, as he continued to stare at the city horizon.
"Why what?" said a voice from behind him, Nathan turned to see none other than Smolder with her wings flapping and looking at him with great concern, Nathan then turned back to the Ponyville skyline as Smolder landed on the cloud and sat next to him.
Nathan tried his best to just give her the silent treatment, but Smolder was having none of it, he needed a friend beside him right now and she was determined to be that friend, she wrapped her arm around him to relieve him of at least some of his sadness, but he was still too depressed over everything.
"Wanna talk about it kid?" she asked.
"Ah'....ah' don't know what could drive a loser like Neighsay into just driving a calamity to a world that he didn't even know about or even why. And what would drive him into calling me an ape?!" he then buried his face in his hands and cried again, Smolder picked him up and placed him in her lap since she was bigger and far stronger than him, but he really didn't care right now.
As Nathan wiped the tears from his face which were not doing any good because new tears kept forming over and over since he was way too hurt over what Neighsay said to him, Smolder looked at him with a friendly smile like a big sister to a little brother.
"Nathan, you shouldn't ever feel down just because of what some mean pony or creature calls you." she said.
"Really?" Nathan asked still crying.
"Yes, just because ponies or creatures call you a mean name, doesn't mean you are one, you should know that no matter what they say to you or think of you, that you never let it go to your head. And personally, I think the only reason he called you that was out of sheer temper that he is losing his power, besides I told you you're the hero of this piece; look, you may be a human, but to me you've got the heart of a brave dragon, heck, your wings are even identical to one."
Nathan soon took these words that he had been told, and it touched his heart so much that new tears formed. Right now he needed a shoulder to cry on, and Smolder knew it.
"Come here kid." she said, letting Nathan bury his face onto her chest, he then wrapped his arms and legs around her because he did not want her to let go of him and she completely understood, he then cried and cried for who knows how long, but Smolder didn't care.
"Shhh, just let it out kid, let it out." she said in a soothing voice and rubbing Nathan's back gently as he continued to cry with his face staying buried in her chest.
Meanwhile back at the School of Friendship, Neighsay was in shackles being pushed by royal guards and behind him stood a crowd of angry ponies and creatures waiting for their moment to come back once and for all. As he had spears point at his face, Neighsay angrily lit up his horn and fired at the magic proof seal causing it to unlock and the chain that surrounded the lock collapsed and fell into the pond that surrounded the school.
"There, I hope you creatures are happy!" he snarled.
"Now, we shall take you to the MDS where your magic will be permanently drained to prevent any further damages." one guard said as he and the other guard transported Neighsay to the royal prison carriage, as every creature watched Neighsay leave to do his time, they all cheered.
"The School of Friendship is open once and for all!" announced Twilight as she opened the doors and everypony and creature cheered and went inside to celebrate.
As they all were inside celebrating, Ember quickly took notice that Smolder still wasn't back yet.
"Hey, where is Smolder, why isn't she back yet?" she asked.
"Dragon been gone a long time." replied Yona.
"And so has Nathan, he must've been really struck down over what Neighsay did." replied Zodiac.
"Don't worry, we're fine." said Smolder out of nowhere, they all looked to see she was carrying Nathan in her arms again and she landed on the floor to walk up to them.
"NATHAN!!!!!" Zodiac screamed running up to Nathan who managed to free himself from Smolder for a minute and managed to catch Zodiac and they hugged.
"I'm glad you're better." said Zodiac, Nathan then put him down.
"Ah'm just glad that we're all here in one piece, ah' mean who knows what happened if Smolder didn't undo those ropes with her fire breath."
Smolder then picked Nathan up again and held him, the others could see she was developing a bond with him.
"See what did I tell you all, friendship always wins." said Twilight out of nowhere.
"Ya' got that right Aunt Twi." said Nathan as Smolder cradled him like a baby.
"And whatever the case, we stick together!" said Zodiac as he held out his hoof, Nathan put his hand on and soon the others put their hooves and claws in as well.
"GO FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!" They all exclaimed as the camera zoomed out to reveal a beautiful night sky and a shooting star zoomed past.
After the celebration of Neighsay's arrest and the big party that was held, everyone went back to their homes and that went for Zodiac as well as he was in his bedroom his Wonderbolt outfit removed and in some special made pajamas that Rarity gave him for his birthday. He couldn't have been more better to be relieved that it was finally over and took this moment to go outside and just let all the bad thoughts out by just staring at the beautiful night sky that his aunt had made, he opened the doors that led to his balcony, got up on the large comfy bench that contained cushions and pillows, looked up and just enjoyed the beauty.
"Aunt Luna, you don't know how much beauty you put in the night." he said as he continued to stare at the night sky, suddenly there was a banging sound behind him, which he quickly took notice of. He spun around to see what it was, but no one was there.
"Hm, probably just the wind." he said as he turned his attention back to the night sky. As he continued to stare at the sky, he soon felt something stroking his left backhoof, at first he thought it was just a bug and that it would fly away soon, but this unknown stroking thing wasn't stopping. Now it really hit him as he began to giggle because he now knew someone or something was tickling his hoof.
"Something tihihickles." he laughed, he then gasped and turned around again to see none other than Silverstream who was tickling his hoof with her right talon claw and had a big grin on her face as if she was really excited to be there.
"Nothing is better than my tickle surprise!" she said in a sing-song voice.
"SILVERSTREAM!!!!!!!!!" Zodiac screamed with a joyful glee voice, he then jumped onto her while she wrapped him in her right arm.
"How's my favorite widdle pegasus!!!???" she cooed as Zodiac hugged her.
"What are you doing here?!" he said looking into her face.
"Well I got worried, so I asked my parents if I could do a little 'camp out' tonight and, in order to keep my surprise visit surprise proof, I asked your mother if I could stay here with you for tonight and they all said yes."
"Wow!" said Zodiac.
"Well, anyway Zodi, it's getting late, what do you say we head into bed, huh?"
Keeping her little pegasus nice and firm in her grasp, Silverstream took him back inside. She gently lay him down into his bed, after she did that, she climbed into bed with him and wrapped her right forearm around him. Just as she was about to fall asleep, she felt Zodiac snuggle closer and closer to her because she was warmer than the covers.
"Good night Silverstream, I love you." he whispered.
Silverstream smiled gratefully and gave him a kiss on his forehead, "I love you too Zodi." she said and then they fell asleep.