After setting out on a quest for vengance, our hero finds herself stranded in a strange land. How will she react to the strange inhabitants of this land? And how will they react to her... Unique... Appearance?
Shortly after reaching Northrend, Manet's Lifetime friend, and sister in all but blood, Moriza, is abducted by the scourge. Setting out on a quest to find her, Manet's search soon turns into a mission of vengeance. Joining a group of adventurers, the best both the Alliance and the Knights of the Ebon Blade have to offer, she assaults the Icecrown Citadel, with her final goal being the frozen throne. But because of an inattentive raid member, Manet finds herself thrown from the top of the citadel and into a strange new world...
This story is a crossover between World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, and MLP season 2. The cover image is a screenshot of my shaman taken from the WoWHead website. I'm a bit rusty on the lore, as it's been a few years since Wrath was relevant content, so if i messed anything up, feel free to point it out to me.
Manet sat with a heavy sigh, removing as much of her gear as possible from her seated position. Setting her mace and shield aside, the young adventurer removed her helmet to reveal the face of a beautiful Draenei Shaman. Her soft, feminine features, and her powder blue skin, with nary a scratch nor scar on her face. Her glowing blue eyes, cluing all in to the power that she wielded. And her personal favorite feature, her horns, that curved just right, as to match the curve of her skull, before tapering out and curving up slightly at the ends. But while her looks made her the envy of many a female of every species of the Alliance, and she wasn’t afraid to use them to get what she needed, her looks had nothing to do with why she was here.
Glancing across the camped she locked eyes with Moriza, the Draenei Shaman, turned Death Knight, her sister in all but blood. Like Manet, she had glowing blue eyes, although hers were a few shades lighter. She had bluish purple skin and pure white hair. Her horns, while not quite as nice as Manet’s, followed a similar curve, with the same slight curve up at the end. Growing up, the two had been told they could be mistaken for twins, and although age, and Moriza’s forced change, did alter their looks a bit, they were still very similar in appearance.
The two of them had grown up together, and while Manet specialized in the Restoration arts of shamanism, Moriza had been more than adept at the Enhancement aspects. Shortly after passing the last of their tests, and receiving their final totems, they set off on their journey into the world.
Their names traveled fast through the lands, helping both fellow adventurers, as well as normal citizens of the land in any and all ways they could. It wasn’t long before the leaders of the Alliance took notice of them, and requested their presence in Northrend to deal with the scourge that had been rising.
The trip to Northrend was where everything went wrong. Not long after landing at Valiance Keep in the Borean Tundra, and helping to push back the encroaching cultists and their Scourge allies, Moriza was captured and taken away during a counter-attack lead by a group of cultists that had infiltrated the Alliance's ranks.
Enraged by Moriza’s capture, Manet swore not to rest until she rescued her, or had a corpse to return home with. Using some of the tricks she had picked up from Moriza during her travels, Manet started learning the ways of the Enhancement Shaman, she forced her way through Northrend, letting nothing stand in her way. The Nerubians of Azjol-Nerub, The Drakkari of Gundrak, The Wrath Gate, even D.E.H.T.A. She overcame all of them, but didn’t find even a clue as to what could have happened to Moriza. That is, until she stumbled upon the Argent Tournament grounds while looking to participate in the Trial of the Crusader, there she learned the horrifying truth.
It turns out that the Scourge had been abducting heroes and adventures every chance they got, both Horde and Alliance, and bringing them to the Lich King in the Ebon Hold. There, the Lich King twisted their souls, and raised them as the undead Scourge knights known as the Death Knights. It was there Moriza was taken, and it was there she met her end, or so Manet thought. It turns out that in the year that she had been chasing shadows, trying to find her, Moriza had been freed from the control of Arthas by Darion Mograine and the Knights of Ebon Hold.
After learning of the events of the Plaguelands, and hearing the story of the Scarlet Crusade, Manet was given directions to the Shadow Vault, the Ebon Blades foothold in Icecrown. Upon arrival at the Shadow Vault, Manet was finally reunited with Moriza, or at least what was left of her. Gone was her connection to the spirits, given to her by her training in the shaman ways. Gone also, were the majority of her memories of their time growing up together. What was left almost seemed like a husk of her former friend, but it was still her, and finding her meant that part of her quest was done. She had found her, after all of the blood, sweat and tears, she had finally found her, all that was left now was revenge.
Shortly after reuniting with her once lost friend, she learned of plan to used the combined forces of the Alliance and the Ebon Blade to assault the Icecrown Citadel and end the reign of Arthas once and for all. Upon hearing of the raid on the citadel, and the chance at the revenge it offered her, Manet was quick to offer her skills as a healer to the cause. While hesitant at first to accept her offer, after recommendations from both the Alliance adventurers that were picked for the raid, as while as the Alliance leaders, the Ebon Blade had no choice but to accept her offer, and she soon found herself joining Moriza and the rest of the adventurers for the assault on Icecrown Citadel.
It was a long, arduous trip, climbing to the top of the Icecrown Citadel, but their journey was finally nearing it’s close. The perils they had faced, the traps they had circumnavigated, the opposition from the Horde they had crushed. But after all of these trials, all of these obstacles, they had finally reached their destination. All that was left was a short rest before taking the final steps of their journey, just one short rest and Manet would finally have her revenge.
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The break they took gave them time to rest, eat, and restock on some supplies. Shortly after making camps, the cooks of the group got together to prepare a meal for the raiding party, while the alchemists got together to brew and distribute flasks and potions to replace the ones used on the climb up. While they were doing that, jewelcrafters like Manet went to work cutting and distributing gems, whose special properties helped increase the effectiveness of those wearing them. It wasn’t long before the potions were made, the jewels were cut, and the food was distributed, leaving everyone, except for those chosen as sentries, to eat and rest up for the final push.
Deciding to use the short break to get some rest, Manet carefully removed her gear, before laying it out and removing her bed roll from her pack. Spreading out her bedding, she removed her cleaner and tools from her pack before sitting among her scattered armor. Relieved to be off her hooves, she set about cleaning and maintaining it, so as she wouldn’t forget when she awoke. The last thing her or the group needed was for a piece of gear to fail in the middle of a fight. She chuckled to herself as she remembered the hunter of the group, whose bowstring snapped mid fight while they were battling Lady Deathwhisper and her Cultists. The look on his face, as his gaze slowly drifted from his now useless weapon to the group of cultists closing in on him was almost worth the wipe it nearly caused. Almost.
Snapping back from her revery, she picked up her newest piece of gear and looked it over. The Lost Pavise of the Blue Flight, the shield was called, pulled from the frozen remains of Sindragosa after the group managed to finally push through her relentless frozen assault and claim the frost wing for themselves. The shield was of interesting design, fitting very well with the “Frozen” theme everything seemed to have in this place. The top half of the shield almost looked like a dragon’s mouth, with a glowing orb of frost enclosed in its maw, and icicles hanging from its spine. The bottom half continued out from where the dragon’s neck would be, and had the look of a frozen sheet of steel with glowing runic writing on it, before tapering to a frost covered point. She had tried removing the ice shortly after receiving the shield, but it seems that the runes that caused the shield to increase the rate at which it’s wielder regenerated their mana, also caused the layers of frost to come back.
Finishing her inspection of the shield, she set it to the side and picked up another new piece of gear. Her mace, Lockjaw, rescued from the corpse of Rotface, one of the two abominations left to guard the plague wing. The mace, like the shield, was extremely unique in its design. The butt of the mace had a metallic dragon's claw, holding a glowing green gem. The handle was wrapped in what looked like the hide of an abomination, with flesh of multiple shades stitched haphazardly together. The crown of the mace consisted of what looked like four horned dragon whelps, whose skulls had been attached to the end of the handle, their horns making a very cruel looking end. The skulls themselves had the same ominous green glow as the gem in the handle, and radiated an aura of frost.
After cleaning up the mace, and making sure it wasn’t damaged in any way, she set it down with her shield before reaching carefully into her bags to remove a set of axes she hadn’t had the chance to use yet. The axes in question, the Bone Warden’s Splitters, were taken from the Bone Warden himself, Lord Marrowgar. The handle of the axes had a slight curve to them, and were wrapped in a high quality, dark leather. The knob of the axes hooked back up and over the handle, acting almost like a guard for the wielder's hands, with vicious looking spikes that looked to be just as sharp as the cutting edge. In the center of this hook was a space filled by a ghostly looking blue sphere, whose pale glow seemed to radiate the same malicious intent as the axe’s previous owner. The eye of the axe ended in a sharp spike, and the heel was sharpened to a razor point. On the cheek of the axe was a small skull with glowing red eyes, and an open mouth that seemed to be spewing frost. The bit of the axe widened out away from the cheek, the bottom coming down and almost seeming to meet the hook from the knob of the axe. The two ends came together to form a sharpened steel guard, guaranteed to both block swords, and rend flesh. The top of the bit tapered out to a similar point, and along the entire cutting edge was a series of razor sharp spikes meant to make any wound received from the weapon as brutal as possible. A quick once-over of the weapons showed them to be in perfect order, so Manet stored them where they would be in easy reach should they be needed in the coming fight.
Her weapons thoroughly inspected, she turned her eye to her armor. The armor in question had been given to her at the start of this campaign by the Ashen Verdict. The Ashen Verdict was the name given to the combined forces of the Knights of the Ebon Blade and Argent Crusade. The armor, made by the best craftsmen either side could offer, was named The Frost Witch’s Garb, and was enchanted to increase the effectiveness of any healing spells cast by the shaman wearing it. The aptly named armor shared the same icy appearance as a majority of the weapons and armor looted from the citadel.
The tunic and leg guards came together to make a sleeveless robe that seemed to be made out of animal hides and chainmail, with the front left open to show off a tasteful bit of cleavage.
The spaulders had the same animal hide and chainmail look, with what looked like rib bones circling glowing blue gems. The gems seemed to have a magical property, as besides the ominous blue glow, the ghostly head of a shoveltusk would appear above them before rearing back with a challenging cry.
The handguards had the look of leather, fingerless gloves, with a large furry sleeve going halfway up the arm, each containing another glowing blue gem.
The last piece of the armor, and certainly the most interesting piece, was the head guard. It had the look of a leather hood, with fur lining the inside, but under the leather was the skull of shoveltusk, the large antlers, one solid piece as wide as the helmet itself, coming out of the back of the hood, and the tusks jutting out the front. The eyes of the shoveltusk had the same blue glow as the gems embedded in the rest of the garb, with the mouth open to allow the wearer to breath easier.
As a whole, it was definitely the most interesting set of armor she had ever worn, but it definitely worked as advertised. While wearing it, Manet noticed that her Riptide spell would increase the casting speed of her other spells, and that her Chain Heal spell seemed to leave a lingering Healing over Time effect on its targets.
After finishing up the maintenance on her gear, Manet was pleased to learn that they still had a few hours before they had to move out, so she crawled into her bedroll and slowly drifted off to sleep.
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Manet awoke to the sound of screaming and the clash of steel on steel.
“The Val’kyrs, they’re attacking!”
On her feet before her eyes were fully open, Manet started throwing out heals while donning her armor. While the group left in charge of keeping watch has included a tank and a healer, a second group of val’kyr had appeared to flank us as soon as the sentries engaged the first group, and seeing as the third healer of the group was slow to respond, she had to pick up the slack while he pulled his head out of his ass and got moving. Unfortunately for her, however, her swift action drew the aggro of one of the flanking val’kyr, as a tank hadn’t appeared to pick them up.
Now fully armored, Manet left her shield and mace where they lay, instead drawing her twin axes, ready to give them their first taste of battle. With a stomp of her hoof to summon her totems, she crouched low in a battle stance and prepared to meet the incoming enemy. However, as the val’kyr raised its weapon in preparation to strike, a battle cry sounded out from behind Manet, before Moriza jumped over her and met the attack with a swing of her own.
Parrying the attack, Moriza pushed the val’kyr back, holding it off until one of the tanks appeared to pick it up. Free from the clash with her previous foe, Moriza looked over her shoulder and gave Manet a small smile before speaking.
“I’m sure the effort is appreciated,” she started, the ethereal echo resulting from the process of becoming a Death Knight accompanying her voice. “But aren’t you supposed to be keeping our guys up, and not taking their guys down?”
“Ha ha,” Manet responded, her melodic voice having a sharp undertone that let everyone know she wasn’t the girly pushover she sometimes looked. “But if those walls of meat we brought with us were doing there jobs properly, it wouldn't have been a problem.”
“Oi!” They heard a slightly offended voice shout from the nearby group of val’kyrs. “I was on the shitter, I was, ‘nd I don’t think you wee lasses would appreciate me runnin’ out o’ there with me pants around me ankles, now would ye?”
Before either of them could respond, the voice of the raid leader chimed in from behind them. “That’s enough you three! If you’ve got time to gripe, then you’ve got time to pick up the third group of valks that just showed up! They came from behind the casters, and if you don’t get them off of them soon, they’re gunna tear us apart!”
“On it, boss!” The first voice shouted, before a portly looking Dwarf Paladin was seen squeezing his way out of the group of val’kyr. Running past the two Draenei, he let out a loud, bellowing battle cry as he threw his shield at the third group of flanking enemies, having it bounce between the three of them before returning to him.
“Look alive, you two, we got incomin’!” He yelled, turning and taking a few steps back, so that the two groups of val’kyrs were now coming at him from the sides. “I’ll group ‘em up, Moriza, you take ‘em out. And Manet? By the All Father’s Beard, don’t let me die again! I don’t care how safe you say it is, that Ressurect spell o’ yours don’t feel too great.”
“One time!” Manet yelled back, stowing her axes and picking up her shield and mace. “It happened one time, and it wasn’t my fault! Healing assignments weren’t exactly clear. I thought I was on raid!”
Her piece said, the three of them took to their rolls, and it wasn’t long before the other group of val’kyrs was slain, and the rest of the raid helped to finish off theirs. Thanks to the quick reaction time of the entire raid team, they only suffered one casualty in the ambush. The unfortunate Hunter of the group ended up being caught with his pants around his ankles. Again. This time quite literally. He was found lying next to his bed roll, pants halfway on and reaching for his bow, a spear through his back. It was nothing a Resurrection spell and a few healing spells couldn’t fix, but it was still quite the comical sight. It was unlikely anyone would let him forget it anytime soon.
After healing the injured and cleaning up camp, the ten man group met up at the base of the ramp leading to the last teleporter. The teleporter in question would lead them to the base of the Lich King’s throne, and would only activate if they cleared all of the wings of the citadel. Once all of us were grouped up, our raid lead turned to us and began speaking.
“All right, listen up everyone,” He started, slowly looking across the group, locking eyes with everyone before continuing. “This is it, the final fight. We’ve conquered the doorman, disbanded a group of cultists and thwarted their mistress. We’ve conquered the halls of blood, plague, and frost.” Turning to the side he removed his two-handed axe from his back and pointed it at the teleporter. “All that’s left to do now, is to step on that portal and bring this fight to the Lich King himself.” Pausing again, he returned his axe to its place on his back and began pacing in front of the group. “It’s been tough getting this far, I know that, but you guys have worked together better than any group I’ve had the pleasure of leading before. When things got rough, you guys adapted and pulled through. When one of you reached your limit and couldn’t keep up, someone stepped in to pick up the slack and help you up.” Pausing a third time, he turned to look at the hunter. “When one of you forgot to check the condition of your gear before a fight, we all stepped in to cover you.” With a final pause to allow the group to laugh at the joke, the raid lead turned to face the figure approaching from behind the raid. “And with Highlord Tirion Fordring backing us up, there’s no way we can fail!”
With a final cheer, the group, plus Tirion Fordring, turned and headed towards the portal, ready to face any challenge the Lich King could come up with.
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Manet grunted with effort, raising her shield to block yet another strike from a dredge ghoul. The fight had gone wrong straight from the start. After a short bit of monologuing, Arthas had frozen Tirion solid before rushing our group, summoning ghouls and a shambling horror to take advantage of the confusion caused by his initial attack on the Highlord. As the tanks struggled to grab aggro on all of the additional enemies, the Lich King then spread a plague through the group. While the plague itself hurt, it wasn’t necessarily fatal, and could easily be healed through, however every time it wore off from one target, it would jump to another, increasing the damage of both it and Arthas himself each time it jumped.
Reaching its third stack, it jumped to Manet, the initial tick of damage almost bringing her to her knees. It was at this point the tanks had finally organized the adds away from the group and the raid lead started getting a rain on the situation.
“Manet, take that plague to the adds, see if we can get it to jump to them instead of one of us!” The raid lead shouted. “The rest of you healers, keep her up!”
With the beginnings of a plan laid out, Manet cast a Riptide on herself before morphing into a ghost wolf and running for the grouped adds as fast as she could. Upon reaching the back end of the group of enemies, she morphed back to her Draenei form and cast Cleanse Spirit on herself, healing some of the damage caused by the necrotic plague and removing it from herself. As she cleansed herself, she watched a ribbon of dark energy leave her chest before hopping on to one of the ghouls in the group.
“It worked!” she yelled, turning around and sprinting back to the group. “Necrotic plague is on the dredge ghouls now!” Making it back to the group, she turned to face the Lich King and stomped a hoof, summoning her totems. For this fight she had chosen the same reliable totems she had been using for most of the raid. A Stoneskin totem as her earth totem, to increase the armor of her and her allies. A Flametongue totem as her fire totem, to increase the spell power of herself and the other casters of the group. A Wrath of Air totem as her air totem, increase the casting speed of her and her allies. And last, but certainly not least, a Healing Stream totem as her water totem, to release a steady stream of healing mists to restore health to herself and her allies. Her totems set, Manet dug in and prepared for a long fight.
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It had only been a few minutes, but they felt like they had been at it for hours. With the plague and the adds finally under control, the group directed its focus to the Lich King, allowing his plague to take out his ghouls. While the damage had been fairly steady at the beginning of the fight, the longer they allowed it to continue, the more damage Arthas seemed to deal, and every time they started getting comfortable with the amount of damage going out, the Lich King would cast Infest on the group. The initial hit from this attack wasn’t that strong, but it would quickly ramp out of control if the person's health wasn’t topped off quickly enough. Already once this fight, Manet had had to refresh her water shields and Earthliving Weapon enchant, as well as drop a Mana Tide Totem, as herself and the other healers were beginning to run low on mana. Just as things seemed like they were getting out of control, Arthas stopped his attack and walked back to the center of the platform.
“Enough!” He yelled, raising his sword and pointing it at the group. “I will freeze you from within, until all that remains is an icy husk!” A dark energy seemed to collect around his sword, before black lightning started jumping off the blade, arcing to random raid members. Along with this, the Lich King started releasing an icy aura starting to freeze anything caught inside.
“Fall back to the edges of the platform!” The raid lead shouted. “His icy presence doesn’t reach that far!” As the group ran to the edges of the platform, one of the casters stopped and let out a cry of pain as a shadowy clone of herself seemed to be ripped straight from her body. “One of you tanks pick that thing up, we don’t know what it can do yet!”
“Oi, come ‘ere lassie, leave the pretty li’l mage alone.” The paladin tank taunted. As the the raging spirit turned to face the tank, it released a soul splitting wail into the group of raid members between itself and the tank, damaging anyone caught in between the two.
“Alright, we know what it does now!” Moriza shouted, attempting to clear the ringing from her ears. “Now keep it away from us so it doesn’t do that again, my ears will thank you!”
“You heard her,” The raid lead shouted. “Take that thing to the edge and face it away from the group, don’t want that thing hitting everyone again!”
Reaching the edge of the platform, the raid grouped up again, the tank with the ghouls off to one side, and the tank with the raging spirits to the other. Getting settled, the group noticed orbs of ice heading towards them, the closest heading straight for the ghoul tank.
“We got incoming ice spheres, don’t let them touch you!”
Taking note of the raid leads warning, Manet watched as the first orb hit one of the ghouls by the tank, exploding and sending the ghoul flying off the platform. “They detonate on impact! Take them out before they get any closer!”
“You heard her,” the raid lead responded. “Hunter, take those orbs out before they can get any closer!”
After minutes of fighting, Arthas finally ceased casting the dark lightning and his icy aura faded. Lifting Frostmourne over his head, he shouted “Watch as the world around you collapses!” Before plunging his sword into the ground. As he did so the outer ring of the platform began to crack and glow, cluing the group as to what was about to happen.
“The platform is collapsing, everyone move in!”
As a group they returned to the center of the platform, Arthas pulling his sword from the ground and meeting them in the middle. From there the battle seemed to continue in the same pattern as the first phase, with a series of fast attack thrown in every now and then, until he turned and pointed his sword at the group behind the tank. Upon doing so, a ribbon of black energy jumped from his blade and made a pool or darkness at the group's feet. As soon as it landed it started damaging everyone caught in it and slowly expanding.
“Everyone out!” The raid leader was quick to shout. “This stuff damages everyone who stands in it!” As everyone left the puddle, he noticed its spreading slowed, stopping once the last group member left the puddle.
“Everyone spread out! It seems to spread faster the more people there are standing in it!” Once again, the group was quick to comply, spreading out evenly around the Lich King.
Once again, the battle continued rather smoothly, with only a single group member having to move when the Lich King chose to defile the ground under one of them. That is, until Arthas pulled another trick out of his sleeves.
With a shout of “Val’kyr, your master calls!” A single val’kyr swooped down, grabbing Manet and heading towards the edge of the platform.
“Everyone on the valk, it’s trying to throw one of the healers off the ledge!”
A little slow to respond to the call, the val’kyr made it well over halfway to the ledge before the damage dealers of the group could pick it up.
“Come on guys a little hussle would be nice,” Manet pleaded. “I know I use that ‘do what I say, or I might just forget to heal you’ line a lot, but you know I don’t really mean it, right?”
As the val’kyr was about to cross over the edge of the platform, chains of ice erupted from the ground, wrapping around the val’kyr and stopping it in place just long enough for Moriza to deliver the final blow. As the val’kyr dropped Manet, she very nearly fell off the ledge, before being caught by Moriza and pulled back onto the platform.
“Don’t worry,” Moriza said, giving her a smile. “We’ve got each others backs, always, right?”
“Always.” Manet replied, returning the smile, before they both sprinted back into the fray.
From there the fight continued to drag on, with the occasional defile going out, or a val’kyr being called in to try and throw a raider from the platform, but after a while the Lich King once again paused in his assault, before running back to the center of the platform and raising Frostmourne to the group again.
With a shout of “I will freeze you from within, until all that remains is an icy husk!” The Lich King once again started channeling the dark lightning and freezing aura. As the aura returned, so did the previously destroyed edges of the platform, and the group returned to the edges, picking up the raging spirits as they spawned.
Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, however, the hunter had forgotten about the incoming ice spheres. As he busied himself damaging the raging spirits, Manet turned just in time to see a frozen orb about to connect with Moriza.
“NO!!” With a shout, time seemed to slow down as Manet morphed into her ghost wolf form and ran at Moriza, determined to save her somehow. ‘Not again!’ She thought ‘I will not lose her again!!’
Upon hearing the shout, Moriza turned to see a frost orb inches away from her. Noticing movement out of the corner of her eye, she continued turning, till she locked eyes with Manet. Seeing Manet sprinting at her in her ghost wolf form, she knew exactly what she was planning. However, before she had a chance to try and stop her, Manet dove at her, pushing her out of the and taking the frost orb for her. The moment it made contact with her skin, all she could feel was a biting cold that seemed to freeze her, right to the core. Next was the concussive wave sent through her by the detonation of the orb.
Locking eyes with Moriza, Manet only had time to mouth a silent ‘I’m sorry’ before the concussive blast launched her up and off of the citadel, to start her long drop all the way to Icecrown.
‘This isn’t the end,’ She thought. ‘As long as they finish the fight fast enough and find my body before my spirit leaves it, they’ll be able to revive me.’
As she was falling, she noticed a darkness slowly closing in on the edges of her vision, along with what felt like a sucking sensation. Her last thought, before everything faded to black, was ‘I just have to have faith. Moriza won’t rest until she has me back…’
It was a normal day in Ponyville, or about as normal as it got in said town. Twilight Sparkle trotted happily down the street, oblivious of the wary stares her fellow ponies cast her way. Her lavender coat was brushed to a shine, and her dark purple mane, with its light purple and pink highlights, was style to perfection, parting perfectly around her horn. All in all, she was looking better than she had in weeks, finally free of the stress of recent events.
It all started when Discord, the Lord of Chaos, broke free from his stone prison and started wreaking havoc on Equestria. With the combined efforts of her, and her five best friends, they were able to come together and use the Elements of Harmony to end his tyrannical reign before it could begin. That isn’t to say, however, that they had an easy time of it. Quite the opposite in fact. When Discord escaped, the first thing he did was hide the Elements. However, not one to play with a completely stacked deck, he did leave Twilight and her friends with a clue to the location of the Elements, all they had to do to find them was solve his riddle, and play his game.
The first attempt to find the Elements had ended when Rainbow Dash, the ever loyal pegasus, had abandoned her friends in favor of her home, Cloudesdale. As worrying as it was to see one of her best friends going against the key principle that she lived her life around, it didn’t end there. Discord had gotten to all of her friends, and warped their minds until they were the complete opposites of their former selves. The ever honest Applejack, now a compulsive liar. The sweet, kind Fluttershy, now a cruel, mean, bully. Even the ever smiling, ever happy Pinkie Pie had been reduced to a grumbling grump who hated laughter.
When Rainbow Dash had abandoned her friends, Discord had called an end to the game, stating that Dash leaving had broken the rules. With the game over, Discord left for Ponyville, intent on turning it into the Chaos Capital of his new world.
Returning to Ponyville, the Elements were found in the library, concealed in the book that had started their whole journey. Elements in hoof, Twilight had attempted to rally her friends behind her, intent on taking down Discord. Her friends, still under the effects of Discord’s mind games, decided to split up instead, abandoning Twilight and nearly causing her to fall as well. A few letters from her mentor, however, pulled Twilight out of her depression, and gave her an idea of how to save her friends and defeat Discord. A few memory spells later, and the Elements came together and Discord was beaten, encasing him in his stone prison and returning harmony to the land.
The following weeks had been spent cleaning up, and fixing all of the damage Discord caused that the Elements didn’t fix. In that time, Twilight realized that had been so busy helping with repairs, she had stopped sending reports to her mentor, Princess Celestia, and in a state of panic brought on by stress had attempted to make friendship problems to solve by enchanting an old doll with a ‘want it, need it’ spell. The plan backfired, however, and before long the entire town was fighting over the doll. It was at this time that Princess Celestia herself stepped in, disenchanting the doll, and giving a new assignment to Twilight, as well as her friends, as “punishment”. The assignment, to write a report on what they have learned about friendship, when, and only when, they learned something new.
Upon Celestia departure, Twilight’s friends had treated her to a trip to the spa, as an apology for ignoring just how stressed she had become. It was on her way back from the spa, head held high, with not a care in the world, that the next big thing happened. A bright flash in the sky caught her attention, before a loud boom caused all the townsponies to run to their homes and hide. The loud boom was accompanied by another bright flash of light, before what looked like a meteor went flying through the sky, crashing in the Everfree Forest with a final, ground shaking explosion. Without a seconds hesitation, Twilight took off towards her home, the local library, already writing the letter to her mentor in her head.
Bursting through the front door, she slid to a stop in the middle of the room before shouting, “Spike!”
She heard a crash from the kitchen, as well as a cry of surprise, before a young male voice shouted back. “Twilight, you made me drop my gem cakes! I thought you went to the spa to relax, what kind of relaxing leads to busting through the door like a batpony out of Tartarus?”
“They’re called thestrals, Spike, and you know they don’t like being called batponies.” Twilight scolded, running to the kitchen to find a young purple drake cleaning up scattered pastries. “And the ‘busting through the door’ is a result of a meteor that just crashed in the Everfree. Are you telling me you didn't feel the tremors that thing made?”
With a bashful chuckle, Spike folded his arms behind his back and started scuffing the floor with his foot. “Well, I may have been focused on watching my gem cakes bake.” Flinching at the glare he received, he held up his arms defensively. “What, I was hungry!”
“And being hungry gives you the right to ignore your chores to watch cupcakes bake?” With a sigh, she rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Look, it doesn’t matter, we need to send a letter to Princess Celestia about the meteor. I’m sure she’ll want to send some guards to investigate.”
Taking advantage of the subject change, Spike quickly grabbed a quill and inkwell, before scrawling a note to Celestia and sending it in a plume of flame.
“Spike, you wait here for her reply, I’m going to go round up the girls and bring them back here. While you're waiting, finish cleaning up your mess, then get working on your chores.” Without waiting for a reply, Twilight ran out the door and sprinted into town, leaving the door hanging open behind her.
With a grumble, Spike slammed the door before returning to the kitchen. “‘Clean up your mess’ she says. ‘Do your chores.’ Would it kill her to say please?”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A short time later, Twilight returned to a now clean library, the rest of the Element Bearers in tow. “Spike, has the Princess answered my letter yet?”
Emerging from the doorway leading to the bedroom, Spike stumbled into the room, the slouching green spines on his head giving away his obvious fatigue. “Not yet Twi. I finished my chores, can I eat now?”
With a gasp, Rarity, the other unicorn of their group rushed to Spike’s side, picking him up in her sparkling blue aura and nuzzling him affectionately. “Oh, my poor little Spikey-Wikey! I know Twilight likes to overwork herself, but has she been overworking my poor, baby drake too?” She cried dramatically.
It was no secret to anypony, no matter how much Spike insisted otherwise, that he had a massive crush on Rarity. But it’s not like anypony could blame him. With her perfectly white coat, her beautifully styled purple mane and tail, her trio of diamonds as a cutie mark, and her lascivious figure made her the dream mare of many of the Ponyville stallions, and quite a few mares.
“Now simmer down, sally.” A heavily accented voice called out. “Ah don’t think that Twilight here would starve Spike to get ‘im to work,” Stepping out of the group, Applejack fixed her emerald green eyes in a pointed stare at Twilight. “Ain’t that right, Twi?”
“Of course not!” Twilight defended, giving the bright orange earth pony an insulted look. “And I’m kind of offended that you would even suggest that.”
Pulling her brown stetson off her blonde mane, Applejack took a hesitant step back and attempted to stammer out an excuse, before Rainbow Dash jumped in to defend her. “Now hold on there, Twi, she wasn’t trying to suggest anything bad! She was just sayin’ that you tend to get caught up in what you’re doing and forget to feed yourself, so it wouldn’t be hard to imagine you forgetting to feed Spike.”
With a sky blue coat, bright magenta eyes, and a rainbow colored mane and tail, Rainbow Dash was easily the most uniquely colored ponies present, down to her rainbow lightning bolt cutie mark. One of the two pegasi, and definitely one of the more adventurous ponies, of the group, Rainbow Dash was always quick to jump in and defend a friend.
“Oh Dashey,” Pinkie Pie cut in, her bright blue eyes seeming to have a smile as wide as her own. “Don’t be upset, I’m sure they didn't mean it. Besides,” she paused in her constant bouncing to look at the gathered ponies, the temperature in the room seeming to drop a few degrees. Her bright pink coat seemed to dull a few shades, and her poofy pink mane and tail seemed to lose some of their bounce.“It’s not nice to argue with your friends.” As soon as she finished speaking, both the room and the pink party pony returned to normal, as she started bouncing around, humming a happy tune to herself.
With a squeak, the final member of the group made her presence known. “Umm, maybe we should just get to why we are all here, and maybe eat, if that’s alright with everypony?”
Seeing everypony in the room turn to her, Fluttershy released another embarrassed squeak, before the butter yellow mare attempted to hide behind her pink mane. “Oh dear, I hope I didn’t insult anypony, or make the argument worse. We aren’t arguing, are we? I’m sorry. I was so busy trying to calm my animal friends after that explosion that I missed lunch…” Fluttershy slowly trailed off, voice getting quieter until nopony could understand her.
With a sigh, Twilight turned and lead the group towards the kitchen. “Fluttershy is right, we should talk about why I brought you all here, and since the Princess hasn’t responded to my letter yet, we might as well do it over lunch.” Chuckling at the vacant expression on Spike’s face, she started heading for the stove. “Don’t worry, Spike, I can take care of lunch. You did such a good job with your chores.”
Snapping out of the daze Rarity’s affection left him in, Spike quickly got between Twilight and the stove. “Oh hay no, Twilight! Last time I let you make lunch, you ended up setting a daisy sandwich on fire!”
Blushing in embarrassment, Twilight shot Spike a quick glare before seating herself at the table with her friends.
“It’s alright, darling,” Rarity attempted to sooth her. “Sweetie Belle managed to burn juice the last time she made breakfast.”
“It’s not my fault!” Twilight pouted. “How was I supposed to know you toast the bread before you make the sandwich.”
With an incredulous look, Applejack spoke up. “You ain’t serious, are ya?” When no denial was forthcoming, she just shook her head in disbelief. “And we let ya teleport us all the time…”
“Anyways!” Twilight cut in, trying to ignore the snickering of her friends, “Let’s get to why we are all here today. As I’m sure most of you saw, and heard, earlier today there was a loud explosion to the north west of Ponyville, before a meteor was seen traveling south east over the town and crashing in the Everfree. I have already sent a letter to the Princess detailing what I saw, and we are now awaiting a response as to whether we should investigate or not. Does anypony have anything to add?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow was the first to speak up. “I was napping on a cloud north of the town, when that thing entered the atmosphere, that first boom it let off, it cleared all the clouds in that section of town. Those clouds are all held together by magic, so that meteor had to have been magic too, to be able to clear all those clouds.”
“Wait, you're saying that meteor had to have been of magical origins, because it broke the spell holding the clouds together?” Twilight questioned.
Dash nodded.
“But you also said ‘when it entered the atmosphere’, correct?” Twilight asked, looking more excited by the second.
“Yeah, given the speed it came in at, and given the trajectory, and its angle of its descent, there’s no way it could have originated somewhere on Equis.” Noticing the dumbfounded looks her friends were giving her, Dash crossed her forelegs over her chest and made a pouty face. “What? I have to know about stuff like that for my stunt flying. Just because I never finished flight school doesn’t mean I don’t know things.”
“Well forgive us if this seems rude, darling, but I don’t think anypony expected words like ‘trajectory’ and ‘angle of descent’ to leave your mouth. You’ve always seemed like the type to just do, and not think about it.”
Face turning red with either anger or embarrassment, Dash looked away before finding something interesting to look on the ceiling.
“Come on girls, we’re getting off subject again.” Twilight spoke up, attempting to rein them all in. “If what Dash said is correct, then we could be dealing with an extraterrestrial spell. If that’s the case, then it’s even more important that we find where that meteor landed and secure the site, before anypony stumbles into it and hurts themselves.” Her stomach starting to rumble, she called out to Spike. “You almost done in there, Spike?”
“Yeah,” he responded. “Just dishing everypony up right…” He was cut off by a belch before he could finish speaking. Before Twilight could ask if it was a response from the Princess, he came running into the room carrying a tray of sandwiches and a scroll. “The Princess just got back to us, and the food is done.”
Grabbing a sandwich and the scroll, Twilight busied herself reading the scroll while eating, before grabbing a blank scroll and a quill. Writing a quick few words on the scroll, she rolled it up and handed it to Spike. “Send this please, Spike. Once the Princess responds to it, you can go and relax. You’ve done enough for today.”
Sending the scroll away with a smile and a burst of flames, Spike seated himself behind a stack of his salvaged gem cakes and began munching away.
“Alright girls, the Princess would like us to venture into the forest and see if we can find the crash site. We shouldn’t have to worry about wildlife, as the impact should have scared them all away. A group of guards are on their way down from Canterlot, and will be meeting us at the crash site. I just sent her a letter detailing what Dash told us about it’s suspected extraterrestrial magical origins, it shouldn’t take her long to respond, then we will head out.”
“But darling, why have the guards meet us at the crash site?” Rarity questioned. “Why not have them meet us here? Surely she doesn’t want us wandering through that wretched forest on our own, now does she?”
“The Princess said that whatever it is, it gave off an immense amount of magic, she could feel it all the way in Canterlot. She wants us moving in to secure it first because we are the closest to it, and it will take some time for the guard to mobilize and move in. Princess Celestia doesn’t want to risk anypony stumbling on to whatever might be in that crater. On the off chance that it is some type of powerful magical relic, having it on the loose and unaccounted for could cause serious problems.”
No sooner had Twilight finished speaking, then Spike had belched another scroll. Picking up the scroll and giving it a quick read, she nodded once to herself before speaking again.
“She said if it is indeed a piece of magic from outside of Equis, it’s even more important we find it, and secure it, before anypony else does. If nopony has any questions, then we will head out now.”
After a quick affirmative from the group, showing they all were ready, they gathered what they needed and headed out.
Consciousness slowly returned to Manet, and with it, a haze of pain that seemed to block all other senses. With a groan, she attempted to sit up, but the searing pain coursing through her entire body caused her to cease her attempts and lay back down.
"If this is what being revived feels like, I apologize to everyone I ever let die, accidental or otherwise. It hurts!" She moaned. She slowly adjusted herself, trying to find a position that was less agonizing than her current one.
Eventually she settled for laying on her side, her arms and legs stretched out in front of her. After taking a few minutes to allow the pain from her movements to subside, Manet decided to try and cast a heal on herself, to lessen the pain she was experiencing. As she attempted to tap into her magic, she noticed that it seemed… different. It was still there, but it didn’t feel as it should. The same could be said about her connection to the spirits. It was still there, but it felt… almost alien. Momentarily ignoring the change, she attempted to cast a Riptide on herself, and was rewarded with the pleasant feeling of healing waters drenching her body, slowly alleviating her aches and pains.
After what seemed like hours, the haze slowly lifted, allowing her to get a sense of what kind of shape her body was in. As the haze lifted, she began to notice that her body felt different, too. Her hips felt misaligned, like they weren't meant for her to stand upright on, and her hands… Her hands felt like they weren't there at all! There was still a ghost of their presence, like a bit of her essence extended out past her body, but it didn't feel as if they were physically there.
Opening her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that she seemed to be lying in some type of crater. As her vision started to clear she noticed smoking tree branches, and other pieces of vegetation, scattered around the crater.
‘This doesn’t make sense,’ she thought, lifting her head to get a better view of her surroundings. ‘There was hardly anything that could grow in Icecrown, and what could grow there certainly wasn’t green.’
Sitting up further, she continued to scan the area, until her eyes fell upon her mace and shield, lying not too far from herself. Reaching for her equipment, she paused as she saw something that shocked her. Her hands were gone! In their place, she had a set of hooves. A quick glance at her legs showed they still ended in hooves as well, although they were no longer cloven as they should be. Further inspection of her body revealed that not only did her arms now end in hooves, but the joints in them seemed to be reversed as well. Not only that, but her body was longer as well, continuing up into a drastically lengthened neck and head. As she looked herself over, Manet couldn't help but find the similarities between her current form and one of the equine mounts that other races of the Alliance seemed to favor.
"So I seem to be some type of horse," she mumbled to herself. Finally managing to get to her hooves, she noticed something that interested her. "Well, what ever happened to change me appears to have effected my armor as well."
Her armor, while aesthetically looked exactly the same, was now formed to fit her decidedly equine shape. Her leg guards, which previously took on the appearance of a full length armored skirt, now seemed to hug close to her body before reaching her hind legs, where it flared out into what could only be described as an armored dress, leaving ample room for her legs and tail to move around while still offering the protection she was accustomed to. Her tunic seemed to be one of the least changed pieces of armor, along wither her spaulders. Both sat on her body almost exactly as they had before, with just slight adjustments to size and positioning to compensate for her change in stature. Her headpiece had changed shape to match the shape of her new head, and the hood that previously tucked in to the tunic to protect her neck now extended all the way down her neck like a crinet, its pattern of woven fur, metal, and bone matching up nicely with the rest of her armor.
"Well, at least I'm familiar with the whole 'quadrupedal locomotion' thing, thanks to my Ghost Wolf spell," she said, stretching out her newly positioned limbs in an attempt to rid them of their slowly diminishing pain. With a shudder she paused. "That, and the week I spent as a sheep. Hell of a way to learn that the Arch Magi of the Kirin Tor don't have a sense of humor."
Walking over to where her armaments lie, she stopped and looked down at her forehoof. "I'm glad to see my gear is all full intact, but how will I be able to wield it?" Puzzling over her lack of hands, Manet's gaze slowly drifted from her hoof to her mace and back again. Still feeling the sensation of her hand being there, she held her hoof in front of her face, flexing the phantom limbs. Although there was no visual difference, she could still feel her 'hand' opening and closing. An idea forming in her head, she reached down and put her hoof on her mace, before closing her 'hand' around the handle and lifting up. She dropped the mace in surprise when, instead of staying in place as she had expected, the mace stuck to the bottom of her hoof. Picking up the mace again, she inspected where it met her hoof, hoping to find some clue as to how it was staying so firmly in place. Her weapon appeared to be sticking to the bottom of her hoof, as if it were magnetized, and she recognized the familiar sensation of the weapon in her grip.
Leaning back to balance on her hind legs, Manet reached down with her other hoof and grabbed her shield. After securing it to her foreleg, she attempted to enter a battle stance. After a bit of flailing around, and nearly falling over a few times, Manet found that she could use her tail to counterbalance herself, allowing her to get into a comfortable crouched stance.
Taking a few practice swings with her mace, she chuckled to herself. "I wonder what Moriza would say if she saw me like this."
Manet's breathing hitched as she felt icy fear grip her heart. "Moriza! My allies! What happened to them!" Looking around, Manet frantically searched the crater for signs of her raid group.
"Oh no, this isn't good. Where are they? What happened? Last I remember, we had engaged the Lich King." Manet sat on her haunches, eyes rapidly darting from side to side. "I remember exploding balls of ice..." Her eyes slowly widened as her memories came flooding back. "One of them was heading right for Moriza! I remember jumping in front of it, then falling. After that... Darkness..."
"So how did I end up here," she paused to look at her transmogrified body. "Looking like this."
As she sat there, puzzling over what could have happened to cause this, she heard the sound of approaching voices. She stopped moving and attempted to listen to what they were saying, but as they got close enough for her to distinguish four voices, the voices stopped. As she was preparing to climb out of the hole to confront the approaching individuals, she heard the sound of wolves growling, followed by multiple women screaming in fear. Her body reacted without having to think about it, and before she knew it she was in between the wolves and the sources of the screaming she had heard.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As they made their way down a familiar path through the Everfree forest, Twilight slowed her pace so that she could address her fellow Elements. “Alright girls, seeing as none of us are all that familiar with the forest, I was thinking we could stop off at Zecora’s hut and see if she could help us out.”
“That sounds like a great idea tah me, sugarcube.” Applejack spoke up. “Ah don’t know about the rest ah y’all, but Ah’d feel a whole lot safer if’n we had somepony who knew the forest with us.”
Getting nods of agreement from the rest of the girls, Twilight led the way to Zecora’s. A short walk later found them outside of Zecora’s hut, with Twilight knocking on the door.
“Why hello there, dear friends of mine. I was just preparing to visit and request help, if you have the time. Something has caused a great disturbance you see, here in the forest of Everfree.”
“That’s actually why we’re here, Zecora.” Twilight responded. “Some type of meteor seems to have crashed in the forest, and the Princess asked us to investigate it. Seeing as none of us are very familiar with the forest, we wanted to ask if you could act as a guide for us.”
“Well then, it is very good that you have come to me, for there are few better guides in the Everfree.” With a smile, Zecora strapped her staff across her back and stepped outside, closing the door. “Come, let us be on our way, so we can finish this venture, while it is still day.”
With the newest member of the group ready, they set off in the direction of the crash sight. After a long hour of walking through the thick underbrush, the finally found the first signs of the crash.
“Does anypony else feel that?” Twilight asked, slowing to a stop. “There’s the residual magic of a really strong spell absolutely saturating the area her.” Her horn started to glow, and after a few seconds of nothing happening, she gave it a few taps with her hoof before it started sputtering and sparking. “It’s completely overpowering my magic, I can’t even levitate anything.”
“I feel it too, Twi Twi.” Pinkie giggle-snorted. “It feels like I’m walking through a bowl of pudding! Oh, oh! Can it be cherry flavored? Or maybe chimichanga flavored! Or both! We can make it chimicherrychanga flavored pudding!”
Shoving a hoof in her mouth, Rainbow cut her off with a groan. “Ok, we get it Pinkie, you can feel it, too. But don’t you think we should try to be quiet, just in case whatever it is giving off all that magic is hostile?”
“Dash is right, we should keep the talking to a minimum from here on out. Zecora,” Twilight turned to address the zebra. “With the amount of raw magic in the air, I'm one hundred percent certain that whatever fell from the sky was no normal meteor. Are you familiar with this part of the Everfree?”
With a shake of her head, Zecora responded. “To this part of the forest, I dare not wander. Timberwolves hunt here, and if they catch you, you’re a goner. To continue this venture, are you sure? This much magic, to the wolves is a lure.”
“I’m sure Zecora, the Princess asked us to secure the crash sight, and she is sending guards to meet us. If they went by chariot, they should already be there. Either way, back up is on the way. We should be fine.”
Giving no response, but a silent nod, Zecora continued leading the way. They had barely traveled more than a few meters before the trees opened up, revealing a large crater in the middle of a clearing. As Twilight stepped forward to inspect the crater, a growling to her left stopped her in her tracks. Slowly turning, she came muzzle to snout with a timberwolf. With a scream, she jumped back towards Zecora and the other Elements, whom all took up defensive stances as a pack of over a dozen wolves spread out behind the alpha. Just when it seemed as though the alpha was about to pounce, a figure leapt out of the crater and positioned itself between the ponies and the wolves.
The figure itself was quite a sight, clad in a very strange looking set of armor, standing on it’s hind legs. The armor itself was of a unique design, made of what appeared to be links of metal and animal hides stitched together, all seemingly coated in a layer of frost. The chestpiece had sleeves that went halfway down the figures forelegs, revealing a small amount of bluish purple fur. On her forelegs where gauntlets made of the same combination of fur and metal, with a thicker bit of fur further up the leg, to protect from the cold this gear seemed to be made for. Over the figure's head was a hood, with a pair of goat-like horns and a large set of antlers fed through holes cut into the material. The lower half of the figure was covered in a full length armored skirt, completely covering their rear legs, but leaving an almost serpentine tail poking out from under the skirt, seemingly used to help balance the figure on their hind legs.
Before anypony had time to distinguish whether the newcomer was friend or foe, two of the wolves leapt at it. The figure, whose back was facing the girls, raised a shield it wielded in its left hoof, before using it to knock the first wolf back. As the second wolf closed in, the figures mace, wielded in its right hoof, started glowing red, before it smashed the wolf in the head with it. The blow sent the wolf flying back towards the pack, while also igniting it. Before the first wolf could recover, the mysterious figure point its mace at it, as a red spark jumped off of it, igniting the second wolf as well.
All of this happened in the span of a few seconds, and while everypony was busy gaping at the spectacle that just took place before them, the figure glanced over it’s shoulder, revealing the figures face. Although the being's face was obscured by shadows, the ponies could see a set of glowing blue eyes, and a set of tusks jutting out from under the hood. As Twilight prepared to step forward and confront this strange creature, they spoke in a very distinctive feminine voice. “Greetings, friends, may I offer you assistance?”
“Wh- who are you?”
“Now isn’t the time for introductions, just know that I am a friend.” Looking back towards the wolves, the apparent mare held her shield and mace to the sides. “Now, if two of you could hold these for just a minute?”
Applejack and Rainbow Dash stepped up and took the weapons from the mare, almost dropping them in surprise at how heavy they actually were. No sooner had she been relieved of the two, before she reached into the bags strapped to her side and pulled out a twin set of axes. Holding the axes in front of her, she entered a battle stance, one of the axes glowing red, while the other started glowing white. With a stomp of her hoof, four small pillars, about shoulder high, erupted from the ground, before the mysterious mare charged at the wolves. As she charged, the front left pillar took on a red glow, and to everypony's surprise started lobbing small fireballs at the wolves. The rear right pillar took on a blue glow, and once again to the amazement of the mares, started releasing a light mist through the air. As the mist made contact with the ponies, it began healing all the scratches and cuts they had obtained on their journey. The last two pillars, while not doing anything noticeable, gave off a yellow and white glow.
As the mysterious fighter reached the pack of wolves, she released a flurry of blows that, quite literally, unleashed a storm centered on her. Whenever she hit with the red axe, it ignited the wolves, and when she hit with the white axe, the storm would lash out, the violent winds tearing limbs from the wolves. After almost half of the pack had been reduced to kindling and ash, the alpha let loose a howl before retreating into the forest, the remainder of the wolves following.
No sooner had the wolves retreated then a horn sounded from above, followed shortly by multiple chariots filled with ponies clad in golden armor dropping out of the sky, surrounding the mystery mare. As more chariots landed in the clearing, one pony, who was clad in purple and gold armor, jumped from his chariot as soon as it touched down, taking off at a gallop towards the group of mares.
“Twily!”
Recognition dawned on Twilight's face, before she ran to meet the armored pony. “Shiny!”
The two met in a hug, before the armored pony broke the hug and removed their helmet, revealing a white unicorn stallion with a two-toned blue mane. “We heard Timberwolves, is everypony ok? Who’s that armored pony?”
Twilight, realizing the guards now their saviour surrounded, weapons trained on her, started to panic. “Shiny, stop, don’t hurt her!”
“Her?” he questioned “Who is she, a friend of your?”
“Maybe, I don’t know… She said she was a friend.” Flinching at the skeptical look he gave her, Twilight continued. “Well she just jumped out of a crater to take protect us from a pack of timberwolves by herself! If she wanted to hurt us, don’t you think it would have been a lot easier to let the wolves do it for her?”
The skeptical look not leaving his face, Shining continued to question her. “What did she need to protect you for? As strong as your magic is, you could have easily held a few timberwolves off while you waited for us to get here.”
This time, it was Shining’s turn to flinch at the look her received. “Can you not feel the amount of raw magic in the air?” Twilight was almost irate at this point. “Have you not tried to cast any spells since you landed? Not even levitate anything?! There is so much raw mana in the air that I wouldn't even be able to levitate a feather, much less hold off a pack of hungry timberwolves! But let’s just ignore the inability to cast anything for a minute, shall we? Not only was there well over a dozen wolves, but there is also six other ponies with me, meaning that if I were to try and fight them at all, I would need to worry about protecting them."
“I could protect myself” Rainbow Dash grumbled, before a jab in the side and a scolding look from Applejack silenced her.
“And if I were to make a shield?” Twilight continued to rant. “It would need to be large enough to hold all of us, which would use more magic! A shield that large, with that many wolves clawing at it, who knows how long I could have kept it up! And of course we had no idea how long it would take for the guard to get here, so I would have been worrying about that, making concentrating on a shield that much harder!”
“Answer me this, for I need something clear.” Zecora whispered to the group, trying not to get pulled into Twilight’s rage. “Did she not say that the guard was already here?”
Overhearing Zecora, Twilight whirled around, advancing on her friends. “Well I lied! Zecora sounded like she wanted to turn back, but Princess Celestia was counting on us to get here, and I knew the guards were on their way! In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they did beat us here! But then we got here, and the guards weren’t here, and the wolves were, and that one wolf got so close I could feel it’s breath on my face, and they were going to attack us, and I couldn’t even use my magic to protect us! We all almost died, and it’s my fault!” As Twilight ranted, she slowly shifted from furious to remorseful until she finally collapsed in a sobbing heap.
As her friends rushed in and pulled her into a hug, trying to comfort her, Shining Armor made to comfort her as well, before turning and consulting his guards. “Stand down men, I don’t think our friend over there will give us any problems.”
At his order, the guards lowered their weapons and dispersed, assisting the rest of their colleagues in securing the area. No longer feeling threatened, Manet stowed her weapons and trotted over to Shining. “Is she doing ok?”
Turning to face the approaching mare, Shining inspected her with a cautious eye, noticing for the first time that under the hood, this individual seemed to be wearing a skull of some sort on her head. As she approached, his guard training instantly picked up on the experience and combat prowess her movements, and way of carrying herself communicated to all who knew what to look for. Not fully trusting her, despite his sister’s insistence that she was friendly, Shining readied a shield spell as she approached.
“She’s fine, just a little stressed is all. She has her friends to help her though, so she’ll be alright.” Shining relaxed his stance a bit, and let his gratitude show through his normally stoic façade. “I can’t thank you enough for saving my baby sister. If you hadn’t stepped in when you did, it sounds like we may not have made it in time.” Putting his stoic face back on, Shining continued. “Gratitude aside, I hope you understand that you are still an individual seemingly dressed for war, in a zone that is currently being quarantined. As Captain of Her Majesty's Royal Guard, I’m going to have to ask you to remove your helmet and identify yourself.”
“Certainly, Captain.”
Sitting on her haunches, Manet reached up and slowly removed her headpiece. As Shining watched her remove the helmet, he instantly noticed that the tusks and the antlers seemed to be part of it, although the horns were her own. He was surprised to see that, besides the horns, the mare under the mask seemed to be very much a pony. Her coat was a light, bluish purple, and her eyes opened to reveal two glowing blue orbs. Had she not been in full armor, he could almost assume from her looks alone that she was some type of noble mare, too prim and proper to get her hooves dirty.
Noticing his surprised stare, Manet chuckled. “Let me guess, not what you expected?”
“Wha.. I..” Shining stammered a bit before regaining his composure. “I apologize, it’s just, when I heard you had single hoofedly held off a pack of timberwolves by yourself, I was expecting something a little more…”
“Rugged?” Manet finished, noticing the Captain struggling to find an appropriate word. “Think nothing of it. With a reputation like mine, you are definitely not the first to have that type of reaction.”
“Reputation like yours?” Shining asked cautiously, not liking the way that sounded.
“To answer your question, let me introduce myself.” With a flourish of her forehooves, Manet balanced on her hind hooves before offering Shining a polite bow. “My name is Manet of Exodar, Adventurer of the Alliance and Shaman, trained in the arts of restoration and enhancement. It is a pleasure, Captain.”
“Exodar? Alliance?” Shining questioned. “I’m not familiar with either of those, where exactly are they?”
“From what I’ve gathered since waking up in that crater, I’m willing to bet nowhere near here.”
“Wait, you were what fell from the sky? Well that definitely helps a bit. I have a few more questions for you, and I’m sure you have some of your own, but they are going to have to wait. I’ve spent enough time talking already, and we need to get this area locked down. Stay close, as soon as we have the area secured, I will be taking you to the castle. I’m sure the Princess will be interested in speaking with you.”
Receiving a nod in response, Shining made his way over to his troops to relay new orders. Manet, not wanting to interrupt the girls hug session, decided to clean and inspect her weapons while she waited. Grabbing her shield and mace from where they were dropped, she set off to look for a place to sit, before noticing one of the guards messing with her totems. Seeing him poking her Searing Totem with a spear, she was quick to speak up. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
With a roll of his eyes, the guard scoffed before poking the totem again. The Searing Totem, in response, started glowing red before lobbing a fireball at the guard. With a very feminine scream, the guard dropped to the ground and started rolling around.
With a scoff and eye roll of her own, Manet waved a hoof at the downed guard, casting a Riptide on him before walking away. The healing waters instantly extinguished the flames and started healing his burns, causing the guard to sigh in relief.
With a quiet chuckle, Manet took a seat against a tree, pulling out her cleaner and tools. 'I still don't know where I am, or exactly how I got here. Maybe I should ask one of these equines next time I get a chance.' She paused in her cleaning and grimaced. 'And perhaps I should ask what they are called. Referring to them as equines doesn't seem right.'
Looking over the first of her two axes, Manet nodded in approval before slipping it into her bag and beginning work on its twin. 'I also need to find out what happened to my allies. Being down a healer in a fight as rough as that... I hope they made it.' With a frown on her face, she started scrubbing harder, the sap left on her weapons being somewhat difficult to remove.
Finishing cleaning her second axe, she inspected it for damage before stowing it. Reaching for her mace next, Manet paused and stared at her extended forehoof. 'And these changes...' Manet raised the hoof to her face, fixing it with an intense glare. 'This feels wrong! This is not how I am supposed to be! The light of the Naaru is still in me, but for how long? Will they reject this new form of mine? And how did I come to be this way! These equines may know, but if I asked would they tell me?' Looking over the ponies spread across the clearing, she noted that they varied wildly in coat color, and that some had either wings or a horn, and that some had neither. 'They don't seem to focus too much on difference in appearance like some races do, but I am still an outsider. Would they even be willing to help me? If they offer it, can I trust them enough to take it? They may just be looking for leverage over me. Or they may be just like the blood elves...'
With a shake of her head to clear her thoughts, Manet grabbed her next piece of equipment and set to cleaning it with renewed vigor, intent on keeping her mind off her current situation.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Manet had just finished cleaning her weapons when the sound of hoofsteps signaled the approach of multiple ponies. Looking up, she spotted the mares she had saved earlier approaching her. ”Ah, it is good to see you are feeling better, friend.”
Twilight pinned her ears back on her head as she flushed with embarrassment. “Ah, yes, I’m feeling much better, thank you.” Twilight paused, taking a deep breath to regain her composure. “My friends and I just wanted to thank you for saving us, as well as introduce ourselves, seeing as we didn’t have the opportunity before. My name is Twilight Sparkle, student of magic, and Ponyville’s librarian.”
As she finished, she moved to the side as and orange pony stepped up. “The name’s Applejack,” She paused to offer a hoof, continuing once she had shaken hooves with Manet. “Mah family ‘n’ Ah own and operate Sweet Apple Acres, on o’ the largest and most productive apple farms in Equestria.”
“An apple farm you say?” Manet questioned. “And you are able to get by selling just apples? Most farms I have been to usually grow several kinds of crops.”
“Sure as sugar are!” Applejack replied, a hint of pride in her eyes. “Here in Equestria, apples are a staple food, and no one grows ‘em better than us Apples.”
Next a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane flew forward. “I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria and future Wonderbolt!” Rainbow landed, puffing her chest out in pride. “Oh, I’m also the current Weather Manager for Ponyville.” Spotting the look of confusion on Manet’s face, she dropped her bravado. “What?”
“What exactly does a Weather Manager do? And who are these ‘Wonderbolts’?”
“What do you mean, ‘who are the Wonderbolts?! They are only the best and most awesome flyers in all of Equestria! Or at least they will be, once I join them. And a Weather Manager does exactly what it sounds like, they manage the weather team in their assigned town. How else do you think it would get done?”
“You seem to forget that I am not from around here. Where I come from, the weather does as it pleases. Only the strongest magic users are able to effect the weather, and that’s just a localized event.”
A white unicorn, who seemed to have an air of sophistication around her, was the next to step forward. “My name is Rarity Belle, owner and fashion designer of Carousel Boutique, and I must say, it is wonderful to meet you, and not just because you saved our lives! You have such a wonderful coat color, and I would just love to make something for you one day.” Stepping to the side, she revealed a yellow pegasus with a pink mane hiding behind her. “And this here is Fluttershy, she’s Ponyville’s resident animal expert. Say hello, darling.”
The yellow pegasus shrunk in on herself with a squeak when Manet tried to greet her, so she turned her attention instead to the white unicorn.
“A tailor, are you? While your offer is appreciated, I prefer mail armor. However, it is very nice to meet both of you.”
“Armor, darling, what are you talking about? I was simply suggesting a nice dress”
“My apologies, if it is a simple dress you would like to make me I would very much like that. My previous line of work didn’t leave many opportunities to dress up.”
Before Rarity had a chance to respond, a blur of pink and blue appeared between them.
“Hi! My name’s Pinkie Pie! Premiere pink party pony of the perfectly party-rific Ponyville! My favorite color is pink and my favorite flavor of cake is cake! Oh, and I work at Sugarcube Corner. What’s your favorite color? Do you like cake? What flavour?”
“Pheta vi acahachi.” Manet mumbled under her breath, taking a few steps back in alarm. Her eyes focused on the no longer obnoxiously close pink blur to reveal a pink pony with a mane seemingly made of cotton candy. “Please, for your own safety, do not do that again. I do not react well to surprises.”
“You don’t like surprises?!” Pinkie gasped. “How could anypony not like surprises?”
“As an adventurer, I spent all my time traveling, fighting forces that would threaten the Light.” Manet explained. “Usually, when I received surprises, they weren’t the good kind.”
“Aww, does that mean I can’t throw you a surprise party?” Pinkie pouted.
“You may throw me a party, I would just prefer it not be of the ‘surprise’ variety. And to answer your questions, my favorite color is green, and my favorite flavor of cake is chocolate.”
“Yay!” Pinkie cheered, before bouncing off, leaving the last member of the group to introduce herself.
“Greetings, strange friend, my name is Zecora. I am glad you survived whatever strange magics brought you before us. Were it not for you, our lives would be forfeit, though I think it is your connection to the spirits we have to thank for it.”
“So you know of the spirits as well?”
“Yes, for you see, I am a shaman and alchemist of the Zebrican ponies. I have met many in my travels claiming connection to the spirits, but most have been phonies. May I ask where you received your training, for your voice with the spirits is quite commanding.”
“I was trained under the guidance of the Broken Seer of our people, Farseer Nobundo. With his guidance I was able to form a connection with, and receive blessing from, both my people’s ancestral spirits, as well as the elemental spirits. Tell me, what is your favored element? My bond with water is strongest, aiding me in my abilities as a Restoration Shaman.”
“The bond you have with the spirits is quite rare here, I’m afraid. Most shamans of these lands can commune with the spirits, but not call for aid. My ability to commune is why I am here in the Everfree. The forest is filled with tortured souls, and it is my duty to set them free. Those wolves you fought earlier are amalgamations of magic, and spirits who died a most violent death. I must thank you for freeing them, for with their defeat, they thanked you with their final breath.”
“I could feel their suffering, and had to put an end to it.”
“Excuse me,” Twilight cut in, taking advantage of a lull in the conversation. “You said you trained under a ‘Broken Seer’, What exactly is that? Seer is the title normally given to a pony who can predict the future, or at least here it is, but what does the title Broken mean?”
“Broken isn’t a title,” Manet explained. “Broken is the name given to the Draenei who have lost their connection to the Light. You see, twenty-five thousand years ago, our people were set upon by the Burning Legion, torturing and killing any of our kind that refuse to become Eredar. Eradar is the original name of our race, however when the legion invaded, most of our people became infected with Fel energy and joined them. When all hope seemed lost, Prophet Velen’s prayers were answered, and the Naaru, K’ure appeared before him. With guidance from K’ure, Prophet Velen led the remainder of our people in fleeing our world. The Naaru, along with helping us flee our world, blessed our people with their Light.”
“With this blessing,” She continued. “Our people started calling themselves ‘Draenei’, which translates to ‘Exiled Ones’ in our tongue, and began searching the galaxy for a place to settle, until the day we could destroy the Burning Legion once and for all. Prophet Velen has been leading us this entire time, using his Gift of Sight to help us avoid the Legion.”
Twilight, having pulled multiple scrolls and a quill out of nopony knows where, had been hoofwriting everything Manet had been saying. “How did this seer become Broken? And what is fel energy?”
“Nobundo was formerly a Vindicator in one of our greatest cities, Shattrath. However, when the Burning Legion found it, they infected our Orc allies with their fel taint and turned them against us. Nobundo was one of the few heroes who survived the fall of the city, however the fel energy deformed him and cut him off from the Light. Being unable to call upon the light, Nobundo sought other ways of fighting the Legion and received training in the ways of the shaman. As for fel energy, it is the demonic energy given off by the demons of the Burning Legion, twisting and corrupting all it comes into contact with.”
"And this 'Burning Legion', you said it is an army of demons? Are you sure their demons? I wasn't aware any even existed outside of Tartarus."
"I can assure you that we are familiar enough with the beings that have hunted my people for twenty-five millennia to know that they are, in fact, demons." Manet responded in a curt tone. "I have answered a few of your questions, but I have some of my own I would like to ask as well."
"Oh, of course! And I'm sorry if I insulted you at all, it's just that everything I have ever read says that demons can't exist outside of their realm," Twilight apologized. "What was it you wanted to know?"
"What exactly are all of you? It seems rude to refer to you all as equines, but that is the closest species I can think of to your appearance."
"While we are a type of equine, as a whole our species refers to itself as 'ponies'. Breaking it up further in to sub-species, ponies with horns like myself are called unicorns, ponies with wings like Dash are called pegasai, and ponies with neither like Pinkie Pie are called earth ponies."
"And what of this nation? What is the name of the land I find myself in?"
"This forest is called the Everfree Forest, and it's located in the heart of Equestria, which is a nation ruled by the royal sisters Princesses Celestia and Luna."
As Manet prepared to ask another question, they were interrupted by the approach of Shining. “Sorry to interrupt, but the guard has finished securing the area. Twilight, I want you and the rest of your friends to get on the chariots. We’re taking on new friend here to see the Princess.”
Twilight pouted, before stashing her quill and now filled scrolls in the same mysterious place she got them from. “You heard him girls, looks like we’ve got a meeting with the Princess, let’s go. I’m sure she’s anxious to see what we found.”
Manet followed Twilight, and the rest of her friends, onto the chariots. They didn’t have to wait long before a few pegasus guards hooked themselves up and took off, the group heading straight for a castle perched precariously on the side of a mountain.
Shining Armor sat quietly in his corner of the chariot, eyes locked on one of the two other passengers riding with him. The chariots themselves were fairly large, designed to seat six ponies comfortably. Made of stained white wood and trimmed in gold, they were quite luxurious looking from the outside, and even more so from the inside, with everything being lined in red silk, and large red pillows for seating. Despite the size and comfort of the chariots, it was decided that, because of the length of the ride to Canterlot, they would split the group between two separate transports, rather than squeezing into one. Because of this, Twilight and the rest of her Element friends rode in one chariot, while Shining and, due to her own insistence, Zecora rode in the other with Manet. The mare in question had spent the entire ride so far just staring listlessly at her forehooves, having said not a word since their take off.
With a tired sigh, Shining turned his attention out the window, to the chariot his sister and her friends were riding in. Although he could not see inside, due to the enchantment that made the walls of the chariot appear to be solid wood from the outside, it was still comforting for him to see them safely flying beside him.
‘I almost lost her today.’ He thought to himself. A quick glance confirmed that Manet was sitting quietly in her seat. ‘If it wasn’t for this new pony, I don’t think we would have made it in time.’
Sighing yet again, Shining let his head thump against the window, attempting to distract himself with the scenery passing by below them. ‘The big brother in me wants to get on my knees and thank her profusely for saving my sister’s life. The guard in me recognizes how dangerous she is, and wants to strip her of her armor and weapons until we can confirm that she isn’t a threat. I hope I’m making the right choice, bringing her before the Princess like this.’
Any further thought on the subject was interrupted by the sound of somepony shifting in their seat, followed by hoofsteps moving across the cabin. Turning his attention back to the mare they were escorting, he saw Zecora take a seat beside Manet, before resting a hoof on her shoulder and speaking.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Shortly after take off, Manet had decided to occupy herself with inspecting her new form, as well as thinking on everything that had happened since her awakening. She had learned during her time adventuring that stopping to think while in the heat of battle tended to get you hurt, so now that she had time to relax safely, she was going to take advantage of it.
Bringing her hands, now forehooves, up to her face, she began thinking on her transformation, as well as the fate of her allies and friend. ‘This is strange... While I am no stranger to transmogrification, this feels different… more permanent. I’ve been Polymorphed and Hexed before, and that always feels like wearing a suite, or a costume of some sort. I could feel the magic layered over myself, and I could still feel my true form underneath. But this… This feels like an actual skin. Like this is how my body has always been, with no trace of my old self underneath.’
Reaching inside herself, she could still feel her magic, and her connection to the spirits. ‘My magic is still here, and I can still feel the spirits, although both feel… different. They came to my aid in battle against those strange creatures, but it feels like they aren’t used to being called upon in such a way.‘
Glancing up, she saw Shining Armor staring out the window at the carriage that flew alongside them, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. ‘And the individuals here, they are strange. Not weak, but definitely not used to large amounts of conflict. Very peaceful, unlike the citizens of Azeroth. This, along with everything else I’ve learned since waking in that crater, seems to point to the fact that I am no longer on Azeroth, and that I may be in an entirely different universe altogether.’
Returning her gaze to her hooves, a frown appeared on Manet’s face. ‘Although my people are no strangers to traveling between dimensions, I have never heard of one that altered our form in any ways, much less making us appear as the locals do.’ Her frown deepened as she continued this line of thought. ‘And if this is a dimension my people are unfamiliar with, will they be able to find me? Will anyone even know where to look for me? I know Moriza will, but what clues could have been left by my sudden departure to even hint at the fact that I fell into another reality. Did she even survive the fight with the Scourge Lord? Did any of them? We were doing so well against him until I got knocked off, but would they be able to survive down a healer.’
Manet’s thought continued to spiral downward until she was broken out of her funk by a hoof resting gently on her shoulder, and the melodic rhymes of Zecora.
“What is this look of gloom about, my friend? You are simply meeting with the Princess, not with your end. Although I have never met her myself, I have heard she is quite friendly. Plus you have saved her prized student, so for you she may offer a reward, maybe.”
Taking a minute to process what was said, Manet gave a gentle smile before responding. “I apologize, I am simply worried about my comrades is all. We were in a fight with the Scourge Lord before I found myself here. I do not doubt their abilities, but being down a healer in the situation I left them in does not bode well for them.”
Shining, previously occupying himself with the scenery, took this opportunity to cut in. “Scourge Lord? Who, or what, exactly is that? Is it something we need to worry about here?”
Manet frowned, thinking for a moment before responding. “The Scourge Lord, or the Lich King as he is also called, is the leader of the Scourge Army, and army of undead whose goal was total annihilation of all life on Azeroth. I was part of a group of heroes, some of the best our respective factions could come up with, whose mission was to ascend to the top of the Lich King’s frozen citadel and slay him. We were in the midst of our battle with him when I was thrown from the tower attempting to save my sister-in-arms. I lost consciousness as I fell from the tower, and woke up in that crater. I barely had time to realize I was no longer in the frozen north, and in an unfamiliar form, before I heard the cries of your sister and her friends and jumped to their aid.”
Shining sat in stunned silence, before a sudden jolt from turbulence shook him out of it. “You didn’t answer my question though, are they a threat here?” Shining almost looked desperate, a touch of fear in his eyes. “Do we have to worry about this ‘Lich King’ here? If your allies fell, will we be next?
Manet sat silently, trying to word her response as best as she could. “I cannot say for sure, although I do not foresee that being a problem here. The event that sent me here did not seem to be intentional. Why would he go through all that trouble, knocking someone off his tower like that, if his goal was to transport them elsewhere? Besides, that isn’t his style. He feeds the souls of his victims to his sword, Frostmourne, or adds them to his undead army of death knights.”
“And what are these ‘death knights’? I thought you said his army was called The Scourge?”
“The Scourge is the collective name for his army, although there are several different types of undead within their ranks.” Manet paused a moment, a dark look crossing her face. “Death Knights are the result of heroes and adventurers, like myself, whose soul was twisted and corrupted by the Lich King’s dark powers, forcing them to fight for him.”
“You seem to have some experience with this.” Shining observed, giving Manet a sympathetic look.
“Yes, my sister.” Manet growled. “We were ambushed by the scourge, and she was taken hostage by them. After a year of searching, I discovered that she had been turned, and then later freed. She was with us during the assault on the Icecrown Citadel.”
Shining buried his face in his forehooves, familiar with the feeling of losing someone in the field. “Well I hope that your friends made it out at least, even if they didn’t succeed in taking him down.”
The somber mood was broken by Zecora, clapping her hooves together to get everypony’s attention. “Enough of this talk, full of doom and gloom. It would not do to be depressed, for we shall arrive soon. Why don’t you take the rest of the trip to tell us about yourself? I can tell from your experience, that of knowledge, you have a wealth.”
“There isn’t a whole lot to tell really, I was born aboard the Exodar, alongside my sister and friend, Moriza. Our mothers were best friends, and we were born only a few days apart, so we ended up spending most of our time together.” Manet smiled, reminiscing. “When we were both of proper age, we chose to follow the path of the Shaman, myself in the arts of Restoration, and Moriza in the arts of Enhancement. Upon reaching adulthood, and passing our final test, we received our final relic and set out to help protect our new home as best we could. We traveled Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms together, and it wasn’t long before the Alliance took note of our skills and requested our presence in Northrend. It’s funny, it has only been two years since we set out from the Exodar, but it seems like it’s been so much longer. We experienced so much in such a short time…” Manet’s smile fell a bit as she stared off, not looking at anything in particular.
The silence was broken when Shining spoke up. “You keep referring to this other pony as your sister, but said you have different mothers. Does that mean you have the same father? Do your people practice herding as well?”
“No,” Manet laughed. “It is nothing like that. We are just so close that we refer to each other as sisters. As for your second question, I am unsure as to what herding is, would you explain?”
“Herding is a bit of a holdover from the pre-unification era,” Shining explained. “ Back then, ponies were more nomadic, and the gender ratio was more skewed than it is now. Because of this, ponies tended to group up in families of one stallion to multiple mares. Nowadays it’s mostly practiced by earth ponies. Large farming families, easier to work the land with more ponies, you know?”
“So they have more children, then force them to work on their farms?”
“Well… yes and no. They have more foals, with the expectation that their talents will be something related to whatever crop they happen to grow, but if they get a talent in something else, they won’t stop them from pursuing it. You see, special talents tend to run in the family, in a way. If you look at the Apple family, Applejack included, all of them seem to have some type of talent related to the growing, harvesting, selling, or even cooking of apples. While no one pony in their family has the same talent, they are all related to apples. The same can be said with my sister and I. We come from a minor unicorn noble family, whose ancestors were known for their superior magical abilities. Our mother, while not a magic talent, is still much more proficient with magic than the average unicorn. I myself received a Cutie Mark in defensive magics, and Twilight?” Shining chuckled. “She hit the jackpot with a talent in magic itself. Hatched an infertile dragon’s egg and turned our parents into potted plants when she discovered her talent. Luckily the Princess was nearby, she fixed the damage caused by my sisters surge and ended up taking her in as her personal student.”
“What do you mean by ‘special talents’?” Manet questioned. “And what are these ‘Cutie Marks’?”
“The two are pretty much one and the same. A Cutie Mark is the mark a pony gets on their flank denoting their special talent. My Cutie Mark, for example,” he explained, motioning to the symbol adorning his armor clad flank. “Is a six pointed star resting on a shield. The six pointed star is the symbol for magic, and it resting on a shield signifies my aptitude for defensive magics and shields. My sister’s is just a six pointed star, surrounded by five stars, signifying her talent with magics of all types.”
“And do all ponies receive these marks?”
“Indeed they do, as you can see.” Zecora turned to show the mark on her flank. “The mark of the sun is what was given to me. Specialising in plants, to grow and pick, I know exactly what to do. It helps with my alchemy, in mixing the perfect brew.”
“Interesting…” Manet mumbled, gaze drifting her her armored rump, deep in thought.
They settled into a comfortable silence for the remainder of the trip, nopony speaking up until the chariot began its descent towards the castle.
“I never got to thank you.” Shining spoke up, breaking the silence.
“What was that?” Manet asked, looking up from the bag she had been digging through.
“I said I never got to thank you, for saving my sister’s life. I joined the guard when I was a colt because I always wanted to be there to protect her, and when I heard those howls when we landing, I thought I had failed to do that.” Shining sat on hard on his flank and looked down at his hooves, attempting to hide the growing moisture in his eyes. “My sister is one of the most important ponies in my life… I don’t know what I’d do if I had lost her like that.”
Standing up, Manet crossed the carriage and put a hoof on his shoulder, giving him a gentle smile. “It is ok, I set out on my journey with the goal of helping any and all in need, and it would be a poor show of conviction if I let something happen to those ponies when I was around to do anything about it.”
Looking up, Shining returned the smile before standing, heading towards the door as the carriage touched down. “Still, I’m in your debt for that, if you ever need help, just ask. As long as it’s within my power, I’ll be there.” As the carriage rolled to a stop, Shining encased the handle of the door with his magic, before turning to address the two ponies riding with him. “From what I’ve seen of you so far, I don’t think you’ll have any problems. Meeting with Princess Celestia is more of a formality at this point. She’ll probably ask you to stay in the castle while we analyze the residual magic left on you from whatever brought you here, but after that she will probably attempt to integrate you into pony society, should we not be able to return you home. Zecora, you are here as a witness of the events that took place prior to our arrival. Once we enter the throne room, please stay with Twily and her friends until you are called upon.”
With a nod of confirmation from both ponies, Shining pushed open the door and stepped off the carriage. Waiting outside was a squadron of royal guards, all of whom saluted before falling in step with their Captain and the ponies he was escorting. As they approached the castle’s rear entrance, they were met by a squadron escorting the Elements. Entering the castle, the two groups merged as the guards spread out to stay in formation around them.
After several minutes of navigating through the ornate halls of the castle, which seemed to twist and turn back on each other, they finally arrived at a massive set of double doors engraved with half a sun on one door, and half a moon on the other. The guards that had been escorting them spread out behind them as Shining turned to address Manet one final time.
“Since you have been so cooperative so far, we will allow you to keep your armor, however I ask that you leave the helm off and turn over any weapons you have on you.”
"Why do you seek to disarm me?" Manet question. "I have saved your sister and her friends, and have been nothing but cooperative the entire way here. Have I not proven myself trustworthy enough?"
Seeing the cautious look Manet gave him, he sighed before continuing. “This is non-negotiable, we can not allow an armed, unknown pony into the throne room with the Princess. I can assure you your weapons will be returned in the same condition we received them in as soon as your meeting is done.”
As Shining Armor finished speaking, two of the unicorn guards that had been escorting her stepped forward, horns glowing as they prepared to take her weapons from her. Seeing this act of aggression, Manet stepped back before balancing on her hind legs, forehooves resting on her weapons. "I would very much prefer keeping my weapons with me, thank you very much."
Not liking the act of defiance, the remainder of the guards readied their weapons and prepared to subdue the Draenei. Before things could escalate further, Shining Armor signaled his guards to stand down and approached Manet.
"Manet, please," Shining pleaded. "I already said I owed you for saving my sister, and I'd like to consider you a friend." Shining's horn started glowing as he spread his hooves and steadied himself in a crouched stance. "But I can not allow you to keep your weapons on you while you're in the throne room. Try and see this from our side of things. First contact with a new species, possibly from a different land, that has proven themselves a deadly combatant is preparing to meet with the ruler of your nation. Would you allow them to enter the throne room armed?"
Manet locked eyes with Shining, searching for any signs of deceit. After several tense seconds Manet closed her eyes and let out a long sigh, slowly removing her weapons from her back. Holding them out in front of her, she locked eyes with Shining again. "You have given me no reason to suspect you, so I will trust you in this one." As the unicorns magic took hold of her weapons, she held them firm as her expression hardened. "Do not make me regret this." Her piece spoken, she let go of her weapons and allowed Shining to hand them off to the waiting guards.
One of the guards opened his mouth to respond to the pseudo-threat, but Shining cut him off. "Thank you, Manet. We will make sure they are returned to you in the same condition we received them in."
Relieved of her weapons, Manet turned to face the door before the clearing of a throat caused her to turn and catch the glare Shining was shooting her way. With a smile and a roll of her eyes she reached into her bag, removing the two single handed axes she had. "I was kind of hoping you had forgotten about these. But if it makes you feel better I guess I can give these up as well." 'Besides, its not like I don't have other weapons stashed in here. As much as I want to trust them, the olive branch they have extended thus far may still be a cover for ill intent.'
Confident that she was properly disarmed, Shining nodded to the guards staioned at the door, signaling them to open them. The doors opened in unison, and as they stepped through, they heard a voice shout. “Announcing Captain Shining Armor, the Elements of Harmony, Zecora of the Everfree, and Man-net of the Exodar, now entering the day court.”
After loading themselves onto the carriage, Twilight and her fellow Elements of Harmony forsook the comfortable looking cushions lining the seats of the chariot in favour of forming a hug-pile in the center of the spacious interior. After the long trek through the forest, followed by their experience with the wolves, all six mares were exhausted, both mentally and physically. A majority of the tripped passed with the group dozing and comforting each other, before the silence was broken by Twilight.
“Can we trust her?”
Jolted to full wakefulness, the rest of the Elements dispersed amongst the cabin, taking a few moments to gather their senses before one of them answered.
“What was that, Twi?” Applejack asked.
“I said ‘can we trust her?’” Twilight repeated. “Can we trust Manet? She seemed nice, but you saw how strong she is. She took on a pack of timberwolves by herself, and barely had a scratch on her!”
“Says the pony that single-hoofedly took down an ursa minor.” With a role of her eyes, Rainbow put her forehooves behind her head and leaned back in her seat, ignoring the glares the rest of her friends sent her way. “Seriously Twi, after Nightmare Moon and Discord, I think we can handle a single pony. Plus, she’s going to meet with with the Princesses. If she tries anything they can just send her to the moon. That is, if we don’t blast her with our friendship cannon first.”
“Ah think what Dash here is tryin’ ta say, is that she's nothin’ we can't handle, if she turns out ta be a snake in the grass. Even without the Elements Ah’m sure you'd have no problem takin’ care o’ her. Ah’ve heard them fancy Canterlot ponies talkin’, you're supposed ta be one o’ the strongest unicorns born in centuries. Maybe even stronger than that there bearded pony you always talk about.”
“You mean Starswirl the Bearded?”
“That there’s the one! But that don't make you no less trustworthy ta any of us, and it's not fair ta Manet to judge her because o’ how strong she is. It seems ta me like you're just lookin’ for a reason not ta trust her.”
“Well, no… I just… I mean…” Twilight stammered, before sighing in defeat. “She just scares me… I was completely helpless… I couldn’t even cast a spell! And yet she comes out of nowhere, slinging spells like it was nothing! With the amount of magic that was in the air, I’m pretty sure even the Princess would have a hard time casting spells, but yet Manet didn’t even seem phased!”
“Surely you are exaggerating, Twilight, nopony is stronger than the Princess. Besides, she may be strong... And that ghastly armor of hers may have been covered in animal hides,” Rarity paused to shudder. “But I think the fact is that she helped us when she had no reason to, and was nothing but courteous and honest when she was talking to us, speaks very well for her character.”
“Ah c’n second that,” Applejack cut in. “The honesty part, that is. Ah have a pretty good nose when it comes to liars, and Ah didn’t smell a lick o’ deceit on ‘er.”
“And she said I can throw her a party!” Pinkie shouted, before somehow wrapping her forelegs around the entire group and pulling them back into a hug. “And if there’s one thing that aunty Pinkie Pie knows, it’s that big stinkie meanie liar pants don’t let Pinkie throw them a party!”
“I don’t know, Pinkie,” squeezing her way out of Pinkie’s vice-like grip, Rainbow Dash moved to one of the cushions before sitting down and crossing her forelegs over her chest. “All that armor she had, and those weapons? Why would anypony be carrying all that around, unless they were up to no good.” Rainbow paused, looking to the floor with a grimace. “But that look in her eyes…”
“Her eyes? Darling, you couldn’t even see them. They were all,” Rarity gestured with a forehoof. “Blue, and glowy.”
Before Rainbow had a chance to respond, Fluttershy spoke up, surprising all of them. “It was still there, if you knew what to look for.” Looking to Rainbow Dash, she continued. “She was putting on a mask... Acting strong, but deep down, she was hurting. She’s scared and alone right now, afraid to show any weakness. I don’t think we have anything to worry about, as long as we don’t back her into a corner. She may be hiding some things, but as long we help her, and support her, I don’t think she’ll keep anything from us that could hurt us.”
The group went quiet as they all thought on what had been said. A few minutes passed in silence before the chariot started descending towards the castle. As the chariot landed and rolled to a stop, the Elements all stood and lined up at the door, waiting to depart.
“No matter what we decide, it’s the Princesses’ decision in the end, and I trust them to make the right one.”
Nodding to herself, Twilight opened the door to the carriage and stepped out, greeting the guards that met her. “Swift Spear! Iron Bulwark! It’s great to see you two again! How has guard duty been treating you?”
The two guards waiting outside the carriage, a pegasus and earth pony, both had smiles in place of their normal stoic expressions as they greeted the mares.
“Twilight!” The earth pony guard responded. “It's great to see you again! Guard duty has been treating us well. In fact, Swift and myself both got promotions after Discord’s escape, for ‘swift and decisive action’, and ‘keeping a level head during a crisis’.” Puffing his chest out, the earth pony guard started leading the mares to the group departing the second carriage, a slight prance in his step. “You are now looking at Sergeants Swift Spear and Iron Bulwark.”
“If you’re so proud of that promotion, Sergeant Bulwark, then why don’t you start acting like a guard instead of prancing around like a little school filly.” The pegasus guard teased. “Besides, there’s brass present, and I don’t think he’d appreciate you prancing around his little sister like that. He might get the wrong idea.”
The earth pony guard stumbled in embarrassment before falling back into step, the stereotypical stoic visage of the royal guard once more upon his face.
Giggling at the guards’ shenanigans, Twilight turned her attention to Rarity, who had sped up to walk alongside her.
“‘Little sister’, Twilight, what is he talking about?” Rarity questioned, getting grunts of agreement from the rest of their friends.
“Oh, uh, yeah. I have a big brother in the royal guard. I never told you girls?”
“You never mentioned you had a brother, much less one that was a guard,” Rarity chided “And now that I think about it, I don’t think you’ve ever told us about your parents either. I’m beginning to think that if Spike didn’t live with you, I doubt we’d know about him either.”
“Yeah, Twi, what the hay?” Rainbow cut in, hovering in front of Twilight and giving her a stern look. “It seems like the only time you come out of your library to talk to us is when something goes wrong and ponies need the Elements to fix it.”
“What?” Twilight stopped in surprise, before picking her pace up to catch up with their escort. “Girls, where did this come from?”
“We’ve been plannin’ ta talk to ya about it for a while now, we just haven’t really had the chance. It’s not very neighborly o’ ya ta lock yourself in your library and not even talk ta your friends unless ya need ta.”
“Applejack is right, dear,” Rarity spoke up. “And you’ve gotten worse since that nasty business with Discord. We’re just worried about you is all.”
“Ok girls, we’ll talk about this later,” Twilight sniffled, holding back tears at the amount of compassion and care her friends were showing her. “And I’ll introduce you all to my brother and parents while we’re here. As much as I’ve told them about you I’m sure they’d love to meet you all.”
Any further conversation was forgotten as their group met with the group escorting Manet and Zecora. With a quick salute, the guards escorting Twilight and her friends allowed the two group to combine before taking up position around them. Once the group was situated, they entered the castle and started their trek through the long, twisting halls leading to the throne room.
As the group approached the throne room doors, the guards escorting them broke off and took up positions along the hall, allowing the group to approach the doors. Shining Armor turned to Manet before speaking in a hushed tone that none of the girls could hear. After he finished speaking, the two guards closest to the group stepped forward, horns glowing.
“So… What do ya think they’re talkin’ ‘bout?” Applejack asked, breaking the silence.
Noticing the upset look on Manet’s face, Rainbow spoke up. “I don’t know, but whatever it is, Manet doesn’t look too happy about it.”
Before anypony else could speak, the girls all gasped as Manet reared on her hind legs and placed her forehooves on her weapons, preparing to draw them. The guards lining the hallway all drew their weapons in preparation for a confrontation, and the girls noticed Twilight taking a step forward, horn glowing as she prepared to cast a spell. Before anypony could make a move on the Draenei, Shining signaled the guards to stand down before speaking again.
While the guards all stood down, they kept their weapons ready, and Twilight sat watching Manet with a scowl on her face. As Shining finished speaking, Manet seemed to take a moment to consider his words before closing her eyes and letting out a sigh. Slowly she removed her weapons from her back and held them out to the two guards in front of her. As there horns glowed, and their auras wrapped around her weapons, Manet help them for a moment before speaking.
“Do not make me regret this.” She threatened Shining Armor, before releasing her weapons and allowing the guards to take them. The guards surrounding them, as well as Twilight, made to move forward in response to the threat, but once again Shining waved them off and gave Manet a promise of their safe return to her.
Seemingly satisfied with the promise, Manet turned and made to move for the doors, before Shining cleared his throat and shot her a stern look. With a roll of her eyes, Manet reached into her bags and pulled out her twin set of axes, before handing them off to their escort as well.
Weapons in tow, the guards took up positions around the door as Shining signaled the door guards to let them in. As the doors opened, the court crier could be heard announcing their presence to all in attendance.
“Announcing Captain Shining Armor, the Elements of Harmony, Zecora of the Everfree, and Man-net of the Exodar, now entering the day court.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Princess Celestia had been having a long day, and depending on the finding of her student, as well as the guard unit she had sent after the crashed meteor in the Everfree, her day was looking to get a lot longer. Since she opened court that morning, she had been swamped by unicorns nobles complaining about the magical surge that had been released when the mysterious object crashed in the forest. She had even received reports from as far away as Manehatten that ponies had felt the magical disturbance left by the object’s crash. She had just finished dealing with yet another noble that demanded the pony responsible for the disturbance be punished, when a messenger came galloping out of the servants entrance behind her desk.
The messenger pony was one Celestia was quite familiar with, as he was the pony responsible for the high priority messages that needed to get to her quickly. He was a tall, skinny earth pony with a grey and white speckled coat and dark grey mane, and a cutie mark that consisted of the silhouette of a sprinting pony. Appearance wise, Celestia always thought he looked closer to a Saddle Arabian Horse than he did one of her ponies, but she knew both of his parents and knew he didn’t have a drop of Saddle Arabian blood in him.
“Ah, Sylph, good to see you.” Celestia smiled down at the messenger pony, giving him a moment to catch his breath. “You bring good news, I hope. The nobles are starting to get rowdy.”
“News from Captain Armor, Your Highness,” Sylph saluted. “The area was secured by the Elements, shortly after an encounter with some timberwolves. The guards showed up as the wolves were retreating and finished securing the crash site, as well as beginning tests on the soil and surrounding vegetation, however a high concentration of magic in the air is hindering any spellcasting attempted in the area. The object that crashed seems to be a pony, Captain Armor has just landed in the courtyard with her and is en route as we speak.”
“Oh dear, Twilight and her friends had a run in with a pack of timberwolves,” Celestia gasped, worry evident on her face. “I do hope they are ok. Nopony was hurt, were they?”
“No, Your Highness, nopony was injured. The pony that crashed seems to be quite well versed in combat and chased the pack off before they hurt. They were lucky, too. Apparently the air was so saturated with magic it prevented even your student from casting anything.”
A look of shock and sorrow crossed Celestia’s face, before she quickly hid it behind her normal motherly smile. ‘Another dangerous situation I sent her into, and she may not have made it out of this one had this mystery pony not intervened… I do hope it’s worth it in the end…’
As Celestia prepared to dismiss court, in order to receive Captain Armor and this new pony, she sensed a commotion outside the door. Dismissing the messenger, she focused her attention on the magic spiking outside her courtroom, preparing to intervene if needed. After a few tense moments, the confrontation seemed to resolve itself, and the courtroom doors opened. As the doors opened, a guard handed a scroll to the court crier, and he unfurled it, announcing the names on the list.
“Announcing Captain Shining Armor, the Elements of Harmony, Zecora of the Everfree, and Man-net of the Exodar, now entering the day court.”
As the doors opened, she was greeted first with the sight of Captain Shining Armor, as well as a strange looking pony garbed in even stranger looking armor. Following them through the door was Twilight Sparkle, who was shooting the new pony wary looks, followed closely by the rest of the Elements of Harmony. Trailing slightly behind the group was a Zebra mare wearing customary gold jewelry, with a sun cutie mark adorning her flanks.
As the mysterious new pony approached her bench, Celestia took a moment to inspect her, years of experience giving her insight on her just from the way she carried herself.
‘Quite obviously a mare, although not one of the main three tribes. She has the horns of a goat, so maybe a pony goat hybrid? Although none of the ones I have ever met looked anything like her. Obviously a warrior of some sorts. She carries herself like somepony who is quite familiar with combat.’
As she tried to catch the mare’s eyes, she instead noticed they were scanning the room, never settling in one place for long. ‘Even now I can see her eyes darting around, taking in the layout of the room and looking for any dangers. She seems quite nervous as well. Judging by her lack of weapons, Shining Armor disarmed her before she entered, which would explain the confrontation outside the door before they entered.’
Next she inspected the mare’s armor, taking great interest in its unique appearance. ‘Her armor is quite interesting as well. Most ponies aren't comfortable using animal hides to make armor these days, yet her armor almost seems like it's decorated with them. Wherever she is from, it much be wrought with strife and conflict, to produce a pony like this.’
Ignoring the muttering of the ponies in the courtroom, the group approached her, before stopping a few steps from her bench and each bowing. Celestia quirked an eyebrow when, instead of folding a foreleg under herself and lowering her front end like most ponies did when they bowed, the mare instead reared on her hind legs before placing one foreleg over her barrel and sweeping the other off to the side, lowering her head and bending at the waist.
“Rise, please, my little ponies.” Looking to the strange mare, she raised a hoof to forestall any sort of reply. “Before you give your report, Captain, I just wanted to thank our new friend here. Man-net was it?”
“It is actually pronounced Manet, Your Highness, although I take no offense to the mispronunciation, I’m used to it.”
“Well then, Manet,” Stepping out from behind her desk and circling around to stand in front of it, Celestia bowed her head to Manet, much to the shock of the ponies in the courtroom. “I would like to thank you for saving my student’s life. I would have been devastated to lose another student so early in their life, especially on a mission I sent her on.”
Ignoring the flabbergasted looks of the ponies around her, Manet bowed her head in response. “It was no problem, Your Highness. As I told your Captain, I swore an oath to protect those in need, and it would be a poor showing of my conviction had I allowed harm to come to these ponies when I could have prevented it.”
“Then you are a better pony than most,” Celestia smiled. “And I thank you for that again.”
Turning her attention back to Shining Armor, she cleared her throat to snap him out of his stupor before speaking. “Sylph gave me a brief report of the situation in the forest, but I would like a full report from you personally once we are finished here.”
With a nod and salute from her Captain, Celestia turned to address the court. “Now, I apologize for any inconveniences, but court is dismissed for today. If what you came to court for today is an emergency, please leave a message with the court clerk outside. Otherwise, day court will be open tomorrow.”
With grumbles of wasted time, and more than a few glares shot at Manet and the Elements, the nobles slowly filed out of the courtroom, leaving only a few guards and a blonde maned, white unicorn stallion.
Stepping forward, the unicorn bowed his head slightly before addressing the Princess. “Would it be ok if I sat in on this meeting, auntie? I must say, I find our new guest, and the situation behind her arrival, quite intriguing.”
“Of course you may, Blueblood. Now,” Celestia motioned to a door on the side of the courtroom with a wing before walking towards it. “Since I can tell you have quite a story to tell, why don’t you all join me for some tea, so that we may get comfortable before we speak.”
The Princess opened the door for the group, revealing a relatively small, cozy looking room with a long table in the center. The table was already set with tea pots and cups, along with a cushion for each pony. The group filed into the room, each taking a seat around the table and dropping their saddlebags beside themselves, leaving the head open for Princess Celestia to sit at. Manet ended up sitting closer to the head of the table, with Shining Armor on one side of her, and Zecora on the other. Pinkie Pie sat directly across from her, giving her a friendly smile and a wave, before turning her attention back to the Princess. As Celestia sat at the head of the table, servants seemed to come out of the walls, dropping off different cakes and biscuits, and pouring each pony a cup of tea before they disappeared as fast as they appeared.
Manet looked on in wonder, waiting until the servants were gone and all the ponies were settled before speaking. “I must say that I am impressed, having all this set up so fast, it’s almost as if you planned this.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Celestia smiled innocently. “Why would I host a tea party to greet a new pony when I could be listening to stuffy nobles complain all day?”
“Better not let them hear you, auntie.” Blueblood snorted in amusement. “I’m sure most of them are upset you dismissed them to deal with ‘common ponies’, and the last thing we need is for them to try and stage some kind of ‘uprising’.”
“But isn’t that what I have you for, Blueblood, to keep a leash on the nobility? Besides, I’m sure they’ll forget all about it by tomorrow, when half of them will be back to complain about some perceived slight committed against them by their neighbors.” Celestia giggled. Pausing to sip her tea, Celestia smiled and turned her attention to Manet before continuing. “Now, I must say, I’ve never seen anypony quite like you, Manet. Please, tell me about yourself.”
“As you know, my name is Manet. I am a Shaman of the Draenei people, specializing in the art of Restoration. I was born aboard the Exodar, and have spent the past few years exploring Azeroth with my sister, helping anyone we can.”
“Is Azeroth the name of your nation, then?”
“No, Your Highness, Azeroth is the name of the planet we were on. All evidence I’ve gathered since waking up here points to this being an entirely different dimension.”
“You don’t seem all that surprised by the prospect of being in a different dimension.” Celestia noted.
“My people are dimensional travelers, Princess. I am more surprised by the transformation my body went through than anything. Never in my people’s history have I heard of dimensional traveling also altering our form.”
“So this isn’t what you normally look like?” Twilight questioned, a quill and scroll ready to take notes. “What do your people look like?”
“The biggest change is that my people are bipedal instead of quadrupedal. We have hands at the end of our arms, instead of another set of hooves, and our legs end in cloven hooves. Our necks are shorter, and our faces aren’t quite as long.”
“Wait, your people are bipeds?” Shining asked. “You seemed to take quite well to walking and fighting as a quadruped, if you were able to fight off a large pack of timberwolves.”
“Yes, we are bipeds, although as a shaman I have the ability to take the form of a spirit wolf, which is a quadruped. Between that, and spending a week as a sheep, I am no stranger to quadrupedal locomotion.”
“Spending a week as a sheep you say?” Celestia grinned. “Now that sounds like quite the story.”
“Not as good of a story as one might think, Your Highness,” Manet chuckled. “I decided to prank one of the High Mages of the Kirin-Tor and replace all his ink with disappearing ink. He did not see the humour in it, and decided to Polymorph me. It took a week for my sister to talk him into changing me back.” Manet frowned and brought her hooves up to her face before continuing. “You know, that is the weirdest part of this transformation. I’ve been polymorphed before, and it feels nothing like this. When you get polymorphed, it feels more like a costume. You’re in a different shape, but you can feel your original form underneath. But this, this feels natural, like this is the way I’ve been my whole life.”
They all sat in silence for a few moments, giving Manet looks of sympathy, before Princess Celestia spoke up. “I apologize for the situation you find yourself in, Manet. If there is any way we can help make things more comfortable for you, please ask. It’s the least we can do.”
“You need not apologize Princess, my being here is not your fault.”
“Regardless, it saddens me to see as noble a soul as yours in such distress. Should we be unable to find you a way home, I will do everything in my power to see to it that you are comfortable here.”
Manet gave the Princess a small smile before bowing her head. “I thank you, Princess.”
“Well then, moving on to something a little less somber,” Blueblood spoke up, breaking the silence before it could become awkward. “I must say your armor is quite interesting, and I’m assuming your weapons are just as much so. Where did you acquire them?”
“Yes, the design is very original, and they are quite heavily enchanted.” Celestia motioned with a hoof, and an unseen guard walked in, Manet’s weapons levitating beside him. “And your weapons seem to be laced with quite a few enchantments as well.” When the guard reached the table, he set the weapons in front of the Princess and bowed before leaving the room.
Picking one of the axes up in her own aura, Celestia began inspecting it closely before speaking again. “The enchantments on these are like nothing I have ever seen before. May I ask what they do?”
“Of course, Your Highness. The axes have an enchantment on them called ‘Berserking’, which increases the attack power of the individual wielding them. They also have enchantments that increase your stamina and agility on them. Wearing lighter armor, being more agile is important to help avoid attacks, and higher stamina allows you to fight longer. The shield and mace are both enchanted to increase my spell power, as well as the size and regeneration rate of my mana pool. There are other enchants that I can cast on them myself, but they are only temporary.”
Celestia’s eyes widened as Manet listed off the enchantments on them. “Am I correct in assuming the enchantments on your armor are similar?”
“Yes, although there are also enchantments on my armor that give additional effects to some of my spells.”
“Enchantments like this would be quite useful to my ponies. Would you agree to allow us to closer inspect your armor and weapons, to see if we can replicate some of them.”
Manet opened her mouth to respond, before closing it and scrunching up her face in thought. After a few moments spent in thought, she locked eyes with Princess before speaking. “If I say no, would you refuse to help me get home?”
Twilight seemed ready to speak out at Manet’s refusal, but a look from Celestia silenced her. “If you denied us, I would still do my best to help you return home. You saved the life of my student, and the lives of her friends. That is a debt I cannot repay.”
Manet sat back on her haunches and picked up her tea, staring into the cup. ‘They have my weapons already, yet she is asking permission to inspect them. She could have easily done it behind my back while she had me busy here. She seems to be trustworthy, and she seems genuinely grateful to me for saving her student, so she seems to actually care about her subjects. She said she would still help me get home if I said no, but I don’t want there to be any kind of animosity between us, she may delay her search if she doesn’t get what she wants from me.’
Looking around the table, Manet noticed that all but a few of the ponies in attendance had turned to their neighbors and started a conversation. ‘It seems so peaceful here, everyone so far has been so nice. I’d like to think I can trust them… but my people have made that mistake before.’
Manet finished her tea before turning back to the Princess. “May I have some time to think about it?”
Finishing her own tea, Celestia set her cup down before responding. “Of course you may. Unfortunately, as much as I’d like to hear more about you, I can only spare so much time at the moment. As I am sure you don’t have anywhere to stay at the moment, I’d like to offer you use of one of the guest suites here at the castle. Twilight, would you please escort Manet to the guest wing of the castle, and inform a maid of where she is staying once she chooses a room?”
“Of course, Princess.” Twilight stood from her seat and started moving towards the door, motioning for Manet to follow her.
Manet stood from her seat and started moving to follow Twilight, before she turned back to the Princess. She opened her mouth to speak, but before any words came out, her weapons were enveloped in a golden aura and started floating towards her.
“It was promised that your weapons would be returned to you as soon as we finished our meeting, and I would never dream of breaking that promise. Please, take your things and go rest, I’m sure today has been exhausting for you, in more than one way. I will send somepony by to fetch you for dinner. Twilight, once Manet has gotten settled into her room, please see me before you and your friends return home, I would like a few words with you in private.”
With a gulp and a nervous smile, Twilight bowed her head before hurrying out of the room. Manet stopped for a moment to store her weapons, before realizing her guide was leaving without her and trotted after her. She exited the small sitting room to find herself in the large hallway that had lead them to the throne room. She spotted Twilight down a hallway adjacent to the one they had taken to get there, standing by a door hidden in one of the large arches lining the halls. Picking up her pace, Manet quickly caught up with Twilight before following her through the hidden doorway.
Entering the hidden passageway, the first thing Manet noticed was that it was far less ornate than any of the hallways they took on their way to the throne room. The passage was just wide enough to fit a few ponies side by side, or one pony with a small cart. There were no windows visible in this hallway, the only source of light being torches hung on the walls at regular intervals. There were also no guards in sight down this hall, the only other signs of life being maids and other servants filing in and out of doorways spaced evenly along the walls.
Manet opened her mouth to question Twilight on the route they were taking, but once again she was cut off, as Twilight had anticipated the question.
“We are currently in the servant’s tunnels, passageways running throughout, and even under Canterlot Castle. While their original purpose was to allow the servants to move quickly between different areas of the castle, while remaining unseen, nowadays most of the castle staff use them to save time traveling from meeting to meeting within the castle.”
“And what about yourself,” Manet asked. “You do not appear to be part of the castle’s staff. For you to have reached me in the forest on foot like you did, you must live well outside the city this castle resides in.”
“You’re kinda right, I don’t live in Canterlot anymore, but I did grow up here.”
As they approached a crossroads in the hallway, Twilight stopped for a moment to inspect a plaque on the far left wall before nodding to herself and turning right.
“I also ended up spending a large portion of my childhood here in the castle. When I was young I took an entrance exam for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and ended up doing so well that Celestia took me on as her personal student. The school itself is on castle grounds, and besides my classes at the school, I would also have private lessons with Princess Celestia, so I would stay at the castle during the week to make the most out of my time. The Princess even gave me my own tower in the library wing of the tower.”
As they approached another intersection, Twilight stopped and pointed at a plaque mounted on the wall across from them. “These plaques are used to identify which part of the castle the particular hallway leads to. Seeing as we are looking for the guest wing of the castle, we simply follow the signs with a bed as the marker and it will lead us directly to the guest wing.”
They continued their journey in silence, Manet trying to memorize the route and Twilight attempting to think of something they could talk about. The silence was broken by Manet as they neared a dead end in the hall, with a door that was marked with a large bed.
“I can understand staff and servants needing to quickly traverse the castle, but why would a young child need to move around the castle that quickly?”
“Oh, well,” Twilight blushed. “I really liked reading when I was a filly, and the trip from the library to the Princess’s private study took me fifteen minutes, but if I took the servants tunnels I could make it in five. That gave me ten more minutes of reading before I had to meet the Princess for my private lessons.”
Stepping through the doorway, they entered another grand hall, with suits of armor and large paintings lining the walls. Taking a left out of the servants tunnels, Twilight lead the way to the closest door. As they approached the door, the handle was enveloped in Twilight’s purple aura, the door swinging open in response. Entering the room, Manet took a moment to look around before turning back to Twilight.
“Thank you for your help, both in the forest and here. You saved me just as much as I saved you. And hey,” putting a hoof on the still blushing Twilight’s shoulder, she gave her a comforting smile. “Never be embarrassed about taking joy in what you love doing. The world needs scholars as much as it needs adventures.”
Twilight’s blush faded as she returned the smile, before she pulled Manet in for a hug. “Thank you, I can tell myself that all day, but it’s nice to hear somepony else say it.”
Manet tensed for a moment, before raising a foreleg and patting Twilight on the back, awkwardly returning the hug. “Um, anytime… Now, I have my room, so you should probably be off. I believe your Princess requested to speak with you once you were done here, and it wouldn’t due to keep her waiting.”
As soon as the words left Manet’s mouth, the color drained from Twilight’s fur and a look of sheer panic crossed her face. “Oh no, you’re right! What could she want to talk to me about?! I hope I didn’t do anything wrong… I didn’t do anything wrong, did I? I hope this isn’t another test, I didn’t study!”
Twilight’s horn lit up, and with a flash she was at the entrance to the servants tunnels. With another flash of light, the door flew open and Twilight disappeared down the hallway, the door bouncing off the wall and slowly swinging closed behind her.
‘Well,’ Manet thought. ‘I was unaware a pony could blush, or that they could pale like that… I hope everything is alright, Twilight seemed like a nice pony, and I would hate for her to get in trouble.’
Shrugging her shoulders, Manet closed the door to the room and turned around to inspect her quarters for the foreseeable future.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Once Twilight and Manet left sitting room, Blueblood dismissed himself and left through one of the side doors, off to continue his normal duties. With Shining Armor and Twilight’s friends the only ponies remaining in the room with her, Celestia finally broached the subject she had sent Twilight away to talk about.
“Now that Twilight is no longer here, I have a favor to ask you girls. It has come to my attention, and I’m sure it hasn’t escaped Captain Armor’s notice either, that Twilight has been under a lot of stress since you girls defeated Discord. I had asked her to take a break from her studies and relax, but the incident with the enchanted doll made it quite clear that she ignored my request.” Celestia paused for a moment, her mask slipping somewhat as a bit of desperation was both seen in her eyes and heard in her voice. “I now ask all of you, as her friends, please help her. All this stress she puts herself under isn’t healthy, she’s going to end up hurting herself, or somepony else, if something isn’t done. As much as I would love to be there to help her through this, I have duties at the castle I need to be here for.”
“Well shoot, you don’t even need ta ask us, Princess,” Applejack spoke up, getting nods of agreement from her friends. “We were already plannin’ on sittin’ her down an’ given her a nice, long talkin’ to, with the way she’s been lockin’ herself up in that library. It just ain’t healthy.”
“Yes,” Rarity cut in. “And she has gotten so much worse since that nasty business with Discord.” At the mention of the Lord of Chaos, the happy expressions of the faces of every pony present was replaced with a more somber one. Even Pinkie Pie’s ever present smile no longer reached her ears. “None of us made it out of that unscathed, and while I won’t try and argue that any of us had it any worse or better than anypony else, we’ve all taken comfort in each other, and helped each other through things. But Twilight hasn’t had that, she’s started shutting us out, and it has us all worried. As you pointed out,the fiasco with that Smarty Pants doll of hers just proved how much everything is affecting her.”
Celestia bowed her head in appreciation, before looking over all of the ponies before her. “I am grateful that Twilight has such great friends, that look after her so well in my absence. As much as I admired, and was proud of, her zealous attitude towards learning, it hindered her development in so many aspects, and because of that I worry.”
“You’ve got nothin’ to worry about, Princess. She’s got the most awesome ponies in Ponyville lookin’ after her,” Rainbow Dash boasted. After a moment, Rainbow’s boastful facade fell, and was replaced with a pained smile. “Besides, like Rares said, we’ve all been dealing with stuff since Discord’s escape. Who better to help her than somepony who went through the same exact thing?”
Celestia nodded in thanks, before turning her attention to the three ponies at the table who had, thus far, been silent. “And what about you three? Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Zecora. What do you have to say about all this?.”
“Oh… um... “ Fluttershy stammered, trying desperately to hide behind her bangs. “I just want to see her happy again. After we finished repairing Ponyville, she locked herself in the library and won’t come out. I’ve stopped by a few times to ask her to join me for tea, but she never comes…” Fluttershy’s only visible eye filled with moisture as she turned her gaze to the ground. “I just want my friend back…”
Pinkie was by Fluttershy’s side in an instant, patting her on the back and doing her best to cheer her up. Realizing the Princess was still waiting on a response from her, Pinkie simply smiled and closed her eyes, nodding enthusiastically in agreement.
“When it comes to this Discord business, I know not of what you are talking. However I promise to do my best to ease Twilight Sparkles hurting. As a friend, I seek to repay a debt to her I owe. She sought me out in my humble abode, and helped to relieve the loneliness that plagued me so.”
Happy with the the responses she received, Celestia stood from her seat and moved towards the door. “I appreciate you girls taking time from your day to come all the way out here like this, I know some of you have very busy lives. If there is anything any of you need, you need but ask, and I will do everything in my power to see it done. That goes for you as well, Zecora.” Turning her attention to the Zebra mare, she smiled before continuing. “You may not be one of my subjects, but while you are staying in my lands, and helping my student, you will always be one of my ponies. Now, if you will excuse me, Twilight is on her way back and I have a few things to discuss with her before she heads back. You are more than welcome to wait here until she returns.”
“Wowee zowee, Princess, you know where Twilight is too?” Pinkie Pie asked, finally speaking up. “That’s amazing! How do you do it? Is it some kind of amazing Princess power that only Princesses get?”
Celestia paused on her way to the door and turned to Pinkie, giving her a quizzical look. “You think somepony could use magic in my castle without me noticing it? The question is, how do you know where she is?”
Pinkie simply gave her a conspiratorial wink and a smile. “I have my ways…”
With a shake of her head, Celestia bid them farewell before stepping out into the hallway.
The girls all thanked her for her hospitality, waiting for her to leave the room before turning their attention to Shining Armor.
“So,” Rarity spoke up first, asking the question that had been on all their minds. “I couldn’t help but notice that Princess Celestia was talking to you as well during that conversation. Tell us, who are you to Twilight that you would worry for her as well, hmm? Friend? Former classmate?” Rarity gave him a sly smile. “Unrequited love interest?”
“Sweet Celestia, no, I’m her brother. Has Twily not told you girls about me? I’ve heard plenty about you in her letters home.”
All the girls perked up at that little bit of information, and it wasn’t long before one of them spoke up.
“So yer her brother?” Applejack asked, giving him a good look over. “Now that ya mention it, Ah c’n see it The family resemblance is definitely there, and yer Cutie Marks are darn near identical. Twilight hasn’t really said too much about her family, aside from Spike that is. We didn’t even know she had a brother ‘til one of the guards said somethin’ when we got here.”
“Really?” Shining asked incredulously. “She didn’t even mention any of us?”
“Now don’t take it personally, darling,” Rarity comforted him, sidling up next to him. “I’m sure a big, strong stallion like yourself can understand. Twilight is a very private mare, and isn’t all that good with the social aspects of friendship yet. Of course, as one of Twilight’s best friends, I would just love to get to know you better, Captain.” Rarity looked him in the eye, giving him the most sultry look she could manage. “What do you say to you, me and dinner? We can get to know each other very well.”
“I would say that I am happily engaged.” Shining armor deadpanned. “Now, we have a bit of time to kill before Twily get here,” Shining reached under one of the armor plates on his side, pulling out a deck of playing cards. “What do you girls say to a bit of conversation over cards…”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
No sooner had Celestia left the sitting room, then Twilight came tearing out of one of the servants tunnels and down the hallway, sliding to a stop with her nose to the ground as soon as she spotted the Princess.
“Princess Celestia! I hope I didn’t leave you waiting too long, did I?” Twilight asked, panicking slightly. “I know you wanted me to bring Manet to a room, but you also wanted to talk to me, but I got sidetracked talking to her. You weren’t waiting too long, were you? I tried to hurry back.”
Celestia chuckled, before placing a forehoof gently under Twilight chin and lifting her head to look her in the eyes. “Calm yourself, Twilight, I had just left you friends to meet your brother before you got here.”
“But I wanted to introduce them.” Twilight pouted.
“Well, now that I have your brothers report,” Celestia help up a sealed scroll in her aura. “Your brother is off duty for the day. Once I get your report, I’m sure he wouldn’t object to dinner with you and your friends. That way you two can catch up, and you can properly introduce him.”
Celestia turned and headed down the hallway opposite the one Twilight had come from. “Come along, Twilight, we can discuss you report in my private study. Besides, there are a few other things I’d like to speak with you about.”
Twilight stood from her bow and followed her. “But Princess, that’s not the same thing, they already know my B.B.B.F.F. now. Although I guess there’s still my parents…”
Twilight paused for a moment, before scrambling to catch up to Celestia as the rest of her words registered, worried despite her insistence that nothing was wrong.
They traveled the rest of the way in silence, neither of them speaking until they reached Celestia's study. Celestia enveloped the door in her aura, unlocking it and holding it open for Twilight.
Twilight thanks Celestia before entering the study, looking around and taking in the comforting scent of the room she spent a large portion of her fillyhood in. It was exactly as she remembered it, with bookshelves lining every inch of wallspace available, covered in all kinds of books and other knick knacks Princess Celestia had collected over her exceptionally long life. The only sections of the wall that weren’t covered in books were the small doorway leading to the servants tunnels, and the large fireplace adorning one wall. In front of the fireplace sat a massive red pillow, with a smaller pillow next to it. Twilight smiled at all of the nostalgic memories this room brought, before making herself comfortable on the smaller of the two cushions.
Celestia entered the room behind Twilight, closing and locking the door behind herself. As Twilight took a seat by the unlit fireplace, Celestia walked to the desk she had situated in the corner of the room and placed Shining Armor’s report on it, making a mental note to read over it after her conversation with her student. Satisfied she wouldn’t forget about the report, she joined Twilight by the fireplace, laying on the large cushion and lighting the fireplace with a flash of her horn. Another quick flash of her horn relieved her of her regalia, before she turned to Twilight, finally comfortable and ready to begin their conversation.
“Now, Twilight…”
“My report, right! I’ve got it right here, Princess.” With a flash, Twilight summoned her saddlebags from the sitting room and began rummaging through them. Pulling a small stack of scrolls from her bag, she presented them happily to the Princess. “I’ve got three separate scrolls, reporting on our initial meeting of her in the forest, her combat prowess and the interesting magic she used against the wolves, and the last details the conversation we had with her while Shiny and the guards were securing the clearing.”
Celestia took the scrolls in her own aura and put them off to the side. “We can discuss the reports later, Twilight. For now, I would just like to know how you are doing. I know you and your friends had quite a rough time with Discord, and I wanted to know how you’re spending the time off I gave you. Have you been getting out of the library like I told you to?”
“Oh, um… of course, Princess!” Twilight lied, giving Celestia a nervous smile. “My friends and I have been doing tons of things together, like bucking dresses, and designing apples! Err, I mean… uh…”
Noticing the stern look that Celestia was giving her, she realized the Princess wasn’t buying it.
“No, I haven’t,” she sighed. “But how can I! The girls and I, we are the Elements of Harmony! Who knows when something else is going to come up!” Twilight hopped down from her pillow and began pacing around the room. “How are we going to help if we aren’t prepared! Like with Manet today!” Twilight stopped pacing and sat down hard, tears streaming from her eyes. “I went into the forest unprepared and almost died! I was so close to that timberwolf I could feel its breath on my snout. If Manet hadn’t showed up, I would have gotten all the girls killed! How can I relax when the consequences of my lack of preparation could be death!”
Twilight collapsed to the floor sobbing, as she once again let her emotions get the better of her. As she laid there crying, she felt a warm tingling engulf her moments before she found herself in her mentors loving embrace.
Celestia held Twilight, allowing her to cry it out. Eventually Twilight’s sobs slowed to occasional sniffles, and before long her breathing steadied, telling Celestia that she had fallen asleep. With a smile, she gently levitated Twilight to her pillow, before using her magic to retrieve Shining Armor’s report from her desk. ‘Well, I had planned to read these later, but now is as good a time as any.’
A short time later, she was drinking a cup of tea she had a servant fetch her and reading Twilight’s reports, when a stirring next to her alerted her that Twilight was waking up. Setting the reports down, she poured Twilight a cup of tea and floated it to her.
“Did you enjoy your nap Twilight? I hope you don’t mind I let you sleep a little bit, you looked as though you needed it.”
Twilight took a sip of her tea and allowed its warmth to spread through her before answering the Princess. “No, I don’t mind, thank you Princess. How long did I sleep for?”
Celestia looked to a clock she had mounted over the fireplace. “Oh, I’d say about twenty minutes. No more than a half an hour at the most. Now, to continue our conversation from earlier.”
Twilight shrunk back and pinned her ears to her head. “Yes, Princess?”
“I understand, Twilight. I understand that you feel the need to be prepared for anything, as the pony who is forced to take the lead. Trust me, I know. But you are no good to anypony if you allow your stress to get you this worked up. It’s not healthy, Twilight. Tell me, counting the one you had just now, how many breakdowns have you had today?”
“Three..” Twilight mumbled, laying her head down and closing her eyes in shame.
“Twilight… Look at me.”
Twilight opened her eyes and slowly looked up, locking eyes with her mentor. She was surprised when, instead of anger or disappointment, she instead saw sorrow and fear.
“Please, for me… for your friends, and your family… Please… Discontinue your studies and let your friends help you. The stress you are putting yourself under is slowly tearing your mind apart, and I don’t want to lose you. You are precious to me, Twilight, all of my students are. You are the closest thing I have to a daughter, and to see you doing this to yourself… It hurts me, Twilight. Even more so when I learn you’re doing it out of some misguided attempt to keep from disappointing me.”
Twilight attempted to look away, but Celestia’s hoof hooked under her chin and forced her to keep looking ehr in the eyes.
“You could never disappoint me, my precious student. You’ve done so much good, helped so many ponies. You brought my sister back to me! After a thousand years, you returned my sister to me… I could never be disappointed in the pony that did that for me. So please… Take some time off, be with your friends. They need it just as much as you do, you weren’t the only one hurt by what Discord did.”
By this point, Celestia had a few tears running down her muzzle, and Twilight could only respond by jumping up and hugging her, drying her own eyes on Celestia’s neck.
“Ok, Princess, I promise.”
They sat there holding each other for a few moments, before the silence was broken by Twilight giggling.
“I missed this, Princess. I love Ponyville, and my friends, but I’ve missed my private time with you. You always knew just what I needed to hear.”
“I’ve missed it too, Twilight.” Celestia leaned back and looked Twilight in the eyes. “But you’re a grown mare now, you need to go out and experience the world on your own. But that doesn’t mean you can’t come back and visit from time to time. I’m sure there are plenty of ponies here in Canterlot that miss you, too, your family included.”
“I know, Princess, I promise I’ll come and visit more often.”
“That is all I can ask. Now, I’ve read through your reports, and I’m sure your friends are starting to worry, so why don’t you go ahead and get back to them.” Picking up Twilight’s notes, her aura flared momentarily and, instead of three scrolls in her aura, she now held six. “I’ve made a copy of your notes to keep, if I return these to you, will you overwork yourself trying to study them?”
Taking a set in her own aura, Twilight smiled at the jab from the Princess. “I promise I won’t, although I can’t promise I won’t at least check for a way to help get Manet home.”
“I didn’t expect you to, Twilight. But remember, we have ponies here that will be working on it, too. Now run along, your friends are waiting for you.”
Twilight collected her things and said her goodbyes, at which point the Princess wrapped the door in her golden aura, unlocking it for Twilight and letting her out. Once she was in the hallway, the door closed and locked behind her, leaving Twilight to make her way back to her friends. Walking to a nearby mirror, Twilight did her best to make herself look presentable before heading back to meet up with her friends. A short walk later found her outside the sitting room, where her friends were just leaving.
“Oh, hey girls, Shiny,” Twilight called out, getting there attention. “Where are you headed?”
“Hey Twily, how was the meeting with the Princess?” Shining Armor approached her, pulling her into a hug.
“It went well enough, we talked about a few things. She told me I needed to take some time off, and after today I’m starting to agree with her. You didn’t answer my question, though. Where were you headed?”
“I’m off duty now, so I figured I’d go put my armor up and then head back here to meet you. I wanted to see if you and the girls wanted to meet mom and dad for dinner. The girls were following me because…” Shining turned to look at the mares behind him. “Why were you following me, anyways?”
“We knew Twilight was coming!” Pinkie called out, bouncing in place.
“They apparently knew you were coming.” Shining said, turning back to Twilight. “So what do you say to dinner with the ‘rents, sound good?”
“You aren’t even going to question that?” Twilight asked, giving her brother a skeptical look.
“I would, but they told me that last time you questioned it, it ended with you on fire.” Shining teased.
“Oh, they told you about that…” Twilight blushed.
“That and more, but enough standing around, I’m going to go to the barracks to put my stuff up, I’ll meet you girls at the front gate, sound good?”
Receiving nods of affirmation from all the present mares, Shining took off down the hallway they had arrived down, and Twilight led the rest of them down the hallway they were currently in.
“So you’ve met my brother, are you girls ready to meet my parents? I hope they don’t mind a few extras ponies at dinner tonight.”
With a cheer the girls followed Twilight down the hallway, all excited to meet their friends family.
Squeaky Clean trotted happily down the castle hall, a large smile on her face and a cart of cleaning supplies hitched behind her. Her milky white coat had been brushed to a shine, and her fluffy pink mane, styled to perfection, bobbed with each step she took. She had been told there was a new pony in the castle, and rumor had it she was quite the interesting pony indeed.
‘And out of all of the cleaning staff in the castle, I was personally picked to help her settle in.’ Her pale blue eyes glinted in the light as she beamed to herself.
Stopping outside the room the new pony was assigned to, she excitedly tapped out a quick rhythm of ‘shave and a manecut’ on the door before announcing her presence. “Excuse me, Ms. Manet, I’ve come to clean your room, may I come in?” After waiting a few moments without a response, she opened the door just far enough to stick her head in and look around. “Ms. Manet, are you in here?” Hearing somepony in the shower, she shrugged to herself before fully opening the door and pulled her cart in with her.
Shutting the door with her magic, she parked the cart where it wouldn’t get in her way before unhitching herself and then began to clean and organize the room. With cleaning supplies floating in her pale blue aura, she danced around the room, alternating between singing and humming to herself.
When she reached the far end of the room, she stopped to pick up a set of saddlebags that had been thrown haphazardly on the ground, before gasping at what she saw on the floor.
“Oh dear… What happened here?”
The carpet in front of the balcony had been rolled up and set off to the side, and on the floor where it had once lain were four piles of some type of crystal. Upon closer inspection, she realized the crystals were broken up and laid out in different patterns on the floor, and that all of the piles were connected by a series of circles filled with even more weird shapes. In the center sat a single pillow, obviously meant for a pony to sit on.
“These weird shapes, they appear to be runes or glyphs of some sort, but none that I’m familiar with. If they are, then that would make this some sort of meditation circle.”
Having studied at the School for Gifted Unicorns for short time, Squeaky was familiar with runic arrays, but had never seen any herself.
“And if the rumors about this pony are true, then this array is for some type of foreign magic. Ohhh, I know more than a few ponies who would give their horn for a chance to study something like this.” She silently cheered to herself.
Tiptoeing around the array, she took in every rune, attempting to identify them. “Let’s see… This big one here looks like the rune for ‘heat’, or maybe ‘flame’. Which would make sense with the red crystals. But what are they made of?”
Squeaky slowly reached a hoof out to give the crystals an experimental poke…
“I wouldn't touch that if I were you, crystallized elements can be quite volatile if they aren’t handled properly,” came a voice from behind her.
Startled, Squeaky jumped to the side, away from the voice, tripping over the rolled up carpet. Hopping back to her hooves, she darted back to her cleaning cart before turning to the new pony in the room and bowing repeatedly as deeply as she could.
“I’m so sorry, ma’am! I didn’t mean to pry, I was just cleaning, and I saw the writing and crystals all over the floor and went to clean them up, but then I realized they were runes of some sort and I studied them in school a bit and I was curious and please don’t be mad at me, I need this job!”
Manet put a hoof over her mouth, attempting to hide her smile. “I don’t know, those were pretty dangerous crystals you were messing with, and had anything happened to them I’m not sure I’d be able to get replacements.”
“Oh, please please please! I promise it won’t…” Finally looking up, Squeaky saw the poorly restrained amusement on Manet’s face.
“Calm yourself,” Manet chuckled. “I was only joking, I have no intention of getting anyone in trouble.”
“That was a joke?” Squeaky’s face lit up in embarrassment, causing Manet to laugh harder. “I thought I was going to lose my job! Don’t scare a pony like that.”
“I apologize, it was never my intent to cause you such distress. I simply saw the opening and had to take it.”
“Still not funny,” Squeaky pouted.
Giving another apology, Manet walked over to the bed and started pulling pieces of armor out of a strange looking satchel that was strapped to her side, laying them out on the bed. Taking a moment to inspect her, Squeaky blushed as she noticed a few other things about Manet she had missed.
The first thing that stood out to her was Manet’s tail. Rather than a tail of hair like all ponies possessed, hers was long and serpentine with a multitude of gold bands covered in strange runes going up her tail. At the base of her tail was a larger gold band, this one containing a few small gemstones inlaid in the runes.
When Squeaky checked Manet’s mane, she thought at first it was normal, until she noticed Manet’s mane had small tentacles, the same color as Manet’s coat, coming out of it. Manet had two tentacles coming from her mane at the base of her neck that draped over her shoulders and ended about halfway down her chest. From the poll of her head, just behind her horns, she had two smaller tentacles that were tucked behind her ears that framed her face. Like her tail, these tentacles were wrapped in multiple gold bands, containing runes and the occasional gemstone.
When she moved on to the clothes that Manet was wearing, Squeaky’s blush deepened. Manet was wearing a light pink, sleeveless collared shirt that was so tight, you could see each individual muscle moving under it. Covering her flanks she had a pair of tight light brown shorts, made out of what looked like some sort of leather. Although they covered where Manet’s cutie mark would be, they didn’t cover much more than that, stopping just above her gaskin, and they definitely didn’t leave much to the imagination.
“What, umm, what’s with the clothes?” Squeaky asked, trying not to stare.
“What do you mean, is there something wrong with them?” Manet looked herself over, trying to figure out what was wrong with her attire.
“There’s nothing exactly wrong with them, it’s just…” Squeaky motioned to the shorts Manet was wearing. “They’re quite… umm, revealing. Usually ponies only wear that kind of stuff when they want… attention.”
“What do you mean, they’re just shorts. My leatherworker friend made them for me to wear under my armor. It prevents my chainmail from chafing, and pinching.”
“Well, yes, but… Do you need to wear them now? We go around naked anyways, and ponies might get the wrong idea if they see you walking around like that.” Squeaky scrunched up her muzzle as she looked the clothes over again. “Besides, how can that be comfortable, everything looks so tight.”
“I can assure you, it is quite comfortable. Everything is enchanted, it resizes to fit the wearer perfectly.” Manet took a moment to stretch and move around a bit to prove her point. “It would take too long if you had to take measurements for everyone you made something for… I’m sorry, I don’t think I caught your name.”
“Oh, of course!” Squeaky curtsied. “Squeaky Clean, at your service.”
“Yes, well, Missus Clean.”
“Please, just Squeaky. I’m not married, and ‘Missus Clean’ sounds like one of those cheap cleaners.”
“It sort of fits, you are a cleaner,” Manet teased.
“Yeah, but I ain’t cheap.” Squeaky joked back, giving Manet a friendly wink. “But seriously, those clothes are considered risque around here, you may want to reconsider wearing them.”
“Where I come from, wearing clothes isn’t an option, and this is all that I have with me. And like I said, it’s comfortable. If it happens to turn a couple heads, well…” Manet smirked. “That’s just a bonus.”
“If you insist…” Squeaky’s horn lit up as she grabbed her cleaning supplies again. “I was supposed to wake you up and help you get ready for breakfast. Seeing as you’re already ready, and I still have cleaning to do, the guards outside your door will escort you to breakfast while I stay here and clean. Once I’m done I’ll meet you at the dining hall.”
Manet’s stomach grumbled at the mention of food. “Ah, yes, food would be great. I fell asleep early last night, so I didn’t make it to dinner.”
“So I heard.” Squeaky giggled.
Grabbing her bags from where she had left them, Manet removed the satchel from her side and tossed it into the larger bag. Strapping on her bags, she made her way to the door. “Would you like me to save you anything? I don’t know if there will be any type of rush or anything, and I wouldn’t want you to miss a meal.”
“It’s ok, I already ate breakfast, thank you though. Besides, there won’t be any rush. It’s just you and the princesses this morning.”
Manet gave her a quizzical look. “If you already ate, then why are you meeting me in the dining hall?”
“Oh, you didn’t know?” Squeaky questioned. When Manet shook her head in response, she continued. “You’re being given dignitary status for the duration of your stay here. While you aren’t expected to do anything really, you are the first of your kind here. When a dignitary stays at the castle, if they don’t bring their own staff or guards, which most of them do, then the princesses assign them a maid and a few guards to assist them while they’re here.” Squeaky gave a smile and danced back and forth on her hooves. “And out of all of the cleaning staff here at the castle, Princess Celestia asked me!”
“So you’re what, my personal maid?” Squeaky nodded in response. “So what exactly are you supposed to do?”
“My duties as your personal maid include making sure your room stays tidy, escorting you around the castle, and assisting you in preparing for the day!” Squeaky beamed.
“Assisting me in preparing for the day?” Manet asked.
“Yeah! Bathing, grooming, stuff like that.” Noticing the perturbed look Manet was giving her, Squeaky’s smile fell. “Is something wrong with that? Oh! You said your people look down upon nudity, does that mean you don’t do social bathing either?”
“Not normally, no,” Manet gave Squeaky a sly grin. “Last time I bathed with someone, it wasn’t to get clean.”
Squeaky matched her grin with one of her own. “If you want that kind of service, it’ll cost you dinner. But enough of that.” She pushed Manet the rest of the way out of the door. “It would be rude to keep the Princesses waiting, these guards can escort you to breakfast.” Not waiting for a response, Squeaky ducked back into the room and pulled the door closed behind her.
Shaking her head, Manet turned and followed the guards as they led the way through the castle halls.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Princess Celestia sat in the private dining hall, sipping on her tea while deep in thought. ‘I hope Squeaky was a good choice for Manet’s assistant. Manet seemed so... tense, and guarded. Squeaky has always been such a kind pony, she’s friendly and knows exactly how to make a pony smile.’ A slight frown tugged at the corners of Celestia’s mouth. ‘Although, at times, she can be a little too friendly…’
Celestia set her empty mug in its saucer before reaching out with her magic, grabbing the teapot and pouring herself another cup of tea. ‘I’m so used to my ponies being so open and casual about things, that it hadn’t occurred to me until now that Manet make take offense to that…’
Celestia was so deep in thought, she hadn’t noticed her sister had joined her at the table until she began speaking.
“Is everything alright, Tia?” Luna questioned. “Thou appear to be quite lost in thy thoughts, and there is a frown upon thine face. Tell us, what troubles thee?”
Jumping slightly from the unexpected disturbance, Celestia took a moment to compose herself before answering. “Oh, nothing major Lulu, I just worry is all. With what she has been through, I want to make sure our visitor’s stay here is as comfortable as possible. But we know so little about her and her culture, and the little bit we do know is so vastly different from ours, that I worry any comfort we attempt to give her will be misconstrued.”
“Visitor?” Luna frowned for a moment before perking up. “Oh, thou means Dame Manet, correct?”
“Dame?” Celestia giggled into her hoof. “She isn’t a knight, so far as I am aware.”
“Are you certain, Tia?” Luna asked. “To be picked by her leaders to go on such a crucial mission, surely she must be a knight?”
“She hasn’t said anything of the sort, however, you are free to ask her when she arrives.” Celestia cast her gaze across the room, noting the various servants filing in and out of the hidden corridors. “I do hope she arrives soon, if we wait much longer to serve breakfast the food will get cold.”
Before Luna had a chance to respond, the sound of the doors opening drew their attention. First through the door were two solar guards, whom Celestia easily recognized as the two assigned to Manet. ‘Glad to see she accepted the invitation, missing two meals in a row wouldn’t be healthy.’
Following closely behind the guards was a mare that Celestia wouldn’t have recognized, had it not been for her unique features. The mare she had met yesterday was tall, well built, and took careful, calculated steps, as though she expected something to jump out and attack her at any moment. The mare before her, while still tall, was almost the exact opposite. While she still had an air of caution to her, the mare before her now seemed much more confident in her movements, and while Celestia would have sworn the mare under the armor would have had muscle mass on par with even the most fit of her royal guards, in reality she was actually surprisingly… scrawny.
‘No, not scrawny,’ Celestia corrected herself, observing Manet with a critical eye. ‘But lithe, the muscle is there, it is just hidden behind a thin, graceful form. Hers isn’t a build of strength, but one of agility. A predator’s build…’
“Ah, Manet, how wonderful of you to join us.” Celestia greeted. Putting on her warmest smile, she motioned to the seat across from Luna and herself. “Please, have a seat. I have to admit, I was worried when you didn’t come for dinner last night, skipping meals isn’t healthy you know.”
Leaving her escort in the positions they took by the door, Manet approached the table and gave a bow before taking her seat. “I apologize, Princess. After being shown to my room, I attempted to make myself comfortable,” Manet averted her eyes as her cheeks took on a rosey hue. “I am embarrassed to say that I allowed myself to get a bit too comfortable… Although, in my defense, it has been a while since I’ve had a bed to sleep in, much less one that comfortable.”
“Yes, I figured as much.” Celestia giggled. “When I sent a guard to fetch you, he reported that you were sleeping quite deeply. I decided it was best to let you rest, you’ve been through quite the ordeal the past few days, from the sound of things.”
“You speak of the Citadel, I presume?” Manet asked.
“Citadel?” Luna cut in. “What citadel doth she speak of, sister?”
Celestia opened her mouth to speak, before noticing the perplexed look Manet was giving Luna. “Ah, forgive me, Manet. I am so used to ponies recognizing my sister and I that introductions seem to have skipped my mind.”
“Greetings, Dame Manet.” Luna held a hoof out to Manet, toe pointing straight down. “Before thee stands Princess Luna, Avatar of the Moon and Diarch of Equestria.”
Manet stood from her seat and bowed to Lune with a flourish of her forehooves. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Princess Luna. As you’ve heard from your sister, my name is Manet, Shaman of the Draenei people, and adventurer of the Alliance.”
Luna sat quietly with her eyes closed and hoof help out expectantly as Manet looked questioningly from her hoof to Celestia.
“Luna,” Celestia stifled a laugh. “We’ve been over this before, ponies these days don’t kiss hooves as a greeting.”
“Ah, yes,” Luna withdrew her hoof with a slight blush. “Mine apologies, Dame Manet, We have been… away… for some time, and it would appear that We are quite out of touch with modern day etiquette. It has been hard enough for Us to adjust our speech to match modern day colloquialisms.”
“Something she still needs to work on, it seems, “Celestia teased. “But yes, Manet, I was speaking of the Citadel.” Celestia turned her attention to Luna. “The very same Citadel Manet and her allies had been climbing before she was sent here.”
“Thou said nothing of a citadel, Tia,” Luna argued. “Thou simply stated that Dame Manet and her allies were traversing a frozen wasteland in an attempt to slay a mad liche.”
“Oh, but I did, Lulu.” Celestia smirked. “You were simply too busy comparing her adventure to our own conquest in the frozen north.”
“I apologize for interrupting, Your Majesties, but why does Princess Luna keep referring to me as ‘Dame’?” Manet questioned.
“That is an excellent question, Manet, but let us wait for the food to be served before we continue our conversation.” Celestia said.
Celestia motioned with a hoof, and like the tearoom the day before, Manet sat in awe as ponies seemed to come out of the walls themselves carrying trays upon trays of food. There was a flurry of motion, and in the blink of an eye the table went from containing only a tea set, to filled from end to end with large silver and gold serving trays. Just as fast as they appeared, the ponies all disappeared, leaving the room empty save for the Princesses, Manet, and her guards.
Luna looked around the room in wonder, seemingly as impressed with the display as Manet was. “It never ceases to amaze Us how well trained thine servants are, Tia.”
“We’ve been over this before, Lulu.” Celestia gave Luna a stern look. “I don’t ‘train’ servants to do anything. Their zeal is entirely their own, they say it’s to ‘return a portion of the love and care I give to all our subjects’.”
Turning her attention to Manet, Celestia’s horn gave off a soft golden light, and the lids of all the food trays on the table where engulfed in the same glow. ‘Moment of truth.’
“Now, Manet, before we eat…” Celestia hesitated for a moment. “I couldn’t help but notice during our conversation yesterday that you had fangs, and I made a few assumptions. If anything present isn’t edible, or makes you uncomfortable, please let me know and I will have it taken away immediately.”
“What are you…” Before Manet could finish, the glow of Celestia’s horn intensified slightly and all the lids lifted away from trays, assaulting Manet’s nose with many a pleasant aroma. Her eyes swept across the table taking in the dishes, both foreign and familiar, before stopping on one tray just within forearms reach. ‘Is that…’
Reaching out, pulled the tray to herself and took a deep breath, taking in the scent of the dish before her. ‘It is! Oh, bacon, how I’ve missed you!’
The sound of someone clearing their throats brought her back to reality, and she flushed at the looks of amusement both Princesses were giving her.
“And here Tia was worried her choice of food would offend,” Luna smirked. “But We would think quite the opposite. In fact, from the look thou art giving thine dish, mayhaps thou would appreciate some ‘alone time’.”
“Leave the poor mare alone, Lulu,” Celestia chided. “We all know how you can get about your moon pies.”
Luna huffed and stuck her tongue out at Celestia before loading up her plate, taking portions that would make the healthiest eaters Manet knew blush. Noticing the Princesses were avoiding the meat dishes, Manet loaded up on those, not wanting the food to go to waste. Before she was done her first plate, the Princesses had both cleared their plates and had gone back for seconds, once again avoiding the meat dishes. She pondered their apparent distaste for meat, before a realization struck her.
“Ponies are herbivores,” Manet whispered to herself.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” Celestial asked, ears perking up.
“You’ve been avoiding the meat dishes. I was trying to figure out why, and then I realized… Ponies are herbivores, aren’t they?”
Celestia and Luna shared a look before Celestia responded.
“Well, technically, no. Ponies are perfectly capable of eating and digesting meat, and it actually contains a lot of proteins and other nutrients that are quite important for our health.” Celestia reached out with her magic and grabbed a piece of bacon, taking a bite of it emphasise her point. “However, having evolved from a prey species, most ponies find the act of eating meat quite… distasteful. A majority of ponies are vegetarians, we supplement our foods to make up for the lack of meat in our diets.”
“Tis true,” Luna cut in. “Even before our reign, when the winters were harsh and unpredictable and food was scarce, ponies only ever ate meat to make up for a lack of vegetation. It certainly wouldn’t be the centerpiece of a meal, like you would find in the gryphon kingdoms.”
“The only exception to that would be the pegasi,” Celestia fanned her wings, giving Manet a clear view of her perfectly organise feathers, each having a sheen to it. “The oils in fish is required to keep our wings healthy.”
Returning her attention back to her plate, Manet poked at her food, thinking on what she had been told. ‘I hope being a meat eater won’t be a problem… I don’t think they would have served it if it was, but I can’t help but think of a certain group of druids…’ Manet grimaced as she remembered her dealings with D.E.H.T.A..
‘Oh dear…’ Celestia fretted, noting Manet’s discomfort. ‘Breakfast started out so well, too.’
They ate in silence for a few minutes longer before Luna spoke up, breaking the silence.
“Thou doth not need to cease thine eating, Dame Manet. Just because we do not partake in the eating of meat ourselves, does not mean we will judge thee for it.”
“Indeed, you do not need to be ashamed of your eating habits.” Celestia bowed her head slightly. “I apologize if we made you uncomfortable, it was not my intention.”
“There is no need to apologize, Princess. I was just worried about making your ponies uncomfortable is all. You seem to share a lot of views with a group of druids I have dealt with in the past, however they can be quite… aggressive when others don’t agree with them.”
“Fret not, Dame Manet, while some ponies might shun thee for thine dining habits, they would go no further,” Luna assured her. “We ponies are quite docile by nature. But enough of that, how have thou enjoyed thine stay in our castle?”
“Well, the beds are comfortable, and it was nice to have hot, running water for a change.” Manet rubbed the back of her head bashfully. “Besides that, I can’t really say.”
Noticing that Squeaky Clean had slipped into the room at some point, Celestia decided to have a little fun. “And what of the staff, was the assistant I assigned you agreeable?”
“You mean Miss Squeaky?” Manet asked, getting a nod in response.” She was quite nice, if not a bit forward, and very curious. I’m ashamed to say our meeting nearly ended in her incineration.”
There was a moment of silence, and Manet could swear she felt the temperature in the room rise slightly.
“Care to elaborate?” came Celestia’s curt reply, and when Manet saw the look the royal sisters were giving her, she quickly realized her mistake.
‘Brilliant, Manet,’ she scolded herself. ‘Piss off the ponies with the power to literally move the sun and moon… Think before you speak!’
“Oh, uh, I mean…” Manet shrank back in her seat slightly. “It’s nothing bad, I swear! I constructed a meditation circle this morning using crystallized elements, which are quite volatile when handled improperly. While I was bathing, she entered my room to clean it and started messing with the crystallized fire.”
Celestia, having been directing a stern look at Manet, turned her attention to the maid in the room. “Is that true, Ms. Clean?”
Squeaky jumped at the use of her name, before stepping forward, mumbling under her breath.
“Yes, Princess Celestia, it is exactly as she said.” Squeaky's eyes darted back and forth between the two Princesses before her. “I went to her room to wake her, as I was asked, but she was already awake and preparing for the day, so I started cleaning her room. When I was cleaning, I found some crystals, and runes drawn on the ground. And, well…” She kicked at the ground bashfully with a forehoof. “You know what my major was when I attended your school. I got curious and started poking around… It’s my own fault, really! Don’t be mad Manet.”
Celestia’s shifted back and forth between the two ponies, before a small smile split her features. “It brings me joy to see you’ve made such a wonderful friend in such a short amount of time,” Her smile widened. “Standing up to her Princess in defense of a pony she met only this morning.”
Squeaky looked away in embarrassment and Manet slumped in her seat, feeling like she had just dodged a bullet.
“I have to say,” Celestia continued, “I was quite worried you’d have difficulty making friends here, Manet. I hope you don’t mind me saying, but you seemed quited reserved and guarded yesterday. I didn’t expect you to open up to anypony this fast. Tell me, what changed?”
Taking advantage of the subject change, Squeaky slunk off to return to her place by the door.
“Oh, well,” Manet sat back up in her seat, food temporarily forgotten, “your ponies have all been so kind and helpful, and so far you’ve not hesitated to keep a promise, so I’ve decided to be more open and friendly in return.” ‘It’s not like I’m giving you anything that could give you leverage over me.’
“That’s wonderful to hear, Manet,” Celestia gave her a motherly smile. “I understand your caution, but I hope soon you’ll be able to see that all I want is for you to feel as safe and loved as every other creature under our care.”
“Indeed, Dame Manet, ‘twould be a crime against our very nature to knowingly let one under our wing suffer,” Luna added.
Manet bowed her head in thanks before returning to her meal, only to pause as Luna’s words registered.
“That reminds me, Princess Luna,” said Manet.
“Yes, what can We do for thee?” Luna asked, giving Manet a kind smile.
“I wanted to know if I could get an explanation on the ‘Dame’ title you have given me.” Manet questioned.
“Oh, yes, of course. ‘Dame’ is a title given to a mare that has been knighted. Is that not how you refer to your knights back on Azeroth?”
“Knight?” Manet questioned. “I’m not a knight, back on Azeroth I was a simple adventurer. The highest title I hold is ‘Seer’, but even then it’s still fairly early in my training.”
Luna looked bewildered at the idea that Manet wasn’t a knight. “But to send thee on a mission of such import, surely thou must be a knight?”
“In the Alliance, the title of ‘Knight’ only goes to those that have proven their worth time and time again. Had our group been successful in slaying the Lich King, and had I returned with them, there is a possibility I may have been knighted.” Manet paused to take a bite of her food, wanting to finish before it got cold.
“As for my own people, we do not have knights. Instead we use the title of ‘Vindicator’. A Vindicator is a most holy title given to the strongest warriors of light we have, the beings meant to guide and defend our people. Being named a Vindicator was a great honor, not only to the individual receiving the title, but to their families as well.” Manet paused again as a pained look crossed her face. “My father was a Vindicator.”
Celestia’s smile fell, noticing the sadness in Manet’s voice. “‘Was?’”
“He…” Manet hesitated for a moment before steeling herself and continuing. “He did his duty.”
Luna opened her mouth to question her further, but a look from Celestia told her it was best to let the subject drop. They continued their meal in silence, and before long their plates were empty and the servants had cleared the table of leftovers. Manet stood to take her leave, but before she got more than a few steps Celestia called for her to wait.
“Just one moment please, Manet. We have one more order of business to attend to before I leave you to do as you please.”
Manet gave the Princess a questioning look but returned to her seat. ‘What else could we have to discuss? There’s the issue of them wanting the enchantments on my armor, but she told me to take my time coming to a decision…’
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of doors opening and Manet turned to spot two ponies walking into the room side by side. On the left was a light blue unicorn stallion with a darker blue mane and tail and golden brown eyes, as well as an image of a crescent moon within another crescent moon on his flank. Accompanying him was a light grey unicorn mare with blue eyes, a light purple and white mane, and three purple stars on her flanks.
As the couple drew closer, Manet couldn’t help but notice there was a striking resemblance between Twilight and this mare, making her wonder if the two were related somehow.
“Both Shining Armor and myself were able to give you our gratitude for saving young Twilight, but there are still two ponies who would like to thank you as well.” Celestia motioned first to the stallion. “I’d like you to meet Night Light,” and then to the mare, “and Twilight Velvet. The parents of Twilight Sparkle.”
Night Light bowed to Manet as he was introduced, but as soon as Twilight Velvet’s name left the Princess’s mouth, she crossed the remaining distance between her and Manet before anyone could react, and pulled her into a bone crushing hug.
“Oh thank you thank you thank you thank you!” Twilight thanked repeatedly. “Twily told us all about what happened down in that awful forest. I was up all night just dreading what would have happened if you hadn’t been there!”
“You… are… welcome…” came Manet’s choked reply. ‘By The Light, if she thanks me much harder she might break something!’
“Ok honey.” Night Light rolled his eyes. “It wouldn’t be a proper ‘thank you’ if the poor mare didn’t survive it, now would it.”
“Oh, dear, I’m sorry about that!” Twilight loosened her grip, continuing to hold Manet close. “I just get so worked up and sometimes I forget my own strength!”
“It’s fine,” Manet gasped for breath, using her now free forelegs to rub her sore chest. “Just please don’t do it again, I rather like breathing.”
“I do hope you’re okay,” Night Light apologised. “She tends to be very excitable when it comes to the kids, and…” Night Light’s words died in his mouth as he realized his wife was now feeling Manet up, much to her discomfort. His face met his hoof with an audible thunk as he questioned his wife. “Honey, what are you doing?”
“Well, she just looked so scrawny when we entered the room, I almost thought that Twily and Shiny were mistaken when they said this mare saved her. But seeing her up close, she is fit! And this lovely little outfit she has on just shows it off so well!” Manet flushed in embarrassment as Twilight ran a hoof across her chest. “Shiny said she was cute, but I didn’t she’d be this cute.”
Night Light’s facehoof seemed to deepen as Manet looked to the Princesses for help, both of whom were too busy attempting to hide their amusement to assist.
“Honey, please,” Night Light begged. “You’re making the poor mare uncomfortable. Let her go.”
“Oh, fine.” With a roll of her eyes, she released Manet and walked over to her husband, sitting next to him. “But really, if she didn’t want the attention, why dress like that?”
Manet stuttered incoherently for a moment, too embarrassed to answer, then said, “I dress like this because these are the only clothes I have! I’m not used to being naked all the time.”
“But your clothes look so tight, dear. How can that be comfortable?” said Twilight.
“They are tight because they have to be to fit comfortably under my armor,” came Manet’s indignant response.
“Well, I apologize for my forwardness, but with an outfit like that you’re just asking for it.” Twilight’s face lit up as she got an idea. “Oh, I know! We can go shopping! If you’re so against going around naked like everypony else, then to thank you for saving my daughter I’ll take you to pick out some more… appropriate clothes!”
“So you want to thank her by insulting her culture and personal tastes?” Night Light was facehoofing again. “Can’t we just invite her to dinner like we planned?”
“Why can’t we do both?” With a smile, Twilight grabbed Manet by the hoof and drug her away from the table. Pulling her out into the open, she began circling Manet, eyeing her up and down. “Hmm, yes… You have a very nice body you know? It gives me a lot to work with.”
Stopping her circling directly in front of Manet, she grabbed the pony’s shoulders. “And just think, by the time I’m through with you, Shiny will have no choice but to invite you to his herd!”
The color drained from Manet’s face as Night Light grabbed his wife in his magic and began dragging her to the door.
“Ok honey, that’s enough,” said Night Light.
“But Nighty, dear,” Twilight pleaded.
“And you wonder why I don’t bring you places,” Night mumbled to himself. Pausing by the door, he turned to address Manet. “If you're still interested in dinner, have Shiny show you to our house tomorrow night. Once more, thank you for saving our daughter.” With a final bow, Night Light left the room with his pouting wife floating behind him, muttering about a couch.
A full minute passed in silence before Manet finally snapped out of her stupor.
“Well, that happened…” Manet sat staring at the doors
Manet’s comment was more than they could take, and both Princesses burst out laughing, much to the chagrin of Manet.
As the Princesses struggled to get themselves under control, the doors opened allowing another guard to enter the room. He approached Manet’s guards and gave them a salute, before leaning in to give them a message. The guard gave a nod and returned the salute, acknowledging receipt of the message. His job complete, the new guard gave one more salute before leaving the room, returning to his previous duties.
“Oh, I apologize, Manet.” Celestia paused to wipe a tear from her eye. “But the look on your face was just priceless. I haven’t had a laugh like that in ages.”
“Verily!” Luna agreed. “Truly, it has been a pleasure to meet thee, Manet, but the sun is high in the sky and it is time We retire for the day.” Luna rose from her seat and made her way to one of the side entrances to the dining area. “We wish thee a pleasant day, and We hope to see thee on the morrow.”
As Luna left the room, Celestia rose from her seat and made her way to the main doors. “Unfortunately, my day is just starting and I have business to attend to. You are free to move about the castle as you please, and if you wish to go into Canterlot I only ask that you bring your guards. If you need anything at all during the day, just ask a guard and they will direct you to me.”
Finished saying her farewells, Celestia left, leaving Manet alone with Squeaky and the guards.
“Ma’am,” one of the guards stepped forward. “Captain Shining Armor has extended an invitation to the training grounds. The invitation includes full access to all facilities and equipment, as well as freedom to train and spar with the day guard, should you request it.”
“Training grounds?” ‘Sounds like the perfect way to get my mind off of… things.’
“Yes ma’am, I can show you the way if you would like.”
Receiving a nod in response, the guards took the lead and led Manet out into the halls and off to only they knew where. Squeaky following close behind.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The group had been moving through the castle for what Manet assumed was close to fifteen minutes, and her escort had been silent the entire time. She had spent the first few minutes of their trip conversing with Squeaky, but she had since excused herself and slipped away into one of the castle’s hidden pathways, leaving Manet in the silent company of her guards.
The wonder and majesty of the castle having begun to wear off, Manet began inspecting her guard to pass the time. At first glance they looked exactly the same as every other member of the guard, with their white coats and two-tone blue mane and tail. However, upon closer inspection there were quite a few differences between the two that made them distinctive up close. The guard to her left was an earth pony, built fairly stocky with a wide barrel and thick legs, quite obviously a stallion. The guard on the left, however, was a unicorn and, based on the body shape and proportions, was a mare. She had a noticeably thinner build than her earth pony counterpart, but while the mass wasn’t there, the amount of muscle on her frame made it more than clear that it wasn’t from lack of training.
As she inspected the guards closer she noticed that the golden armor they wore had a few differences as well. The unicorn had a Symbol of three upward facing arrows on her shoulder, and on her barrel Manet could make out the hilt of a sword hidden longways on her side. Instead of having a sword strapped to his side like his partner, the earth pony had thicker gauntlets on both his front and hind legs, obviously designed to make his kicks much more devastating, while on his shoulder was a single gold bar.
Any further inspection was interrupted as they rounded a corner and came to a halt in front of a set of large double doors. In front of the doors were two unicorn guards, and upon seeing the group, their horns glowed in unison and the doors slowly and silently swung open, allowing the heat and the light of the mid-morning sun to hit them in the face full force.
Manet raised a foreleg to shield her eyes from the sun as the group exited the castle, and couldn’t stop a smile from spreading across her muzzle at the foreign yet familiar scene before her. The training ground before her was placed in a large clearing, sandwiched between the castle and the mountain, with some of the facilities carved into the side of the mountain itself.
Looking to her left, Manet spotted a large, open field full of ponies in armor similar to her guards. A large group of ponies were gathered in the center of the field, a few drill sergeants amongst their ranks running them through drills and exercises. Circling the field was a large course containing multiple ponies, all wearing larger, heavier looking armor as they ran laps.
To her right were multiple small rings that Manet recognized as sparring rings. Scattered throughout the rings were ponies wearing what looked like light leather barding, wielding wooden training weapons using horn, hoof, and mouth. Manet noticed that some of the rings contained large training dummies for the ponies to beat on, while the rest were vacant of any type of training equipment, leaving nothing for the ponies to fight but each other.
Behind the sparring rings was a shooting range set against one of the walls encircling the complex, containing ponies using both magic and arrows attempting to hit targets of varying sizes scattered at varying distances amongst the range.
Straight ahead of them was a series of long, narrow buildings that ponies in various states of undress were filing in and out of. As the group made their way through the training grounds towards the buildings that Manet assumed were barracks, she began to notice that most of the ponies that weren’t actively training were stopping what they were doing to offer salutes and other signs of respect as they passed. Confused by the reception the group was getting, Manet decided to ask her escorts about it. “Are one of you some type of officer or something? We seem to be getting quite the reception.”
The earth pony spoke in a deep, rumbling voice, “Ah’m recently graduated from officers school, ma’am. But this welcome isn’t fer me.”
Both the guards looked back at Manet for the first time since leaving her room, and the unicorn spoke in a smooth, melodic voice. “It’s for you, ma’am. Word spreads fast here, and you made a lot of friends when you saved Twilight Sparkle. She is well loved, both among the staff and the guards. Most of the more senior guards see her almost like a daughter, having been in the castle to watch her learn and grow, and a decent number of the younger guard, myself included, even trained with her.”
“Trained with her?” Manet asked. “So she’s a guard?”
“No, nothin’ like that, ma’am.” The earth pony answered this time. “Bein’ the brother o’ the Captain of the Guard, ‘s well as the personal student of the Princess, it was decided that she needed ta take some guard level self defense courses. She’s a very important pony, so she needs ta be able ta defend herself should anypony decide ta try and ponynap her, or worse, ta attempt ta get leverage on the Princess or the Captain.”
Once they were passed the training grounds, the guards angled themselves to the left, moving towards the first building on the left.
“If that is true, then why couldn’t she defend herself in the forest?” Manet asked.
“From what we were told, whatever brought you here left a whole lot of loose mana in the air, making it impossible for even the strongest unicorns to cast any type of spells. Something you apparently had no trouble with.” The unicorn guard glanced back at her again. “Which I’m quite interested in seeing for myself.” The guard returned her gaze forward. “Besides, even if she has completed a few guard courses, she’s still a civilian. She’s never had to actually use any of it, much less in a life or death situation like that.”
Once they reached the building, the earth pony guard took up a position by the door as the unicorn lead the way in. Manet stopped and gave the earth pony guard a questioning look, to which he responded by motioning to the door with his head. Stepping inside the door, Manet was met with the sight of multiple bunkbeds lining the walls, each with a set of footlockers at the end. Manet hastened her step, doing her best to remain quiet upon noticing that a few of the beds were occupied by sleeping ponies. Reaching the end of the room, Manet followed the guard into a walled off area of the barracks revealing a room almost as large as the sleeping quarters full of lockers, toilets, and shower stalls.
“Welcome to the mares’ barracks.” The unicorn waved a foreleg at the lockers. “You are free to store any of your gear or bags you currently have on you inside any of the lockers. To lock the locker, you simply close the door and place a hoof on this gem here,” she pointed a hoof at a gem mounted on the front of the door, “and push a bit of your magic into it. It records your magic’s signature and will only open when magic of a matching signature is pushed into it again.”
Turning around, she motioned to the shower stalls. “You are also welcome to any of the other facilities in here, should you need them at any time. Should you require a bed and don’t wish to make the trip back to the castle, my bunkmate is currently deployed, so her bed is open.” Returning her attention to the locker in front of her, she removed her helmet and placed it on a hook in the locker. As she removed her armor, Manet was surprised to see her coat darken until, as the last piece of armor came off, it was revealed that she had a golden brown coat, and a black mane with grey highlights. Upon the mare’s flank was a downward facing sword with lines coming off the hilt and guard, making it look as though it were mid thrust.
Catching Manet staring, the mare gave her a coy smile. “Like what you see? Well, I’m sorry to inform you that it’s against regulations to form those kinds of relations with our charge.”
“Uh, no… nothing like that.” Manet’s cheeks flushed at the accusation. “I just didn’t realize that wasn’t your real coat color.”
“What?” The mare laughed. “You didn’t think we all looked exactly the same, did you?”
“Well, my people generally only come in shades of blue, although a rare few are purple or white. It wouldn’t have surprised me if white was a common coat color,” Manet defended. “Before I came here, I had never seen an equine in any color besides white, brown, or black, and white coats are highly sought after by the guard of one of our allies.”
“Really, only blue?” The mare scrunched her face up in distaste. “No offence, but that seems so… bland.”
“Maybe compared to you ponies, but we’re used to it.” Manet unstrapped her bag from her side and reached into it, the guardsmare’s eyes widening in surprise when her entire foreleg up to her shoulder disappeared into it. “Besides, my people care more about our horns than our skin color anyways. That’s what all the men look at, anyways.” Pulling out a black leather saddlebag, Manet hung the rest of her stuff, sans her clothes, in the locker and locked it the way the guard had showed her.
“Ready to head out then?” the unicorn mare asked, heading towards the door.
Strapping her bag to her side, Manet fell in step with the mare and followed her out the door. “Whenever you are.”
As they made their way through the barracks, Manet realized something. “I never got your names.”
“Well, that’s just because you never asked.” The guardsmare laughed, bumping Manet with her shoulder. “Name’s Decisive Strike, Sergeant in Her Royal Highness’s Solar Guard. The big lug outside is Lieutenant Heavy Oak.”
“That’s just because you two were doing such a good job of ignoring me earlier. In fact, you’re acting completely different now than you did even a few minutes ago. What’s up with that?”
“Oh, yeah, sorry about that. Heavy out there is a bit of a stickler for the whole ‘guards must remain stoic and unfeeling at all times’ thing. With him being one of my C.O.s, I do it when he’s around to keep him off my case. But I’m off duty now!” She beamed. “I was amazed when he actually talked to you earlier, he never does that while on duty! We all think it's ‘cus he has a stick shoved so far up his plot, if he opened his mouth it would fall out.” Decisive faked wiping a tear from her eye, laughing at her own joke. “He must really like you, though. I was surprised when he agreed to take the rest of this shift himself so I could train with ya.”
As they made their way out of the barracks, Heavy fell in step with them as Decisive lead the way out to the training fields.
“So what did you want to do first?” Decisive asked, turning around and trotting backwards as she talked to Manet. “We can head over to the track and grab some of the weighted training armor and run laps. Although,” she looked Manet up and down. “We may need to do a bit of adjusting to find a set that fits you. We can head over to where the other guards are running drills, I’m sure Short Fuse over there wouldn’t mind another pony to yell at!”
Heavy snorted and shook his head at his underlings lack of respect.
“Or…” Decisive hopped backward a step and crouched down like she was preparing to pounce. “We can head over to one of the sparring rings and you can show me some of those moves I heard about.”
Laughing at the enthusiasm of the young guardsmare, Manet turned to head towards the sparring rings. “Why don’t we head to the sparring ring. I’d like to warm up on a training dummy first, though. My magic seems to be acting a bit differently since I arrived here, and I want to make sure I don’t accidentally hurt anyone.”
“Of course you can!” Decisive jumped up and cantered to the first open ring she saw, grabbing a training dummy in her magic along the way.
With a snort and a roll of his eyes Heavy trotted after her, Manet having already sped up to catch her. Catching up to the two of them, he saw Decisive already had the dummy set up and was running Manet through how it worked. The dummy itself was one of the newer models, basically a log about as tall as a pony with multiple wooden ‘swords’ sticking out of it at different angles.
“Ok, so, these dummies we have are very different from your standard stationary dummies.” She pointed out multiple small circular plates on the ground. “Rather than sitting in a fixed position to let a pony mindlessly beat on it, they instead sit in these special couplings in the ground that contain ball bearings, allowing the dummy to spin when struck.” She demonstrated by kicking out at one of the ‘blades’ of the dummy, causing it to spin in place as one of the other ‘blades’ came around in an attempt to strike her. “It helps develop not only a ponies striking, but also their blocking and reflexes, as well as showing them how the momentum of their own strikes can be used against them.” Decisive smiled and flared her horn briefly. “If you ever fight a unicorn remember that with nothing physically holding the blade, a blocked strike can easily come around and back at ya.”
Moving over to the weapon rack, she levitated a sword off for herself. “Over here are the training weapons, they’re made of spell reinforced wood to keep them from damaging both the equipment and the ponies. You’re free to use anything up here.”
Manet approached the weapon rack and looked over all the weapons, picking up a few and looking them over before shaking her head and putting them back. “Most of the weapons up here are swords, which I was never trained to use. Do you have any axes or maces laying around anywhere, or even a fist weapon?”
“Fist weapon?” Decisive asked, looking confused.
“Yeah.” Manet held up a forehoof. “It slides over your fist, and you punch things.” She looked at her hoof and realized where Decisive’s confusion was coming from. “Although, I suppose here they may be called... ‘hoof weapons’ maybe?”
“Well, we have heavy gauntlets, like what Oak has.” Oak lifted one of his forelegs to show off his weapon. “Or, if you’re lucky, you might be able to get one of the night guards to part with a set of clawed gauntlets, but I wouldn’t hold your breath on that one.” Moving to a small crate on the ground, Decisive began digging through it before pulling out a set of small wooden cudgels. “These are probably the closest things to what you asked for that we have, not a lot of ponies use these these days, they mostly stick to either sword or spear.”
Taking the cudgels from Decisive’s magic, she held one in each hoof and gave them a few practice swings, testing the balance. “The weight is a little different than what I’m used to, but they’ll do.”
“Good, now, one more thing before we begin.” Decisive lead Manet over to some pony shaped mannequins, each clad in a set of leather armor. “We gotta get you fitted with some training armor.”
Taking a set in her magic, Decisive began putting the armor on, adjusting it to fit using a plethora of straps and buckles covering the armor. “This stuff is a bit of a pain to get on, but when you start taking hits you’ll be glad ya got it.”
Adjusting the last strap and sliding the helm over her head, Decisive moved to help Manet with her own armor. “Hmm, ponies aren’t normally as skinny as you, so I doubt we’ll have anything that will fit you perfectly, but…” fidgeting with some of the straps, she managed to get the armor to fit in a way that it wouldn’t hinder any of Manet’s movements “...I think we can make it work, at least for now.”
Picking up the helm, Manet ran her hoof over it, noticing the material felt different than she expected it to. “Is this not leather? It looks just like it, but leather is a lot smoother than this.”
“Oh, no. Ponies haven’t used leather for anything in years. That’s actually a plant fiber weave, with a few enchantments on it to make it a bit tougher. Same amount of protection as leather, but nothing needs to die to make it!” Decisive took the helm from Manet and looked between it and Manet’s horns a few times before shrugging and tossing it to the side. “You’re out of luck when it comes to a helm, unfortunately. The only ones we design with horns in mind are for unicorns.”
With both of them armed and armored, Decisive lead Manet to the ring, where the two of them began stretching and warming up for their training session.
Shining Armor let out a loud yawn as he stashed his final piece of paperwork for the day in the ‘out’ bin on his desk. After a moment's rest, he stood up from his desk and moved to exit his office, grabbing his helm in his magic and sliding it over his head. Stopping at the mirror he had mounted on the wall, he made a few adjustments to his armor, nodding in approval when it sat perfectly upon his form. Exiting his office, he trotted through the halls as he planned the rest of his day out in his head.
‘Paperwork is done for the rest of the day, so all I have left to do is check on the new recruits. From there, all I have to do is look busy.’
Exiting one of the many buildings carved into the side of the mountain, Shining stopped to check the position of the sun before turning and heading to the mess hall. While he would normally eat his lunch in his office while he worked, Shining had made sure to have his paperwork done in record time, in hopes that he would finish in time to meet a certain pony he had invited to use the facilities.
‘Scuttlebutt has it that Manet was out on the training field with her guards. With it being lunchtime, my best bet is to catch them eating in the mess hall. Manet didn’t seem like the type to insist on fancy eating, so I doubt she’d make them walk her all the way back to the castle dining area.’
Entering the mess hall, Shining’s eyes began scanning the room, attempting to pick Manet out from the throng of ponies present.
Noticing the officer in the room, a nearby guard approached Shining, and with a firm salute, stood at attention. “Captain, how can I help you, sir?”
“At ease, soldier,” Shining waved off any formality. “I’m just here to grab a bite to eat, same as all of you.”
“Of course, sir,” the guard responded, still confused by the officer's presence. “Do, uh, do you need help finding somepony, sir?” he asked, noticing Shining was continuing to look around the room.
“Yes, actually.” Shining did one more sweep of the room before returning his attention to the guard before him. “Sergeant Strike and Lieutenant Oak were accompanying a pony out on the sparring fields earlier, I was hoping to talk to them… I had figured they’d be in the mess eating lunch about now.”
“You actually just missed them, sir,” the guard reported. “They ate lunch early, to beat the rush. Last I heard they were heading back out to the training grounds. They were saying something about a duel, got quite a few of the off-duty guards riled up.”
‘A duel? I wonder who the lucky pony is…’
Thanking the guard for the info, Shining checked in with the nearby drill sergeants, grabbed an apple from a nearby food cart and turned to leave, returning to the training fields.
‘I had hoped to be the first to fight her, but it’s no surprise somepony beat me to it. I just hope she’s up for another once they’re done, or rushing through that paperwork will have been for nothing.’
When he reached the sparring rings, he had no trouble finding Manet and her guards, as the only field currently occupied was surrounded by a large number of guards all cheering and in a few cases, much to Shining’s displeasure, exchanging coins and placing bets. Reaching the edge of the group, Shining cleared his throat to get the attention of the nearby guards. Seeing their Captain standing behind them, giving them disapproving looks, the guards all moved to the side and gave him their best salute, giving him a clear view of the fight.
What Shining saw amazed him. In the ring fighting Manet was Sergeant Decisive Strike, a pony known to the higher-ups as a fearless fighter and a master of the blade. She was crouched low in a combat stance, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath, a look of absolute fury on her face. Every inch of her coat that wasn’t covered by armor was covered in welts, bruises, and in more than a few places she had cuts that were leaking a steady flow of blood.
Manet, on the other hoof, looked like she hadn’t even been touched. Her breathing was steady and even, with not even a drop of sweat marring her coat. If the confident smirk on her face was anything to go by, she was just toying with the Sergeant.
“You need to take control of your emotions, do not let them control you,” Manet called out, a twitch of the Sergeant’s eye and slight baring of her teeth the only sign that she had heard. “Use your rage to fuel your attacks, if you allow your fury to blind you then you will never land a blow.”
Tired of the lecture Manet had been giving her, Decisive let out a battle cry and charged Manet, sword levitating in front of her. When she reached her opponent Decisive lunged with her sword, attempting a swift jab to her breast. Manet, having seen the attack coming, easily sidestepped the attack and knocked her sword away with the cudgel in her left hoof. Before Decisive had a chance to react to the parry Manet lashed out with her right-hoof weapon, landing a vicious blow to the side of Decisive’s head that knocked her helmet off and lifted her sideways off her forehooves. Continuing through with the swing, Manet pivoted on her right leg, spun, and kicked out with her left leg, bucking Decisive across the ring. Sliding to a stop at the edge of the arena, Decisive shakily attempted to rise, before dropping back to the ground.
Sheathing her weapons at her side, Manet dropped down on all fours and crossed the arena to the downed pony. Seeing her approach as an act of aggression, the guards nearest Decisive stepped forward, putting themselves between Manet and the downed pony.
“The fight’s over, back off,” one of the guards spoke up. Turning to the guards next to him, he motioned to Decisive before hooking his head under her foreleg and attempting to lift her. “We need to get her to the infirmary.”
With a roll of her eyes, Manet gently pushed the guardstallion trying to lift Decisive aside. “Calm yourself, she simply requires some healing and she’ll be fine. Besides, if she was as injured as you seem to think she is, then moving her is the last thing you’d want to do.”
“What do you mean, ‘as injured as I think she is’?” The guard attempted to get back between Manet and Decisive. “Look at her! You...”
“Didn’t do any damage I couldn’t fix.” Manet fixed her glowing blue eyes on the guard, unnerving him with the intensity of her gaze. “Now if you will kindly step out of my way, I will heal your fellow guard and show you there was nothing to worry about.”
The guard opened his mouth to retort, but his response died when Shining Armor stepped forward.
“Stand down, soldier. Let her do her thing.” Looking at the state his guard was in, Shining shook his head in disbelief. “I had heard you weren't a fighter, but a healer. Well if this is what ‘not a fighter’ from your people can do, I’d hate to face off against one of your fighters.”
Manet crouched beside Decisive, her forehooves glowing with a gentle green light. “The outcome of this fight had nothing to do with my skill as a fighter. It had to do with training and experience.”
“What do you mean by that?” Shining questioned.
“If the fight came down to skill with a blade alone, she would have easily trumped me. However, she is still quite an inexperienced fighter, so I was easily able to take advantage of quite a few things seasoned fighters would have known to look for, like her temper.”
Shining watched in amazement a glow matching the one on Manet’s forehooves encased Decisive, causing her wounds to slowly start healing themselves as flowers grew and bloomed around them, soon leaving nothing but blood matting her fur to mark where she had been cut.
“As for her training, I can guess just from a fight with her that you train your troops to avoid lethal strikes, correct?”
“Well yes, of course,” Shining answered, noticing some of the guards giving Manet uncomfortable looks. “Equestria hasn’t had a war for hundreds of years, most of what the guard deals with now is small-time criminals and wildlife getting too close to cities, we have no need for lethal force. How could you tell?”
“Besides that last strike, she went out of the way to avoid striking center mass. She left plenty of openings to slip by when a quick strike from her blade would have crippled me and ended the fight. At the very worst, her strikes were intended to temporarily disable.”
“You act like that’s a problem,” One of the guards called out.
“Here, it isn’t,” she answered, focusing on healing the last of Decisive’s wounds. “But where I come from, fighting like that will see you dead before the sun reaches its zenith.” The light from Manet’s hooves faded as the cut from the final blow to Decisive’s head sealed itself, leaving not even a scar in its place.
Decisive’s eyes fluttered open before a hoof shot to her head, rubbing the spot where Manet’s cudgel had impacted. “Did anypony get the plates on that chariot?” she groaned out, rolling to her stomach.
“That was me, and I apologize,” Manet reached a hoof down and helped Decisive to her hooves. “I may have gotten a little more into that fight then I intended.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine,” Decisive threw a hoof over Manet’s back and pulled her into a hug, trying to show her there were no hard feelings. “You gave me some great advice, even if I was a bit too proud to try and listen at the time.” Noticing Shining Armor for the first time, she quickly withdrew her leg from around Manet and snapped to attention and gave him her best salute. “Captain Armor, sir!”
“At ease, soldier, you know you don’t need to salute when your off duty. Or at least, I assume you're off duty, with you being out of uniform.”
“She is, sir.” Heavy Oak stepped forward from the crowd. “Ah gave her permission ta take the rest of the day and train with Manet. Figured she could use the distraction, Sir.”
“Well, as long as you signed off on it, I’m only upset that I wasn’t the first one to fight her.” Shining stepped up to the armor racks and started removing his armor, much to the surprise of everypony present. “What do you say, Manet, up for another one?”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Princess of the Moon stood peering out from her tower, having just witnessed the fight between the Captain of her sister’s guard and the strange visitor they had staying in the castle.
“Interesting,” she murmured to herself. “We haven’t seen a fighter quite like thee since Our return.”
Her eyes scanned the training field, watching as the guards cleaned the mess left in the aftermath of their intense duel. “Thou strike with such precision and ferocity, something ponies these days aren’t capable of.”
Luna watched in amusement as a pair of nurses from the infirmary took to the field and attempted to load Manet onto the stretcher hooked between the two, only for her to wave them off and shakily climb to her hooves. After taking a few shaky steps towards the castle, and nearly falling when she put weight on one of her forelegs, she appeared to have a short argument with the nurses before the Captain and another guardsmare Luna didn’t recognize took up positions alongside Manet and led her to the castle, supporting her the whole way.
“Thou are quite strong on thine own, a true warrior, yet thou art hesitant to let ponies in, to let them help thee. We just can’t understand thee, Manet. Thou art friendly and laughing just this morning, yet as soon as their is a weapon in thine hooves, thy fight like a wild beast that has been backed into a corner. Why has happened to thee, to make the act this way.”
Luna sat and pondered her question before the light creaking of her chamber doors opening drew broke her out of her thoughts. Sensing a presence behind her, Luna addressed the pony she had been expecting, keeping her eyes glued to the training field. “Captain Wing, have thou made thine pick of guards for Seer Manet?”
“Captain Wing was preparing to brief his chosen guards when I saw him in the hall,” came the unexpected voice of Luna’s sister. “I was surprised to hear you were already awake and decided to take this opportunity to come speak with you.”
With a glow of her horn, Luna closed the curtains as she was pulled into an embrace by her sister.
“Is there anything of import thou wished to speak to Us about, Tia?” Luna asked, not fighting the hug. “We planning on returning to our slumber once Captain Wing had reported to Us.”
“Nothing important, Lulu.” Celestia released a content hum as Luna shifted in her embrace and returned the hug. “We simply don’t get enough time together. I spent one-thousand years missing you, and now that you're back I want to spend as much time as I can with you.”
“Tis true,” Luna agreed, burying her face in Celestia’s shoulder. “We have missed this.”
“I have too, Luna. I have too…” Celestia wrapped her wings around Luna as they sat in silence, each content with the presence of the other.
A few minutes passed, just the two of them lost in their memories of days long past before Luna broke the silence with a mighty yawn.
“As nice as this has been, I suppose I should let you get back to sleep, Lulu.” Celestia giggled. “Just, before I go… I also wanted to thank you.”
“Whatever for, Tia?” Luna questioned.
“For breakfast this morning, with Manet. I know how important it is to you be too formal in front of our subjects… It made me happy that you were able to put that aside to help welcome our guest.”
“Think nothing of it, Tia. Thou always told Us that ponies would like Us better if We were a bit less… formal. Besides, Twilight Sparkle isn’t just important to thee, sister. Were it not for the actions of her, and of the other Elements, We would still be lost in the madness of The Nightmare. ‘Twas the least We could do, helping her feel welcome.”
“Still, it made me very happy to see you open up like you did. It reminded me of when we were fillies before we had all of these… duties”
Rising from where they had been sitting on the floor, Celestia kissed Luna on the forehead, just beside her horn, before making her way to the door. “I’ll see you at dinner, Lulu, sleep well.”
Celestia had only gone a few steps before Luna called out.
“Tia, wait!”
“Yes, Lulu?”
“Can you…” Luna looked away, biting her lip as she worked up the courage to make her request. “Can you stay with me, and snuggle. At least until We fall asleep.”
Celestia’s heart melted at the pleading look Luna gave her, and she found it harder and harder to say no, not that she had planned to.
Celestia gave her sister a loving smile. “Of course I can, Lulu.”
With a squeal of delight, Luna teleported to her bed and made herself comfortable, waving her sister over. Celestia climbed in the bed with her and pulled her close, draping a wing over her back. The two mares lay in a state of bliss, remembering days from their childhood when Celestia would comfort her sister, just as she was doing now when she had trouble sleeping. It wasn’t long at all before Luna’s slow, rhythmic breathing let Celestia know she had fallen asleep. Giving her sister one last kiss, she quietly rose from the bed and exited her sister’s room, leaving Luna to dream of days long past.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Doctor Mender was not having a good day. Not only was the Captain of Celestia’s Day Guard currently in the infirmary, nor was there just a foreign dignitary currently receiving care. Oh, no, either of those things, as bad as they were, would be preferable to the current situation. Not only were both the Solar Captain and a dignitary currently laid up in recovery beds, but they had put each other there!
Bone Mender couldn’t help but grind his teeth in frustration as he rubbed his temples with his forehooves. ‘What were they even thinking!’ Mender mentally ranted. ‘That’s the problem, I’ll bet. They weren’t! All Captain Meathead in there was worried about was finding a challenge.’ Mender glared at the small mountain of paperwork laid out before him, grunting in frustration.‘I’m sure he didn’t even consider the amount of paperwork he’d be making for me. Not to mention the fact that he just put a protected foreign visitor in the hospital.’
Mender leaned back in his chair, releasing a long, drawn-out sigh as he covered his face with his forehooves. ‘But that’s not even the worst part. No, the worst part is that Shining Armor, Captain of the guard, put the foreign dignitary, whose protection he was tasked with, of a new race that we have never had contact with, in the hospital. That is just asking for an international incident! How are we supposed to explain this? “Oh, we’re sorry she’s a little beat up. The pony in charge of protecting her decided to beat the hay out of her instead! Hope this won’t affect our relations.”’
Without opening his eyes, Mender kicked off one of the legs of his chair, and couldn’t stop a small smile from tugging at the corners of his mouth. As foalish as it was, spinning around in one of those new ‘spinny chairs’ the infirmary had gotten always brought a smile to his face.
‘Then again, if what I hear of her people is true, they may see this as some type of honor.’ Mender couldn’t help but roll his eyes. ‘They could be like the griffins, who see beating the crap out of each other as some sort of bonding exercise.’
Mender slid out of his seat as it slowed to a stop, taking a moment to adjust his lab coat before collecting the folders on his desk in his magic and preparing to leave his office.
“Oh,” As Mender reached the door, he paused in his stride and turned to address his assistant. “Ms. Script, I’m heading out to pay a visit to our three newest patients. If anypony needs me, unless it’s an emergency, please take a message for me. I’ve got enough on my plate right now, dealing with those three.”
Getting a brief nod in acknowledgment from his assistant, Mender trotted out of his office and down the hall, closing the door behind him with his magic. Opening the first of the three folders he had grabbed, he began leafing through it, a look of deep concentration on his face.
‘First patient, unicorn mare. Admitted after receiving a hard blow to the head, temporarily rendering her unconscious. Shortly after entering concussion protocol, she was cleared and given paracetamol to treat her headache.’
Closing the first folder, he shuffled it to the back of the stack and opened the second, reading it as he continued down the hall.
‘Second patient, unicorn stallion. Admitted for treatment of a single laceration to the right side of his face, as well as swelling of the right side of his face, and minor magical exhaustion. Was administered paracetamol for pain relief after complaining of pain centered in and around his horn. No damage was found following a thorough examination, recommended to be put on light casting duty to allow his magic to recover.’
Doctor Mender couldn’t help but scoff and roll his eyes. ‘Right, like the captain would agree to light duty.’ Rounding the corning, the doctor navigated past a pair of nurses idly chatting as they checked the supplies of each room, as well as a few members of the cleaning staff who were busy doing their jobs, all without looking up from the folder.
‘Treatment included six stitches to close the laceration, and a minor healing spell to reduce the swelling.’
Mender came to a stop outside the room containing the Captain and the dignitary. Closing the second folder, he opened the final folder and began reading it, waiting to enter the room.
‘Third patient, mare of previously undocumented race, identified as Draenei. Admitted for treatment of several small lacerations across her face and body, a fractured muzzle, and a hairline fracture of her right coffin. Treatment including cleaning and bandaging of the lacerations, minor healing spells to help set and mend her muzzle, and a splint and sling for her right foreleg.’
Flipping through the files once more, Mender placed them in the bin next to the door before giving a quick knock to announce his presence. Nodding to the guard stationed in the hall, he opened the door with his magic and stepped through, freezing at the scene before him.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The green glow faded from Manet’s body as she let out a sigh of relief. Doing her best to keep her body covered with the sheets on her bed, she began removing the bandages covering her neck and barrel.
Looking up from her seat in the corner of the room, Decisive rolled her eyes and stood up, placing the book she was reading on her seat.
“Ya know, the doctors put all those bandages on you for a reason, I don’t think they’ll appreciate you taking them off like that.”
Manet paused, giving Decisive a look of confusion. “Why wouldn’t they?”
“Because they put those on you to heal you,” Decisive responded, “not so you could take them off as soon as they leave.”
“But I’m already healed, look!” Manet pulled off the bandages on her foreleg, revealing the previous bruised and battered coat that was now perfectly healed and unblemished.
Decisive couldn't help but gape in amazement. “How?! When they wrapped you up you were almost literally covered from hoof to horn in bruises!”
“And I tried telling you that I could heal it myself, once my Exhaustion wore off and my mana regenerated, but you didn’t want to listen. The Captain and you both insisted I see a medic.”
Manet began removing more bandages from herself, flinching in pain when she attempted to remove her foreleg from its sling. Seeing this, Decisive put a hoof on Manet’s shoulder to get her attention.
“Perhaps you should leave them on, at least until the doctor has a chance to check on you.” Decisive eyed the hoof that Manet held securely to her barrel. “Especially if your hoof is still bothering you.”
“My hoof is fine, it was just a pinch,” Manet waved her off “now help me get this thing off so we can get out of here.”
“Get out of here…” Decisive cocked her head in confusion, “what do you mean?”
“Well, my wounds have been treated, and I’ve healed myself,” Manet held up her partially bandaged foreleg to accentuate her point “so now we leave, yes?”
“What? No, that’s not how it works here.” Decisive attempted to gently push Manet back into the hospital bed she was currently attempting to get out of. “The doctor treated you, yes, but you need to stay in bed and rest until they clear you.”
“That’s ridiculous, it’s just a sprained wrist!” Manet attempted to push Decisive off her. “When I was in Northrend I broke my tail, in multiple places, and I was out fighting cultists the next day!”
“That was in Northrend, things are different here, Manet.” Decisive lit her horn up and used her magic to gently force Manet back into bed. “There are no evil cultists, or world ending Lich to worry about. You were hurt in a sparring match, for Celestia’s sake!”
Manet waved her forehoof, which flashed white, and Decisive was blasted in the face with a quick gust of wind. In response, her horn started sparking as the aura surrounding it sputtered out, releasing Manet from her magical grip. Taking advantage of Decisive’s momentary confusion, Manet pushed Decisive off of her and once again attempted to climb out of bed. However, before she could get more than a hoof on the floor, Decisive recovered and forced her back into bed again.
“I told you before you brought me here, and I’ll tell you now, I’m fine!” Manet said, once more trying to push Decisive off of her.
As Manet continued to struggle Decisive, unable to access her magic, climbed on the bed and sat on her. “Alright, good, if you’re fine then just stay in bed for a few minutes so we can get a doctor here to clear you.”
Manet opened her mouth to respond, but before she could she was cut off by the sound of a knock at the door. They both froze and looked over at the door just in time to see a doctor open the door and walk in, freezing when he saw them. They slowly looked at each other, then at the now ripped bandages scattered around the bed, and finally down at themselves, faces flushing as they noticed the compromising position they found themselves in. Before either of them could do more than try to stutter out some type of excuse for their current predicament, the doctor gave his head a quick shake before shooting them a glare.
“Excuse me, Ms. Strike, but could you tell me what you are doing to my patient?” Doctor Mender asked.” Because from where I’m standing, it looks as though you are either assaulting her or preparing to mount her, neither of which is appropriate in a hospital setting.”
Decisive hopped off of Manet and out of the bed, nearly face-planting when she landed. “It’s not what it looks like, I swear! She was trying to take her bandages off and get out of bed, and I was trying to stop her, and...”
“You were trying to keep an injured patient in bed, by sitting on them?” Mender asked incredulously. “If that’s how they taught you to handle injuries in the guard, then I’m going to have to have a word with your superiors.”
“No, sir, we are taught to be gentle and treat them with care. But I was having trouble holding her down,” Decisive poked at her horn, “and she did something to my horn that kept me from using magic to hold her down.”
Mender shifted his gaze to Manet, who just waved him off. “Oh please, she’ll be fine. The spell lock from Wind Shear only lasts for a few seconds at most.”
After eyeing the two of them a few moments longer Mender stepped fully into the room, ignoring the stifled laughter of the guard in the hall as he pulled the door closed behind himself.
“Regardless of what the two of you were doing, I’m going to ask that you refrain from continuing, lest you injure yourselves further.” Lighting up his horn, Mender pulled back the curtain separating the two halves of the room, revealing a highly entertained Shining Armor sitting in bed, his face, head, and horn all wrapped in bandages. “And what about you, captain? You didn’t feel it would be prudent to try and stop the two of them?”
“I’m stuck in a hospital bed,” Shining smirked, “I needed some kind of entertainment.”
Rolling his eyes in response, Mender levitated a pair of glasses out of his coat pocket and placed them upon his snout. “Now, seeing as you are so very insistent upon getting out of here, why don’t we see if I can get you cleared so you can stop making a mess of my room.”
Grabbing the sheets with his magic, he attempted to pull them down so he could examine Manet, but she was quick to grab the sheets and hold them in place, leaving her body covered.
“Uhh, Ms. Manet,” Mender raised an eyebrow at her, “I need you to remove the sheet. I can’t release you without an exam.”
Pulling the sheets tighter to herself, Manet shot a nervous glance in Shining Armor’s direction. “Could you close the curtain first, please?”
Before Mender could respond, the curtain was enveloped in Decisive’s magic and pulled closed, blocking Manet’s bed off from the rest of the room.
“It’s a cultural thing, Doc. We had the same issue earlier, one of the nurses started undressing her where Shiny over there could see her, I thought we were gonna have to find a bed for the poor mare.” Decisive snickered.
“Yeah,” Shining laughed from his bed, “I thought she was going to put the nurse through the wall.”
“I tried to tell her, but she wouldn’t listen,” Manet said, trying to defend herself. “Where I come from, a female undressing in front of a male is considered an intimate act.”
“You were covered hoof to snout in cuts and bruises,” Decisive said with a smirk, “if you view that as intimate, then we need to party sometime.”
“As thrilling as that view into your personal life was,” Doctor Mender cut in, “I would prefer it if we could proceed with the examination, so that we may get Manet out of our mane sooner rather than later.”
“Hey,” Manet said, sounding slightly offended, “you say that as if I’m a nuisance.”
“You threatened my staff and ruined hours of their hard work in an attempt to leave before being cleared,” Mender responded, fixing Manet with a glare. “As far as I’m concerned, that is all you are.”
Significantly cowed by the doctor's response, Manet slumped back in bed and laid quietly as the doctor looked her over. After a short time, Mender mumbled quietly to himself while scribbling on the clipboard that had been hanging from the foot of Manet’s bed.
“It appears that whatever you did to yourself has completely healed all but the worst of your wounds.” Mender said, turning to face Manet. “So long as you refrain putting weight on that hoof whenever possible, and avoid taking any more blows to the face, I see no reasons to hold you here any longer.”
Dropping the clipboard back in its bin at the foot of Manet’s bed, Mender pulled the privacy curtain open with his magic and stepped outside of it before turning back to face Manet.
“I will give you your requested privacy while you redress yourself,” He said flatly. “I suggest you take the Sergeant’s help, to avoid aggravating your injuries. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get the captain cleared as well.”
Turning to leave, Mender pulled the curtain closed behind him with his magic.
“Well,” Decisive said, standing from where she had sat and stretching, “let’s get you dressed so we can get out of here. I’m starting to get hungry.”
“I can handle dressing, thank you,” Manet said throwing the covers off of herself and throwing her hind legs over the edge of the bed.
“I’m sure you can,” Decisive said, “but I’m also sure you wouldn’t want to slip and end up stuck her for longer. Hippocratic oath or not, from the looks that doctor was giving you he might just kill you if you stick around too long.”
Manet opened her mouth to argue but decided the threat of being stuck in the hospital longer was greater than the annoyance of having to have someone dress her. Resigned to her fate, she gently hopped off of the bed and turned to face Decisive, the first article of her clothing already floating in the mare’s magic.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
After spending the better part of the afternoon in the infirmary Manet was on her way back to the barracks mess hall to meet with Shining and Decisive. When she had finally been cleared to leave the infirmary the captain, still awaiting his own clearance, had promised to meet her there. The sergeant had split off shortly after their departure, stating that she had to take care of a few errands to run before dinner.
As Oak lead the way through the castle halls, Manet couldn’t help but stop every few steps to scratch at the wrap the doctor had put on her right front ankle.
“This thing is going to drive me crazy!” Manet whined, pulling at the sling her hoof was in. “I told that doctor I was fine, why did he need to put this stupid thing on me.”
“That ‘stupid thing’ is ta keep ya from walking on yer leg before it’s healed.” Came Oak’s grumbled response. “Ya fractured yer coffin, that’s not something ya want ta walk around on.”
“But I healed it!”
“Yer healing spells healed yer surface wounds,” Oak corrected her. “The doctor said when he scanned it after the spell ya still showed signs of swelling and stress around the ligaments, and yer muzzle was still fractured. Now, unless ya want ta walk with a limp forever, ya’ll stay off it and let it heal.”
Manet grumbled in response, following Oak out the same doors they had exited earlier towards the barracks. A few minutes of walking later, and a quick detour for Manet to pick up the rest of her stuff, they reached the mess halls. Upon entering the mess, they were quick to locate Shining at a table, surrounded by ponies she didn’t recognize. When Shining spotted Manet, he waved her over as one of the unfamiliar ponies rose to give her his seat.
“Manet, great to see you’re still up and about!” Shining cheered. “I was worried I went too hard on you.”
“Oh please,” Manet scoffed. “I’ve walked away from worse beatings than that.”
Taking her seat, she was surprised when a tray and a mug wrapped in a brown aura dropped on the table in front of her. Looking up, she saw a smiling Decisive take the seat that had just opened across from her, a tray and mug held in a similar aura in front of her.
“Ya know, I don’t feel so bad about the beating you gave me anymore,” Decisive quipped, picking up an apple from her tray in her magic and taking a bite of it. “The beating ol’ Shiny here gave you? Mine paled in comparison.”
“Yeah yeah,” Manet rolled her eyes, picking the mug up with her unslung hoof. “I’ll remember that next time I hold back against you.” Taking a large gulp of her drink, she set it down, giving the mug a questioning look. “What is that stuff?”
“It’s cider, some of the best in Equestria,” Shining said, taking a large gulp from his own mug. “I signed off on the serving of alcohol for tonight, figured a fight like the one we had deserved a bit of a celebration.”
A collective cheer rang through the barracks as all the ponies signaled their approval. As Manet looked around the room, she noticed that it was filled almost to bursting and that more ponies were squeezing their way in, including a large light brown earth pony stallion with a mud-colored mane. Spotting the three of them, the stallion in question turned and made a bee-line straight for their table. Taking a seat next to Decisive, he reached across the table and took Manet’s hoof in his own massive hoof and shook it vigorously.
“It’s nice tah properly meet ya, Manet. As Ah’m sure D over here has told ya, mah name’s Heavy Oak.”
Manet’s jaw dropped when the pony introduced himself. “There’s no way you're the same pony that has been following me around all day. He had a stick shoved so far up his ass, I’m surprised he had any room for food when he ate!”
“Nope, there’s room for plenty in here,” Heavy leaned back and patted his belly, going along with the joke. “Besides, Ah take it out when Ah’m off duty. Gotta make sure it stays clean.”
The entire table had a laugh at the joke, and soon everypony present had a mug of cider in front of them as they went around the table, introducing themselves and telling stories. As the night drug on, Manet had just finished her eighth mug of cider when she got an idea. Having the ponies clear a large spot on the table, she reached into her bag and, with assistance from a nearby unicorn, pulled a large keg out and placed it on the table.
“Gather round ponies, I’d like to introduce you to a personal favorite of mine.” Manet waited for the room to quiet down before continuing. “This here is one of the stronger brews from where I come from, made by the dwarves of Dun Morogh.”
Tapping the keg and pouring a mug, she slid one to Shining. Grabbing the mug in his aura, he picked it up and, without a moment's hesitation, brought it to his lips and attempted to drink it in a single massive draught. Instantly, his eyes nearly bulged out of his skull as he slammed the mug down, coughing and sputtering
“What in the hay is that stuff?!” he asked, trying to stifle his coughing.
Pouring herself a mug, Manet took a drink and killed the entire mug in a single swig, slamming the mug down upside down to show it was empty. “It’s Dwarven Thunder Ale, one of the best things the dwarves ever made! What do you think of it?”
“It’s got a hay of a kick to it, I’ll tell you that much.” Draining the remainder of his mug, he slid it back to Manet and asked for a refill.
Manet picked up his mug and complied, filling it to the top and sliding it across the table. “Enjoy, obtaining this keg was no easy feat.” Refilling her own mug, she took a seat next to Shining, leaning back against the table.
They sat silently for a few minutes, both content with nursing their drinks before Shining Armor decided to start a conversation.
“So,” he started awkwardly, catching Manet’s attention. “You feelin’ ok? I was a little worried I might’ve gone a bit too hard on you.”
“Yes, I’m fine. Like I said, I’ve walked away from worse. I could heal most of the damage.” Manet started scratching at the wrap on her foreleg. “My muzzle and this blasted hoof are the only things that wouldn’t heal.”
“Sorry about that,” Shining bashfully rubbed the back of his head, eyeing the sling Manet had her foreleg in. “That doesn’t look comfortable at all. But still, it could have been worse. I thought for sure it was broken, and yet you walked away from that with just a fracture.”
“Please,” Manet rolled her eyes. “It’ll take a lot more than a flimsy little shield to keep me down.” Manet eyed the gash a strike from her tail had left on Shining’s face, noticing his eye was bruised and swollen shut. “You know, I could easily heal that for you, save you the pain.”
“What, this little thing?” Shining waved her off. “Nah, it's fine, it's kinda like a badge of honor or a hard-earned trophy. Besides, if I’m lucky it’ll scar, mares dig scars.”
Manet rolled her eyes and scoffed at the joke. “If you insist.”
The two sat in silence as Manet nursed her drink and Shining wracked his brain, trying to think of a way to keep the conversation going. Not wanting the silence to get awkward, he asked one of the first things he thought of. “So how are you enjoying the castle so far?” Shining asked.
“It’s definitely a step up from a frozen wasteland, that’s for sure,” Manet joked, taking a drink from her mug before continuing. “The princesses are nice, and I’ve even managed to make a few friends.”
“I noticed, you and Decisive seem to get along pretty well, and from what I hear your maid is quite taken with you.”
“You mean Squeaky?” Manet asked. “She’s nice, a bit too forward at times, but I assume that has to do with cultural differences.”
“Yeah, ponies are a lot more open with things than most other species here in Equestria. It can take a bit of getting used to for outsiders.” Shining gave Manet a playful nudge with his shoulder. “I was surprised to see you opened up so fast, what’s up with that?”
“I’m showing you ponies a bit more trust. It seemed like the least I could do, all things considered.”
Finishing his drink, he grabbed Manet’s empty mug, along with his own, and floated them over to the keg for a refill. “I’m glad to hear we’ve at least started to earn your trust. Although I can’t help but wonder why you don’t offer it a bit more freely. I don’t mean to offend or anything, but ponies tend to work with a ‘trust until they give a reason for distrust’ philosophy, whereas yours seems to be the exact opposite.”
Shining floated the now filled mugs back over to them, and Manet accepted hers with a nod before taping a deep drink, draining half the mug.
“Explaining that would require a bit of a history lesson. I’ll start it by saying that my race is extremely long-lived. While we don’t have many records predating the Burning Crusades, the oldest living member of my race is over twenty-five thousand years old. We live a long time, so we don’t tend to forget when someone slights us. Even after our exodus all those years ago, my people held similar beliefs to yours on trust. After a time, we had settled in with a race of people called Orcs in a land we called Draenor, or ‘Exile’s Refuge’, and we spent many years living with them in peace.”
Manet paused to take a sip of her drink, eyes staring off as she thought back to her history lessons. “Eventually, the demons found us like they always did. They sent an envoy to meet with the Orcs, and used their Fel taint to corrupt them, turning our allies against us.”
Manet’s face darkened as she took another drink, draining her mug and setting it aside. “The Fel Orcs eventually declared war on us. The fight lasted nearly eight years, and wiped out over eighty percent of my race.”
The color drained from Shining’s face when he heard just how bloody the conflict had been. Draining his own mug, he rose from his seat and filled both their mugs again.
Barely acknowledging the mug Shining handed her, Manet continued her tale. “The remainder of my people were scattered across the lands, eventually taking up refuge in one of our well-hidden floating keeps. Years later another race found us, and with our people still recovering from the war, they were easily able to seize the Tempest Keep from us. My people ran from the Blood Elves and hid in one portion of the keep that came to be called ‘The Exodar’, and attempted to use its planar shifting abilities to flee Draenor and get help.”
Grabbing her drink from where Shining had placed it, she drained it in one go before continuing, a hint of anger in her voice. “The Blood Elves though, they didn’t want us to escape, and certainly not with a piece of their keep, so they attacked the Exodar and snuck agents aboard to sabotage it. The Vindicators held off the assaulting elves while the engineers did their best to counter the saboteurs, but in the end, it wasn’t enough. More than half of our Vindicators had fallen, and when we were finally able to achieve planar shift, the engine exploded. We crash landed on Azeroth and have been fending off the remainder of the elves ever since. Had it not been for the Alliance, I’m sure the elves would have exterminated my people by now.”
Rising from her seat, Manet stumbled to the keg and refilled her drink. “And that is why my people don’t tend to trust outsiders. When two of our three first contact scenarios end with the attempted genocide of your race, you don’t really look forward to a fourth.”
Manet returned to her seat and plopped down, leaning slightly against Shining as he sat, gaping in horror at the story he just heard.
“But ‘nough ‘bout tha’,” Manet slurred, finally starting to feel the effects of the alcohol. “How’ bout I tell a diff’r’nt shtory, light’n tha mood… hic!”
“Yes, please,” Shining shuddered. “How about the story of how you got that keg? It definitely isn’t a normal keg, it should have been empty ten times over by now.”
“The keg‘s enchanted," Manet slurred, "‘s long as I have the proper materialsh to brew more, the keg’ll refill itshelf as we drink fr’m it. Had ta crawl through lotsha sewers and kill lotsha rats to get tha’ thing, but it was sho worth it... hic!”
“Sewers full of rats?” Shining asked. “That sounds like a story you need to tell.”
“Yesh, of courshe,” Manet laughed. “Ya shee, ‘t all shtarted when I wash talkin’ to a Dwarf named Marleth in Brewnall Village…”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The night evolved into one of rowdy fun, and eventually, the drunk ponies decided more food was required. Awoken by the sound of singing, Turnip Salad entered the mess to see ponies tossing empty plates around the room as they made their way to a group of unicorns in the kitchen who were cleaning and drying everything.
Turnip sat, stunned by the spectacle before him when a pony stumbled over to him holding a plate.
“Excuse me, sir,” he asked. “What should I do with my plate?”
Before he could even attempt to respond, another pony approached the first pony and grabbed the plate from his hooves, tossing it across the room. “Here you go, Orion, give it ta me.”
Turnip could only stare in horror as they tossed not only the mess plates around the room, but they had somehow gotten a hold of his set of antique plates and were tossing them around as well.
“Hey, excuse me! That’s my mother’s West Furthing pottery, you give it back!” He gasped as the pony dropped the plate, and then nearly fainted when they kicked it back into the air and began volleying it back and forth with their hind legs. “That’s over one-thousand years old!”
As he chased the pony past a table, he noticed the ponies sitting at the table where banging their silverware on the table, then swiping them across each other, playing them as though they were some type of instrument.
“Could you not do that, please, you’ll blunt them!”
“Oh, do you hear that?” One of the ponies chuckled. “He says we’ll blunt the knives.”
Music seemed to drift in from nowhere as the ponies at the table began singing.
~Blunt the knives, bend the forks.~
A plate was tossed over Turnip’s head to nopony in particular, and before it could hit the ground a pegasus swooped in out of nowhere, bouncing the plate between his forelegs and singing the next verse.
~Smash the bottles and burn the corks.~
Catching the plate, the pegasus tossed it through the serving has into the kitchen. As he flew away another pony seated nearby picked up the tune.
~Chip the glasses and crack the plaaaates.~
All the ponies present took a moment to look at each other before smiling and singing in unison.
~That’s what Turnip Salad Hates!~
One of the ponies in the kitchen grabbed a large spoon and began drumming on the bottom of a large pot as everypony continued singing.
~Cut the cloth, trail the fat.~
As the plates were cleaned and dried, they were tossed to an earth pony who caught them in his forehooves, soon having a stack that nearly reached the ceiling.
~Leave apple cores on the kitchen matt.~
The earth pony balancing the places walked past Turnip, leaving Turnip staring in awe and horror at the feat of balance he was witnessing.
~Pour the milk on the pantry floor.~
Turnip cried out in shock as a plate was thrown too far, then sighed in relief as the pony it was thrown to dove after it and rolled across the floor, catching it over his shoulder.
~Splash the wine on every door!~
On and on the ponies sang, as more and more plates flew through the air. Turnip noticed a group of ponies in a corner that were dropping every plate that still had food on it in front of a large earth pony.
~Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl.~
The earth pony was grabbing food with both forelegs, stuffing it in his mouth and cleaning the plates while barely stopping to take a breath.
~Pound them up with a thumping pole.~
Walking past the table of plates, Turnip saw Shining Armor and Manet sitting at a table together, each with a mug in a forehoof while Shining had his other foreleg around Manet’s withers as they both sang.
~And when you’ve finished if they are whoo~ooole!~
Manet and Shining were rocking back and forth together, singing along to the merry tune.
~Send them down the hall to roll!~
The music rose to a crescendo as ponies came out of nowhere playing lutes, flutes, and in one case, a tea kettle. The dining area was cleared of plates, and as the last plate was dried and stashed in the kitchen, everypony reared in unison and cheered the final verse of the song.
~Cus that’s what Turnip Salad hates!~
Shining and Manet both collapsed to the floor and passed out as the singing devolved into laughter. Turnip was left staring in awe, wondering how a bunch of rowdy drunks breaking into song could leave his kitchen cleaner than it has ever been. With a twitch of his eye, Turnip decided it was either too late, or too early to worry about it and stomped out of the mess hall, leaving Shining Armor and Manet passed out in each others embrace.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Shining woke the following morning to the sound of a very noisy pony walking towards him.
“Sweet Celestia, what did I do last night,” he groaned out, attempting to lift his pillow over his head to drown out the sound. Noticing his pillow was heavier than it should have been, he opened his eyes to discover that his pillow was somehow almost as large as him, and had turned blue. Blinking in confusion, his vision cleared to reveal that his ‘pillow’ was actually a pony and that that pony was Manet. Looking down, his face began to flush as he noticed that her left foreleg was wrapped securely around his barrel. Hearing a pony clear their throat nearby, his embarrassment turned to fear when he saw just who had caught him. He did his best imitation of a fish as he attempted to come up with an excuse, but was interrupted when Manet awoke.
“By The Light, I could really use a cup of coffee right now.” Smacking her lips a few times, Manet looked around the room before noticing the pony that was glaring at her. “Oh, hello, big pink wing pony. Would you happen to have any coffee?”
The pony in the room shifted her gaze back and forth between Manet and Shining, before sitting on the floor and closing her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she lifted a foreleg to her chest before moving it away as she breathed out. Opening her eyes, she gave the ponies a smile before addressing Shining Armor.
“Oh Shiny, dear fiance of mine. Would you mind telling me what you are doing?”
“Uh, Cadie, honey…” Shining chuckled nervously. “I can explain…”
Riptide: Unleashes a torrent of healing waters upon an ally, causes initial healing, as well as additional healing over time.
Lesser Healing Wave: Calls on ancestral spirits to replenish an ally’s health, heals for a small amount, with a fast cast time.
Healing Wave: Calls on ancestral spirits to replenish an ally’s health, heals for a medium amount.
Greater Healing Wave: Calls on ancestral spirits to replenish an ally’s health, heals for a large amount amount, with a longer cast time
Chain Heal: Casts a beam of healing energy, that can bounce between up to four allys.
Earth Shield: Calls upon the earth elemental spirits to protect an ally, taking a portion of the next nine attack for them.
Earthliving Weapon: Infuses a weapon with healing energies, causing healing spells to sometimes bless the target with earthliving, causing them to heal additional health for a short amount of time.
Water Shield: Calls upon the water elemental spirits to protect the caster, causing them to regenerate mana faster, as well as restoring additional mana if they are attacked.
Enhancement
Stormstrike: Infuses both weapons with lightning, striking the target with both simultaneously.
Lava Lash: Infuses offhand weapon with lava, striking the target for more damage if they are affected by Flame Shock.
Flame Shock: Shocks the opponent with fire elemental damage, causing them to burn for a short time afterwards.
Earth Shock: Shocks the opponent with earth elemental damage.
Frost Shock: Shocks the opponent with frost elemental damage, slowing their movement speed for a short time.
Lightning Bolt: Cast a bolt of lightning, hitting a single target.
Chain Lightning: Cast a bolt of lightning that chains to up to 3 additional targets.
Maelstrom Weapon: Passive ability, allowing the shamans attacks to sometimes allow the next cast-time spell to be cast instantly.
Feral Spirits: Calls upon 2 guardian wolf spirits to come to the shamans aid, damage dealt by the wolves also heals the shaman.
Fire Nova: Causes a nova of fire to erupt from victims of Flame Shock, damaging nearby enemies.
Flametongue Weapon: Enchants weapon to increase the power of the shaman's spells, as well as causing melee attacks to deal additional fire damage.
Windfury Weapon: Enchants Weapon to cause attacks to sometimes call upon the fury of the wind, striking the opponent 2 additional times.
Shamanistic Rage: Shaman fills themselves with the rage of the spirits, decreasing the damage they take, increasing the damage they deal, and removing the mana cost from all offensive spells for a short time.
Totems
Totems are something unique to shamans in world of warcraft, where they call upon the elemental spirits to aid them in battle. They use a small relic, one for each element, that they keep on them at all times to connect with the elemental spirits, which, when call upon, take the form of “pillars” or totems, causing different benefits for the shaman and their allies, dependong on the spirit called upon. Unless stated otherwise, while healing, Stoneskin, Flametongue, Wrath, and Healing Stream will be used, and while Enhancement, Strength, Searing, Windfury, and Healing will be used. Mana is only used when needed.
Strength of Earth: Earth Totem that Increases the strength and agility of all nearby allies.
Stoneskin: Earth Totem that hardens the skin of nearby allies, increasing their resistance to damage.
Flametongue: Fire Totem that increases the spell power of all nearby allies.
Searing: Fire Totem that asists the shaman, casting fireballs at their target every 1.5 seconds.
Windfury: Air Totem that increases attack speed of nearby allies.
Wrath of Air: Air Totem that increases the casting speed of nearby allies.
Healing Stream: Water Totem that releases healing mists, offering constant, slight healing to all nearby allies.
Mana Spring: Water Totem that releases mana into the air, causing nearby allies to replenish mana faster.
Utility
Ghost Wolf: Shaman takes on the form of a wolf spirit, allows for faster movement.
Heroism: Inspires all nearby allies to fight with renewed vigor, greatly increasing attack and casting speeds
