> Sides Of Two
>  by CakeHatColt
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: The New Ponies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The morning started with the sun shining high upon Ponyville. A scrawny yellow stallion appeared high on a small hill. Lifting his light blue top hat with fake candles, CakeHat Colt stood on the hill staring down to the town, exhausted from the walk all the way from Canterlot. He had with him a big cart of luggage twice it’s size.

"Haha! Finally made it," CakeHat spoke to his body sharing companion, Shield Strong. "Told you we didn't need a map, Shield."

"The only reason why we made it was because I memorized it before you stupidly dropped it in the lake," Shield retorted, "And now that we made it to Ponyville I guess we should get to the house now and unload our stuff."

"Or," CakeHat responded, "we can find somewhere to eat and find the house later."

"It'll be better if-"  Shield said before Colt cutted him off with, "Yeah food!"

Shield gave an irritated sigh, "Of course…"

"Hey Flame Cloud!" Colt said to his other friend accompanying him, a white pegasus, with long messy orange hair, in the sky laying on a cloud of smoke. "You coming or what?"

She yawned and then replied, "Nah, I'm gonna have to pass this time, Colt." She lowered her cloud over to him. "How about I just take the luggage to the house and unpack a bit?"

Colt closed his red eyes and opened them with Shield’s brown eyes, to signify that Shield had taken over.

"Alright, that's fine," Shield responded to Flame. "Just be careful. We're new here so the residence will notice us."

"What's wrong with that, Shield?" Flame asked. "I thought the point coming here was to explore Equestria and meet new ponies!"

"Yes," Shield agreed, "but we still don't know anyone here yet and I don't want to give a bad first impression."

"Oh pff," Flame retorted. "You make it sound like I'm gonna burn half of the town down."

"Oh yes," Shield replied sarcastically, "because you never did that before."

"Come on Shieldy," Flame wraps her foreleg around him. "Trust." With that, Flame Cloud picked up the luggage with her smoke and went off. "See you guys later."

CakeHat's eyes turned back to red and he shouted to Flame, "Have fun!" Then he referred to Shield, "Alright, let's get some grub!" They processed to walk down the hill and enter the town.

CakeHat Colt is an odd guy. He's the only earth pony in his family, which consists of mostly unicorns and some pegasi. What made him even weirder was that he wasn't born with a mane or a tail. He didn’t even have his cutie mark. He always wears his cakehat, along with a necklace of a shield that is colored half white and black vertically.

With him, in his mind lies, Shield Strong. He considered himself as Colt's common sense; telling him the rights and wrongs half the time and the other half discussing what to do next.

As Colt walked through town, he is astounded by almost everything. The building structures were very new to a city pony like him. He saw the streets get busy with children playing, merchants selling, and even restaurants that weren’t fancy or served the same food. It was a nice change to see these things to both Colt and Shield.

"This place looks amazing," Colt spoke to his friend, "don't you think, Shield?"

"Well to be honest," Shield responded, "It looks more peaceful than I expected and seem more preferable than Canterlot... But looks are often deceiving. So give me some more time to make a final conclusion.”

“Alright.” Colt responded and looked to his right to find the perfect place to grab a bite. “Ah ha! Found it.”

They walk up to a sweet shop called "Sugar Cube Corner". Colt enters the shop to find Twilight Sparkle, the new princess, and her friend Pinkie Pie. Indeed Colt and Shield knew who they were from Celestia but they never really met any of the Elements of Harmony. Shield really didn’t want to meet them.

"You did this on purpose," Shield said seeing Twilight with his usual annoyed tone. "you knew they're going to be here."

"What?" Colt pretended to be confused about Shield's complaint.

"You know exactly ‘what’," Shield explained, "you knew the Elements of Harmony would be here."

"So what?", Colt asked in response, "Shield, you seriously worry too much. You need to relax sometimes."

"I worry for good reason," Shield defended himself, "I am done working for Celestia and her government. I don't want to be involved with her underlings either."

"Well," Colt said, "Who said we had to? We're passing by getting something to eat. There's nothing to worry about." Colt walks over to the counter Pinkie Pie was behind of and states his order. "Hello," Colt said, "Can I get a blueberry muffin, if you have any?"

Pinkie Pie gasped back, "You must be the new pony moving in?!"

"I told you guys the residence was going to notice us." Shield said with a irritated groan. "I bet she's also going to say…" Shield was cut off by Pinkie.

"I could tell because I know everypony in Ponyville," Pinkie explained, "And I don't know you, which can only mean you're new, and I heard that the spooky house at the top of the hill was sold so that must've meant somepony was moving in! Ah I'm so excited! What's your name? I'm Pinkie Pie!"

"Yeah that sounds about right." Shield said again in his previous tone.

"My name," CakeHat lifted his hat and bowed to greet them. "is CakeHat Colt, insert made up title here. It's nice to meet you, uh…Pinkie Pie right?" He tilted his head to see her face.

Pinkie stared at her reflection through Colt's bald head, "Ooo, shiney!"

"I'm Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight walked up to greet herself as well.  “It's nice to meet you, CakeHat Colt.”

"Nice to meet you, too. Princess Twilight." Colt responded. He puts his hat back on. He then stares at Pinkie Pie with a grind and placed his hooves on the counter, "Now about that Blueberry Muffin I tried to order a second ago. Do you have any and if so may I have one?"

"One Blueberry Muffin!" Pinkie shouted, "Coming right up!" She heads to the back to grab it.

"So Colt," Twilight asked, "What made you come to Ponyville?"

Colt stared to the upper left corners of his eyes to think. "Well let's see…"

"Please don't tell her too much," Shield pleaded, "I don't want to her know about me."

"Hmm…" Colt was still thinking, considering Shield's request, "To put it simply, I've been sitting around waiting for life to give me something to do. And now I got something and I got the resources to do that something, so why not do it?"

"And…" Twilight asked again, "What is this ‘something'?"

"To travel," Colt pulls a map from his hat showing all the cities of Equestria with Canterlot crossed out and Ponyville circled, "I want to see all of Equestria!"

"Wait?," Shield said in shock turned anger, "You had a second map this whole time!"

"I've already seen Canterlot, of course," Colt continued, ignoring Shield, "but I haven't seen this place, Appleloosa, Manehattan, the Crystal Empire, and everything else. I want to see these places; I want to see how other ponies live. And when I'm done with Equestria; I'll go explore the rest of the world."

"Wow…" Twilight looked surprised, "That's very admirable, CakeHat, but why start here, and buy a house instead of renting a room in an inn?"

"Two things," Colt explains using the map, "One: Ponyville is at the center of Equestria. So if I go somewhere like Appleloosa, instead of wasting time and money on taking a train there from Canterlot, I can take a train from here and back. Making the trip easier, faster, and cheaper for me. Two: Since I've been stuck in Canterlot, I'm so bored of it. I've already seen everything Canterlot can offer, and for me, it's not much." He rolls up the map and puts it back in his hat. "So I decided, 'hey, I'm gonna move here!', and thus, here I am."

"One blueberry muffin," Pinkie said to Colt giving a muffin to him. "Here you go!"

"Alright!" Colt grabs the muffin with a thank you and starts to head out. "It was nice talking to you guys. See you around." Twilight and Pinkie also say their goodbyes and Colt exits the building.

When Colt walks out of Sugarcube Corner, he said to Shield, "See it wasn't that bad."

"I get it," Shield responded, "As long as they don't find out about me, I'm fine."

Colt starts to walk towards the direction of the house as he devours his muffin. His joyus
expression showed he loved the taste of it.

"I still can't believe you had another map," Shield said angrily but sternly. "We could've used that on our way here."

"I didn't want to use it," Colt responded. "It's my 'Plan Map'. I use it for planning; not traveling."

"That sounds stupid…" Shield said with a plain expression. "Let's just get to the house. I'm starting to get tired."

Colt agreed and headed to the house. As they were walking, behind them were three mysterious figures, with cloaks covering their whole bodies, walking into Sugar Cube Corner. Neither Colt nor Shield noticed them as they continued along their path.

"Hmm…" Colt started to wonder. "Hey Shield, do you think we made a good first impression? I mean, so far."

"I would say so," Shield answered, "They don't seem to ridicule you by the way you look, so…"

Before Shield could finish his statement there was a blast of magic destroying the front entrance of the sweet shop they were just in. Colt turned to see what happened and saw Twilight looking like she was caught in the blast and was attempting to stand. Then another blast aimed for her but she flew up just in time, dodging the magic. She continued to fly away and Colt saw the three cloaked ponies chase after her. One of them in a female voice shouted, "Get her!" They processed to run past Colt, leaving him in confusion.

"Hey umm…" Colt questioned, "That's not good, right?"

"Of course not," Shield stated, "The better question is: should we be involved? Because I prefer not to be."

Pinkie then came out the destroyed shop. "CakeHat!" She shouted in worry. "Which way did Twilight go?"

Colt pointed in the direction Twilight went and Pinkie ran off thanking him. Before Colt could even ask what happened she was already miles away.

"WAIT!" Colt attempted to shout to Pinkie, running to her, "WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"I still prefer to not be involved." Shield said.

Somehow Pinkie heard Colt's question and ran back to him backwards and processed to run back at his speed. "Some meanies in black cloaks came in after you left and said to Twilight…” Pinkie shaped her hair as a hood covering her eyes to reenactment  what happened.  'Hey we came to kill you, prepare to die!'” Her hair turned back to normal. “And blew a hole in Sugar Cube Corner!"

"What?!" Colt shouted in surprise. He then sprinted faster than Pinkie Pie's previous speed, leaving her behind. "Shield we have to do something about this!"

"What do you mean by 'we'?" Shield replied, "I'm going to be doing all the work."

"I was trying to convince you to help…" Colt clarified before being cut off by Shield with:

"I said 'I prefer'" He restated, "But if she can't handle this herself I'll just have to step in."

They reached town square, where they see a battlefield. Burnt marks from deadly magic blasts, couple buildings missed some pieces to their walls, and there was Twilight on the ground, too injured to even stand, at the mercy of the three hooded ponies. Ponies were running away but one, in particular, was fighting back. However it was too difficult to do anything without getting shot. This pony was Rainbow Dash.

"You're not gonna get away with this!" Shouted Rainbow Dash.

"Oh really?" Said the one with the female voice. "What can you do to stop us?" She said as she shot another beam of magic at her. Rainbow jumped out of the way, dodging the blast. "Hmph." She chuckled, "Thought so."

Rainbow just growled angrily towards her.

"Alright boys," The hooded mare spoke to her fellow members with a grin on her face, "Let's finish this." Together they charged their magic to shoot one final beam that'll destroy anything in its path, of course directing it towards Twilight.

As the beam was shot, everything felt like it was in slow motion. You could see Rainbow's face having a look of terror, watching her friend die right before her, Twilight's eyes closing, gradually accepting her fate, the three hood ponies who can just hear their pay check, but suddenly, right before the blast could reach its target. A figure, looking a lot like CakeHat Colt, shadowed by the bright beam of death jumped in between them. Then BOOM! The blast hit impact and blinded everyone in the area. Smoke rose giving everyone a slight cough.

"Was that," One of the other hooded ponies with a voice of a male coughed and continued, "suppose to happen?"

"If you're talking about the smoke," The hooded mare spoke, "then no." As she spoke the smoke started to clear a bit, "but as long as the alicorn's dead, it doesn't matter."

Once the smoke cleared everyone was in shock, along with Pinkie Pie, just arriving to the scene. Instead of seeing Twilight, there was a purple stallion, with a black and white mane and brown eyes. He was positioned as if he took the magic blast head on, with him standing on his two back legs and his front legs were rose to the sides, but he had no trace of damage dealt to him.

"YOU!" The voice that came out of the stallion was Shield Strong, shouting at Rainbow Dash, "ELEMENT OF LOYALTY! GET THE PRINCESS OUT OF HERE! NOW!" Rainbow disappeared from her original spot.

“Already on it!” Rainbow shouted. She was high up in the sky with Twilight on her back unconscious. Apparently Rainbow decided to risk her own life to swoop in and grab Twilight before the blast of magic came in contact. She was then on her way to the hospital but noticed Pinkie was here too. She dived down and grabbed Pinkie, then went to the hospital as quickly as possible.

"Hey!" the hooded mare shouted to Rainbow. She turned her attention to Shield, "What's your deal?! You made our paycheck get away!"

Shield stood there in silence analyzing the situation.

"Hey!" She shouted again, "I'm talking to you!"

"So what?…" Shield finally said, "You three are mercenaries or something? I didn't expect for that kind of job to still be around here."

"What's it to you?" She asked, which pretty much answered Shield's question.

"Speed," the third one of the group said to her, "we don't have time to deal with this punk."

"Don't you get it?" Speed whispered back, "That guy's an earth pony, who just went head first into a blast of magic fused by three highly trained unicorns without a scratch. Whatever he has is something we want, Dark."

"We can deal with that later." The other hooded male responded, "Our main priority should be the alicorn."

"Hey who's the leader here, Rookie?" Speed whispered, again, angrily.

"Excuse me?," Shield said to interrupt the arguing three, "Pardon my rudeness for getting in between your bickering but I'm only trying to understand the situation here." The three paid their attention to him, "So you three are mercenaries, who are clearly not from Equestria, which is pretty much one of the most, if not the only, peaceful place in the world. And what you three decide to do is disturb that peace and attempt to kill a leader of the land you're stepping on right now. Am I correct?" As he spoke he walked up closer to them.

"Your point?" Speed said in an annoyed tone.

"My point…" Shield continued, "is that this is a place of peace and I'll not allow a trio of disrespectful idiots try to ruin that peace."

"Is that so?" Speed said with a cocky smile. "So how do you plan on stopping us?"

"Two ways," Shield proposed, "Either the equestrian way: to polity ask you to leave…"

"That's cute," Speed giggled. "And the second way?"

"…" Shield remained silent for a second. "Or the second way: I'll force you to leave." He said with a stern face, his eyes squinted and eyebrows furrowed downwards.

Speed saw his face and realized he was serious. She started to chuckle, while her partners put on their own serious faces. "I'm not exactly sure how you survived our combined magic, but I do know for sure that you can't fight the three of us alone." Her cocky smile grew as she spoke.

"Is that so?" Shield asked. He then positioned himself in a fighting stance, ready to strike. "Well, to be honest, I don't know myself if I can handle the three of you. But I've fought tougher things before."

Without a second to react, the three saw Shield disappear. Then Shield reappeared in front of Speed, who wasn’t quick enough to react, punching her in the face. (What they didn't know was that Shield had a number of magic infused gadgets up his sleeves, and the one he used to trick them was a hologram projector.) She flew back by a few feet as Shield continued by then spin kicking the one previously called "Rookie". Rookie stepped backwards shocked by how quick that happened but still stood his ground. The one called "Dark" kept his distance and went to care for Speed, as Rookie retaliated by trying to punch back, causing his hood to fall off his head. Shield swerved Rookie's hoof to his side and went around him to land another kick. Rookie was starting to get pissed.

"You piece of shit…" He murmured with his head turned and standing on two legs.

His horn started to glow, looking like he was about to use magic. Shield was getting ready to go on him again but he noticed that the glow started to spark. Electricity started to flow through Rookie's vain and forming on his hooves. Shield never expected a unicorn to be able to control thunder, but he knew it wouldn't really change anything in the fight. Rookie went all out. Throwing punches left and right with a few kicks, as Shield just kept dodging. Eventually he had to block one punch, but as he did they were locked to each other. Rookie noticed that the electricity from his hoof was being drained and flowed to Shield's chest where he noticed the necklace.

"I see…" Rookie said, "So it's that necklace that allows you to not be affected by magic."

Shield just stood silent. He didn’t want to give any information that will cause him to lose this fight. As they stayed locked in their position Speed teleported behind Shield with sharp daggers attached to her hooves ready to stab him in the back. Shield reacted quickly and rolled out of range.

"Congrats earth pony," Speed said floating in the air by magic. "You got me to stop underestimating you. Too bad you're going to die now." She rose her blades up.

"He has a necklace that allows him to suck magic from us." Rookie informed. "If we take that I can fight him with my lightning."

"Is that so?" Speed said with a grind. "You hear that, Dark?" She shouted at him, "Anti-magic! That's something worth our time."

"Alright then," Shield said, "I believe it's time to change strategies." He threw a smoke bomb to the ground surrounding himself with it. This cause the three to lose sight of him.

"What is he doing?" Speed wondered.

Dark just stood there, not joining in the fight. Just watching what's happening. He was actually intrigued of this mysterious fellow with such skill in fighting. He can tell that he was hiding more than he leads on.

Shield jumped out of the smoke faster than he was before. They couldn't even see him clearly; he was literally a blur. But Dark could see him. Shield was circling them waiting for a good moment to strike.

"He's fast." Dark said following his movements.

"We can see that, Dark!" Rookie shouted in anger. He then shot a blast of lightning to a random spot hoping it would hit Shield. Shield dodged it before hand and then went in.

He jumped in the air and face kicked Rookie with his back hooves. On his hooves were two wheels, one on each hoof. Rookie fell to the ground covering his face from the pain. As Rookie fell, Speed took the chance to stab Shield when he reached the ground. She got him. A precise stab through the back to the lungs, but there was no blood. No reaction from Shield then he started to distort, the three were shocked to discover he was a hologram. Even Dark was surprised he had postion of such advanced technology and able to use it so quickly.

"What?" Speed asked in confusion.

Shield appeared behind them on his two back legs with the wheels keeping his balance.

"That's not possible!" Rookie said, "How can a third world country have such advanced technology?"

"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Shield stated really not knowing what a "third world country" is, "But Equestria doesn't have access to what I have. They use love and caring fueled magic to fight."

"Ew." Speed said is disgust, "gross."

"That sounds stupid." Rookie said in disbelief.

"It is." Shield agreed, "The alicorn you just tried to kill is titled 'The Princess Of Friendship'."

"What?!" Speed asked, "Why?"

"Because she saved the country about 3 times," Shield answered, "then another couple times after she got her title."

"That doesn't sound such a honorable title for doing something so great consistently." Dark finally spoke.

"Over here it does." Shield responded. He brought back the situation at hand. "So are we still fighting?"

"Of course we are!" Speed said instantly. "You've literally kicked two of us in the face and you're still alive. I hate you now!"

"How unfortunate…", Shield said ready to fight again.

Speed and Rookie got in there fighting stances for another round. Rookie noticed that Dark wasn't getting in his fighting stance like they were and turned to him.

"What?" Rookie asked. "You aren't gonna help?"

"Not really," Dark replied. "I'm gonna sit this one out."

"It's fine," Speed told Rookie, "We can handle him ourselves anyways!" She flew into action and Rookie followed.

Rookie and Shield went into another fist fight, throwing punches at one another while Speed teleported to Shield's back to try and stab him. Shield moved out the way and continued to dodge Speed's slashes. Because of the increased speed he had with the wheels he ended up not having a single scratch on him and ready to keep going. Speed and Rookie on the other hand, were already tired and knew they won't last any longer.

"God…dammit!" Speed said out of breathe, "why…is he… so fast!"

"Those damn wheels…" Rookie said also out of breathe, "on his back legs."

"Do you guys give up yet?" Shield asked with his front legs crossed. "Because I have things to do today other than dealing with you two idiots."

"All you've done…" Speed said to him, "is dig your own grave." She jumped at him for one last attempt to at least scratch him. Shield simply moved to the right of him at normal speed and she fell to the ground. He went back to all fours and bent down to check her breathing. She was still alive.

"Alright," Shield said getting back up. "So do you want to join her with nap time or do you want to take her home?"

"Hehehe…" Rookie laughed, "if we met in a different situation, I would like you because you said that." He could barely stand.

Dark walked to Speed and put her on his back. Then he went to Rookie,
"So…" he asked, "can you walk or should I also carry you?"

"I can walk on my own thank you!" Rookie said to him refusing help. He took one step and almost crumbled to the ground. "Or maybe not…"

With that Dark placed Rookie next to Speed on his back. "You did quite a number on them," he spoke to Shield. "It's been awhile since we've fought somepony like you."

"I see…" Shield replied. "So I'm guessing you guys are stilling going after the princess?"

"Yes," Dark answered, "and most likely we'll be going after you as well."

"Oh lovely," Shield replied sarcastically. He turned away from Dark, "Well, good luck trying… I'm going home." He said walking out.

"Oh!" Dark remembered to ask, "Who are you again? I didn't catch your name."

"My name?…", Shield looked at him with his head turned towards him. "It's Shield Strong." He continued to walk.

"Shield Strong…" Dark whispered under his breathe. "Haven't I heard that name before?" With that he left with his two partners.

Afternoon was approaching. The sky began to change from blue to orange. The sun lowered itself little by little. And Colt and Shield has finally reached their destination. The house was a bit banged up. The windows were cracked, there were a few holes here and there, but it seemed easily repairable. The lights were on, clearly Flame Cloud was inside fixing up the place. Colt walked up to the door and knocked.

"Hey Flame!" Colt shouted, "It's me, CakeHat! You there?"

"Hey guys," Flame opened the door, "Had fun exploring the town?"

"It was awesome!" Colt walked on inside. The living room seem straightforward: a couch on the back end of the room, a couple chairs on the side, and a rug. Colt jumped on the couch, "We came across the Elements of Harmony, saved the Princess of Friendship from some mercenaries, then I walked around town square trying to search for the house, Shield went to sleep, I got lost, and…", He paused, "…let's see… what else did I do?"

"That's cool," Flame said then had an realization, "Wait, that means…" She laughed towards Shield, "haha…that mean you're a vigilante now, Shield." She laughed even harder knowing that was the exact opposite he ever wanted to do.

"Unfortunately yes," Shield said, taking control, "however only for the time being, this is not going to be a permanent thing."

"Come on, Shieldy," Flame rebuttals. "It already is, except this time you're not in some kind of secret organization working for the equestrian government."

"Yeah," Colt replied, taking control, "can't really argue back there, sonny, she has a point."

"Colt," Shield takes control again, "Shut up."

"But hey," Flame said flying next to Shield and processed to sit. "Bright side, this time you got me to back you up."

"Actually," Shield responded, "about that…I actually am going to need your help." He explained, "The mercenaries that was sent after Princess Twilight, weren't completely ordinary. They mix magic with their physical combat skills. And now they’re after me because I stopped them."

"Say no more," Flame said, "I got you."

Shield smiled, "thank you, Flame."

"Besides…" Flame said with a sinter expression. "it's been awhile since I've hosted a barbecue!" You could see a fire burning in her eyes.

"We aren't killing them." Shield informed.

"We aren't?" Flame said with her joy turned to sadness, "Ahhhh…Shieldy! You're no fun…"

"I don't want them to die," Shield explained, "I want them to leave."

"Fine…" She sighed, "I won't kill them." She shrugged, "I'm gonna go unpack some more. Hey Colt, wanna help?"

Colt took control, "Sure. I'll unpack the boxes for the bedrooms…" Colt went on telling Flame a plan to split up the work while Shield went into deep thought.

He thought about today, thinking what to do next because of it. Yeah the two hotheads weren't a challenge at all to him, but what about the third one. He was calm, mostly, through the whole thing. He didn't really complain about his tactics, nor does he say he wants to fight him. Maybe he's the strongest of the three; maybe as strong as Shield. He doesn't know it as a fact but it's just a feeling he had. "Maybe I'm going to need more than Flame's help for this?" He thought. With that he just tried to sleep it over, hoping he'll come up with something in the morning.
> Chapter 2: The Royal Meeting
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was the morning after the attack of the mercenaries. Shield Strong and CakeHat Colt were walking in the halls of the only Ponyville Hospital. Shield wanted to check on the princess for information. See if she has any ideas to who would want to kill her.  Unlike Colt, Shield was a war strategist. He planned his actions before setting them in motion. But in order to have a full-scale plan he needs all the facts, or at least as much as he can get.

They entered Twilight’s room. She was asleep with a computer monitor keeping track of her heart beat. She had a couple bandages on her but nothing too serious.

Colt walked up to her, “So,” he asked Shield, “What now?”

“Wake her up,” Shield replied taking control and changings into his appearance, “obviously.”

“Shield, that is rude! We should wait for her to wake up on her own.”

“That’ll take too long.” Shield clapped his hooves together in front of Twilight’s face.

She slowly started to wake up, her sight was blurry and couldn’t hear clearly.

“Hey? You awake?”, Shield asked, then he heard multiple hoof-steps getting closer to the room. “Someone’s coming.”

“It must be the rest of the Elements of Harmony.” Colt clarified.

“Darn it,” Shield said hiding behind the current right next to Twilight’s monitor, where he found another hospital bed and went under it. “I should’ve came here sooner.”

“Why are you hiding?” Colt questioned Shield’s hiding, “It’s not like they’re going to imprison you or something. Matter of fact, I’m sure they’ll be thanking you, if anything.”

“I’ve already told you I don’t want them to know about me,” Shield whispered, “Now be quiet so I don’t have the need to reply to you.”

Then the Elements of Harmony finally walked in.  All six of them were in the room: Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy. They noticed Twilight was waking up and were excited.

“Twilight!” Pinkie shouted and jumped on the bed for a hug, “You’re awake! We were so worried you would never wake up and if you never woke up that would mean we couldn’t have fun anymore! Actually we could but it would be really depressing.”

“Thanks Pinkie,” Twilight said to her, with a smile, and then to everyone else, “and thank you all for coming for my sake. I mean it.”

“Oh phff.” Rarity said, “of course, darling, what are friends for?”

“Yeah,” Applejack added, “We’ll always be there for ya. No matter what.”

“Speaking of being there…” Rainbow Dash asked Twilight, “Who were those three nut jobs trying to kill you? And why?!”

“I don’t know,” Twilight answered, “I don’t know anything about them or their motives. I do know that they’re too strong to fight against. If it wasn’t for that mysterious pony I’ve would be dead by now.”

“What ‘mysterious pony’?” Applejack asked.

“Oh yeah,” Rainbow forgot to mention, “There was this purple stallion, that jumped in just in time so I could grab her and get out. I got no idea who he was though.”

“Pinkie…” Twilight asked, “You know everypony in town. Do you know who this ‘purple stallion’ was?”

“Don’t know,” She replied, “I wasn’t able to get a good look before Rainbow grabbed me with you.”

The six stood in silence for a second before someone said outside the room, “I might be able to help.” Everyone knew that voice. The six were shocked, while all that Shield could think, under the bed, was “Gosh darn it.” It was, in fact, Princess Celestia walking in.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight said in shock, “What are you doing here?”

“Well”, Celestia explains, “Yesterday a friend of mine contacted me about what happened and so I decided to come by and check up on you.”

“I told you what happened,” Shield complained in silence, “so you can send over RazorShot to help me with the mercenaries. Not to do a freaking check up.”

“Oh,” Twilight said with a little blush, “Why thank you Celestia…” She went back to the topic at hand, “wait, you said you’re maybe able to help. Does that mean you know who saved me?”

“Let’s see,” She said, turning to Rainbow, “Rainbow Dash? Did this ‘purple stallion’ have a black and white mane? With brown eyes?”

“Yeah actually,” Rainbow answered, “How did you know all that?”

Celestia went closer to the bed, “Well, since he already revealed himself to you, he’s the friend I was talking about.”

“What do you mean by ‘revealed himself’?” Twilight asked in curiousity.

“I would explain it to you…” She replied, “However, I’m sure he’ll want to explain for himself.” She stares at the bed next to Twilight’s bed, where Shield was hiding, “Isn’t that right, Shield?”

“Gosh darn it, Celestia.” Shield said coming out of hiding, “Couldn’t you just send a letter or something to them?” He knew if he didn’t come out now she would have just lifted the bed anyways. So better make this quick.

“Well yes…” Celestia replied, “But I just felt that this would be the perfect time to finally introduce Twilight to you.”

“In other words,” Shield complained, “you just wanted to make my life more complicated than it already is.”

“So…”Applejack asked, “Who are ya, again?”

Shield sighed and introduced himself, “My name’s Shield Strong.”

The room went silent, the six elements of harmony thought he was going to add on so they waited.

“Is that it?” Rainbow asked, finally.

“What?” Shield replied, “Do you want an autobiography?”

“Shield here,” Celestia explained, “Is a long time friend that has helped me many times in the past.”

“’Friend’ is a stretch, don’t you think?,” Shield corrected, “I prefer the term ‘ally’.”

“You would think 16 years,” Celestia questioned, “would be enough time for you to start calling me a ‘friend’?”

“I really don’t have time for this.” Shield ignored Celestia and directed his attention to Twilight. “Listen, the three who attacked you were mercenaries, so do you know anyone who would want you dead?”

“What are ‘mercenaries’?” Pinkie asked.

“Seriously?…” Shield asked annoyed. “Can one of you explain it to her later?”

“Actually Ah never heard bout ‘mercenaries’ either,” Applejack said along with the rest of the Elements to nod and agree to her statement.

A vein popped up on Shield’s head and his eye twitched. “how about assassins?” They shook their heads, which meant ‘no’, he rolled his eyes, “bounty hunters?” They nod their heads saying ‘yes they know’ to each other. “….Alright it’s official. I hate all of you. You six for not knowing what a mercenary or assassin is,” he points at the Elements then to Celestia, “and you for not putting two simple words in the dictionary.”

“Well you don’t have to be an asshole about it.” Rainbow said to Shield.

“Nor do I have to be here listening to dimwits.” Shield rebuttal, “but I am,” he turns to Twilight, “Now can you answer my question.”

“I’m sorry Shield Strong,” Twilight answered his previous question. “I don’t know anypony who would want to kill me.”

“That’s all I needed to know.” Shield said heading out the door. “Thank you for your time.”

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Rainbow Dash flew to the door to prevent Shield from leaving, “We still got questions for you.”

“I really prefer to leave now.” Shield responded, “Like the rest of you, I got plans for today I have to follow through on.”

“Hey you asked us questions,” Rainbow declared, “Now we have to ask you questions.”

“Come on Shield,” Celestia convinced him, “Few questions never hurt anypony.”

“Yeah,” Colt agreed, “It’ll only be a few. You’ll be fine.”

Shield grunted, “Fine.” He proceeded to sit down staring at the Elements of Harmony. “but you can only ask one; you know since I only asked one question.”

“How did you-” Rainbow was about to ask him how he blocked the magic blast for Twilight but Twilight cut her off.

“Why did you save me?” She asked, the room went silent for a moment until Rainbow continued with…

“Yeah actually that’s a better question,” She examined him, “You don’t really seem like the hero type.”

Shield took a breathe to collect his thoughts, “There are many reason to why I saved you. It’s because you and your friends can wield the elements, it’s because you’re a symbol, it’s because you could be a better leader than Celestia one day. To put it simply I saved you because you’re still important to Equestria. Matter of fact, if you weren’t any of those I would have let you die.”

The room went into shock except for Twilight, Celestia, and Applejack.

“Hey,” Rainbow shouted at him, “There’s no need to say something like that.”

He stood up again and started to walk out, “I’m done here. Also when I’m done with those mercenaries, who are after me too by the way, learn how to deal with them on your own.”

They all stood in silence as they watched Shield walk out.

“Shield Strong,” Twilight said, which caused Shield to stop, “Thank you…” He didn’t say anything back; he just kept walking.

“Twilight!” Rarity said, “How could you say that to him after he threaten to leave you to die?”

Twilight turned to Celestia, “He was lying, wasn’t he?”

“Oh you saw through him too?” Celestia turned to her to respond, “he never was a good liar.”

“It doesn’t matter if he was lying or not.” Rainbow shouted in anger, “That’s not something to joke about, especially since it almost happened.”

“Ah think,” Applejack spoke, “that Shield feller’s hiding something he doesn’t want us to know about.”

“How can you tell?” Fluttershy asked.

“It’s just a feelin’.” Applejack answered.

“That’s still no excuse to say such thing.” Rarity rebuttal.

“Girls, girls.” Celestia calmed them down, “I’m sorry for Shield’s behavior. He’s a nice guy once you get to know him. Promise.”

“More like just a bigger asshole.” Rainbow said over Celestia.

“Oh I almost forgot!” Celestia began to explain, “Because of yesterday’s event, I’ve decided to send one of my best Royal Guards down and help you in case you need it.”

“That’s much appreciated, Celestia.” Twilight thanked, “Thank you, we could use all the help we can get.”

With that Celestia said her goodbyes and headed back to Canterlot.
______________________________________________________

Meanwhile…in the Everfree Forest there was a small wooden shack where the trio of mercenaries were sheltered in. SpeedStab, the leader, was shouting in fury about the fight with Shield, while trying to relieve stress with a punching bag. Rookie was tinkering with one of his gadgets to relieve his stress and Dark Story was going through a pile of books. Speed and Rookie both had bandages for their injuries.

“Unbelievable!” Speed shouted punching her bag, “Outwitted by a mere earth pony! A EARTH PONY! THOSE BRAIN DEAD HILLBILLIES ARE SUPPOSE TO BE ONLY GOOD AT FARMING! WHY? HOW!”

“Jeez can you be any louder?” Rookie asked taking a break from his tinkering and look over his shoulder towards her.

“Fuck you, Rookie!” Speed shouted over him.

“I know that lost was painful,” Rookie reasoned with her, “but if you keep being so loud you’ll attract unwanted guest.” He referred to the Timberwolves in the area.

“I’m just so pissed.” Speed said stopping her punching, “That reward money was so close to being ours. Then comes along a earth pony, of all ponies, and kicks our ass without even breaking a sweat! How can you be so relaxed about this?” She asked Rookie.

“Maybe because I’m not a racist fuck like you.” Rookie responded. “Besides I bet Dark can fight him.”

“What makes you say that?” Dark asked him as he was looking through his books.

“Whenever that guy made a move you weren’t as shocked as we were.” Rookie explained, “So clearly you could actually see his movements using that special 2,000 year old martial arts of yours.”

“Well... you’re not wrong,” Dark replied, still reading.

“What are you looking at anyways?” Speed walked over to Dark and noticed the book he was looking at. “Hey that’s the fairy tale book Grandpa use to show us when we were kids. Why are you reading it now?”

“The earth pony said his name was ‘Shield Strong’…” Dark answered, “I know I remember something being said about him in one of Grandpa’s old books so I’m looking to see if I’m right.”

“Alright, I’ll help.” Speed sat down and grabbed a book, “If it means we can kick the shit out of that earth pony I’m all in.”

“’Shield Strong’ huh?” Rookie thought, “that name sounds so stupid. Matter of fact, why does everypony’s name sound stupid?”

“What are you getting at, Rookie?” Speed asked, still looking through the book.

“I mean think about it,” he explains and goes back to tinkering, “’Shield Strong’ that literally sounds like what he does for a living. Shields ponies from harmful magic and is very strong. Dark Story’s name makes him sound like an edgelord with a tragic past. Your name, again, sounds like exactly what you do for a living. Even my actual name, ‘Thunder Smash’, makes it seems it’s like that because I use thunder magic.” He looks at Speed, “you get what I’m saying?”

“All I understood was that you’re name is stupid, which we already established a long time ago, so we call you Rookie.” Speed responded still looking through the books, “So yeah I got what you said.”

“I am really not in the mood for your shit, SpeedStab.” Rookie responded with a vein of anger popping out.

“I think I found it.” Dark said gaining all the attention in the room. Speed looks at the book Dark had open. It was a history book titled “History Of The Dragon Style”. There is a page with a drawing of Shield on it.

“What does it say?” Speed asked, while Rookie decided to listen in.

“’Shield Strong,’” Dark read, “’became the youngest Master of The Dragon Style of Life, by the age of 15’!”

“Wait what?” Speed said in shock, “That has to be a mistake. It should take at least 10 to 15 years to master one of the dragon styles!”

“Yes,” Dark answered, “but I don’t find it impossible for somepony to master one of the styles at such a young age, and that isn’t the problem…” He paused in shock, the other two were now actually worried for Dark. They looked at each other then back at him.

“What’s the problem?” Rookie asked.

“This…” Dark answered, “Is a history book. And it says this happened over 1,000 years ago…”

The room went silent. Everyone was shocked at that piece of information. Rookie was looking down trying to wrap his head around it. Speed went to her punching bag in silence. “What the hell is this place?” she finally said, punching the bag “First we find out Alicorns are real!” Another punch, “Then there’s a earth pony smart enough to use enchanted items and technology, we only dream about.” a few more punches, “Now you’re telling me this same earth pony is immortal and has mastered an ancient martial art passed down in are family.” She shouts at Dark, “Am I hearing this right?!” Her eyes swore from anger.

“It appears to be that way,” Dark said trying to not cause her being any more upset, “…yes…”

She punches the punching bag, causing it to fly off it’s harness, while screaming to the top her lunges. “AAAAGGGGHHHH I’M SO PISSED RIGHT NOW!” She goes to the bag on the floor and continues to beat it up.

“Hey Dark,” Rookie asked him in a whisper, “After this, can we, like, take her to see a Psychiatrist?” Then immediately, the punching bag was thrown at Rookie, hitting him in the face with it. He fell down head first.

“DON’T THINK I DIDN’T HEAR YOU ROOKIE!” Speed said in blind rage then she ran outside and continued her rampage on a nearby tree.

“Jeez…” Rookie said rubbing his face in pain, “Can you just-” he stood back up and was about to shout back in anger until Dark stopped him by covering his mouth.

“Fighting her right now is a bad move,” Dark whispered back and removed his hoof from Rookie’s mouth, “Just let her relax on her own.”

“Fine….,” Rookie looked at Speed in her rage, then turned back to Dark. “What is this ‘Dragon Style’ anyways?” Rookie asked, “I know that it makes you stronger or something but that’s really it.”

Dark sat down next to Rookie, “The Dragon Style is what said to be the beginning of all martial arts. It is said if you have mastered one of the three styles you have mastered all the other arts as well. The Dragon Style, once mastered, can allow you increased strength but for a cost. The cost differs with each style: the Dragon Style of Life increases your strength by using your emotions as fuel. For example, the more you care for somepony the stronger you become. The Dragon Style of Death increases your strength by draining your own magic, which is dangerous because if you stay in that state for a long period of time you could die from it. Then there’s the Dragon Style of The Afterlife, which increases your strength, by draining magic from everything around you.”

“I see…” Rookie responded finding it clicking in his head. “So what Styles do you two have?” He referred to Dark and Speed.

“I’ve mastered the Dragon Style Of Death,” Dark answered, “However, Speed couldn’t master any of the styles. You need certain requirements to master one of the Dragon Styles, such as having control over your emotions and patients.”

“I can see that,” Rookie responded looking outside the Shack watching Speed finally calming down, “She really isn’t either of those things.” He turned his head to Dark again, “So…about this ‘Shield’ guy, you going to work on a plan or something?”

“Hmm…” Dark thought, getting up, “Well yes, but the question is, how can we kill somepony who can’t be killed?”

“Not really possible…” Rookie responded, “but it’s a good thing we’re not facing somepony unkillable.”

“You don’t think he’s immortal?” Dark asked

“Oh no! I do!,” Rookie corrected, “But if he couldn’t be killed, then why does he have enchanted items to defend himself with? My guess is that he can die but he made sure killing him will be the toughest thing to ever do.”

“I see…” Dark understood Rookie’s point of view, “You may be onto something, Rookie.”

“Obviously,” Rookie retorted, then shouted for Speed to get back inside so they could figure out a plan to fight their immortal enemy, Shield Strong.

______________________________________________________

Colt and Shield walk into their house. Colt jumps on the couch to relax a bit before they go to do their next objective. While Flame was up stairs still unpacking.

“Well that happened.” Colt said in exhaustion, “you know, Shield, I know you don’t like them but you didn’t have to be a dick to them.”

“I did all that was necessary.” Shield denied, “I only said all of that so they don’t go to me for help.” He continued, “After this, I’m done fighting.”

“Oh guys!” Flame shouted in excitement, “You’re back!” She flew down stairs with a newspaper with her. She tossed it to Colt, “You’ll never guess what’s in the newspaper!”

Colt picked it up and read the front page. It was titled “A New Hero of Ponyville”, with a picture of Shield fighting the two mercenaries.

“Oh shit!” Colt said, “Look Shield, you’re in the paper!” He processed to smile with Flame Cloud.

Shield was only left in shock. It felt like a nightmare; he got what he never wanted and strived to never have...
> Chapter 3: The Purple Stallion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The news article lays on the table. Shield, stoically stared down the paper with his brown eyes and Colt's figure. He sat on the couch thinking with Flame Cloud flying next to him. For the past 15 years he hid himself from the world. But now, everyone knows he's alive and because of that his fears began to wonder. What if his past comes to haunt him? What if someone comes along and want to challenge him to a battle to the death? What if they find out about him and Colt?  What if they find out about Colt's magical capabilities? All of these thoughts and fears of what could happen only made his feelings towards this even worst.

"Hey," Flame tried to comfort Shield, "Cheer up. You're seen as a hero! You're finally getting recognition for all the good you've done."

"All, they know, I've done was fight off some bad guys." Shield responded, "And that doesn't really help my situation."

"Well what would help?" Colt took control once again. "Go around town, grabbing all the newspapers we can find and have Flame burn them?" He said in a joking manner.

"Ooo, really!" Flame added, "I love that idea!"

"Stop it! Both of you!" Shield took control and caused their silence. He took a breathe, "I can't understand why you guys see this as a good thing." He stood up, "I was careless and caused one of our secrets to be revealed. Now what if they find out more? What'll we do when these ponies find out we're part changeling?", He referred to Colt,  "They'll see us as an actual changeling. As a threat!" He stared at Flame Cloud, "Or what if the Crystal Empire hears about this? They'll try to take me to jail, which will take Colt in the process." He sat on the floor staring at the ground, "…I don't want you two to suffer for my actions." He turns away, knowing what Colt and Flame are thinking, "I know, I'm over reacting. But I see this as a serious problem, and I wish you two can take this a bit more seriously too." He then retreated back into his thoughts and Colt regained control.

Colt turns to Flame, both having faces of worry for Shield. They knew Shield said he never wanted to be seen as a hero but they saw him as one. And they were so happy to find out others see that too. However, they also know that Shield has fears of his own that he can't conquer. All they can do now is to wait for Shield to figure things out on his own.
______________________________________________________________________________

Colt walked into town alone. Flame Cloud stayed home and slept, hoping Shield will get over it soon, but Colt thought he had to do something about it. He never liked it when a friend was sad so he hoped that if he kept to the plan it could cheer him up. The plan was to visit Princess Twilight for answers then go out and look for a job.

True he had plenty of money, given by his deceased father, but as Shield put it. “It’s only for traveling expenses. If we just live off it without any stable income we won’t survive for very long.” This also gives a chance for Colt to learn how life is somewhere else in Equestria.

After Colt finds a job they would go back to the house and set up the basement. Back at his home in Canterlot, there was a basement where his dad use to work. To Colt's understanding, his dad was an inventor. He used to create enchanted items, such as the wheels, the hologram, and the necklace Shield used to fight the mercenaries.

Once Shield got settled with his new life with Colt, he learned from the father's notes and created many more enchanted items. For example, he modified Colt's hat as an space of itself. Think of it like a magician's hat but with cotton candles on top. When they left their home they brought all the enchanted items with them in Colt's hat. So now all they have to do is organize all the items into the basement.

Colt, knowing he'll probably take forever with the organizing, knew that would take him the rest of the day, or he’ll get Flame to help. So he planned to sleep afterwards and meet up with RazorShot at the train station the next morning.

But first things first, he has to find a job. But he's still new in town and doesn't know anyone, with the exception of Pinkie Pie and Princess Twilight. So he headed to Sugarcube Corner. Hoping Pinkie Pie could give him a job or know someone who's hiring.

He reaches the front of the sunda looking building, the entrance still destroyed, and found Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Pinkie was behind the counter and Rainbow was complaining about Shield.

"Just who does that guy think he is?" Rainbow said with her head on the counter. "Thinking he's some kind of hot shot just because he beated some baddies."

"Cheer up, Dashie." Pinkie said, "Princess Celestia said he didn't mean it."

"What about Celestia?" Colt bargged in the conversation.

Rainbow lifted her head, thinking she heard Shield, "Oh you better be here to apologize or I'm gonna..."

"Hi, CakeHat!" Pinkie greeted, seeing him walk up.

"What?" She stared towards Colt. "Oh... Sorry about that." She put her head back down. "Thought you were somepony else."

"That's a first." Colt was shocked, with a smile. "How often do you see a stallion wearing a birthday hat everyday?"

"That's not what I meant..." She said. "You sounded like an asshole I just met today."

"And who's that?" Colt acted like he didn't know.

Pinkie pulled out the news article with Shield. "This guy."

Colt reread the article. "'The Purple Stallion'? Never heard of him?"

"No pony ever heard of him," Rainbow explained, "He just came out of nowhere."

"Actually, Princess Celestia said he used to work for her." Pinkie corrected.

"whatever…" Rainbow remained in her gruchy state. "When I find that guy I'm gonna demand an apology for Twilight! Even if I have to beat it out of him." She stood up. "You know what. I'm gonna look for him. He has to be somewhere!" She flew out of the shop in a blink of an eye.

"Well alright," Colt said with no fear at all. She wasn’t going to be able to find Shield anywhere, because she just passed him. Colt giggled a little thinking about Rainbow’s unself-seeing perdicturment. “Oh right!” He remembered why he came here. “Pinkie, I got to ask you something..."

______________________________________________________________________________

“So...I'm a hero now. I mean, yes I have done heroic deeds in the past but I never took credit for them. I'm the kind of guy that stays in the shadow. Let someone else, like Princess Celestia, take it. I didn't need it. I don't need it! Especially now, right when the Crystal Empire is finally safe and free, and probably still hates or fears me...

I just wanted to stay in hiding, let the Empire think I'm still dead. I just wanted to give Colt a life I could've had but lost. A life of freedom, of hope, having all and only the great moments. Yes I do know it's impossible to be happy all the time, but Colt is very close to impossible. He always looks on the bright side, every single time something bad happens he has a smile and say "it's not too bad, Shield, stop worrying so much."

...Maybe I should try that too. Alright here we go. My existence is discovered, oh well. At least only Ponyville knows. But then again Princess Twilight also knows of me so she might tell Princess Cadence, which may lead to the rest of the Crystal Empire knowing...which will lead to their attempt to imprison me...and that’ll most definitely lead to Flame and I to fight back, making are situation worst!... Alright, so I'm not good at that. That's great to know.

...How about this, when the Crystal Empire finally comes into the picture I'll just stay in hiding. I just won't transform to my figure. And in case of emergencies, I'll just use the wheels to deal with the situation before us to make sure no one sees Colt doing any of it. That's better, I'm getting the hang of this. I wonder if Colt's doing alright without me?

______________________________________________________________________________

Colt walks out of Sugarcube Corner, with a smile. Pinkie said that she could ask her bosses if they're hiring when they come back from grocery shopping. To Colt, that meant that he got a job, so he decided to head back to the house and start organizing, or at least attempt to.

"I'll see you later!" Colt shouted. "Thank you."

He proceed walking down the stairs when he paused, hearing Shield.

"Alright," Shield started, "I'm back. What did I miss?"

"Oh," Colt replied walking down, "not much, just got a job." He said hoping Shield would be happy.

"Really?" Shield said surprised, "Wow, Colt. I'm impressed. You managed to settle something without me."

"Thank you, thank you," Colt succeed. "I am amazing."

"So what's the job?" Shield asked.

"Oh I don't know." Colt replied with glee. "Pinkie said she would ask her bosses if they're hiring and she would tell me if they were."

"That's…." Shield should've expected this, "That doesn't mean you got a job.”

"What?" Colt said lacking understanding.

"Yeah," Shield explained, "That only means they may or may not be hiring. If they are then they'll have an interview with you to see if they want to hire you. If they want to hire you, then you have a job."

"Oh…" Colt said, "Oh well. We’ll see what happens.”

"Because you're lazy?" Shield retorted.

"Nope," Colt responded, "Because I trust."

"If you say so," Shield went along. He wasn't rushing for Colt to get a job. They still have a month until their bills comes along. Waiting for a least a week won’t be the end of them. "So what to do now?” He wondered. “You want to look around or something?"

"That would be cool," Colt thought about it. "But I want to go through with the plan for today."

"Fair enough." Shield began to think of how to organize the basement. Where should everything go and in what order?

Colt just thought about making Shield happy. And it's a good thing he got over the Purple Stallion situation before he got to the house. Thinking realistically It would have taken at least a week to just set up the table, let alone the enchanted items, the magic books, and the containers.

While Colt was walking towards the house Shield was looking through Colt's point of view. Colt was literally looking everywhere out of boredom. He stared at the ground, then the sky, the ponies walking by, and the buildings. Now because of this, Shield spotted a balcony that didn't look right. An old stallion was on it, sitting on a relaxing chair enjoying the sunlight. However, Shield noticed that a part of one of the supports of the balcony was broken. A chunk was missing with burnt marks on the edges. Maybe it happened when the mercenaries were blasting their magic left and right, Shield thought. Either way, the balcony was not safe to be around. It could collapse at any moment.

Colt looked down under the balcony, and Shield saw a child playing with his toys. Probably trying to escape the sun.

"Colt," Shield questioned, "Do you notice that balcony over there."

"You mean the one that's about to fall?" Colt obliviously looked at it. "Yeah."

Right as Colt said that the balcony slanted quickly. It was about to finally break. The old stallion was in panic, not know what's going on, and the child mindlessly still played.

Shield acted quickly, "Gosh darn it," He took control and ran into a dark alley way to change into his figure. By the time he came out the balcony just snapped apart of the building.

The old stallion scream grabbed the child's attention. The kid was too shocked to move when he looked up. All he felt like he could do was cover his face hoping everything will be fine. He heard a loud noise, and noticed that he wasn’t dead yet. He looked to see The Purple Stallion, right next to him, holding the balcony.

Shield was breathing heavily. The balcony was expectedly heavy for it's size and giving him some trouble. He stared at the kid and said to him, "Hey! Get out of the way, Child." The kid wouldn't budge. "I SAID GET OUT OF HERE!" He was forced to shout. The kid realized his situation and ran, out of the way, to his mother.

Now that everyone was cleared out, Shield slowly put the balcony down. Once he did so the old stallion ran out as well and everyone who was watching was cheering. They were amazed! They never saw a pony bear handedly lift a balcony before. It was unreal. Shield was just focusing on the safety of everyone he didn't realized that some ponies were taking pictures for the next newspaper.

"Gosh darn it." Shield noticed the flashing lights then ran away immediately. He ran into the dark alley which brought him to Town Square. He looked back to see if anyone was following. He didn't see or hear anyone nearby so he changed back to Colt's figure and allow him to take control.

"And you don’t want to be called a hero." Colt mocking Shield, coming out the dark alley. "Face it, Shield. It’s your calling!"

"Okay first off, shut up." Shield demanded. "Second, can we please continue this conversation when we get to the house? You’ll look weird talking to yourself."

"Oh!" Colt realized Shield still wasn’t over the hero thing. “Sorry, my bad."

"It's fine." Shield reassured. “Just now’s not the time.”

They continued on their way home until Colt noticed a crowd forming. There was a Crystal Pony on a wooden box, calling for Ponyville's attention. Shield knew her. Her name was Snow. He also knew that whatever she was going to say was going to be bad.

"ATTENTION! Citizens of Ponyville, there is a menace in your society!" Snow shouted. Once she said that the crowd grew and sounded worried. "He is the Prince Of Shadow, Shield Strong! 1,000 years ago he was the son of King Sombra, who enslaved the Crystal Empire. And just like Sombra, he has returned to follow his father's hoofsteps!" The crowd gasped!

There it was. The “truth” that Shield tried to hide has finally been revealed. All he could do now is stay in hiding for a while. Stick to the plan he made.

"Hey Shield…" Colt asked him in whispers. "Should we go? This isn't really comfortable…" He worried for Shield, he could feel his fear and regret.

"No," Shield answered. "This was bound to happen anyways. Might as well see through it all so we can plan ahead."

"What does this guy look like?" One of the ponies in the crowd asked.

Snow pulled out the newspaper and had the crowd stare at it. "This 'Purple Stallion' is the Prince of Shadow!"

The crowd was in silence then quickly burst into laughter.

"What?" She asked in worry. "What's so funny?"

"The Purple Stallion can't be the son of Sombra!" One laughed.

"All he has done was save ponies ever since he showed up!" Another said, not laughing at all.

"Yeah!" The mother from earlier agreed and complained, "Just five minutes ago, he saved my son from a falling balcony."

"What!" The Crystal Mare exclaimed. "He must be plotting something. He's only trying to convince you he's a hero, just so he can stab you in the back and take control!"

The crowd started to decrease in numbers. None of them believed her.

"Wait!" She reasoned. "I'm telling the truth!"

"Yeah right!" One of the leaving crowd members shouted back.

Shield didn't expect this. He thought there was going to be a hunt or something, but everyone thinks she's lying. She wasn't necessarily right. She was just wrong in some parts. Yes, he was titled the "Prince of Shadow" and was second in command under King Sombra, but he's not trying to seek vengeance. He's just trying to live a new life. He wanted to set the record straight. Tell her the truth, but she wouldn't believe him. It's best to stay away. He can feel the hatred she carries for him. The sense of justice she wants to strike Shield down with. If she were to discover his situation, she will go back to the Crystal Empire and they'll send Royal Guards after him. Nowhere will be safe. Not for him and especially not for Colt.

"Let's go, Colt." Shield said to Colt still staring at her. Colt saw her walking away with a face of anger and her head staring to the ground.

"Yeah," Colt agreed starting to head in the direction of the house. Then suddenly Shield and Colt heard a distinct voice of the mercenary that went by Speed. Colt looked towards the direction of the voice and saw a blue unicorn, with orange hair and a knife dripping in blood as a cutie mark. She just began a conversation with Snow. "Umm… That doesn't sound good."

"Yeah it doesn't," Shield responded knowing that something was going to happen.

"Well finally!" The Crystal Pony shouted in rejoice. "Somepony with some actual common sense."

"Listen, we can't talk here." Speed whispered to her ear. "It's not safe. I know a place where it is." She lead her to an dark alley. Coming across this "Crystal Pony" was the luckiest break ever. Even though she didn't believe that this mare was an actual Crystal Pony, because they died a long time ago, she does know about Shield Strong. Which makes her a good info broker. After this she was planning to gloat in Rookie's face for saying going into town was a bad idea.

Colt followed them and hid on the edge of the alley. Shield listened in on the two talking.

"Alright," Speed continued the conversation. "Tell me everything you know about 'Shield Strong'."

"Besides of what I said earlier," Snow started, "He's terrifyingly strong."

"Yes I know that." Speed became impatient. "Tell me something useful! Like, how many enchanted items does he have? What are his weaknesses?"

The Crystal Pony was confused. "En-enchanted items?"

"Yeah, all of his weapons. What are they?" Speed began to shout in anger. "Do you not know?"

"That's impossible." She shouted back, "Enchanted items take too much magic and time to make. Shield couldn't even be able to make one in a span of little over a year."

"Then we must be talking about a different 'Shield Strong' then." Speed was angry now, realizing this was a waste of time. "The 'Shield Strong' I'm talking about kicked the shit out of me and my group with three enchanted items just yesterday. And you're telling me he shouldn't have any? WHICH I SHOULD ALREADY KNOW, BECAUSE HE'S A FILTHY EARTH PONY!"

"W-wait… Yesterday…?" The Crystal Pony gasped, realizing her situation. "Y-you're one of the attackers on the newspaper!"

"Yes, I am..." Using her magic, Speed levieted above the ground, and teleported her cloak and one of her daggers on her. "And since you pissed me off and you've figured out who I am. I'm gonna have to kill you." She was beyond mad at this point. The Crystal Pony was only frozen thinking this is where she'll die. "Oh, and don't worry about 'Shield Strong' we're planning on killing him next…"

Speed then flies into stab her but before she could a blur took the Crystal Pony and left a gusting wind, pushing her back. When she got back up she saw she was alone. The Crystal Pony was just gone. "Damn it!" She knew Shield took her.

The Crystal Pony was confused. She thought she was about to die but she was still alive. Along as being carried on a random ponies back. She was in a position where she couldn't see the stallion's face but he was able to notice him being purple and having a black and white shield as an cutie mark. She knew this was Shield Strong.

Shield finally stopped in an dark alley a mile away from where they were previously. He put the Crystal Pony down and made a poor decision to speak.

"Snow?" He asked. "Are you okay?"

She closed her eyes and backed away frailly. "STAY AWAY FROM ME, MONSTER!" She was scared and for good reason.

Shield only had a face of regret as he began to do as asked. He expected this, but he underestimated how much it would hurt to actually hear it.

"Listen," Shield said. "I need you to go back to the Crystal Empire. Ponyville isn’t safe anymore for you."

"No shit, this place isn't safe anymore," She agreed, "because you're here!"

Shield should have expected this. He took a breathe. "Fine. Believe what you want. I'm not going to stop you. I don't even care if you tell the whole Crystal Empire about me at this point. But if you don't leave now…the three who attacked the Princess of Friendship and their leader who just tried to kill you moments ago…they will find you and kill you." He stared her in the eyes. "Don't do this for me. Do this for yourself."

Shield started to walk away. Snow looked at him. He looked so different from the last time she saw him. His hair was spikier and he didn't have any features that resembles a Crystal Pony.

"S-shield!" Snow got Shield to stop. "What happened to you? You don't look like a Crystal Pony anymore?"

"Yes…" Shield said. "I believe that was the point." He then ran off looking like he just vanished with the wind.

Shield made sure no one was around for Colt to take control with his own figure. When Colt took control he tried to cheer Shield up.

"Well," Colt started. "On the bright side, we saved three ponies today."

"But it also gave us more publicity." Shield countered. "And having Snow confirming my existence isn't really such a great thing."

"Speaking of which," Colt asked. "how did you know her?"

"I know everyone in the Crystal Empire." Shield answered. "I used to rule it, remember?"

"Ah, right." Colt said. "So back to the house?"

"That would be nice." Shield said yawning. "I'm going to sleep. It's been a long day."

"Good night, buddy." Colt said to Shield before his slumber.

Colt got to the house past noon. Flame Cloud was at the front of the house unlocking the door with groceries hovering around her with her smoke.

"Oh you went to buy food?" Colt asked Flame, walking up to her.

She opens the door. "Yep." They both walked in.

"What you get?" Colt explored through the bags. He found, to a disappointment, many healthy foods. He found fresh vegetables and fruits, milk, cereal, yogurt, slices of bread, and a bunch more for cooking. "Aw what! Where's the muffins? Or junk food?"

"I didn't get any junk food," Flame explained. "And they didn't have any muffins at the store."

"Lame." Colt said disgusted.

"Oh don't be like that." Flame walked past him and grabbing the bags to organize them in the kitchen. "Just watch, at dinner time you're gonna be saying 'wow this food is amazing! Thanks Flame Cloud for cooking!'" Then she adds. "Besides, there's a reason junk food is called 'junk food'."

"But ice cream and cake is literally a daily lunch for ponies." Colt argues.

"Yes." Flame rebuttals. "Because they're delicious and sweet to eat. But having too much leads to diseases, organ failure, stomach ache…"

"I get it." Colt said knowing she's just caring for Shield's and his health. "Besides your cooking is amazing…"

"Thank you." Flame said before he was able to finish.

"When you don't burn it." Colt laughed.

Flame was insulted by Colt's words. So she decided to ignite a small fire on Colt's butt.

"Hmm?" Colt smelled the air. "Where's that smell of smoke coming from? Are you cooking already?" He hasn't realized the fire on him spreading.

"Yes actually," Flame laughed back. "it's you."

"What?" Colt turned to his side and realized his circumstance.

He jumped into the air in panic. He ran through the whole house while begging for help. All Flame did was just watch and laugh. The fire wasn't going to kill him. Flame could never hurt Colt, or Shield. But she does love to screw around from time to time.
> Chapter 4: The Archer and His Daughter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The train station was vacant. Only expect for Colt and Shield, who were waiting for their longtime friend, Razor Shot. Razor was a Royal Guard, one of the best archers in fact. He is, according to Shield, "one of the smartest" because he's the only one that uses a crossbow. The problem with the crossbow is that in order to use it you need two hooves and it takes a long time to reload another arrow. So you need to be at least a pegasus or a unicorn and you need practice loading arrows. Razor could fire one arrow every 30 seconds. For reloading a crossbow that's almost impossible, but Razor somehow manages to do it.

However he does has one flaw that brings him down. He has a bad case of anxiety! He can get very paranoid very quickly. It's really a miracle how he manages to be a Royal Guard.

Colt and Shield haven't been waiting for very long. Almost ten minutes, but Colt was getting bored already.

"Aaaahhhhhhggggg…" Colt said with tired eyes. "How much longer do we have to waaiiitttt!"

"Not much longer. I give it, five minutes." Shield responded.

"Thaattt's toooo lonnggg!" Colt responded. "Why can't the train just-" He stopped and heard a sound of a train. "Well finally."

From the distance the train made it's loud entrance and quickly got to the station. The doors open and only a red pegasus with strange hair walked out every timidly. It was definitely Razor Shot. This was his first time being out of Canterlot so understandably he would be cautious. He pecked his head to see the outside before actually walking out. He spotted Colt almost immediately.

"C-cakeHat!" Razor walked up and gave him a shaky hug.

"Hi Razor." Colt said as Razor let go. "How are you? Is Grace and Hidden Eyes doing alright?"

"Yeah, Grace is doing fine...but…" Razor turned back to the train with a nervous smile, knowing Shield wasn't going to be happy. "We kind of have a problem…about Hidden…"

"Hmm?" Colt looked inside the train cart.

A small green filly with a ponytail in her hair ran out. "Uncle Colt!" She jumped on top of Colt. "Where's Uncle Shield? Is he here?"

"Hidden Eyes!" Colt and Shield shouted. Colt continued having a hard time with her on his back. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see Uncle Shield!" Hidden explained. "Where is he?" She jumped off and looked around the station hoping to see him.

Colt laughed nervously. "Hidden, we told you already, Shield was a character we made up for you as a younger filly."

To understand the situation here, Shield didn't want Hidden Eyes to know about him. He thought if she knew of him it would only bring more trouble to her and Razor's family. When Razor and Grace found out about Shield they started to get caught up in conflicts they shouldn't have been in, time and time again. He didn't want Hidden to go through the same thing so he asked them to never mention him. Unfortunately they did eventually and they compromised. Tell her when she's older that those stories were made up only to entertain her as an infant.

"Oh really?" Hidden said using her magic to pull out Shield's letter to Princess Celestia that was sent to Razor Shot. "Then what's this?"

"Uh…" Colt was speechless. He didn't know how to lie his way out of this.

"Gosh darn it…" Shield followed with seeing Razor smiling with fear in his eyes. He knows the fear is for him.

"You guys can't lie to me anymore!" Hidden said with a grin. "I know he's real. I don't know why you guys been hiding him but I want to see him." She put on her puppy face. "Please!"

"…Let me speak to Razor." Shield requested of Colt.

"Umm.." Colt said walking past Hidden. "Listen, let me talk to your dad about this first. Alright?"

She agreed and Colt and Razor walked to a far enough distance to keep Hidden in sight but not be able to hear them. Shield took control.

"Alright Razor…" Shield said in a calm voice seeing Razor's anxiety is hitting him hard. "Please explain how she found out."

"I'm sorry, Sh-…" He looked at Hidden. "…Colt, she snooped into the mail. I didn't know I was getting any mail about you. I swear!"

"It's alright." Shield understood. "Now just calm down, alright? I'm not mad."

"Really?" Razor asked confused. "You're not?"

"I'm not mad…" Shield restated. "Yelling at you won't solve this problem. However right now I'm only concern for Hidden." Shield explained. "These mercenaries are willing to do anything. Hidden being here and in the way will only make matters worst."

"I know that!" Razor whispered back. "I told her that, but after reading the letter she was hell bent on coming with me. Sweet Celestia! She even hind in my luggage!"

"Holy shit!" Colt said. "Seriously?" He glanced at Hidden to see how small she was, not noticing the Elements Of Harmony walking up to her. "I mean, I know she's small but she's not that small."

"Colt…" Shield grunted getting Colt to realize what he overlooked. "We got another problem…"

"Hmm?" Colt turn back to notice the Elements. "Oh that's bad!"

"HEY DAD! UNCLE COLT!" Hidden shouted running over. "The princess is here for us!" She grabbed her dad's foreleg and pulled her towards them. "Come on she's waiting." Razor showed a terrified face to Colt.

"So…" Twilight walked to them to close the gap quicker. "You must be Razor Shot. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Razor nervously laughed then was silent. He wasn't prepared to speak to the Elements yet. Meeting them, especially with Hidden right next to him, is the worst possible thing to be happening. "What if they mentioned Shield? Then Hidden will geek out and tell them that we know him. And with Colt here, too, they're going to figure out Colt and Shield are the same pony, at least that's what they're going to think!..." Razor silently panicked to himself.

Hidden noticed him sweating and shaking. "Dad? Are you alright?" She nugged him on the side with a concerned face, so did the Elements(except for Pinkie Pie, who was bouncing with excitement).

Razor shook out some of his anxiety to respond. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine, Sweetie." He then introduced himself to the Elements of Harmony. He stood straight with his foreleg to his head as a salute but he was shaking a bit. "I am P-private Razor Shot of the Royal Guard A-archer Division, at your service, Princess T-twilight!"

"And I am Hidden Eyes." Hidden added bowing her head. "His daughter."

"Well welcome to Ponyville." Twilight said with a nervous smile of her own. "And I would like to introduce my friends..." She was suddenly cut off by Pinkie Pie.

She pulled her party cannon out and placed it right in-between Razor and Hidden. Then just as it appeared it burst it's confetti in the air with a loud boom surprising Hidden and terrifying Razor. Razor screamed to the top of his lungs as Pinkie greeted them right after.

Razor flew straight to Colt's hat and hind inside. He was so frighten that the hat was shaking with him. Razor took deep quick breaths to try to calm himself down as Colt try to comfort him as well.

"Whoops my bad." Pinkie nervously smiled as everyone else frown at her.

Hidden went to Razor. "Dad! Are you alright? Do you need your medication?"

"It's okay, Hidden." Razor refused the offer, the hat still shaking. "Im fine.....Im fine!..." he peeked his eyes out. "Just give me a moment."

"Um?..." Rainbow floated next to Hidden. "Is he alright?"

"If he says he's fine. He'll be fine...over time that is." Hidden answered.

"What's wrong with him, darling?" Rarity walked up as well.

"Oh nothing much." Hidden answered again. "Just anxiety...kind of a really bad case of it." Hidden then started to question Pinkie's actions. "But why did you do that anyways?"

"Oh I do it to everypony that comes to Ponyville!" Pinkie answered quickly.

"Hey!" Colt responded jealously. "You didn't do it to me!"

"I didn’t?" Pinkie realized. "I DIDN'T!" She then pull the cannon in front of Colt's face and fired. Confetti covering Colt's face from forehead to chin. The sound caused the hat to shake more vigorously.

"Thank you." Colt said unsatisfied.

"MAY YOU PLEASE STOP THAT!" Razor shouted outside of the hat.

"Oops again!" Pinkie shouted back. "Sorry!"

After another minute of Razor panicked breathing he finally calm down. "I-I should be the one saying 'sorry'." He continued. "I don't really seem like the average day Royal Guard, do I?" Hidden then began to comfort him.

"By the way." Rainbow decided to change her focus to Colt. "What are you doing here, Colt?"

"Oh, well…" Colt explained to them. "Razor and I are old friends! And I haven't seen him in a while so I came to see him and give a place to stay while he's here."

"Wouldn't it be better if he stayed in the Castle?" Applejack questioned. "Ya know, so he can guard Twilight properly?"

"I mean, I'm only offering." Colt answered. "It's up to him if he wants to or not." He looked up to Razor still in his hat.

"One things for s-sure…" Razor responded to the situation. "Hidden is staying at your house."

"Yay!" She shouted. She was honestly glad she can stay at her Uncle's house. That way there's a better chance to finally see Shield.

"And, and of course I'm staying at the Castle." Razor added. "What kind of Royal Guard would I be if I didn't?"

"But darling?" Rarity questioned now. "Wouldn't the Castle be the safest place for your daughter?"

"What?" Razor pulled himself out of the hat and shouted. "OF COURSE NOT! If Princess Twilight is the main target, then the castle is the last place any child should be in." He calmed down. "Besides…" he had a chill down his spin. "Her aunt is the scariest pegasus to ever live. She can protect Hidden just fine."

"That's right!" Hidden agreed. "Aunty Flame can burn anyone who'll get near me!"

"Is that so?" Twilight said. "Well that's good. I never expected you to be marry already, Colt?" She had a smile but she did have one concern however, while Colt had a confused face about her last remark. "But why are you here in the first place?" She then looked towards Razor for an answer.

As Razor was about to speak, Pinkie interupted him with a wild hypotheses. "Maybe she heard about that 'Purple Stallion' guy that's been going around and saving ponies left and right, and she wanted to see it for herself!"

Hidden's heart was pounding, she knew they were talking about her Uncle Shield. But even though she's out of the loop, she at least understands there's a reason to why her Uncle has been hiding. It also helped looking at Uncle Colt's and her Dad's face in disinterest. "Maybe it would be better if I didn't over react this time?", she thought. "Something's going on with them?"

"Gosh darn it…" Shield said. "It feels as if coming here was a mistake after all."

"What 'Purple Stallion'?" Hidden respond. "I came of my own accord… To visit my Uncle Colt and Aunty Flame."

"What!?" Colt, Razor and Shield all thought.

"Well I can't blame you for that." Twilight said with a smile. "I have a Niece of my own and I love it when she visits."

"And how would that even work, Pinkie?" Rainbow questioned. "Our newspapers don’t spread all the way to Canterlot."

"I don't know." Pinkie replied with her usual smile. "Just a hunch."

Hidden smiled back to Twilight. "Well we better get going!" She hopped on to Colt. "We shouldn't let Aunty Flame wait forever, right?"

Colt struggling to stand with Hidden on his back. "Yeah…of course.." He agreed. "But can you get off first!"

"Whoops! Sorry!" Hidden laughed.

The two said their goodbyes to the group and went on their way to Colt's house. Leaving Razor with the Elements of Harmony to talk.

As Colt and Hidden were far enough away from the Elements he decided to break the little silence between them.

"So…" Colt started questioning. "What happened back there?"

"What do you mean?" Hidden questioned back.

"You know…" Colt explained. "You not telling them about our relation with Shield."

"Oh!" Hidden had a realization. "So that's why you guys been keeping him a secret!" Colt tilted his head in a questioning fashion. She continued. "All of you thought I would rat him out! Well, guess what! I didn’t! Clearly there's a reason Shield doesn't want to show himself, and the look on your face back there, means it has something to do with the Princess and her friends. Am I right?"

"eeehhh…" Colt tried to correct some of things she said. "Well there's not really any coral between them and us, but you're right about why we never told you."

"Why would you guys think that?" Hidden said with disappointment. "It's me! If you tell me to keep a secret; I can keep the secret!"

"Yeah, of course…" Colt had a hard time putting the words together. "But…you're still young… You could get peer-pressured into talking about Shield, you know?"

"Pfft!" Hidden replied angrily. "As if! I don't have anyone else to talk to other than you, Aunty Flame, and my parents. Who am I gonna 'spill the beans' to?"

Shield and Colt rose a brow. "Hidden? Are you saying you don't have friends your age?" Colt asked very worried.

"I don't need friends?" She looked at him. "I already have you guys."

"Well…" Colt was shocked. "I can understand that, but friends are fun!" He tried to think up reasons to have friends. "And uh…" He got stuck.

"They can teach you things that any of us can't." Shield gave a list to how great friends are. "They can be there for emotional support, get a second opinion,…" He said a couple more reasons as Colt was repeating everything to Hidden.

"All of what you said…" Hidden rebuttal. "I can already get from you guys and my magic books." She looked at him again. "I know you're worried about me, but I'm fine. Honest, I don't need friends, I got you and everypony else." She smiled at the end there.

Colt simply gave up, nothing he would say would change her mind. "If you say so…"

___________________

Meanwhile at the Mercenaries Hideout. SpeedStab returned and has just explained what happened back at the town. Rookie was very upset of her actions.

"SPEED, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!?" Rookie's voice echoed through the woods.

"Jeez…" Speed wasn't caring in the slightest. She had her back turn to him and was using her magic to clean her ears with an ear swab . "What did you expect me to do? Just let her live? She found out who I was."

"I bet because you exposed yourself on purpose." Rookie said sceptly.

"Now why would I do that?" Speed said in disbelief.

"Because that's what you do, Speed!" Rookie has known her for a long time. "You like to kill ponies, and you find any reason to do it."

"Yeah, fine." Speed knew he was right, but this was a bit different. "But this was different. This wanna be 'Crystal Pony' comes up to me, tells me that she knows Shield Strong and when I ask her for any information, she gave me absolute squawk. All she knew was that he's very powerful. Something we already knew."

"So she annoyed you. That's enough reason to kill someone?" Rookie retorted. Speed was about to respond back with "yes", but Rookie already knew she was going to say that too so he talked over her. "No! No it's not enough of a reason. If we got payed for it; sure. If she was in the way for our paycheck; sure. But if she knew nothing about anything; there's no point. On the plus side, what if she wasn't lying about being a Crystal Pony, huh?"

"Of course she was lying!" Speed defended herself. "The Crystal Ponies should be extinct by now. It's been 1,000 years."

"Well,…" Dark Story took a brief break on his read, which he's been doing since before the two were fighting, commented on their debacle. "Shield Strong is a Crystal Pony, and he's still alive."

"For now…" Speed growled at the thought of the jackass, Shield Strong.

"Not to mention that we're technically descendents of the Crystal Ponies." Rookie claimed. "Speed think about, if that mare was a crystal pony and Shield Strong is one as well, then it's possible there's more of us out there. Hell, maybe the Empire still stands."

"See…" Dark commented in disbelief. "That's just wishful thinking. In all of our history books it's stated the Empire fell. It just vanished out of thin air, never to be seen again."

"Spoiler Alert guys!" Speed was getting impatient. "We're not here to find an ancient civilization! We're here on the job. Also, I don't care." She grabs her cloak and walks towards the door. "I'm going back to the town, dig up some grub for us." She scoffed and walked out the door.

"Hey!" Rookie asked. "At least use a disguise spell before you go into town. And don't get-!" Speed slammed the door cutting off Rookie. "…caught…" He turned to Dark. "I'll be honest, Dark. How are you related to her?"

"We were given birth by the same mare." Dark said bluntly turning a page of his book.

"You know what I mean!" Rookie dropped his head on to his table. He then grabbed his tools and began to tinker with his gadget, once again. "You two are complete opposites! It makes no sense."

"And you two…" Dark retorts. "fight over everything we do. But yet you still stay."

Rookie simply responded with. "…Tu' Sha."

_____________________________________________

Meanwhile, the Elements of Harmony and Razor Shot were at Twilight's castle, waiting on Spike and Pinkie with their breakfast pancakes. Razor has been very silent around them. He's worried, with his level of stress right now, he might mention Shield, which can reveal his friendship with him. So he just kept as silent as possible. It help very much that he seemed so awkward and nervous the others just felt the same way to ask any questions.

It was until Fluttershy decided the break the silence with Razor and asked a question. "So Razor Shot, how was your trip here?"

"Oh…" Razor said trying not to worry any of them. "It was…fine." It clearly wasn't fine. Right after he spoke his head fell to the table. "Oh, what am I saying?" He began. "It was so awful. Hidden learned a spell to hide in my luggage so she sneaked on the train with me, and I told her not to come! I told her it was dangerous, but she didn't care! Now I have to worry about this mission and keeping her safe and…!" He realized he was spilling out his guts. "ahh, I'm sorry if I'm saying too much."

"Oh not at all." Fluttershy continued to comfort him. "I find it very admirable for you to be caring for your daughter."

They continued to talk as Rainbow whispered to Twilight. "I don’t trust this guy."

"What?" Twilight asked. "Why is that?"

"You know…" Rainbow and Twilight looked at him. "He just doesn't seem fighter material. You've fought them before, do you really think he can protect you?"

"Rainbow Dash..." Twilight spoke after some thought. "I understand your concern, but Celestia sent only him for a reason. We have to trust her decision."

"Hmm…" Rainbow grumbled and wondered why Princess Celestia only sent this weak looking archer to guard Twilight. So he decided to ask him herself. "Hey, 'Razor Shot' right?" She shouted across the table.

Razor had a shiver down his spin. He turned to her, intimidated by her shouting. "Y-yes…"

"Why did Celestia send only you here?" She asked.

Razor couldn't tell her the truth that Shield technically sent him and not Celestia. Yes Celestia did give the order for him to go but Shield was the one who requested his help. But he honestly didn't know why Shield needed his help. "Well…uh…I don't really know." He looked away, terrified by Rainbow's expression.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Rainbow asked with an eyebrow raised, and her front hooves slammed to the table. The rest of them were staring at him with their own sets of concern faces. Razor started shaking with all of their glaring.

"I-I'm sorry…" Razor began to explain. "I just simply don't know why I'm needed here. Especially with Sh-!" Razor covered his mouth. He was about to mention Shield! His heart was pounding hard. He has to think of something quick! "Sha…shyness… especially with how shy and nervous I am around other ponies! You know?" He gulped down with sweat pouring out of his face. The Elements of Harmony knew Razor Shot was hiding something. Rainbow Dash, especially, was not buying his shit. She frowned at him with complete disbelief.

Luckily for Razor, Twilight decided to try to change the topic. She put a hoof on to Rainbow's shoulder to calm the situation. "I think it's about time we drop this topic for now. We can ask him more about it when he's a bit…" She looks back at Razor, who was breathing in and out of a paper bag full of stress and Fluttershy rubbing his back. "…A lot calmer. Okay?"

Rainbow shrugs and sunk back into her chair. Rarity decided to change the topic as well. "So Razor Shot, you have a wife, I presume?"

"Y-yes." Razor said a lot more calmed now and has stopped using the paper bag. "Her name is Grace Graph. She's a painter."

"Really?" Fluttershy commented. "That's sounds lovely. What does she paint?"

"She mostly does abstract art as a hobby." Razor explained. "But for work she does commissions. She paints whatever the buyer wants really."

"Well that sounds delightful, darling." Rarity commented. "I'll be sure to make some time to see some of her work the next time I'm in Canterlot."

"That would be nice." Razor replied back. "She loves new customers."

"FOOD'S DONE!" Pinkie shouted quickly after placing plates of pancakes in front of everyone. The pancakes each individually had different mixture of fruits arranged in smiley faces and whip cream.

"Alright!" Twilight exclaimed. "Let's dig in!" So then they all ate their breakfast.